Many of the clans made alliances with other clans for protection. The Clan Chiefs arranged many marriages for their children with the children of other Clan Chiefs in order to secure peace, obtain land, castles or titles.

An early Campbell Chief and MacDonald, Lord of the Isles made an alliance and arranged marriages very early in the history of their clans, as a result of that marriage most of the Campbells are also descendants of MacDonald, Lord of the Isles.

The Bruce's and the Stewart's used arranged marriages to consolidate their power, the Campbells married into the Stewart line to consolidate power, obtain land and titles. Many of these marriages were arranged for the children at the time of their birth or at a very early age.

The history of Scotland is very interesting reading, in many cases it is like a novel with many plots and sub plots. Another very good history of Scotland is "Scotland, The Story of a Nation" by Magnus Magnusson, this is a huge book of about 700 pages, but is very readable and entertaining.

Jim