The sovereign or feudal lordship of Argyle was the holding of the senior branch of descendants of Somerled (Somhairle), this branch becoming soon known as Clan MacDougall
The arms of the Lord of Argyll depicted in the fourteenth-century Balliol Roll.[2][note 1]
These expeditions into Argyll appear to have given Donnchadh domination of the kindreds of all Argyll in place of Ruaídhrí. Around 1225, Donnchadh de Argadia ("of Argyll") appeared in a charter of Maol Domhnaich, Earl of Lennox (d. 1250) made to Paisley Abbey; this appearance is notable because it is the first attestation of the locative family name "of Argyll", the name that Donnchadh and his descendants would use to identify themselves among the higher nobility of Scotland.[7]
In 1229, the Manx king, Ragnvald Godredsson, was killed. Fear of Galwegian or Scottish royal intervention led the Manxmen to appeal to the Norwegian crown. The Norwegian expedition, led by Óspakr-Hákon, probably Donnchadh's brother, ravished Kintyre and in 1230 attacked the Stewart controlled Isle of Bute. This expedition was unsuccessful and led to Uspak's death. Donnchadh remained firmly in possession of his Argyll lordship.[8]
The Campbell lairdsofLochawe inherited the lordship of Lorne via their foremother, Isabel Stewart, daughter of the 2nd Lord of Lorne. The Campbells received the titles Earl and then Duke of Argyll
^Sellar, "Hebridean Sea Kings", p. 201; Woolf, "Age of the Sea-Kings", pp. 107-8.
^The escutcheonisblazoned: or, a galley sable with dragon heads at prow and stern and flag flying gules, charged on the hull with four portholes argent.[3] The coat of arms corresponds to the seal of Alasdair Mac Dubhghaill.[4] Since the galley (lymphad) was a symbol of Clann Dubhghaill and seemingly Raghnall mac Somhairle—ancestor of Clann Ruaidhrí and Clann Domhnaill—it is conceivable that it was also a symbol of the Clann Somhairle progenitor, Somhairle mac Giolla Brighde.[5] It was also a symbol of the Crovan dynasty, which could mean that it passed to Somhairle's family through his wife.[6]
