Raghnall Mac Ruaidhrí

Raghnall Mac Ruaidhrí
The now-ruinous Castle Tioram may have once been a Clann Ruaidhrí stronghold.[1][note 1]
Predecessor	Ruaidhrí Mac Ruaidhrí
Successor	'Amie' Nic Ruaidhrí
Noble family	Clann Ruaidhrí
Father	Ruaidhrí Mac Ruaidhrí
Died	October 1346 Elcho Priory

Raghnall Mac Ruaidhrí (died October 1346) was an eminent Scottish magnate and chief of Clann Ruaidhrí.^{[note 2]} Raghnall's father, Ruaidhrí Mac Ruaidhrí, appears to have been slain in 1318, at a time when Raghnall may have been under age. Ruaidhrí himself appears to have faced resistance over the Clann Ruaidhrí lordship from his sister, Cairistíona, wife Donnchadh, son of the Earl of Mar. Following Ruaidhrí's demise, there is evidence indicating that Cairistíona and her powerful confederates also posed a threat to the young Raghnall. Nevertheless, Raghnall eventually succeeded to his father, and first appears on record in 1337.

Raghnall's possession of his family's expansive ancestral territories in the Hebrides and West Highlands put him in conflict with the neighbouring magnate William III, Earl of Ross, and contention between the two probably contributed to Raghnall's assassination at the hands of the earl's adherents in 1346. Following his death, the Clann Ruaidhrí territories passed through his sister, 'Amie', into the possession of her husband, the chief of Clann Domhnaill, Eóin Mac Domhnaill, resulting in the latter's consolidation of power in the Hebrides as Lord of the Isles.

Clann Ruaidhrí

Locations relating to the life and times of Raghnall.

Raghnall was an illegitimate son of Ruaidhrí Mac Ruaidhrí (died 1318?),^[8] grandson of the eponymous ancestor of Clann Ruaidhrí.^[9] The identity of Raghnall's mother is unknown.^[8] Raghnall's father controlled a provincial lordship which encompassed the mainland territories of Moidart, Arisaig, Morar, and Knoydart; and the island territories of Rhum, Eigg, Barra, St Kilda, and Uist.^[8] This dominion, much like several other great lordships, was comparable to the kingdom's thirteen earldoms.^{[10][note 3]} There is reason to suspect that the rights to the family's territories were contested after Ruaidhrí's death.^[11] In fact, Ruaidhrí himself was illegitimate, and only gained formal control of the lordship after his legitimate half-sister, Cairistíona (fl. 1290–1318), resigned her rights to him at some point during the reign of Robert I, King of Scotland (died 1329).^{[12][note 4]}

Raghnall's father appears to be identical to the Clann Ruaidhrí dynast, styled "King of the Hebrides", who lost his life in the service of the Bruce campaign in Ireland in 1318.^[16] At the time, Raghnall may well have been under age, and it is apparent that Cairistíona and her confederates again attempted to seize control of the inheritance.^[17] Although she is recorded to have resigned her claimed rights to a certain Artúr Caimbéal after Ruaidhrí's death,^[18] it is clear that Raghnall succeeded in securing the region, and was regarded as the chief of Clann Ruaidhrí by most of his kin.^{[19][note 5]}

Career

Unlike the First War of Scottish Independence, in which Clann Ruaidhrí participated, Raghnall and his family are not known to have taken part in the second war (from 1332–41).^[23] In fact, Raghnall first appears on record in 1337,^[24] when he aided his third cousin, Eóin Mac Domhnaill, Lord of the Isles (died c. 1387), in the latter's efforts to receive a papal dispensation to marry Raghnall's sister, 'Amie' (fl. 1318–50), in 1337.^[25] At the time, Raghnall and Eóin were apparently supporters of Edward Balliol (died 1364),^[26] a claimant to the Scottish throne who held power in the realm from 1332 to 1336.^[27] By June 1343, however, both Raghnall and Eóin were reconciled with Edward's rival, the reigning son of Robert I, David II, King of Scotland (died 1371),^[26] and Raghnall himself was confirmed in the Clann Ruaidhrí lordship by the king.^{[28][note 6]}

At about this time, Raghnall received the rights to Kintail from William III, Earl of Ross (died 1372), a transaction which was confirmed by the king that July.^[36] There is reason to suspect that the king's recognition of this grant may have been intended as a regional counterbalance of sorts, since he also diverted the rights to Skye from Eóin to William III.^[37] It is also possible that Clann Ruaidhrí power had expanded into the coastal region of Kintail at some point after the death of William III's father in 1333, during a period when William III himself may have been either a minor or exiled from the country. Whatever the case, the earl seems to have had little choice but to relinquish his rights to Kintail to Raghnall.^[38] In fact, bitterness between these two magnates appears to be evidenced in dramatic fashion by the assassination of Raghnall and several of his followers, at Elcho Priory in October 1346, at the hands of the earl's adherents.^[39] At the time Raghnall had been obeying the king's muster nearby at Perth, in preparation for the Scots' imminent invasion of England. Following the deed, the earl deserted the royal host, and fled to the safety of his domain.^[40] What is known of William III's comital career reveals that it was local, rather than national issues, that laid behind the earl's actions. The murder of Raghnall and the earl's desertion—a flight which likely left his king with a substantially smaller fighting-force—is one such example.^[41] Although William III was later to pay dearly for this act of disloyalty,^[42] the episode itself evidences the earl's determination to deal with the threat of encroachment of Clann Ruaidhrí power into what he regarded as his own domain.^[43]

The extent of the Lordship of the Isles in 1343 (yellow). The Clann Ruaidhrí territories (red) were absorbed within this lordship after Raghnall's death in 1346.^[44]

Following Raghnall's death, control of the Clann Ruaidhrí estate passed to Eóin by right of his aforesaid wife.^[45] Although Amie appears to have been either dead or divorced from Eóin by 1350, the Clann Ruaidhrí territories evidently remained in Eóin's possession after his subsequent marriage to Margaret, daughter of Robert Stewart, Steward of Scotland (died 1390).^{[46][note 7]} David himself died in 1371, and was succeeded by his uncle, the aforesaid Robert Stewart.^[49] In 1372, the recently-crowned king confirmed Eóin's rights to the former Clann Ruaidhrí territories.^[50] The year after that, Robert II confirmed Eóin's grant of these lands to Raghnall Mac Domhnaill (died 1386)—Eóin and Amie's eldest surviving son^[51]—a man apparently named after Raghnall himself.^{[11][note 8]}

Raghnall seems to have had a brother, Eóghan, who received a grant to the thanage of Glen Tilt from the Steward.^[54] The transaction appears to date to before 1346,^[55] at about the time members of Clann Ruaidhrí were operating as gallowglasses in Ireland.^[56] This could in turn indicate that the Steward was using the kindred in a military capacity to extend his own power eastwards into Atholl,^[57] where he appears to have also made use of connections with Clann Donnchaidh.^{[58][note 9]} If certain fifteenth-century pedigrees are two be believed, Raghnall had at least one illegitimate son, and his descendants continued to act as leaders of Clann Ruaidhrí.^{[11][note 10]}

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