A lamentable instance of the ferocity of these times is afforded in the case of one of the Earls of Sutherland, who upon some provocation slew two of his nephews. This earl, who was named John, had a natural brother, Thomas Moir, who had two sons, Robert Sutherland and the Keith, so called on account of his being brought up by a person of that name. The young men had often annoyed the Earl, and on one occasion they entered his castle of Dunrobin to brave him to his face, an act which so provoked the Earl, that he instantly killed Robert in the house. The Keith, after receiving several wounds, made his escape, but he was overtaken and slain at the Clayside, near Dunrobin, which from that circumstance was afterwards called Ailein-Cheith, or the bush of the Keith. In 1513 a troop of Highlanders helped to swell the Scotch army on the ever-memorable and disastrous field of Flodden, but from their peculiar mode of fighting, so different from that of the Lowlanders, appear to have been more a hindrance than a help. FOOTNOTES: [147] Fordun a Goodal, vol. ii. p. 511. [148] MS. Adv. Lib. Coll. Diplom. a Macfarlane, vol. i. p. 245.--MS. Cart. Moray, 263. [149] Tytler, vol. iii. pp. 250, 251. [150] Fordun a Hearne, vol. iv. pp. 1283-4. [151] Sir R. Gordon, p. 64. [152] Fordun, vol. iv. p. 1286. [153] Sir Robert Gordon, pp. 64, 65. [154] Fordun a Goodal, vol. ii. p. 510. [155] Sir R. Gordon, p. 69. [156] _Auchinleck Chronicle_, p. 55. [157] _Auchinleck Chronicle_, pp. 58, 59. [158] _Rotuli Scotiæ_, vol. ii. p. 407. [159] Ferrerius, p. 383.--Lesley _de Rebus Gestis Scotorum_, p. 300. [160] Lesley’s _Hist._, p. 41.--Sir R. Gordon, p. 77. [161] Sir R. Gordon, pp. 78, 79. [162] Tytler, vol. iv. pp. 367, 368. [163] Sir R. Gordon, p. 80. CHAPTER VII. A.D. 1516-1588. KINGS OF SCOTLAND:-- James V., 1513-1542. Mary, 1542-1567. James VI., 1567-1603.