It may, indeed, be assumed from subsequent events in the history
of these powerful families and the united testimony of all the
genealogists of the Mackenzies, that the chief of Kintail did
befriend Robert the Bruce against his enemies and protected him
in his castle of Ellandonnan, in spite of the commands of his
immediate superior, the Earl of Ross, and the united power of all
the other great families of the Western Isles and Argyle. And in
his independent stand at this important period in the history of
Scotland will be found the true grounds of the local rancour which
afterwards prevailed between Mackenzie and the Island Lord, and
which only terminated in the collapse of the Earls of Ross and
the Lords of the Isles, upon the ruins of which, as a reward for
proved loyalty to the reigning monarch, and as the result of the
characteristic prudence of the race of MacKenneth, the House of
Kintail gradually rose in power, subsequently absorbed the ancient
inheritance of all the original possessors of the district, and
ultimately extended their influence more widely over the whole
provinces of Wester and Central Ross.
The genealogists further say that this chief waited on the King
during his visit to Inverness in 1312.
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