A political history of the MacGregors before 1571

By the late sixteenth century, in the eyes of Scottish central government the MacGregors had come to be perceived as probably the most violent and lawless of the Highland clans. This fact has been noted, but never adequately explained, by previous historians. This thesis attempts to remedy that defect by conducting the first detailed examination of the earlier history of the MacGregors. In the process light is shed upon aspects of the kin-based society of the late medieval Highlands: the different political strata existing within it; the dynamics operating within it; and the role of the crown therein. It is shown that the MacGregors came into being in the fourteenth century, in the lordship of Glen Orchy in north-east Argyll; that by the earlier fifteenth century they had become a client kindred in the service of the Campbells; that between 1437 and 1550, MacGregor expansion eastwards (a phenomenon which was facilitated by actions of the crown) throughout a zone extending from Rannoch south to the Lennox was instrumental in enabling the Campbell chiefs to bring these territories into their sphere of influence; and that within the same period two new Campbell branches - those of Glen Orchy and, to a lesser extent, Cawdor - came into being on the back of MacGregor military power. In particular, the pre-eminence which the Campbells of Glen Orchy had achieved in Breadalbane by the early sixteenth century owed much to their close relationship with the MacGregors, and to the extensive settlement of the latter within this area. As a result of their rapid and successful expansion eastwards, however, the MacGregors increased greatly in power, so much so that by 1550 they had become a threat to the continued supremacy of the Campbells of Glen Orchy within Breadalbane. The attempts of the Glen Orchy chief Cailean Liath to neutralise that threat after 1550 sparked off a major feud in 1562, whose course was heavily influenced by national politics. Although finally resolved in 1570/1, the feud left a double legacy: the relationship between the Campbells of Glen Orchy and the MacGregors never recovered, while the latter's reputation for violence was now established