Raghnall Mac Ruaidhrí
Raghnall Mac Ruaidhrí | |
|---|---|
Raghnall's name as it appears on folio 1v of National Library of Scotland Advocates' 72.1.1 (MS 1467): "Raghnall finn". | |
| Predecessor | Ruaidhrí Mac Ruaidhrí |
| Successor | Áine Nic Ruaidhrí |
| Died | October 1346 Elcho Priory |
| Noble family | Clann Ruaidhrí |
| Father | Ruaidhrí Mac Ruaidhrí |
Raghnall Mac Ruaidhrí (died October 1346) was an eminent Scottish magnate and chief of Clann Ruaidhrí. Raghnall's father, Ruaidhrí Mac Ruaidhrí, appears to have been slain in 1318, at a time when Raghnall may have been under age. Ruaidhrí himself appears to have faced resistance over the Clann Ruaidhrí lordship from his sister, Cairistíona, wife of Donnchadh, a member of the comital family of Mar. Following Ruaidhrí's demise, there is evidence indicating that Cairistíona and her powerful confederates also posed a threat to the young Raghnall. Nevertheless, Raghnall eventually succeeded to his father, and first appears on record in 1337.
Raghnall's possession of his family's expansive ancestral territories in the Hebrides and West Highlands put him in conflict with the neighbouring magnate William III, Earl of Ross, and contention between the two probably contributed to Raghnall's assassination at the hands of the earl's adherents in 1346. Following his death, the Clann Ruaidhrí territories passed through his sister, Áine, into the possession of her husband, the chief of Clann Domhnaill, Eóin Mac Domhnaill I, Lord of the Isles, resulting in the latter's consolidation of power in the Hebrides as Lord of the Isles.