But authentic history
is silent as to the two wandering Irish Knights, and the reputed
charter (the elder one being palpably erroneous) cannot now be found.
For two centuries after the reigns of the Alexanders, the district of
Kintail formed part of the lordship of the Isles, and was held by the
Earls of Ross. The Mackenzies, however, can he easily traced to
their wild mountainous and picturesque country - Ceann-da-Shail -
the Head of the two Seas."
This is from an independent, impartial writer who had no interest
whatever in supporting either the one theory or the other.
Sir William Fraser, the well-known author of so many valuable private
family histories, incidentally refers to the forged charter in
his 'Earls of Cromartie,' written specially for the late Duke of
Sutherland. He was naturally unwilling to offend the susceptibilities
of the Mackenzie chiefs, all of whom had hitherto claimed Colin
Fitzgerald as their progenitor, but he was forced to admit the
inconclusive character of the disputed charter, and that no such
charter was granted to Colin Fitzgerald by Alexander III. Sir
William says:- "In the middle of the seventeenth century, when
Lord Cromartie wrote his history, the means of ascertaining, by the
names of witnesses and other ways, the true granter of a charter
and the date were not so accessible as at present.
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