The Isle of Man belonged by right of descent from the ancient Norwegian kings to a subject of the King of England (Dingwall). In 1290 king Edward I of England in possession of Man, and it remained in English hands till 1313, when Robert Bruce took it after besieging Castle Rushen for five weeks. The early history of Sandal Castle is first mentioned in a text from 1240. Sandal remained in the Warenne family's hands until the line lapsed with the death of John de Warrenne in 1347.
In 1295, Robert Bruce, "The Great Competitor" and grandfather of King Robert the Bruce, died. King Edward I of England over-ran Berwick-upon-Tweed. Scots were defeated by the English defenders of Dunbar Castle at Battle of Dunbar. On August 28, 1296, Edward I of England held a parliament at Berwick to which he summoned all Scottish landholders to sign the "Ragman Roll". As a further attempt to emasculate the barbaric Scots north of the border, King Edward stole the Stone of Destiny and eventually it was placed in Westminster Abbey.
The English garrison holding Bothwell castle was besieged by the Scots for 28 1/2 months in 1298-1299 and starved into submission, then in August 1301 Edward I brought a force of 6800 men with a high siege tower and recaptured the castle after about 3 weeks. The English surrendered the castle after defeat at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, then re-took it in 1336 and made it the headquarters of King Edward III of England during his invasion of Scotland. Then in March 1337 a Scots army under Sir Andrew Murray recaptured the castle, his ancestral home, built by Walter of Moray. From an early period of. Scottish History the family of Murray is found to have possessed great feudal influence in the North of Scotland.
William, Earl of Ross, who had sworn fealty to Edward I of England, was captured at the Battle of Dunbar and imprisoned in London. In 1306, Robert the Bruce was crowned King of Scotland at Scone, and he was the reigning monarch at the time the chief Earl William was released from the Tower but again fell into the hands of the English in 1306, when he was forced to surrender Bruce's wife and daughter, whom he was protecting and who had taken sanctuary at the shrine of St. Duthac at Tain during a Norman decade. The king Robert the Bruce was at first enraged, but when the earl sued for pardon he received it, and the reconciliation was cemented by the marriage of Ross’s son to the king’s sister, Princess Maud. Earl William O' Beolain was given the title "Lord of Skye and Lewis" for his distinguished services. He was one of those who swore fealty to Edward I of England in 1296, and when he was captured at the Battle of Dunbar in the same year, he was sent as a prisoner to London.
The Battle of Loudon Hill in May, near Darvel in 1307 ended in King Robert I's defeated English forces under de Valence. Bruce and Valence had first met in combat the previous year at the Battle of Methven just outside Perth. The royal army virtually disintegrated under Valence's rapid onslaught, with many of Bruce's leading supporters falling captive. What was left of his force was mauled for a second time soon after this by the Macdougalls of Lorn, allies of the English, at Dalry near Tyndrum. As an orgainised military force the army of Scotland ceased to exist, and the king took to the heather as a fugitive. For a time he took refuge in Dunaverty Castle near the Mull of Kintyre, but with his enemies closing in once more, he sailed out of the light of history into the mist of legend, seeking refuge on Rathlin Island near the coast of Ulster, according to some, and the Orkney Isles.
Bruce reappeared in February 1307 he was set to take his greatest gamble. From the island of Arran in the Firth of Clyde he crossed to his own earldom of Carrick, in Ayrshire, landing near Turnberry. A similar landing by his brothers Thomas and Alexander in Galloway met with disaster on the shores of Loch Ryan at the hands of Dungal MacDouall, the principal Balliol adherant in the region. Thomas and Alexander's little army of Irish and Islemen was destroyed, and they were sent as captives Carlisle, where they were later executed on the orders of Edward I. But against all the odds Robert survived and with remarkable tenacity soon established himself in the hill country of Carrick and Galloway. From the feudal warlord who had been overthrown at Methven, Bruce was in the process of transforming into one of history's great guerilla captains. Bruce recognised the seasonal nature of English invasions, which swept over the country like summer tides, only to withdraw before the onset of winter. On December 24, 1307, Robert the Bruce defeated the troops of John Comyn at the Battle of Inverurie.
The next yeare in August, John MacDougall of Lorne, who was supporting King Edward II, was defeated by King Robert I at the Battle of the Pass of Brander. Bruce had enemies in all directions but managed to evade them, winning his first small success at Glentrool, where he ambushed an English cavalry force led by John Mowbray. Here he soon encountered his old enemy, Aymer de Valence, commanding the main English force in the area. In preparing to meet him he took up a position on 10 May at Loudoun Hill, some 10 miles east of Kilmarnock in Ayrshire. Amyer de Valence managed to escape the carnage and fled to the safety of Bothwell Castle. Three days after the Battle of Loudoun Hill Bruce defeated another English force under the Earl of Gloucester. But the greatest boost to his cause came two months later. At Burgh-on-Sands, just short of the Scottish border, on July 7, King Edward I of England died.
In 1309, William the 4th Earl of Ross and the Earl of Sutherland, his former ward, were the only two earls present at the first Parliament held by Robert the Bruce. He led the men of Ross, Sutherland and Caithness at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, where his youngest son Sir Walter de Ross was killed. William's wife, Euphemia Countess of Ross, persuaded the king to release William and appoint him as Warden of Scotland beyond the River Spey. Aside from Hugh and Walter, the remaining offspring were John, Isabella and Dorothea. In 1309, March 16, King Robert the Bruce convened his first parliament, at St. Andrews. The Earl of Ross and the Earl of Sutherland were in attendance. One yeare after the Treaty of Inverness with Norway in 1312, Robert the Bruce captured Dumfries and invaded Isle of Man. Into 1314, Robert the Bruce defeated Edward II at Battle of Bannockburn. Earl William led the men of Ross, Sutherland and Caithness at the battle. Two years later, King Robert II is born in Paisley and Edward Bruce, brother of King Robert the Bruce, crowned High King of All Ireland.
| William, the 4th Earl, was present with his clan at the Battle of Bannockburn (1314), and almost a century later (1412) the castle of Dingwall, the chief seate on the mainland of Donald, Lord of the Isles, was captured after the disastrous fight at Harlaw in Aberdeenshire, which Donald had provoked when his claim to the earldom was rejected. When Margaret the Maid of Norway died, there was a dispute over the right of succession to the Scottish throne. King Edward I of England made Scotland an English dependency, and chose John Balliol over Robert the Bruce and eleven other claimants. William, the 4th Earl was also one of those who addressed the famous Declaration of Arbroath to the Pope stating Scotland's right to independence. |  | |
William, the 4th Earl sought the King's pardon and swore an oath of fealty, which was cemented by the marriage of William's eldest son Hugh to Princess Maud, one of the King's sisters. King Robert the Bruce had placed his wife, Lady Elizabeth de Burgh and his stepdaughter Lady Marjory in the sanctuary of St. Duthac's Church at Tain. By 1318, King Robert the Bruce captured Berwick on Tweed and Edward Bruce, brother of Robert the Bruce, was killed in a battle near Dundalk, Ireland. William, the 4th Earl seized both of them to satisfy his duty to the English King and to preserve his titles. King Robert retaliated by invading Ross and Sutherland in the following year. Eventually, the Earl William was granted the Castle and Estates of Ferncrosky (Croick) and the Great Castle of Dingwall was returned to the possession of the Earls of Ross. The "Kalendar of Fearn" (1322) bears the record of Earl William's death on January 28 at his Castle of Delny.
William, the 4th Earl was succeeded by his son, Hugh, as the 5th Earl of Ross (4th of the O'Beolan line). Hugh became the 5th Earl of Ross in 1322. As the brother-in-law of the late Robert the Bruce, Hugh the 5th Earl fell in battle while wearing the sacred shirt of St. Duthac. Aodh (Hugh) of Ross, commonly known as Earl Hugh the 5th of Ross was the third successor and the great-grandson of Fearchar mac in tSagairt, as Mormaer of Ross (1323-1333). Aodh was a favorite of King Robert I of Scotland, who endowed him with many lands. He was made Sheriff of Cromarty, and received royal charters from King Robert I (Robert the Bruce) to the lands of Rarichies, the Isle of Skye, Strathglass, Strathconon and others. His first marriage to Robert's sister (Lady Maud), produced two sons (William the next Earl of Ross and John de Ross d. 1364) and one daughter (Marjory) of six children. Four of them were daughters, and all received prestigious marriage partners (including to the Counts of Buchan and Moray, to Mormaer Maol Íosa IV, Earl of Strathearn and the future king Robert II). His second marriage (Lady Margaret Graham) produced a son (Hugh "of Rarichies" from whom the chiefs of Balnagowan are descended) and two daughters (Euphemia and Janet). [King Robert II married, as his second wife, Euphemia, who was then crowned Queen of Scotland in 1371.] Aodh's (Hugh's) young brother, Iain, was given marriage to the Margaret Comyn, heiress of Buchan. Hugh, the brother-in-law of Bruce and the great-grandson of Fearchar Mac an t'Sagairt, fell at the Battle of Halidon Hill on July 19, 1333, along many other Scottish nobles and barons. The clan fought with distinction at Bannockburn, and the earl’s seal was affixed to the great Declaration of Arbroath in 1320. At the Battle of Halidon Hill, the Scottish army led by Archibald, lord of Douglas, attacked the army of King Edward III, beseiging Berwick Castle and were routed.
Hugh, the 5th Earl of Ross was succeeded by his son and successor, Uilleam. Hugh's eldest son William by his first wife Lady Maud of Bruce, became the 6th Earl of Ross (5th of the O'Beolan line) when he returned from Norway in 1336. He assisted Robert, the High Steward of Scotland and Governor of the Kingdom, for which he was made "Justiciar of Scotland benorth the Forth" and held the title "Lord of Skye". Ten years later, King David II assembled the barons of Scotland and their armies to invade England. In 1350, with the approval of his sister Marjory, William appointed his brother Hugh as heir to the Earldom of Ross (upon condition of the king's consent). Earl William and his wife Mary (daughter of Angus Og of the Isles) had a son (William, who died in 1357) and two daughters (Euphemia and Joanna).
King David II was born in 1324 whose reign saw the death of Edward II and the succession of Edward III, and the Treaty of Edinburgh (1328) between King Robert I and Edward III recognised Scotland's independence, ending the 30 years of Wars of Independence. Two years before, David II was crowned at Scone at age 7 after the death of Robert the Bruce at Cardross Castle but before Edward Balliol defeated the Regent, Earl of Mar, at the Battle of Dupplin near Perth as Edward Balliol, son of John Balliol, was crowned at Scone. King David II had recently restored properties in North Argyll to Reginald of the Isles, and Earl William of Ross took the opportunity to revenge himself over the disputed lands. Deserted by the armies of Earl William and the deceased Reginal, King David II pressed on and was captured during the Battle of Durham in 1346. King David II died at Edinburgh Castle which was captured from the English, leading to his capture at the Battle of Neville's Cross and the Treaty of Vincennes created a Franco-Scottish alliance in 1371. The battle of Nevilles Cross in 1346 decided the long struggle between England and Scotland in England's favor, there followed a confused period when the Isle of Man sometimes experienced English rule and sometimes Scottish.