Of the districts which still maintained a kind of semi-independence of the Scottish crown as ancient provinces of Scotland, there now only remained the extensive region of Arregaithel or Argyll, forming the entire western seaboard of the country from the Firth of Clyde to Loch Broom, the northern part of which, however—North Argyll as it was called—consisting chiefly of the possessions of the ancient monastery of Applecross, were now brought by their lay possessor Macintagart into close connection with the crown. The remote and secluded position of Galloway too rendered it little amenable to the royal authority, and the Western Isles, one half of which were under the rule of a Norwegian petty king, and the other half belonged to the family of Somerled, still belonged to the kingdom of Norway. The attention of King Alexander was strongly drawn towards the necessity of bringing Argyll under subjection from the support its people afforded to the families of Macwilliam and Maceth. The head of the former family was at this time Gillescoph Mahohegan or Gillespic mac Eochagan, and he appears to have had the support of Roderic, son of Reginald, Lord of the Isles, and other chiefs of Argyll.
The account of these transactions is to be found in Fordun and Wynton alone, but there seems no reason to doubt their authority at this period. Fordun tells us that ‘during this time,’ that is, in 1221, ‘some unrighteous men of the race of Macwilliam, viz., Gillespic and his sons and Roderic, started up in the uttermost bounds of Scotland.’[[720]] Alexander was at the time at York, where he was betrothed to the English king’s eldest sister Joan, as yet a girl; but on his return with his bride Fordun tells us that ‘having raised an army out of Lothian and Galloway and other outlying provinces, the king sailed for Argyll, but a storm having arisen he was obliged to put back, and brought up at Glasgow in safety but not without danger. In the following year, however, after Whitsunday, he led back the army into Argyll. The men of Argyll were frightened. Some gave hostages and a great deal of money, and were taken back in peace, while others who had more offended against the king’s will forsook their estates and possessions and fled. But our lord the king bestowed both the land and the goods of these men upon his own followers at will, and thus returned in peace with his men.’[[721]]
Wynton gives the following account of it:—
The kyng that yhere Argyle wan,
That rebell wes till hym befor than;
For wyth his ost thare in wes he,
And athe tuk off thare fewté,
Wyth thare serwys and thare homage,
That off hym wald hald thare herytage:
Bot the ethchetys off the lave