86 HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



Countess of Ross in her own right, had by her first husband 

 two children, the elder being Alexander, afterwards Earl of 

 Ross, and the younger being Margaret, who became the 

 wife of Donald, Lord of the Isles. Alexander married a 

 daughter of the Duke of Albany, and the only issue from 

 this marriage was Euphemia, who became Countess of 

 Ross. Following the example of her grandmother, who, 

 after the death, without issue, of the Wolf of Badenoch, be- 

 came Abbess of Elcho, the second Euphemia surrendered 

 the pomps and vanities of the world for the seclusion and 

 peace of a convent. She became a nun, and by so doing, 

 effectively extinguished the male succession to the Earldom 

 of Ross. The crafty Duke of Albany was not slow to take 

 advantage of the situation thus created. At his instigation, 

 Euphemia was induced to renounce the Earldom in favour 

 of her uncle, John Stewart, Earl of Buchan, who afterwards 

 gained distinction in the service of France, and fell fighting 

 against the English at the bloody battle of Verneuil in 

 1425. Donald of the Isles not unnaturally refused to 

 acquiesce in this arrangement. Conceiving that he had 

 through his wife a prior right to the Earldom, he 

 protested against the legality of the proceeding, and 

 claimed the title and the estate for himself. His argument 

 that the Countess of Ross had no right to dispose of the 

 Earldom, and that by her action in taking the veil, she had 

 forfeited the title and estate and had become legally 

 " dead," was clearly sound.* After an impartial examina- 

 tion of the whole facts of the case, it is only possible to 

 come to one conclusion : that the Lord of the Isles, by his 

 wife, was the rightful heir to the title and property in dis- 

 pute. Even George Buchanan, who was certainly not 

 pre-disposed in favour of Highlanders, is fain to admit that 

 Donald was the rightful heir, and that Ross was " taken 

 from him by the Governor under some legal pretext." 



The Governor of Scotland was not likely to acknowledge 

 the claim of the Hebridean chief, after he had succeeded 



* Donald was far from being an ignorant barbarian : he had been educated 

 at Oxford University. 



