The mistake
of attributing the Kintail charter to King Alexander the Third,
instead of King Alexander the Second, cannot be regarded as a
very serious error in the circumstances." Sir William, it will
be observed, gives up the charter from Alexander III. The mere
admission that it is not of Alexander III. is conclusive against
its ever having been granted to Colin Fitzgerald at all, for, as
already pointed out, that adventurer, if he ever existed, did not,
even according to his stoutest supporters, cross the Irish Channel,
nor was he ever heard of on this side of it, for more than thirty
years after the date written on the face of the document itself
could possibly have been genuine, the witnesses whose names
appear as attesting it having been in there graves for more than
a generation before the battle of Largs was fought.
When the ablest upholders of the Colin Fitzgerald theory are obliged
to make such admissions and explanations as these, they explain
away their whole case and they must be held to have practically
given it up; for once admit, as Sir William Fraser does, that the
charter is of the reign of Alexander II. (1230), it cannot possibly
have any reference to Colin Fitzgerald, who, according to those
who support the Irish origin of the clan, only arrived in Scotland
from Ireland in 1262 and it is equally absurd and impossible to
maintain that a charter granted in 1230 could have been a reward
for services rendered or valour displayed at the battle of Largs,
which was fought in 1263, to say nothing of the now admittedly
impossible date and signatures written on the face of the document
itself; and Sir William Fraser having, by the logic of facts,
been forced to give up that crucial point, should in consistency
have at the same time given up Colin Fitzgerald.
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