History of the Mackenzies, with genealogies of the principal families of the nameMackenzie, Alexander
History
History of the Mackenzies, with genealogies of the principal families of the name
Mackenzie, Alexander
Mackenzie family; Scotland -- Genealogy; Seaforth, Earls of
calendar of the Scottish Court, while that of the once proud
Macdonalds frowned in disappointment and barbarous independence
amidst their native wilds, while their territories, extending beyond
the bounds of good government and protection, presented gradually
such defenceless gaps as became inviting and easily penetrable by the
intelligence of Mackenzie, and Alastair Ionraic acquired a great
portion of his estates by this legitimate advantage, afterwards
secured by the intractable arrogance of Macdonald of Lochalsh and the
valour and military capacity of Coinneach a Bhlair."
In 1513 John of Killin is found among those Highland chiefs summoned
to rendezvous with the Royal army at Barrow Moor preparatory to the
fatal advance of James IV. into England, when the Mackenzies, forming
with the Macleans, joined that miserably-arranged and ill-fated
expedition which terminated so fatally to Scotland on the disastrous
field of Flodden, where the killed included the King, with the flower
of his nobility, gentry, and even clergy. There was scarcely a
Scottish family of distinction that did not lose at least one, and
some of them lost all the male members who were capable of bearing
arms. The body of the King was found, much disfigured with wounds,
in the thickest of the slain. Abercromby, on the authority of
Crawford, includes, in a list of those killed at Flodden, "Kenneth
Mackenzie of Kintail, ancestor to the noble family of Seaforth."
This is an undoubted error for it will be seen that John, not Kenneth
was chief at the time of Flodden. It was he who joined the Royal
army, accompanied by his brave and gallant uncle, Hector Roy of
Gairloch and it is established beyond dispute that though almost
all their followers fell, both John and Hector survived and
returned home. They, however, narrowly escaped the charge of Sir
Edward Stanley in rear of the Highlanders during the disorderly
pursuit of Sir Edward Howard, who had given way to the furious and
gallant onset of the mountaineers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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