page_title: Lachlann Mac Ruaidhrí
section_title: In opposition to the Earl of Ross
hierarchical_section_title: Lachlann Mac Ruaidhrí / Career / In opposition to the Earl of Ross
caption_attribution_description: English: A fourteenth-century illumination of Edward II, King of England on folio 105r of Bodleian Library MS Rawlinson C 292.
context_page_description: Lachlann Mac Ruaidhrí was a Scottish magnate and chief of Clann Ruaidhrí. He was a free-booting participant in the First War of Scottish Independence, who remarkably took up arms against figures such as John, King of Scotland, Edward I, King of England, the Guardians of Scotland, and his near rival William II, Earl of Ross. Lachlann disappears from record in 1307/1308, and appears to have been succeeded by his brother, Ruaidhrí, as chief of Clann Ruaidhrí.
context_section_description: In 1303, after seven years if imprisonment, William II was released from captivity in England. It is possible that he had stubbornly refused to swear allegiance to the English until 1303, and that he only did so in a last attempt to safeguard what was left of his embattled earldom. It appears that, upon regaining his domain, one of the responsibilies William II was tasked with was to bring the Hebrides under control. However, he found himself facing a dangerous alliance between Alexander Comyn and the ever-strengthening Lachlann. This hostile front may account for the earl's part in John Strathbogie's correspondence to Edward I, as well as William II's 1304 communiqué to the king recounting his own part in combating Lachlann and other rebellious Hebrideans years before. Such correspondence suggest that the earl was attempting to instil doubts concerning the value of Lachlann and Alexander Comyn to English interests in the region, whilst highlighting his own usefulness. Certainly by 1306, the English Crown granted Alexander Comyn's former stronghold of Urquhart to William II himself.
  Lachlann last appears on record in 1307/1308 in correspondence between William II and Edward II, King of England. At the time, the earl appears to have found himself in a perilous position as the Earl of Buchan found himself the target of Robert I's attention late in 1307, and was soundly subdued by him in 1308. This consolidation of power by the Scottish Crown was evidently not William II's only concern, as he reported to Edward II that Lachlann refused to render to him the revenues that Lachlann owed to the English Crown. In the words of William II, Lachlann "is such a high and mighty lord, he'll not answer to anyone except under great force or through fear of you". The earl's letter is clearly a testimonial to the strength of Clann Ruaidhrí at this point in time, evidently comparable to that of the earl. In fact, it is possible that it was due to this kindred's considerable influence in the region that the Bruce cause found any support in Ross—support evidenced by a letter to the English Crown in 1307 relating the unease of the English adherents Duncan Frendraught, Reginald Cheyne, and Gilbert Glencarnie. Certainly, the fourteenth-century Chronicle of Lanercost reveals that Robert I received Hebridean support when he first launched his return from exile in Carrick/Galloway. Having been in conflict with William II for over decade, it appears that Lachlann and his kin capitalised on Robert I's campaign against the earl and his confederates. The Scottish king's success against William II may well have stemmed from leading Islesmen like Lachlann himself. In 1308, the earl submitted to Robert I, and thereby offset aggression from his Clann Ruaidhrí adversaries. Following Lachlann's last appearance on record, perhaps after his own demise, Ruaidhrí seems to have succeeded him in representation of Clann Ruaidhrí.
caption: A fourteenth-century illumination of Edward II on folio 105r of Oxford Bodleian Library Rawlinson C 292.[87]
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