Scottish clan Clan Grant. During the Wars of Scottish Independence, feudal tenures were introduced by Robert the Bruce that harnessed and controlled the prowess of clans by the award of charters for land in order to gain support in the national cause against the English. For example, the Clan MacDonald were elevated above the Clan MacDougall, two clans who shared a common descent from a great Norse-Gaelic warlord named Somerled of the 12th century. Clanship was thus not only a strong tie of local kinship but also of feudalism to the Scottish Crown. It is this feudal component, reinforced by Scots law,
Glen Coe were killed by government forces who were billeted with them on the grounds that they had not been prompt in pledging allegiance to the new monarchs, William II and Mary II. The Glen is named after the River Coe which runs through it. The name of the river may predate the Gaelic language as its meaning is not known although it is possible that the name stems from an individual personal name, Comhan (genitive Comhain). Another theory gives 'glen of the dogs'. The glen is U-shaped, formed by an ice age glacier, about long with the floor of the glen