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CELTIC KNOT  Mac Lean  CELTIC KNOT
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Mac Lean Copyright ©1995-2015 by Celtic Studio

CREST: A tower embattled, Argent.
MOTTO: Virtue mine honour.
TRANSLATION: Virtue is my distinction.
PLANT: Crowberry
GAELIC NAME: Mac Ghille Eoin
ORIGIN OF NAME: Mac Ghille Eoin (son of the servant of John).
WAR CRY: Bas no beatha (Death or Life)
PIPE MUSIC: The Mac Lean' March
CELTIC INTERLACE KNOT GREEN
CELTIC KNOT  Mac Lean  CELTIC KNOT
One of the great seafaring clans of the Hebrides, where they exercised an important influence from an early period, the Mac Leans became scattered through many islands from Rum to Islay, and split into a number of branches of which several maintained a separate existence.
In the days of the Lords of the Isles the Mac Leans formed an active and lively part of the island host. They first come into prominence through the marriage of Lachlan, son of John called "Maguilleon"( MacGill' Eathain, son of the servant of John), to a daughter of John Lord of the Isles, for which a papal dispensation was authorised in 1367 as they were nearly related. This Lachlan, nicknamed "the wily", had a charter of Duart castle and neighbouring lands from his brother-in-law Donald of the Isles in 1390, with a share in the keeping of Cairnburgh, Dunchonnel and other royal castles off the coast of Mull, and the office of Steward of the household and bailie in Tiree. This gave the Duart family a leading place in the clan, and an importance even in national affairs. While James I was a prisoner in England, Lachlan' s son Hector had a safe conduct from Henry IV to visit "his liege lord the king of Scotland"just before direct negotiations were entered into with Donald of the Isles, and in 1411 Lachlan fell at Harlaw in supporting Donald' s struggle for the earldom of Ross. In the next generation a twice-married chief founded the families of Coll and Ardgour, and a group in the Ross of Mull known as "the race of the iron sword". The clan was steadily growing in strength and influence, and both Duart and Lochbuie (descended from a brother of the wily Lachlan) were numbered among the island magnates who sat in council at Finlaggan in Islay.
After the lordship was forfeited in 1493 Hector of Duart had his family' s earlier grants of 1390 confirmed by royal charter, and thus they came to hold lands and offices direct from the crown. As he had no lawful son of his own, Hector secured letters of legitimisation for his natural son Lachlan, who displaced at least one legitimate heir when he had a charter of the barony of "Dowarde"in 1496.
During the minority of Queen Mary and the years that followed, the Mac Leans reached the height of their power. A brother of Duart was one of the commissioners appointed to treat Henry VIII during Donald dubh' s rebellion in 1545. Mac Lean infiltration into Islay and Jura menaced the trade-route between Scotland and Ireland, and a bitter feud with the Mac Donalds had disastrous consequences for the Mac Leans.
The crown rents of Duart went unpaid, and, in 1604, the chief had to agree to deliver the castle to the king' s representative on demand; along with Lochbuie and Coll, he accepted the "Statutes of Iona", and promised to appear before the Privy Council annually with a certain number of their kinsmen. Sir Lachlan, created a Baronet of Nova Scotia in 1633 with a nominal estate in Anticosti, borrowed money from Argyll, who secured a further hold over him by paying up what was due to the crown and other creditors.
The Mac Leans were the centre of the king' s supporters in the Western Isles, and their losses in men and money, together with a succession of five minorities (1648-1716), enabled Argyll to wage a "private war"in the field and in his own courts for possession of the Mac Lean lands in Mull, Morvern and Tiree. After the Revolution Sir John Mac Lean formally conveyed Duart to Argyll, and the family remained landless until 1783, when Sir Allan (who had been host to Dr. Johnson at Inchkenneth) made good his claim to the lands of Brolass in the Ross of Mull. Duart housed a garrison up to the end of the 18th century, after which it became a ruin, but it was brought back and restored by Sir Firzroy Mac Lean of Duart. Since 1912 it has been the chief' s permanent home, and the family are determined that the castle of their ancestors shall never again pass into other hands.
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