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Clan MacKenzie

Clan Mackenzie
Clann Choinnich
Mackenzie crest.gif
Crest: A mount in flames Proper
Motto Luceo non uro (I shine not burn)
Slogan Tulach Àrd (The high hill or The high knoll or "The high hillock)
Profile
Region Highland
District Ross-shire
Plant badge variegated holly or
deer's grass
Chief
Earl of cromartie arms.svg
John Ruaridh Grant Mackenzie
5th Earl of Cromartie (Caber Feidh)
Seat Castle Leod
Historic seat Eilean Donan Castle
Redcastle

Clan Mackenzie (Scottish Gaelic: Clann Choinnich [ˈkʰl̪ˠãũn̪ˠ ˈxɤɲɪç]) is a Scottish clan, traditionally associated with Kintail and lands in Ross-shire in the Scottish Highlands. Traditional genealogies trace the ancestors of the Mackenzie chiefs to the 12th-century. However, the earliest Mackenzie chief recorded by contemporary evidence is Alexander Mackenzie of Kintail who died some time after 1471. Traditionally, during the Wars of Scottish Independence, the Mackenzies supported Robert the Bruce, but feuded with the Earls of Ross in the latter part of the 14th-century. During the 15th and 16th-centuries the Mackenzies feuded with the neighboring clans of Munro and MacDonald. In the 17th-century the Mackenzie chief was made Earl of Seaforth in the peerage of Scotland. During the Scottish Civil War of the 17th-century the Mackenzies largely supported the Royalists. During the Jacobite rising of 1715 the chief and clan of Mackenzie supported the Jacobite cause. However, during the Jacobite rising of 1745 the clan was divided with the chief, Kenneth Mackenzie, Lord Fortrose, supporting the British-Hanoverian Government and his relative, George Mackenzie, 3rd Earl of Cromartie, supporting the Jacobites.

The surname Mackenzie in Scottish Gaelic is MacCoinneach which means son of the fair bright one. The Mackenzies are believed to have the same ancestry as the Clan Matheson and Clan Anrias. All three are said to be descended from Gilleoin of the Aird, a Gaelic dynast who lived in the early 12th century. Another theory is that all three are descended from the thirteenth century Kermac Macmaghan. The chiefs of the Clan Mackenzie are said to have been settled at their great stronghold on Eilean Donan by 1297.


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