Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material / Richard D. Oram -- Introduction: A Celtic Dirk at Scotland’s Back? The Lordship of the Isles in Mainstream Scottish Historiography since 1828 / Richard D. Oram -- Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Climate, Weather and the Rise of the Lordship of the Isles / Richard D. Oram -- The MacDonald Lordship and the Bruce Dynasty, c.1306–c.1371 / Michael A. Penman -- From the River Farrar to the Loire Valley: The MacDonald Lord of the Isles, the Scottish Crown, and International Diplomacy, 1428–1438 / Lachlan Nicholson -- Ghille Chattan Mhor and Clann Mhic an Tòisich Lands in the Clann Dhomhnail Lordship of Lochaber / Alasdair Ross -- Bishops, Priests, Monks and Their Patrons: The Lords of the Isles and the Church / Sarah Thomas -- ‘Contumaciously Absent’?: The Lords of the Isles and the Scottish Crown / Sonja Cameron -- A Maritime Dominion – Sea-Power and the Lordship / Colin Martin -- West Highland Heraldry and the Lordship of the Isles / Alastair Campbell of Airds -- Organising a Lordship: The Castles of the MacDonalds of Dunivaig and the Glens / T.E. McNeill -- The Lordship of the Isles: Identity Through Materiality / David H. Caldwell -- A Spent Force?: The Clan Donald in the Aftermath of 1493 / Alison Cathcart -- Castle Tioram and the MacDonalds of Clanranald: A Western Seaboard Castle in Context / Geoffrey Stell -- Bibliography / Richard D. Oram -- Index / Richard D. Oram.

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In The Lordship of the Isles , twelve specialists offer new insights on the rise and fall of the MacDonalds of Islay and the greatest Gaelic lordship of later medieval Scotland. Portrayed most often as either the independently-minded last great patrons of Scottish Gaelic culture or as dangerous rivals to the Stewart kings for mastery of Scotland, this collection navigates through such opposed perspectives to re-examine the politics, culture, society and connections of Highland and Hebridean Scotland from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries. It delivers a compelling account of a land and people caught literally and figuratively between two worlds, those of the Atlantic and mainland Scotland, and of Gaelic and Anglophone culture. Contributors are David Caldwell, Sonja Cameron, Alastair Campbell, Alison Cathcart, Colin Martin, Tom McNeill, Lachlan Nicholson, Richard Oram, Michael Penman, Alasdair Ross, Geoffrey Stell and Sarah Thomas.