History of the Mackenzies | Page 9

Campania. Thoma Hostiario, vice-comite de Innerness. Apud
Kincardine, IX die Jan.: Anno Regni Domini, Regis XVI."
This is a literal translation of the document:- "Alexander, by the Grace
of God, King of Scots, to all honest men of his whole dominions, cleric
and laic, greeting: Be it known to the present and future that I, for the
faithful service rendered to me by Colin of Ireland, in war as well as
peace, therefore I have given, and by this my present charter I concede
to the said Colin and his successors, the lands of Kintail to be held of us
in free barony with ward to render foreign service and fidelity.
Witnesses (as above.) At Kincardine, 9th day of January, in the year of
the reign of the Lord the King, the 16th."
The Kincardine at which this charter is alleged to have been signed is
supposed to be the place of that name situated on the River Dee; for
about this time an incident is reported to have occurred in the Forest of
Mar in connection with which it is traditionally stated that the
Mackenzies adopted the stag's head as their coat armour. The legend is
as follows:
Alexander was on a hunting expedition in the forest, near Kincardine,
when an infuriated stag, closely pursued by the hounds, made straight
in the direction of the King, and Cailean Fitzgerald, who accompanied
the Royal party, gallantly interposed his own person between the
exasperated animal and his Majesty, and shot it with an arrow in the
forehead. The King in acknowledgment of the Royal gratitude at once
issued a diploma in favour of Colin granting him armorial bearings
which were to be, a stags head puissant, bleeding at the forehead where
the arrow pierced it, to be borne on a field azure, supported by two
greyhounds. The crest to be a dexter arm bearing a naked sword,
surrounded by the motto "Fide Parta, Fide Acta," which continued to be
the distinctive bearings of the Mackenzies of Seaforth until it was
considered expedient, as corroborating their claims on the extensive
possessions of the Macleods of Lewis, to substitute for the original the
crest of that warlike clan, namely, a mountain in flames, surcharged
with the words, "Luceo non uro," the ancient shield, supported by two
savages, naked, and wreathed about the head with laurel, armed with
clubs issuing fire, which are the bearings now used by the

representatives of the High Chiefs of Kintail.
The incident of the hunting match and Colin Fitzgerald's gallant rescue
of Alexander III. was painted by West for "The last of the Seaforths" in
one of those large pictures with which the old Academician employed
and gratified his latter years. The artist received L8oo for the noble
painting, which is still preserved in Brahan Castle, and in his old age he
expressed his willingness to give the same sum for it in order to have it
exhibited in his own collection.
The first notice of the reputed charter to Colin Fitzgerald is in the
manuscript history of the Mackenzies, by George, first Earl of
Cromartie, already quoted, written about the middle of the seventeenth
century. All the later genealogists appear to have taken its authenticity
for granted, and quoted it accordingly. Dr Skene, the most learned and
accurate of all our Highland historians, expresses his decided opinion
that the charter is forged and absolutely worthless as evidence in favour
of the Fitzgerald origin of the clan. At pages 223-25 of his 'Highlanders
of Scotland,' he says -
"The Mackenzies have long boasted of their descent from the great
Norman family of Fitzgerald in Ireland, and in support of this origin
they produce a fragment of the Records of Icolmkill, and a charter by
Alexander III. to Colin Fitzgerald, the supposed progenitor of the
family, of the lands of Kintail. At first sight these documents might
appear conclusive, but, independently of the somewhat suspicious
circumstance that while these pages have been most freely and
generally quoted, no one has ever seen the originals, and the fragment
of the Icolmkill Record merely says that among the actors in the battle
of Largs, fought in 1263, was `Peregrinus et Hibernus nobilis ex
familia Geraldinorum qui proximo anno Hibernia pulsus apud regni
benigne acceptus hinc usque in curta permansit et in praefacto proelio
strenue pugnavit,' giving not a hint of his having settled in the
Highlands, or of his having become the progenitor of any Scottish
family whatever while as to the supposed charter of Alexander III., it is
equally inconclusive, as it merely grants the lands of Kintail to Colin
Hiberno, the word `Hiberno' having at the time come into general use
as denoting the Highlanders, in the same manner as the word 'Erse' is
now frequently used to express their