Castle Chanonry of Ross

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Castle Chanonry of Ross , also Seaforth Castle , is an abandoned castle in Fortrose , northeast of Inverness in the Scottish administrative division of Highland . Today nothing is left of the castle. The castle was also named Canonry or Chanonrie of Ross after the traditional Scottish county.

architecture

We know that the lost castle was a residential tower with a rectangular floor plan, which Bishop John Fraser had built between 1497 and 1507.

Siege in the 16th century

The town of Fortrose on the Black Isle peninsula where the Castle Chanonry of Ross once stood.

1569, during the Marian Civil War between the deposed Maria Stuart and King James VI. from Scotland a feud broke out between Clan Mackenzie and Clan Munro , the most powerful clans in Ross-shire . The trouble started when John Leslie granted his cousin Leslie, the Laird of Balquahair , title and title to Castle Chanonry, along with associated lands. Bishop Leslie had been secretary to Mary Queen of Scots and there were strong aversions to the episcopate in Scotland. He thought, therefore, that the best thing to do was to give the church property of his diocese into the hands of his family so that he could preserve some of the important privileges he enjoyed as a bishop. Regent Moray ( James Stewart, 1st Earl of Mortay ), who on behalf of the underage King James VI. acted to oversee the castle at Andrew Munro, 5th of Milntown .

Regent Moray, the illegitimate son of King James V , promised Bishop Leslie that in exchange for the abandonment of the castle and its lands, he would get some lands from the Fintry Barony in Buchan . The deal was thwarted in January 1570 when Regent Moray was shot. So Andrew Munro from Milntown did not receive the title at Chanonry Castle and its lands, but this did not prevent him from occupying the castle.

The Mackenzies were not at all pleased to see their powerful neighbors, the Munros, in possession of the castle. They realized that the Munros lacked the right and title for this, and bought them from Leslie so that they could rightly demand the surrender of the castle and lands from the Munros. The Munros did not give way.

Munro decided to stay and try again with the new Regent of Scotland, Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox , who had weighed in on the Munros. The situation became even more complicated when Regent Lennox was also shot in September 1571. The next Regent of Scotland, John Erskine, Earl of Mar eventually confirmed Andrew Munro as owner of the castle as well, but the Earl of Mar died after a brief illness in October 1572, with some sources indicating that he was poisoned.

The Mackenzies viewed the Munros as illegitimate owners of their property lawfully acquired from Leslie. So they besieged the castle. The Munros defended the castle for three years, with many dead on both sides. Eventually, in 1573, the Munros peacefully surrendered the castle to the Mackenzies under the Act of Pacificateon on condition that Munro be reimbursed for the cost of defending the castle. This affair was believed to be part of a larger political intrigue by the parties of the King and Queen, called the Marian Civil War , which ended with the pacification of Perth in 1573.

During the minority of James VI, which officially ended in 1578, Munro of Milntown and his then boss Robert Mor Munro held the custody of the Crown lands of Ross and the Black Isle. On October 31, 1578, Jacob VI forgave “Castle, House and Place of Channonrie” to Henry Stewart, 3rd Lord Methven . The chanonry was given to Alexander Hepburn († 1578), the successor to John Leslie as Bishop of Ross, who shared Maria Stuart's exile. Lord Methven was to keep the yield of the lands until a new Bishop of Ross was appointed. In July 1589, Jacob VI visited. personally the chanonry, where "he was wonderfully entertained and received by the barons and gentlemen".

Historical sources

Sir Robert Gordon

Sir Robert Gordon, 1st Baronet , (1580–1656) describes the feud between the Munros and the Mackenzies in his book A Genealogical History of the Earldom of Sutherland :

“Mackenzies disputes, they bought the rights to it from Buquhayn, and thereupon they besieged the castle of Chanonry, which the Munros defended and kept for three years, with great losses on both sides, until after an act of pacification they handed them over to the Mackenzies . And this was the reason and the beginning of the feud and disputes that remain between the Mackenzies and Munros to this day. "

Alexander Mackenzie

According to Alexander Mackenzie's books The History of the Mackenzies (1894) and The History of the Munros of Fowlis (1898), the Mackenzies were supported by the Clan Mackintosh , who together garrisoned Fortrose Cathedral and besieged the castle. Mackenzie claims that an attempted failure of the Munros to fish in the nearby lake was foiled and the Mackenzies took control of the castle. However, the earlier Gordon source states that it was surrendered by an "act of pacification".

Civil wars of the 17th and 18th centuries

Later, in the 17th century Scottish Civil War , the Mackenzies still owned the Castle Chanonry of Ross. Her clan chief, George Mackenzie, 2nd Earl of Seaforth , supported the Scottish Covenantors and in 1646 the leader of the royalist army, James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose , besieged the castle and took it from the Mackenzies after four days. In 1649, after the siege of Inverness, David Leslie, Lord Newark , leader of the army of the Scottish Parliament, left a garrison at Castle Chanonry of Ross. However, the Mackenzies soon took the castle back from parliamentary forces. The parliamentary forces responded by taking Mackenzie's Redcastle and hanging the garrison there.

A 17th century poem by Brahan Seer about the Castle Chanonry of Ross predicted this:

"The day will come when, full of the Mackenzies, it will fall with a fearful crash. This may come to pass in several ways. The Canonry is the principle burying-place of the Clan, and it may fall when full of dead Mackenzies, or when a large concourse of the Clan is present at the funeral of a great chief ” (Ger .: The day will come, if it, full of the Mackenzies, will fall with a terrible crash. It may happen in different ways. The Canonry is the main burial place of the Clan, and it could fall when it is full of dead Mackenzies, or when a major Clan gathering is on attends the funeral of a great clan chief.)

The castle was reduced to rubble during the Jacobite Uprising in the 18th century, but no one knows who was responsible.

today

The castle itself no longer stands. But the street she was on is now called Castle Street . Nearby, in the outer wall of a very old house, there is a stone called Dormer Pediment , on which you can see a coat of arms and the initials "CBS", which stands for "Countess Barbara of Seaforth". Barbara was the wife of George Mackenzie, 2nd Earl of Seaforth (1633-1651). This stone is probably the only remnant of the castle that has survived to this day.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Castle of Chanonry, Fortrose . Black Isle. Archived from the original on September 24, 2005. Retrieved April 18, 2017.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Alan Mackenzie: History of the Mackenzies . 2006. Chapter 5. pp. 63-64.
  3. ↑ James Melville, James, Thomas Thomson (editors): Memoirs of his own life . Bannatyne Club, 1827. pp. 248-249.
  4. ↑ John S. Keltie, FSA Scot. (Editor): History of the Scottish Highlands, Highland Clans and Scottish Regiments. Mostly compiled around 1830 with some updates done in the late 1870's. . www.electricscotland.com. Retrieved April 18, 2017.
  5. ^ Electric Scotland: Clan Munro at Electric Scotland . www.electricscotland.com. Retrieved April 18, 2017.
  6. ↑ George Way, Romily Squire (1994). Collins Scottish Clan & Family Encyclopedia . (Foreword by The Rt Hon. The Earl of Elgin KT , Convenor, The Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs). 1994, p. 283.
  7. ^ Gordon Donaldson (editor): Register of the Privy Council . 1963. Volume 6. P. 272. No. 1693.
  8. ↑ David Moysie: Memoirs of the Affairs of Scotland . Bannatyne Club, 1830. p. 78.
  9. ^ A b Sir Robert Gordon: A Genealogical History of the Earldom of Sutherland . Written between 1615 and 1630. Republished in 1813. p. 155.
  10. ↑ Alexander Mackenzie: History of the Mackenzies . 1894. pp. 151-153.
  11. ^ John S. Keltie FSA Scot: History of the Scottish Highlands, Highland Clans and Scottish Regiments . Electric Scotland. Retrieved April 18, 2017.
  12. ↑ Campbell's Farewell to Redcatle . PlHeineman.net. Retrieved April 18, 2017.

Web links

Coordinates: 57 ° 34 '56 "  N , 4 ° 7' 50"  W.