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
The Plantaganet blood-royal of England was introduced later by the
marriage of Kenneth Mackenzie, X. of Kintail, to Lady Elizabeth
Stewart, daughter of John, second Earl of Atholl, fourth in descent
from John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, son of Edward III., and
father of Henry IV. of England, and this strain was strengthened and
continued by the marriage of Kenneth's son, Colin Cam Mackenzie,
XI. of Kintail, to his cousin Barbara, daughter of John Grant of
Grant by Lady Marjory Stewart, daughter of John, third Earl of
Atholl. It scarcely needs to be pointed out that, through these
inter-marriages, the Mackenzies are also descended from the
ancient Celtic MacAlpine line of Scottish Kings, from the original
Anglo-Saxon Kings of England, and from the oldest Scandinavian,
Charlemagne, and Capetian lines, as far back as the beginning of
the ninth century.
The origin of the O'Beolan Earls of Ross and the Mackenzies from
the same source is strikingly illustrated by their inter-marriages
into the same families and with each other's kindred. Both the
O'Beolans and the Mackenzies made alliances with the Comyns of
Badenoch, with the MacDougalls of Lorn, and subsequently with the
Macleods of Lewis and Harris, thus forming a network of cousinship
which ultimately included all the leading families in the Highlands,
every one of which, through these alliances, have the Royal blood
of all the English, Scottish, and Scandinavian Kings, and many of
the earlier foreign monarchs, coursing in their veins.
Surely this is a sufficiently ancient and illustrious origin and
much more satisfactory to every patriotic clansman than an Irish
adventurer like the reputed Colin Fitzgerald, who, if he ever
existed, had not and never could have had any connection with the
real origin of the Mackenzies, which was as purely native of the
Highlands as it was possible for any Scoto-Celtic family in those
days to be. The various genealogical steps and marriage alliances
already referred to will be confirmed in each individual case as
we proceed with the succession and history of the respective chiefs
of the family, beginning with the first of the line,
I. KENNETH, OR COINNEACH,
Who gave his name to the clan. His is the fourth ascending name
in the manuscript genealogy of 1467, which begins with Murdoch
of the Cave. Murdoch died in 1375, and was thus almost
contemporaneous with the author of the Gaelic genealogy, which,
translated, proceeds up to this Kenneth as follows: Murdoch, son
of Kenneth, son of John, son of Kenneth, and so on, as already
given at page 39 to Gilleoin of the Aird.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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