The sovereign or feudal lordship of Argyle was the holding of the senior branch of descendants of king Somhairle

Somerled

Somerled was a military and political leader of the Scottish Isles in the 12th century who was known in Gaelic as rí Innse Gall . His father was Gillebride...

, this branch becoming soon known as Clan MacDougall

Clan MacDougall

Clan MacDougall is a Highland Scottish clan consisting of the descendants of Dubgall mac Somairle, son of Somerled, who ruled Lorne and the Isle of Mull in Argyll in the 13th century...

Construction of the Lordship of Argyll-Lorne essentially started with Donnchad mac Dubgaill.

During Donnchadh's time the great feuds that had been causing war on the western seaboard of Scotland since Somhairle mac Gille Bhrighde were coming to an end. Ruaídhrí mac Raghnaill

Ruaidhri mac Raghnaill

Ruaidhri mac Raghnaill was a 13th-century Scottish magnate. The son of Raghnall, son of Somerled, he appears to have spent his career fighting, in both Ireland and in Scotland...

, son of Raghnall mac Somhairle, King of the Isles and Lord of Argyll, was at peace with Ragnall mac Gofraid

Ragnald IV of the Isle of Man

Rögnvaldr Guðrøðarson was a late 12th century and early 13th century sea-king who ruled a kingdom which encompassed the Isle of Man and parts of the Hebrides...

, King of Mann

King of Mann

The King of Mann was the title taken between 1237 and 1504 by the various rulers, both sovereign and suzerain, over the Kingdom of Mann – the Isle of Man which is located in the Irish Sea, at the centre of the British Isles....

, and had become friendly with Ailean mac Lachlainn

Alan, Lord of Galloway

Alan Fitz Roland was the last of the MacFergus dynasty of quasi-independent Lords of Galloway. He was also hereditary Constable of Scotland.-Family:He was the son of Roland, or Lochlann, Lord of Galloway and Helen de Morville...

, Lord of Galloway and Constable of Scotland. In this context, King Alexander II of Scotland

Alexander II of Scotland

Alexander II was King of Scots from1214 to his death.-Early life:...

 led expeditions into Argyll in 1221 and 1222, expeditions which led to Donnchadh being recognised or appointed to the Lordship of Lorne. Donnchadh remained a strong supporter of the Scottish crown against the interests of Ruaídhrí mac Raghnaill and Amhlaibh Dubh

Olaf II of the Isle of Man

Óláfr Guðrøðarson , commonly known in English as Olaf the Black, was a mid 13th century sea-king who ruled the Isle of Man and parts of the Hebrides. Óláfr was the son of Guðrøðr Óláfsson, King of the Isles, King of Dublin, and his wife Finnguala, granddaughter of Muirchertach Mac Lochlainn, High...

.

These expeditions into Argyll appear to have given Donnchadh domination of the kindreds of all Argyll in place of Ruaídhrí. Around 1225, Donnchadh de Argadia ("of Argyll") appeared in a charter of Maol Domhnaich, Earl of Lennox

Maol Domhnaich, Earl of Lennox

Mormaer Maol Domhnaich was the son of Mormaer Ailín II, and ruled Lennox 1217–1250.Like his predecessor Ailín II, he showed absolutely no interest in extending an inviting hand to oncoming French or English settlers...

 (d. 1250) made to Paisley Abbey

Paisley Abbey

Paisley Abbey is a former Cluniac monastery, and current Church of Scotland parish kirk, located on the east bank of the White Cart Water in the centre of the town of Paisley, Renfrewshire, in west central Scotland.-History:...

; this appearance is notable because it is the first attestation of the locative family name "of Argyll", the name that Donnchadh and his descendants would use to identify themselves among the higher nobility of Scotland.

In 1229, the Manx king Raghnall mac Gofraidh was killed. Fear of Galwegian or Scottish royal intervention led the Manxmen to appeal to the Norwegian crown. The Norwegian expedition, led by the Islesman "Uspak", probably Donnchadh's brother, ravished Kintyre and in 1230 attacked the Stewart controlled Isle of Bute

Isle of Bute

Bute is an island in the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. Formerly part of the county of Buteshire, it now constitutes part of the council area of Argyll and Bute. Its resident population was 7,228 in April 2001.-Geography:...

. This expedition was unsuccessful and led to Uspak's death. Donnchadh remained firmly in possession of his Argyll lordship.

The Mormaerdom or Kingdom of Argyll was also a lordship in High Medieval Scotland.

Mormaers of Argyll

• Somhairle mac Gillebride (?? - 1164)
• Raghnall mac Somhairle
  Raghnall mac Somhairle
  Ragnall mac Somairle, or Ragnall son of Somairle, was a late 12th century and possibly early 13th century magnate, seated on the western seaboard of Scotland. He was likely a younger son of Somairle mac Gilla Brigte, Lord of Argyll and his wife, Ragnhildr, daughter of Óláfr Guðrøðarson, King of...
  
   (1164 - 1207)
• Domhnall mac Raghnaill
  Domhnall mac Raghnaill
  Domhnall mac Raghnaill was a Hebridean noble in the late 12th- and early 13th-century. He is the eponymous progenitor of Clan Donald . For this reason some traditions accumulated around him in the Later Middle Ages and Early Modern period...
  
   (1207 - ??)

Campbell lords of Lorne

• the Campbell lairds of Lochawe inherited the lordship of Lorne via their foremother, Isabel Stewart, daughter of the 2nd Lord of Lorne. The Campbells received the titles Earl and then Duke of Argyll
  Duke of Argyll
  Duke of Argyll is a title, created in the Peerage of Scotland in 1701 and in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1892. The Earls, Marquesses, and Dukes of Argyll were for several centuries among the most powerful, if not the most powerful, noble family in Scotland...