EARLS OF ROSS AND LORDS OF THE ISLES. 79 



in after years, this policy recoiled upon the heads of those 

 who promoted it. 



The charters of David II. which affect the Long Island 

 are three in number. John of the Isles was confirmed in 

 his possession of Lewis ; Ranald MacRuari in his posses- 

 sion of Uist and Barra ; while Torquil Macleod received a 

 grant of Assynt in Sutherlandshire by his marriage (accord- 

 ing to tradition) with Margaret Macnicol, the heiress of 

 that property.* The earliest charter to the Macleods of 

 Harris was granted in this reign (about 1343). It conveyed 

 to the Siol Tormod two-thirds of Glenelg, a property which 

 subsequently formed a fruitful source of trouble between 

 the Macleods and the Erasers. But the right of the 

 Macleods to Harris was never disputed. 



The lord of Uist and Barra was not fated to enjoy his 

 possessions long. He quarrelled with his Superior, William, 

 Earl of Ross, and the feud ended with his death at the 

 hands of the latter. In 1346, David Bruce summoned his 

 barons to meet him at Perth, preparatory to an invasion of 

 England. Among others, the Earl of Ross and Ranald 

 MacRuari obeyed the summons. Ranald, with his followers, 

 took up his quarters in the monastery of Elcho, and thither 

 repaired the Earl of Ross in the dead of night, bent on 

 silencing for ever his troublesome vassal. MacRuari and 

 seven of his men were slain, and the Earl of Ross forthwith 

 returned home. Thus perished in the male line the last of 

 the Macruaries of the North Isles. Ranald was married 

 to a daughter of Malcolm Macleod of Harris, son of Tormod, 

 son of Leod, some of whose " rights," according to Hugh 

 Macdonald, the Sleat historian, he purchased from the 

 King. According to the same authority, a "brother's son" 

 of Ranald's grandfather was married to an heiress of the 

 Morisons of Lewis. 



By the death of Ranald, the possessions of the Mac- 

 ruaries fell to his sister Amy (also called Ann and Algiva), 

 the wife of John of the Isles. The latter immediately laid 



* Robertson's Index, pp. 48, 99 and 100. 



H 2 



