The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

CHAP. V] OF SCOTLAND 273
with the crown lands in Braedalbane warrants us, in the absence
of other evidence, in placing the family
of Lennox under the
title of Atholl, and this is confirmed by the fact, that the only
possessions which we can trace in the family of the earls of
Lennox, or their cadets out of that earldom, were all in Braed-
albane, and that we find them in possession of these lands from
the earliest period.
Aluin was succeeded by his son, who bore the same name.
This earl is very frequently mentioned in the chartularies of
Lennox and Paisley, and he died before the year 1225, leaving
nine sons. He was succeeded by his eldest son Maldowen, and
among the other sons there appear to have been only two who left
of Fassa-
any male descendants. Aulay was founder of the family
lane, who afterwards succeeded to the earldom by marriage with
the heiress of the last earl, and Gilchrist obtained possession
of the northern portion of the district of Lennox, and became
progenitor of the clan Pharlan, or that of the Macfarlanes.
Maldowen, the third earl, appears to have lived till about the
year 1270, and he surrendered to the king the stronghold of
Dumbarton,
the family.
which had previously been the principal seat of
Of the fourth and fifth earls, both of whom bore
the name of Malcolm, little is known ; their names, together
with those of the earlier earls, having only been perpetuated
in consequence of their numerous donations of land to the
various ecclesiastical establishments. The latter earl was killed
at Halidon Hill, in 1333, and in his son Donald the male line
of this branch of the famil}' became extinct. Margaret, countess
of Lennox, the only daughter of Donald, the sixth earl, married
Walter de Fasselane, the heir male of the family, but any
attempt to preserve the honours and power of the Lennox in
the family proved ifnsuccessful, for Duncan, the eighth earl,
their son, had no male issue, and his eldest daughter, Isabella,
having married Sir Murdoch Stuart, the eldest son of the
Regent, duke of Alban}-, he became involved along with his
family in the ruin by which the house of Albany was overwhelmed.
The honours and estates of Lennox were not,
however, forfeited, but were possessed by Isabella, the widow
of Duke Murdoch of Albany, under the title of Countess of
Lennox, until her death in 1460; and on her decease the
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