From the late 13th century, the Mackenzies held Eilean Donan as hereditary constables of the Earls of Ross, but by the mid-14th century they had lost control of the castle. Expanding east and westwards over the next two centuries, they re-acquired Eilean Donan in their own right in the later 15th century, receiving a charter for the castle and lands of Kintail in 1509. The castle is strongly associated with their devoted allies, the Macraes - 'Mackenzie's shirt of mail' - who populated this region from the mid-14th century and became hereditary constables under the Mackenzie Earls of Seaforth. The involvement of Eilean Donan in a Jacobite plot of 1719, and its disastrous finale at the Battle of Glenshiel, spelt its downfall. While harbouring a small Spanish garrison, the already damaged castle was bombarded to smithereens by Hanoverian frigates, and remained an uninhabitable ruin until the 20th century.