Donald of Islay, Lord of the Isles

Donald of Islay, Lord of the Isles
18th century illustration of some of the tombs of Oronsay Priory, founded by Donalds's father John sometime before 1358
Predecessor	John of Islay, Lord of the Isles
Successor	Alexander of Islay, Earl of Ross
Born	Scotland
Died	1423 Islay, Scotland
Spouse	Mary Leslie, Countess of Ross
House	Clan Donald
Father	John of Islay, Lord of the Isles

Donald, Lord of the Isles (Gaelic: Dómhnall; died 1423), was the son and successor of John of Islay, Lord of the Isles and chief of Clan Donald. The Lordship of the Isles was based in and around the Scottish west-coast island of Islay, but under Donald's father had come to include many of the other islands off the west coast of Scotland, as well as Morvern, Garmoran, Lochaber, Kintyre and Knapdale on the mainland.

Donald was the grandson of King Robert II of Scotland and first cousin of King Robert III; he took pride in his royal blood, even adopting the royal tressure to surround his coat of arms.

While it is customary to portray the Lords of the Isles as divorced from the mainstream of Scottish political life, and as representatives of a brand of lordship distinct from the rest of Scotland, this view obscures the fact that Donald was only one of many magnates who held large lordships with little interference from the crown in late 14th and early 15th century Scotland. The Douglas kindred of southern Scotland and the Albany Stewarts had similar roles as Donald.

Donald spent some of his first years as Lord of the Isles suppressing a revolt by his brother John Mór. John was Donald's younger brother, and resented his meagre inheritance. Although he was recognised as heir-apparent (tànaiste), he only received patches of land in Kintyre and Islay. The rebellion started in 1387 and went on into the 1390s, and John obtained the support of the MacLean kindred. However, John and the MacLeans were eventually forced to submit to Donald, and by 1395 John Mór had been forced into Ireland. There he entered the service of King Richard II of England and later established a MacDonald lordship in Antrim.