The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

28o THE HIGHLANDERS [part ii
established by the manuscript, is called by the manuscript, Heth,
and that from a calculation of generations he is exactly contemporary
with the children of Lulach. As this is so very uncommon
a name, there can be little doubt, but that Heth was the same-
person who was the father of Angus, and who married the
daughter of Lulach, and that he was hereditary chief of clan
Chattan, the principal branch of the Moray
tribe. He thus
possessed a title to the earldom of Moray from his own descent,
as well as from his connexion with the family of the previous
Maormors. The tribes of Moray had no sooner in some degree
recovered their strength after the blow the\' had received in the
reign of Malcolm Kenmore, than their new Maormor commenced
that course of determined opposition to the government of the
feudal successors of Malcolm, which was not finally overcome for
upwards of a hundred years,
and the same adherence to the
rights of the heirs of the throne, according to the Highland
principles of succession, which the
tained for their own.
former Maormors had main-
The attempt of the Moray tribes in the reign of Alexander I.,
which must have taken place during the possession of the
earldom by Head, has already been alluded to, and on the death
of Alexander I., a still more formidable attempt was made by
Angus the next earl, in the reign of his successor David I., in the
year 1 1 30, when Angus, after having obtained possession of the
northern districts of Scotland, advanced at the head of a numerous
army into Forfarshire. At this time it appears that David
was at the court of Henry, king of England, but Edward, the
son of earl Seward, led an army into Scotland with which he
defeated and slew the earl of Moray at Strickathrow, and after
this event David seems to have taken the most prompt measures
to quell the Moravians. In consequence of the.se measures the
Moravians remained quiet for the unusual period of upwards of
A.D. 1130.
twelve years, but at the end of that time they were
-^
.
again excited to revolt by one of the most smgular
occurrences of the history of that period.
An English monk, who had hitherto been known under the
name of Wimund, and who had risen to be bishop of Man,
suddenly announced himself to be the son of Angus, earl of
Moray, who had been slain at Strickathrow, and thereupon pre-