Who done the dastardly deed and to who?
Wednesday 1 February 2023
Who killed Andrew, 4th Thane of Cawdor in 1404/5 and fled to The Mearns and founded the Raits of Hallgreen and all the rest?? Was it Sir Alexander, Sir Archibald or Sir Gervaise? Sources differ: Nisbet's System of Heraldry says "Sir Alexander Rait of that Ilk ....“ In Cosmo Innes's 1849 Book of the Thanes of Cawdor it says "Local tradition avers that the Thane Andrew ...... was slain by Sir Alexander Rait of that Ilk…”. Yet our possible Hallgreen birth brieve (RH15/37/171) dating to about 1680/1690 calls him Sir Archibald Raite! And a history of the Rait family included in Burke's Landed Gentry says that it was a Sir Archibald who was forced to flee from Moray for killing the Thane of Cawdor. for good measure two books refer to the culprit as Sir Gervaise de Rait, and another book says Sir Alexander Rait killed William, 3rd Thane of Cawdor around 1395. So was the third Thane, William, slain in 1395 and the fourth Thane, Andrew, slain in 1404 - both by the same chap?
In the process of doing a little search in an attempt to clarify the matter, I found a website about the Caddell, Calder and Cawdor family name in Scotland. It states: that Andrew Cawdor - 4th Thane of Cawdor died in 1405, murdered by Sir Alexander Gervaise de Raite (Rathe) at the water dam of Raite. Andrew inherited the Sheriffship and Constabulary of Nairn and half of Dunmaglass. The lands of Raite were seized by the Crown and given to the Thane of Calder's heir, in consideration of his father's murder. Upon his death, his son Donald inherited the Thanage.
On my page Rait Castle Owners, I have followed the ancients and given him as Alexander - but it is interesting to note that, according to the Caddel, Calder, Cawdor website, he may have had Gervaise as a second name - if true, it was probably handed down from our original Gervaise!
But wait, there’s more as they say! In the course of my search I came across a historical novel entitled "The Kissing Stone" by Amanda Scott and published in 2018. Snippets of it are on Amazon (Look Inside) and also GoogleBooks. In her Author’s Note, Scott says that she based the book on historical versions of an incident during the ancient feud between Clan Comyn and the Mackintoshes of Clan Chattan. The basic plotline of the feud and its result, she writes, are historical and the major events are as accurate as she could make them, including the ending.
The Prologue is set in Scottish Central North Highlands, Raitt (sic) Castle, November 1432. It mentions 23 year-old William Comyn - namesake of an ancient lord of Badenoch, and his father Comyn of Raitt - or Sir Gervaise Comyn de Raite as he now insisted other address him, employing the French pronunciation with emphasis on the second syllable of his first name…….Descended from Norman knights, de Raite was…….. “the law at Raitt from Nairn tae Lochindorb…..” Will knew his father was overstating his authority, which was oft contested by neighbouring chiefs and chieftains, especially the Mackintoshes from whom de Raite had seized the castle two decades ago. Said Will, “Sir, recall that after you seized the castle from [the Mackintoshes, specifically] Fin of the Battles [MacFinlagh], the Regent and later, his grace, the King, ordered Mackintosh to let you keep Raitt [and the estates of Meikle Geddes]….”….The reality, though, was that de Raite was chief of what remained of Clan Comyn…. Moreover Raitt Castle was their home… [there follows a description of the castle - which says it was not really a castle]
A couple of points are of interest. One is the date (1432) and the other is that the main man was called Sir Gervaise Comyn de Raite. The date is in the period between when Alexander killed Andrew and 1442 when the manor of Rait was granted to the Mackintoshes. And it’s interesting that the name Gervaise is used by the author - probably with no historical accuracy unless she had access to documents we did not! Still it’s a nice nod back to our original Gervaise.
And in fact, rereading the page on Rait Castle Owners, I note I quoted from Liza Campbell's "A charmed life: growing up in Macbeth’s Castle." She writes: "It came as part of a medieval compensation package for the 1405 murder of Andrew Cawdor, heir to the 4th Thane, by Sir Gervaise de Rait..... Sir Gervaise fled into exile after killing Andrew Cawdor. The confiscation of the castle was intended to discourage any further challenges to the Cawdor authority. Raitt Castle was too small and too close to Cawdor to be of any use so it was left to fall into disrepair.”
Maybe Liza Campbell had access to other Cawdor papers - or maybe she preferred to call him Gervaise (after his ancestor?) rather than by his first name Alexander. And it is probably likely then that Amanda Scott took the name Gervaise from Liza's book.
