page_title: Clan Mackenzie
section_title: Recorded origins
hierarchical_section_title: Clan Mackenzie / History / Origins / Recorded origins
caption_attribution_description: English: An line illustration of the effigy of Effigy of Sir Kenneth Mackenzie of Kintail located at Beauly Priory.
context_page_description: Clan Mackenzie is a Scottish clan, traditionally associated with Kintail and lands in Ross-shire in the Scottish Highlands. Traditional genealogies trace the ancestors of the Mackenzie chiefs to the 12th century. However, the earliest Mackenzie chief recorded by contemporary evidence is Alexander Mackenzie of Kintail who died some time after 1471. Traditionally, during the Wars of Scottish Independence, the Mackenzies supported Robert the Bruce, but feuded with the Earls of Ross in the latter part of the 14th century. During the 15th and 16th-centuries the Mackenzies feuded with the neighboring clans of Munro and MacDonald. In the 17th century the Mackenzie chief was made Earl of Seaforth in the peerage of Scotland. During the Scottish Civil War of the 17th century the Mackenzies largely supported the Royalists. During the Jacobite rising of 1715 the chief and clan of Mackenzie supported the Jacobite cause. However, during the Jacobite rising of 1745 the clan was divided with the chief, Kenneth Mackenzie, Lord Fortrose, supporting the British-Hanoverian Government and his relative, George Mackenzie, 3rd Earl of Cromartie, supporting the Jacobites.
context_section_description: An early genealogy of the Mackenzies appears in MS 1467, but the earliest contemporary record of a living Mackenzie is of Alexander Mackenzie of Kintail (Alexandro McKennye de Kintaill) who appeared in two supplications for papal dispensation in 1465 and 1466, and was listed as a witness to a charter by John of Islay, Earl of Ross, and Lord of the Isles on 4 November 1471. The earliest known likeness of a Mackenzie is that of Sir Kenneth Mackenzie (d. 7 February 1491/1492), whose effigy can be seen at Beauly Priory. He is the first Mackenzie to be buried at Beauly Priory. There is no reliable evidence to support the traditional assertion that previous members of his family were buried at Iona.
caption: The earliest likeness of a Mackenzie - the effigy of Kenneth Mackenzie, 7th of Kintail (d. 1491/ 1492) located at Beauly Priory.
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