The Highlands of Scotland have been well documented for their conflicts and betrayals in fact it is surely legitimate that from the reign of James IV in the 1490’s life in the Highlands had been fairly tumultuous. In 1493, James went against the powerful chiefs of the MacDonald Clan and forfeited the MacDonald Lord of the Isles in favour of himself along with the Campbell Clan. Therefore the Campbell’s took over as powerhouse in that time at the expense of the MacDonalds.

Difficulties arose not simply with the MacDonalds but also with several other Scottish clans because of this unhealthy power divide that the Campbells held over all others. The Campbell were in such a position that they could actually buy up available property and charge a kind of lease upon everyone that wished to utilize the area for cows or sheep. The MacLeans were extremely aggrieved Clan. As a sidenote here, the word Clan originates from the Gaelic word “clann” which actually means “children”.

It would seem to be this could mean that each person in the clan were closely associated but this was not necessarily so. Just the higher echelons of a specific clan were linked to the chiefs. Everyone else just considered the chief as the chief instead of as a relative as such.

The actual structure of clans came from a combination of early Celtic idealism and feudal procedures, the primary point being the ownership of lands. The clan chief was the master of the lands of the clan and he had the capability to grant the land out to his fellow clans men. The position of a clan however wasn’t actually about the quantity of land that the family held but more with regards to how many males the clan may muster to fight in battle. As a result of Highlands being very militaristic they would be looked to for fighting men during the time of turmoil involving the King and his opposition. For the highland clans this became problematic since they often became embroiled in lowland politics.

When James VI came to be King however, civil war broke out. When he called on the clans to assist the Campbells decided otherwise. It was not merely the Campbells who were to lead to difficulties for James – he extirped (sent away) the clan MacGregor in 1603, and in 1609 he introduced new laws in to force which curtailed all clan chiefs from using and abusing their earlier power.

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