It was fairly common behaviour. Other than the Campbells, who had an uncanny knack for picking a winner, and ending up with additional lands and titles, a lot of Scottish lairds would have a bet each way in difficult times, with sons on both sides so the inheritance would be preserved somehow.FreddBloggs wrote: ↑Sun Mar 22, 2020 4:06 pm MacLeods on both sides, despicable behaviour, they normally left such shenanigans to the McGregors!
Up until the later James' the Scottish Crown tended to be weaker than in England, with regents, minor Kings, etc, so a lot of the history was of internecine strife with one lot of nobles fighting another, continuously. Add in that the king's writ rarely held much sway north of Perth, other than through a powerful lieutenant, plus the religious dimension post Reformation and you had a recipe for conflict.