Clan Gordon

Clan Gordon is a Highland Scottish clan, historically one of the most powerful Scottish clans. The Gordon lands once spanned a large territory across the Highlands. Presently, Gordon is seated at Aboyne Castle, Aberdeenshire. The Chief of the clan is the Earl of Huntly, later the Marquess of Huntly. During the Wars of Scottish Independence in the 13th century, the Gordons supported William Wallace in the cause of independence. In the 15th century, the chiefship of the clan passed to an heiress, who married into the Seton family and her male descendants assumed the surname Gordon and continued as chiefs of the clan. The Gordons assisted in defeating the rebellion of the Earl of Douglas also in the 15th century. In the 16th century, the Gordons as Catholics feuded with their Protestant neighbors the Clan Forbes and also defeated at the Battle of Glenlivet, the Protestant Earl of Argyll. During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms of the 17th century, the Gordons supported the Royalist cause. During the Jacobite rising of 1715 the Clan Gordon was Jacobite. During the Jacobite rising of 1745, their chief, then the Duke of Gordon, pledged his support to the British-Hanoverian Government, but his clan remained Jacobite.