REFN: 2539AN
REFN: P2540
COLIN, the grandson of Lord Campbell, was created EARL OF ARGYLL b y James
II., in 1457. By his marriage to the eldest of the three daughters an d
co-heiresses of John, Lord Lorne (all three married Campbells), the young
Earl put an end to the feuds which for upwards of two hundred and fifty
year s had raged between the families of Lochaw and Lorne, and obtained
the undisp uted chieftainship of the county of Argyll. He acquired, in
consequence of th is connection, the lordship and title of Lorne from
Walter Stewart, Lord Lorn e and Invermeath, heir male of that lordship, in
exchange for the estates of Kildoning, Baldoning, and other lands in the
shires of Perth, Fife, Kinross, and Aberdeen. The galley—the ancient
badge of the family of Lorne— was, in co nsequence of this acquisition,
assumed into the Earl’s hereditary coat-of-arm s. ‘The acquisition of
Lorne,’ says Dr. Fraser, ‘was a favourable arrangement for the family of
Argyll, as it lay adjacent to their other lands, while the Lowland
possessions surrendered as an equivalent were scattered over various
counties and far distant from their more important territories.’ The Earl
acquired extensive estates besides in Perthshire and Fifeshire, and the
lords hip of Campbell, with its celebrated castle near Dollar, where John
Knox visi ted Archibald, fourth Earl of Argyll, and preached to him and
his relatives. It continued to be a frequent residence of the family
until 1644, when it was burned by the Macleans in the army of the Marquis
of Montrose. At a later pe riod he obtained a large share of the forfeited
possessions of the Lord of th e Isles. The most important offices at Court
and in the kingdom were conferre d upon him. He was frequently sent as
ambassador to the English Court, and al so to France. He was Master of the
Royal Household, Grand Justiciary of Scotl and, and eventually became Lord
High Chancellor—an office which he held for a long period. This dignity,
along with the lands of ‘Mekell and Lettel Pincar toun,’ in the barony of
Dunbar, was probably bestowed upon the Earl in 1483, as a reward for his
loyal adherence to James III. at the time of the conspira cy of Archibald
Bell-the-Cat and other nobles, which led to the murder of the royal
favourites at Lauder, in 1482. Argyll was in England at the time of th e
defeat and death of that unfortunate monarch at Sauchieburn, in 1488. On
his return to Scotland he was at once reappointed Chancellor by James
IV., wh o also conferred upon him the lands of Roseneath, Dumbartonshire
(January 9th , 1489) which are still in the possession of the family. The
mansion is one o f the principal seats of the Duke of Argyll. This
powerful and prosperous nob leman died in 1493. The Lords of the Isles,
the mightiest of all the ancient Highland chieftains, had long possessed
unquestioned supremacy in the HebriDe s and throughout the mountain
country of Argyll and Inverness-shire. But from this period their
power began to wane before the rising influence of th e Campbells. As late
as the fifteenth century these haughty and turbulent isl and chieftains
even disputed the authority of the kings of Scotland; but thei r
successive rebellions were punished by successive forfeitures both of
the ir ancient dignities and their possessions, and now that the house of
Argyll had become sufficiently powerful to enforce the decrees of the
King and Parli ament, and had a strong interest in carrying these decrees
into effect, the e xtensive territories which for many generations had
belonged to the Lordship of the Isles were finally wrested from their
ancient possessors and conferred upon the loyal clans, and especially
upon the Campbells, who could now meet in the field the combined forces
of all the other Western septs