Clan Sutherland

It was during the time of Robert Sutherland, 6th Earl of Sutherland that the first authentic record of Dunrobin Castle exists, dated 1401. It was also during the time of Robert Sutherland, 6th Earl of Sutherland that the Battle of Drumnacoub was fought in 1431 where Angus Du Mackay, chief of Clan Mackay defeated Angus Murray and the Sutherlanders on the slopes of the mountain Ben Loyal near Tongue, as described by 17th century historian Sir Robert Gordon, 1st Baronet. This battle is also mentioned by the historians George Buchanan (1506-1582) and the 18th century John Pinkerton who quoted the 15th century chronicler, Walter Bower. Henry Sutherland of Torboll, received from Robert Sutherland, 6th Earl of Sutherland the £40 lands of Torboll which Henry's father, Nicholas Sutherland, 1st of Duffus had resigned to the earl. Henry Sutherland's son was Alexander Sutherland, 3rd of Duffus who visited his chief, John Sutherland, 7th Earl of Sutherland who was being held hostage at Pontefract Castle in England for the ransom money of James I of Scotland. According to Gordon, during the time of John Sutherland, 7th Earl of Sutherland, the Battle of Skibo and Strathfleet was fought where John MacDonald of Islay, Earl of Ross invaded Sutherland and was defeated by the Clan Sutherland, led by the earl's brother Robert Sutherland, and the Murrays of Aberscross.
According to Gordon, during the time of John Sutherland, 8th Earl of Sutherland, the Clan Sutherland joined the Clan Mackay in their victory over the Clan Ross at the Battle of Aldy Charrish in 1487. However, 19th - 20th-century historian Angus Mackay disputes the Sutherland's presence at the battle stating that it would be unlikely that the Earl of Sutherland at the time would have assisted against the Rosses as he was married to a daughter of the Ross chief of Balnagowan, and also that the feudal superiority of the Sutherlands over the Mackays "nowhere existed save in his own fertile imagination".

William Sutherland, 4th of Duffus was killed fighting against the English at the Battle of Flodden in 1513.
In 1517, Elizabeth Sutherland, 10th Countess of Sutherland married Adam Gordon, younger son of Gordon of Huntly. Their son was Alexander Gordon, Master of Sutherland who would become the legal heir to the Earldom of Sutherland and overall chiefship of the Clan Sutherland. According to Sir Robert Gordon, who himself was a son of Alexander Gordon, 12th Earl of Sutherland, in the same year the Mackays rose up against the Gordons who had taken power in Sutherland which resulted in the Battle of Torran Dubh, where the Mackays were defeated. Sir Robert Gordon also states that at the battle, the Sutherland force had been led by Alexander Sutherland, brother of Elizabeth, 10th Countess of Sutherland. However, this version of events is disputed by both historian Angus Mackay and historian Sir William Fraser, who state that it can be proved that Alexander Sutherland was in prison in 1517 when the battle is supposed to have taken place. Whatever the truth, the following year in 1518 or 1519, Alexander Sutherland claimed the Earldom of Sutherland for himself and rose up against his sister Elizabeth, 10th Countess of Sutherland and her husband Adam Gordon, but he was defeated and killed at the Battle of Alltachuilain. On March 25, 1525, Elizabeth Sutherland, 10th Countess of Sutherland and her husband Adam Gordon granted to William Sutherland, 5th of Duffus the lands of Torboll and Pronsy which had previously belonged to the late Hugh Sutherland of Pronsy.
William Sutherland, 6th of Duffus, as the new Laird of Skelbo and having entered into a fresh acquisition of territory gave a bond of manrent to Alexander Gordon, Master of Sutherland on September 4, 1529, which acknowledged that the Master of Sutherland had received him as a tenant and vassal in the lands.
According to the book Conflicts of the Clans which was published in 1764, in 1542 the Battle of Alltan-Beath took place where the Clan Mackay were defeated by the Clan Sutherland. According to historian Sir Robert Gordon, in 1542, chief Donald Mackay, 11th of Strathnaver was captured by the Gordon Earls of Sutherland and Huntly, and imprisoned in Foulis Castle. However, this is disputed by historian Angus Mackay.

In the 17th century the Clan Sutherland began to acquire the reputation for enthusiastic and pious Protestantism. This is probably what made the Gordon Earls of Sutherland begin to distance themselves from their Gordon Earl of Huntly (Clan Gordon) cousins who were Catholics and later Jacobites. In 1645, John Gordon, 14th Earl of Sutherland led the clan against the Royalists at the Battle of Auldearn but was defeated. Alexander Sutherland, 1st Lord Duffus was a supporter of the National Covenant and as a result his estates, probably those in Morayshire, were attacked by the Royalists. He was not part of the Scottish army that subsequently marched to England, but was sent from Stirling to Perth to defend it from the attack of Oliver Cromwell, but was forced to surrender the town which he had only occupied for twelve hours previously with just 600 men.
In 1650, the Clan Sutherland along with the Clan Munro and the Clan Ross joined forces with the Scottish Argyll Government to fight against James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose and his royalist army of foreigners, who they defeated at the Battle of Carbisdale.
In 1685, John Gordon, 16th Earl of Sutherland, raised men of the Clan Sutherland to oppose Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll's expedition that was known as Argyll's Rising. The Earl of Sutherland also raised two regiments from the clan after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. The second of which he was a Colonel in command in Flanders in 1694.