The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

2i8 THE HIGHLANDERS [part ii
had formerl}' belonged to Ranald the son of Roderick, and
which had so long been refused to him.
In order, however, to neutralize in some degree the effect
of thus investing one individual with a feudal title to such
extensive territories, and believing himself secure of the attachment
of John during his lifetime, king Robert determined,
since he could not prevent the accumulation in one family of
so much property, at least by bringing about its division among
its different branches, to sow the seeds of future discord, and
eventually perhaps
of the ruin of the race. He found little
difficulty in persuading John, in addition to the usual practice
in that family of gavelling the lands among the numerous
offspring, to render the children of the two marriages feudally
independent of each other, a fatal measure, the consequences
of which John did not apparently foresee ; and accordingly,
in the third year of his reign, king Robert confirmed a charter
by John to Reginald, the second son of the first marriage,,
of the lands of Garmoran, which John had acquired by his
marriage with Reginald's mother, to be held of John's heirs,
that is to say, of the descendants of the eldest son of the
first marriage, of whom one had been given as an hostage in
1 369, and who would of course succeed to every part of John's
possessions which were not feudally destined to other quarters.
Some years afterwards John resigned a great part of the western
portion of his territories, consisting principally of the lands
of Lochaber, Kintyre, and Knapdale, with the island of
Colonsay, into the king's hands, and received from him charters
of these lands in favour of himself and his heirs by the marriage
with the king's daughter ; thus rendering the children of the
second marriage feudall)^ independent of those of the first,
and furnishing a subject for contention between these families
which could not fail to lead to their ruin.
After this period, we know little of the events of John's life,
and he appears to have died about the year 1386. During the
rest of Robert the Second's reign, and of the greater part of that
of Robert HI., the peace of the country does not appear to have
been disturbed by any act of hostility from the Island chiefs,
and consequently the history of the children of is John but little
known ; but when the dissension which took place between the