page_title: John Gallda MacDougall
section_title: Restoration
hierarchical_section_title: John Gallda MacDougall / Restoration
caption_attribution_description: English: Dunstaffnage castle, in Scotland (United Kingdom). Français&#160;: Le Château de Dunstaffnage, en Écosse (Royaume-Unis).
context_page_description: John Gallda MacDougall, also known as John MacDougall, and John Macdougall, and in Gaelic as Eoin MacDubhghaill, Eoin Gallda MacDubhghaill, Eòin Gallda MacDubhghaill, and Eóin Gallda Mac Dubhghaill, was fourteenth-century Scottish magnate. He was a grandson of John MacDougall, Lord of Argyll, a man who had been forced from Scotland into exile in the first third of the century. It was under John Gallda that the MacDougall leadership made its resurgence in Scotland after generations of English exile.
  By the mid century, John Gallda was married to Johanna Isaac, a niece of David II, King of Scotland, and restored to a portion of the MacDougalls' originally holdings in Argyll. The favours bestowed upon the MacDougalls by the Scottish Crown appear to have been a tactic to keep in check nearby magnates, such as John MacDonald, Lord of the Isles, a man who headed the MacDougalls' regional rivals, the MacDonalds. Although John Galla enjoyed close ties to the Bruce regime, with the subsequent accession of Robert II, King of Scotland, and the start of the Stewart regime, the MacDougalls quickly fell from favour. John Gallda was the last MacDougall to hold the lordship of Lorne.
context_section_description: The impetus behind the aforesaid agreements appears to have been the prospect of the MacDougalls eventual restoration in their ancestral lands. By concluding these contracts, the MacDonalds and Campbells appear to have attempted to preserve their own possession of former MacDougall territories. The prospect of a MacDougall comeback may have seemed threatening in the wake of the ongoing negotiations to secure the release of David II. The king finally secured his release in 1357, and about the following year granted John Gallda all the possessions and rents that had formerly belonged to the latter's great-grandfather, Alexander MacDougall, Lord of Argyll (died 1310). Furthermore, the king granted John Gallda certain fortresses in the possession of the Lord of the Isles, a gift that could refer to the castles outlined in the aforesaid agreement of 1354, and therefore evidencing the MacDougall's restoration on Mull and other island territories. The king's grant of 1357/1358 effectively nullified his own father's grants of Lorne and Benderloch lands to the Campbells, and overturned the aforesaid MacDonald-MacDougall pact of 1354.
  It is apparent that John Gallda was favoured by David II. The two may well have first met in England during the king's captivity, and the king may well have been responsible for his relocation to Scotland in the early 1350s. It is almost certain that David II was also responsible for John Gallda's fortuitous marriage to Johanna Isaac, daughter of the king's own sister, Matilda Bruce. The union itself is datable to at least 1362, and resulted in the king regarding John Gallda as a nephew. In theory the marriage meant that any children of the couple potentially possessed a claim in the royal succession, and may have been regarded as a threat to the leading claimant, and eventual successor, the aforesaid Robert Stewart, David II's nephew. In fact, the king elsewhere appears to have attempted to divert the royal succession on several occasions, and contemporary royal acta reveal that he bestowed much favour upon John Gallda and Johanna.
  John Gallda's royal support and relocation appears to have been due to the fact that David II regarded him as a potential ally against the machinations of the aforesaid Robert Stewart, and the latter's western confederates. By the end of the 1350s, John MacDonald, one such confederate, was not only an ally to Edward Balliol, and Edward III, but allied in marriage to the Steward besides. As for John Gallda, however, he had no links with the Steward, and the Scottish Crown may have consequently considered the MacDougall as a reliable means to fill the western power vacuum created by the murder of Ranald MacRuairi (died 1346). John MacDonald's alignment with the king's adversaries at this point suggests that the castles referred to in John Gallda's aforesaid royal charter may have included the island fortresses outlined in the MacDonald-MacDougall pact of 1354. Although John Galla's restoration allowed the MacDougalls to regain a foothold in their traditional lands, the phenomenal power possessed by their predecessors was never regained. Originally in his pact with John MacDonald, John Gallda styled himself "of Argyll", perhaps in imitation of his powerful predecessors. Afterwards, he used the style "of Lorn", seemingly in acceptance of his family's restricted place in society. The fact that he was able to succeed in Argyll at all, after almost a forty years of his family's absence, reveals not only the strength of family-loyalties, but also the apparent resentment of MacDonald encroachment and overlordship.
  In 1355, John Gallda concluded a bond of protection to Gilbert, Lord of Glassary who was locked in dispute with the Campbells of Ardscotnish. The possibility that the father of John Campbell, Lord of Ardscotnish had received a grant of former MacDougall territories in the reign of Robert I may explain the MacDougall's interest in the dispute. By the end of the 1350s, the borders of the MacDougall and Campbell lands appears to have been amicably settled, and the families 
caption: Dunstaffnage Castle, a fortress built, held, and lost by John Gallda's MacDougall predecessors appears to have been one of several castles regained by John Gallda as a consequence of the restoration of the family's former lands in Lorne.[50]
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "Dunstaffnage castle, in the Scottish Highlands.", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 450D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.6.8", "Image DateTime": "2011:03:09 15:50:29", "Image Artist": "Guillaume Piolle", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "Guillaume Piolle", "Image ExifOffset": "324", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1182", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5997", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/160", "EXIF FNumber": "5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:08:06 17:17:37", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:08:06 17:17:37", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "59/8", "EXIF ApertureValue": "37/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-1", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "50", "EXIF SubSecTime": "02", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "02", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "02", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3500", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2319", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1058", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "2136000/439", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "356000/73", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}