The book Arran; - Cook Clan

42 THE BOOK OF ARRAN
as to breaches of the truce it is recorded that the Enghsh
had made a descent upon Arran, ' ravaged the King's lands,
destroyed his castle of Brodick, and burned his chapel.' ^
This is but one example of what was to be Arran's share,
on many occasions, in the incidents of foreign and domestic
politics.
Even more serious, however, were the unfriendly visita-
tions of their royal lord's enemies nearer at hand, to wit
across the water, where Knapdale and Kintyre were now
in the possession of the ambitious and almost regal Mac-
Donalds, Lords of the Isles and Earls of Ross. When they
dip deeply into Scottish politics and are making trouble
for the government, Arran, from its position, positively invites
attack. Thus from 1444 to 1447 we have a melancholy
record of losses in the island through devastations by the
' cursed invaders from Knapdale and Kintyre.' The originating
impulse to these attacks is obscure, but must be connected
with the anarchic condition of the country as a whole in
the minority of James ii. There were feuds and parties
galore, slaughters and sieges, and mutual wastings of lands.
Either as taking advantage of the general unsettlement or,
as is perhaps more probable, stirred thereto by the Lord of
the Isles in the interest of the Douglas group of contending
barons, the MacDonalds and MacAlisters of the peninsula
carry on their ploys in Arran at their doors. In these they
daringly compass almost the whole island, destroying and
plundering without check, so that, when rents have to be
paid the despoiled tenantry must be allowed abatements
in proportion to their losses. The following Table from the
accounts of July 1446, covering the year from the previous
July, will give an idea of the extent and degree of the losses
incurred. Neil Jamieson of Bute, the royal chamberlain
for Bute and Arran, enters reductions of the money rents of
the following places for the reason given.
' Exchequer Rolls, vol. iv. pp. xlv-vi, citing Cott. MSS.