Clan Sweeney supporters of the powerful MacDougall Lords of Lorne who supported John Balliol as patriots, as long as John was king of Scotland. After the murder of John Comyn, the nephew of Balliol, by Bruce in 1306, the First War of Scottish Independence became at one and the same time a civil war. The Balliol and Comyn parties taking the side of the English in opposition to Bruce, crowned Robert I of Scotland on 25 March 1306. This was an era of constantly shifting alliances, and in 1301 John MacSween was in alliance with Aonghus Óg Mac Domhnaill, Lord of Islay
Feast of the Swans Feast of the Swans The Feast of the Swans was a chivalric celebration of the knighting of 267 men at Westminster Abbey on 22 May 1306. It followed a proclamation by Edward I that all esquires eligible for knighthood should come to Westminster to be knighted in turn by their future king, and to march with him against the Scots. The King first knighted his son Edward II who in turn knighted the 266 others. At the feast that followed the king had two swans brought in. He swore before God and the swans to avenge the murder of John