page_title: Alasdair Óg of Islay
section_title: Death
hierarchical_section_title: Alasdair Óg of Islay / Clann Domhnaill under Alasdair Óg / Death
caption_attribution_description: English: An excerpt from folio 71v of Oxford Bodleian Library MS Rawlinson B 489 (the Annals of Ulster). The excerpt appears to concern Alasdair Óg Mac Domhnaill, Lord of Islay (died 1299?).
context_page_description: Alasdair Óg Mac Domhnaill was Lord of Islay and chief of Clann Domhnaill. He was the eldest son of Aonghus Mór mac Domhnaill, Lord of Islay. Alasdair Óg seems to first appear on record in 1264, when he was held as a hostage of the Scottish Crown for his father's good behaviour. During Alasdair Óg's career, the Scottish realm endured a succession crisis as a result of the unexpected death of Margaret, Maid of Norway, heir to the Scottish throne, in 1290. One of several factions that staked a claim to the throne was the Bruce kindred. Both Alasdair Óg and his father were cosignatories of the Turnberry Band, a pact that may have partly concerned the Bruces' royal aspirations.
  Aonghus Mór last appears on record in 1293, which seems to have been about the time that Alasdair Óg succeeded him as chief of Clann Domhnaill. Alasdair Óg's wife was apparently a member of Clann Dubhghaill. This marital alliance evidently brought Clann Domhnaill and Clann Dubhghaill into a territorial conflict. The chief of the latter kindred, Alasdair Mac Dubhghaill, was a close adherent to the successful claimant to the kingship, John Balliol.
context_section_description: In 1299, several Irish annals report a clash between Clann Domhnaill and Clann Dubhghaill in which Alasdair Mac Dubhghaill slew a member of Clann Domhnaill named Alasdair. According to the seventeenth-century Annals of the Four Masters, this man was "the best man of his tribe in Ireland and Scotland for hospitality and prowess"; whilst the fifteenth- to sixteenth-century Annals of Ulster states that he was killed "together with a countless number of his own people ... around him". The slain man appears to have been Alasdair Óg himself. The accounts of his demise suggest that his final fall took place in the context of his ongoing dispute with Clann Dubhghaill.
  If the seventeenth-century Ane Accompt of the Genealogie of the Campbells is to be believed, Clann Dubhghaill successfully dispatched another rival during the 1290s, as this source claims that Eóin Mac Dubhghaill overcame and slew Cailéan Mór Caimbéal. The latter's death took place after his recognition as bailiff of Loch Awe and Ardscotnish by Edward in September 1296, suggesting that he too was employed by the English against Clann Dubhghaill. Accordingly, both Alasdair Óg and Cailéan Mór appear to have succumbed to Clann Dubhghaill whilst attempting to extend Edward's authority into Argyll and bring the clan to heel.
  Alasdair Óg's death in 1299 seems to account for the recorded actions of his younger brother, Aonghus Óg, against Clann Dubhghaill. In either 1301 or 1310 for example, whilst in the service of the English Crown, Aonghus Óg inquired of the king as to whether he and Hugh were authorised to conduct military operations against Alasdair Mac Dubhghaill, and further entreated the king on behalf of Lachlann and Ruaidhrí—who were then aiding Aonghus Óg's English-aligned military forces—to grant the Clann Ruaidhrí brothers feu of their ancestral lands. Another letter—this one from Hugh to Edward—reveals that Hugh, Eóin Mac Suibhne, and Aonghus Óg himself, were engaged in maritime operations against Clann Dubhghaill that year.
  The fact that Aonghus Óg styled himself "of Islay" in his letter could be evidence that he was acting as chief of Clann Domhnaill, and that he succeeded Alasdair Óg as chief. Nevertheless, the precise succession of Clann Domhnaill is uncertain. For example, the record of a certain Domhnall in attendance of the 1309 parliament of Robert I, with the territorial designation "of Islay", could indicate that this particular man then held the chiefship. As with the succession, the identity of this man is uncertain. One possibility is that he was an elder brother of Aonghus Óg; other possibilities are that he was either a cousin of Alasdair Óg and Aonghus Óg, or else a son of either two.
  Further evidence of a contentious family succession may be the record of a certain Alasdair of the Isles, who received a grant of the former Clann Dubhghaill islands of Mull and Tiree from Robert I. This man could have been a son of Aonghus Óg, or else a nephew of the latter—presumably a son of Alasdair Óg himself. Certainly, Alasdair of the Isles's royal grant comprised former Clann Dubhghaill islands, a fact which could be evidence that he was indeed a son of Alasdair Óg, and possessed a claim to these territories by right of his maternal descent from Clann Dubhghaill. Remarkably, this is no evidence of a royal charter to the lordship of Islay. This could reveal that, upon Alasdair Óg's death, the lordship was automatically inherited by a son, possibly Alasdair of the Isles. The latter may be identical to the apparent Clann Domhnaill chief slain in 1318 supporting the Bruce campaign in Ireland. The sixteenth-century Annals of Loch Cé records his name as "Mac Domnaill, ri Oirir Gaidheal". This source is mirrored by several other Irish annals, and the eleventh- to fourteenth-century Annals of Inisfallen seems to refer to the same man, calling him "Alexander M" in an only partially-decipherable entry. The albeit exaggerated title "King of Argyll" accorded to this slain Clann Domhnaill dynast appears to exemplify the catastrophic effect that the rise of the Bruce 
caption: Alasdair Óg's apparent name as it appears on folio 71v of Oxford Bodleian Library Rawlinson B 489 (the Annals of Ulster).[167] The excerpt forms part of the annal-entry recording his death at the hands of Alasdair Mac Dubhghaill.
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