Jump to content

Massacre of Glencoe

From Niidae Wiki

Template:Short description Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox military conflict Template:Campaignbox Jacobite rising of 1689

The Massacre of GlencoeTemplate:Efn took place in Glen Coe in the Argyll region of the Scottish Highlands on 13 February 1692. An estimated 30 members and associates of Clan MacDonald of Glencoe were killed by Scottish government forces, allegedly for failing to pledge allegiance to the new monarchs, William III and his wife Mary II.

Although the Jacobite rising of 1689 had largely been suppressed by May 1690, a continuing need to police the Highlands diverted military resources from the Nine Years' War in Flanders. In late 1690, clan leaders loyal to the exiled House of Stuart agreed to swear allegiance to William and Mary, in return for a cash payment of £12,000. However, disagreements over how to divide this meant by December 1691 none of the clans had taken the oath.

In response, Lord Stair, Scottish Secretary of State, decided to show the consequences of further delay. While others, including the Keppoch MacDonalds, also missed the deadline, the Glencoe MacDonalds appear to have been selected due to a combination of clan politics, and a reputation for lawlessness.

While similar events were not unknown in earlier Scottish history, this was no longer the case by 1692, and the brutality of the massacre shocked contemporaries. It became a significant element in the persistence of Jacobitism in the Highlands during the first half of the 18th century, and remains a powerful symbol to this day.

Background

[edit]

Template:Location map many

Some historians argue the late 17th-century Scottish Highlands were more peaceful than often suggested, the exception being Lochaber, identified as a refuge for cattle raiders and thieves by government officials, other chiefs and Gaelic poets.Template:Sfn Much of this instability was blamed on the questionable legal status of lands ostensibly leased from Clan Mackintosh and occupied by Clan MacDonald of Keppoch, though the later disputed this claim.Template:Sfn Four Lochaber clans were consistently identified as prone to lawlessness, the Keppoch and Glencoe MacDoanlds, the MacGregors, and Camerons.Template:Sfn

Levies from all four served in the Independent Highland Companies used to suppress the Conventicles in 1678–80. They also took part in the raid led by the Marquess of Atholl that followed Argyll's Rising in 1685. Primarily directed against Lowland migrants settled in Cowal and Kintyre, the damage inflicted by Atholl's raid destabilised large parts of the central and southern Highlands. In September 1688, James VII and II outlawed the Keppoch MacDonalds, shortly before he was deposed by the November 1688 Glorious Revolution.Template:Sfn

In March 1689, James landed in Ireland in an attempt to regain his kingdoms, with Camerons and Keppoch MacDonalds among those who joined Viscount Dundee for a supporting campaign in Scotland. Victory over a government army at Killiecrankie on 27 July cost the lives of Dundee and 600 Highlanders, while organised Jacobite military resistance largely ended after Cromdale in May 1690.Template:Sfn However, the ongoing need to police the Highlands used resources needed for the Nine Years' War in Flanders, while close links between Western Scotland and Ulster meant unrest in one country often spilled into the other.Template:Sfn Since peace in the Highlands required control of Lochaber, achieving this had wider strategic importance than might appear.Template:Sfn

Oath of allegiance to William and Mary

[edit]
File:Achallader Farm Tower - geograph.org.uk - 55403.jpg
Ruins of Achallader Castle, site of the Declaration of June 1691

After Killiecrankie, the Scottish government tried to negotiate a settlement with the Jacobite chiefs,Template:Efn terms varying based on events in Ireland and Scotland. In March 1690, Secretary of State Lord Stair offered to pay £12,000 in return for their agreement to take an oath of allegiance to William and Mary. The chiefs agreed to do so in the June 1691 Declaration of Achallader, with John Campbell, Earl of Breadalbane, signing for the government. Crucially, it did not specify how the money was to be divided, and disputes over this delayed the oath. In addition, Breadalbane argued part of it was owed him as compensation for damage done to his estates by the Glencoe MacDonalds.Template:Sfn

The Battle of Aughrim on 12 July ended Jacobite chances of victory in the Williamite War in Ireland, and any immediate prospects of a Stuart restoration. On 26 August, the Scottish government issued a Royal Proclamation that offered a pardon to anyone taking the oath prior to 1 January 1692, with severe reprisals for those who did not. Two days later, secret articles began circulating which cancelled the Achallader agreement in the event of a Jacobite invasion. These were allegedly signed by all the attendees, including Breadalbane, who claimed they had been manufactured by the MacDonald chief Glengarry.Template:Sfn Stair's letters now focused on enforcement, reflecting his belief that forged or not, none of the signatories intended to keep their word.Template:Sfn

In early October, the Jacobite chiefs asked the exiled James VII for permission to take the oath unless he could mount an invasion before the deadline, a condition they knew was impossible.Template:Sfn A document granting his approval was sent from Saint-Germain on 12 December and received by Glengarry on 23 December, who did not share it until 28th. While his reasons for the delay are unclear, one suggestion attributes it to an internal power struggle between Episcopalian MacDonalds like Glencoe, and the Catholic minority headed by Glengarry.Template:Sfn

As a result, it was not until 30 December that MacIain of Glencoe left for Fort William to take the oath from its commander, Lieutenant Colonel John Hill. Since he was not authorised to accept it, Hill sent MacIain to Inveraray with a letter for Sir Colin Campbell, the local magistrate. He administered the oath on 6 January, after which MacIain returned home.Template:Sfn

File:1stEarlOfStair.jpg
Lord Stair, Secretary of State for Scotland

Glengarry himself did not take the oath until 4 February, while others did so by proxy, but only MacIain was excluded from the indemnity issued by the Scottish Privy Council.Template:Sfn Stair's letter of 2 December to Breadalbane shows the decision to make him an example was taken well before the deadline for the oath, originally as a much bigger operation; '...the clan Donell must be rooted out and Lochiel. Leave the McLeans to Argyll...'Template:Sfn

In January, Stair wrote three letters in quick succession to Sir Thomas Livingstone, military commander in Scotland; on the 7th, the intention was to '....destroy entirely the country of Lochaber, Locheal's lands, Kippochs, Glengarrie and Glenco...;' on the 9th, '...their chieftains all being papists, it is well the vengeance falls there; for my part, I regret the MacDonalds had not divided and...Kippoch and Glenco are safe.' The last, on 11 January, states; '...my lord Argile tells me Glenco hath not taken the oaths at which I rejoice....'Template:Sfn

The Scottish Parliament passed a Decree of Forfeiture in 1690, depriving Glengarry of his lands, but he continued to hold Invergarry Castle, whose garrison included the senior Jacobite officers Alexander Cannon and Thomas Buchan. This suggests the Episcopalian Glencoe MacDonalds only replaced the Catholic Glengarry as the target on 11 January; MacIain's son John MacDonald told the 1695 Commission the soldiers came to Glencoe from the north '...Glengarry's house being reduced.'Template:Sfn

The targeting of the Glencoe MacDonalds appears to have been driven by a variety of factors. After two years of negotiations, Stair was under pressure to ensure the deal stuck, while Argyll was competing for political influence with his kinsman Breadalbane, who also found it expedient to concur with the plan.Template:Sfn Glengarry managed to eliminate an internal rival, was pardoned and had his lands returned by the Williamite government, while enhancing his reputation with the exiled court in Saint-Germain by being the last to swear.Template:Sfn

The Massacre

[edit]

In late January 1692, approximately 120 men from the Earl of Argyll's Regiment of Foot arrived in Glencoe. Their commander was Robert Campbell of Glenlyon, an impoverished local landowner whose niece was married to one of MacIain's sons.Template:Efn Campbell carried orders for 'free quarter', an established alternative to paying taxes in what was a largely non-cash society.Template:Sfn The Glencoe MacDonalds had themselves been similarly billeted on the Campbells when serving with the Highland levies used to police Argyll in 1678.Template:Sfn

File:Glencoe winter2.jpg
Glencoe in winter; conditions would have been similar at the time of the Massacre

On 12 February, Hill ordered Lieutenant Colonel James Hamilton to take 400 men and block the northern exits from Glencoe at Kinlochleven. Meanwhile, another 400 men under Major Duncanson would join Glenlyon and sweep northwards up the glen, killing anyone they found, removing property and burning houses.Template:Sfn Later that evening, Glenlyon received orders from Duncanson carried by Thomas Drummond, who commanded the Argylls' Grenadier company and was thus Glenlyon's superior. His presence appears to have been to ensure the orders were enforced, since witnesses later claimed he shot two people who asked Glenlyon for mercy.Template:Sfn

In letters written on 30 January to Hamilton and Hill, Stair expresses concern that the MacDonalds would escape if warned, and emphasises the need for secrecy. This correlates with evidence from James Campbell, one of Glenlyon's company, stating that they had no knowledge of the plan until the morning of 13 February.Template:Sfn MacIain was killed, although his two sons escaped, and the 1695 Commission was given various figures for the number of casualties. The often-quoted figure of 38 dead was provided by Hamilton's men, who were at the opposite end of the glen from where the killing took place,Template:Efn while the MacDonalds themselves claimed 'the number they knew to be slaine were about 25'.Template:Sfn Modern research estimates deaths resulting from the Massacre as 'around 30', while claims others died of exposure cannot be substantiated.Template:Sfn

File:GlencoeOrder.jpg
Duncanson's written orders to GlenlyonTemplate:Efn

Since he arrived two hours late at 7:00 am, Duncanson joined Glenlyon only after most of the killings had been carried out, then advanced up the glen burning houses and removing livestock. Hamilton was not in position at Kinlochleven until 11:00; his detachment included two lieutenants, Francis Farquhar and Gilbert Kennedy, who often appear in anecdotes claiming they 'broke their swords rather than carry out their orders.' This differs from their testimony to the Commission and is unlikely since they arrived hours after the killings, which were carried out at the opposite end of the glen.Template:Sfn

In May, fears of a French invasion meant the Argylls were posted to Brentford in England, then Flanders, where they served until the end of the Nine Years' War in 1697 when the regiment was disbanded. No action was taken against those involved; Glenlyon died in Bruges in August 1696, Duncanson was killed in Spain in May 1705, while Drummond survived to take part in another famous Scottish disaster, the Darien scheme.Template:Sfn

Investigation

[edit]

On 12 April 1692, the Paris Gazette published a copy of Glenlyon's orders, allegedly found in an Edinburgh tavern and taken to France.Template:Sfn Despite criticism of the government, there was little sympathy for the MacDonalds, Livingstone writing it's not that anyone thinks the thieving tribe did not deserve to be destroyed, but that it should have been done by those quartered amongst them makes a great noise.Template:Sfn The motivation for investigating the affair was largely political; having served in the old and new regimes, Stair was unpopular with supporters of both.Template:Sfn

File:Moord op de gebroeders De Witt, door Pieter Frits (1627-1708).jpg
The killing of the De Witt brothers, 1672; the Massacre was first mentioned in a broadsheet accusing William of their murder

In the debate that followed, Colonel Hill claimed most Highlanders were peaceful, and even in Lochaber, Template:Lang He argued lawlessness was deliberately encouraged by leaders like Glengarry, while the midle sort of Gentrey and Commons....never got anything but hurt from it. The 1693 Highland Judicial Commission encouraged using the law to resolve issues like cattle theft, but the clan chiefs opposed it as reducing control over their tenants.Template:Sfn

The issue appeared settled until the English Licensing of the Press Act 1662 expired in May 1695. The result was a huge increase in the number of political pamphlets published in London, among them Gallienus Redivivus, or Murther will out, &c. Being a true Account of the De Witting of Glencoe, Gaffney. Written by Jacobite activist Charles Leslie, it focused on William's alleged complicity in the 1672 death of Johan de Witt, with Glencoe and other crimes as secondary charges.Template:Sfn

A Commission was set up to determine whether there was a case to answer under 'Slaughter under trust', a Scottish act introduced in 1587 to reduce endemic feuding. The law applied to murder committed in "cold-blood", when articles of surrender had been agreed, or hospitality accepted.Template:Sfn It was first used in 1588 against Lachlan Mor Maclean, whose objections to his mother's second marriage led him to murder his new stepfather, John MacDonald, and 18 members of the wedding party. Interpretation varied, such as in the cases of James MacDonald, who locked his parents in their house before setting it on fire in 1597, and the killing of prisoners after the 1647 Battle of Dunaverty. Both were deemed to have been committed in "hot blood", and thus excluded.Template:Sfn

As a capital offence and treason, it was an awkward weapon with which to attack Stair, since William himself signed the orders, and the intent was widely known in government circles. The Commission instead considered whether participants had exceeded orders, not their legality, and concluded Stair and Hamilton had a case to answer, but left the decision to William.Template:Sfn While Stair was dismissed as Secretary of State, he returned to government in 1700 and was made an earl by the last Stuart monarch, Queen Anne.Template:Sfn An application by the survivors for compensation was ignored; they rebuilt their houses, and participated in the 1715 and 1745 Jacobite risings.Template:Sfn An archaeological survey in 2019 showed Glencoe was occupied until the Highland Clearances of the mid-18th century.Template:Sfn

Aftermath and legacy

[edit]
File:McCulloch, Glencoe, Argyllshire.jpg
Glencoe, by Horatio McCulloch, 1864; depopulated in the 18th century by the Highland Clearances, McCulloch shows it as the remote and empty landscape it remains today.

The brutality of the Massacre shocked Scottish society and became a Jacobite symbol of post-1688 oppression. In 1745, Prince Charles ordered Leslie's pamphlet and the 1695 Parliamentary minutes reprinted in the Edinburgh Caledonian Mercury.Template:Sfn Glencoe then largely disappeared from public knowledge until it was referenced by historian Thomas Macaulay in his 1850 History of England.Template:Sfn He sought to exonerate William from every one of Leslie's charges, and is the origin of the claim that the Massacre was simply part of an ongoing feud between the MacDonalds and Clan Campbell.Template:Sfn

Victorian era Scotland developed values that were both Unionist and Imperialist, while also being uniquely Scottish.Template:Sfn Historical divisions meant this was largely expressed through a shared cultural identity, while the teaching of Scottish, rather than British history, virtually disappeared from universities.Template:Sfn One modern historian suggests this meant that instead of being analysed as an historical event, Glencoe was incorporated into 'the emotional trappings of the Scottish past...bonnie Scotland of the bens, glens and misty shieling, the Jacobites, Mary, Queen of Scots, tartan mania and the raising of historical statuary.'Template:Sfn

Even when the study of Scottish history re-emerged in the 1950s, Leslie's writings continued to shape views of William's reign as disastrous for Scotland. The Massacre became one of several incidents used to illustrate this perspective, others including the Darien scheme, the famine of the late 1690s, and the 1707 Union.Template:Sfn

The Massacre is still commemorated in an annual ceremony by the Clan Donald Society. Initiated in 1930, this is held at the Upper Carnoch memorial, a tapering Celtic cross installed in 1883 at the eastern end of Glencoe village.<ref>Template:Cite journal. Memorial is at Template:Gbmapping.</ref> Another memorial includes the Henderson Stone, a granite boulder south of Carnach, originally known as the 'Soldier's Stone'.Template:Sfn In the late 19th century, it was renamed Clach Eanruig, or 'Henry's Stone', after the man reputed to be Piper to MacIain.Template:Sfn

[edit]
File:Glencoe Massacre Memorial.JPG
Glencoe Massacre Memorial

Glencoe was a popular topic with 19th-century poets, notably Sir Walter Scott's "Massacre of Glencoe".Template:Sfn It was used as a subject by Thomas Campbell and George Gilfillan, as well as by Letitia Elizabeth Landon in her 1823 work "Glencoe", T. S. Eliot's "Rannoch, by Glencoe" and "Two Poems from Glencoe" by Douglas Stewart.<ref>Stewart Douglas. Two Poems from Glencoe Template:Webarchive, at Australian Poetry Library. Accessed 5 October 2015</ref>

The massacre is alluded in Beethoven's 25 Irish songs, WoO 152.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Examples in literature include "The Masks of Purpose" by Eric Linklater, and the novels Fire Bringer by David Clement-Davies, Corrag (known as Witch Light in paperback) by Susan Fletcher and Lady of the Glen by Jennifer Roberson. William Croft Dickinson references Glencoe in his 1963 short story "The Return of the Native". A Song of Ice and Fire author, George R. R. Martin, cites the Glencoe Massacre as one of two historical influences on the infamous "Red Wedding" in his 2000 book A Storm of Swords.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

In 1962, Jim McLean wrote the song "The Massacre Of Glencoe", which was published under Duart Music.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The song was later adapted and performed by The Corries,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> as well as adapted for the Highland Bagpipes by various artists. In 1972 the Scottish band Nazareth released the song "1692 (Glencoe Massacre)" on their album, Exercises.

In the eleventh episode of Mad Men's seventh season, Pete Campbell's daughter is refused admission into Greenwich Country Day School directly by the headmaster, a MacDonald, over Clan Campbell's role in the massacre.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The event is the name sake to the traditional Piobaireachd "Massacre of Glencoe". The original author is unknown, however numerous settings exist, the most common source being Donald MacDonald's.<ref>https://www.pipesdrums.com/core/docengines/064AF52DA174434CA3EAC2DB0B8BDAC2.pdf</ref>

Recent archaeological work

[edit]
File:Glencoe Visitor Centre - geograph.org.uk - 4669281.jpg
Glencoe Visitor Centre

After the Massacre, the Glencoe MacDonalds rebuilt their homes; a military survey undertaken between 1747 and 1755 shows seven separate settlements along the glen, each containing between six and eleven buildings.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2018, a team of archaeologists organised by the National Trust for Scotland began surveying several areas related to the massacre, with plans to produce detailed studies of their findings.Template:Sfn

Work in the summer of 2019 focused on the settlement of Achadh Triachatain, or Achtriachtan, at the extreme end of the glen; home to an estimated 50 people, excavations show it was rebuilt after 1692 and still occupied in the mid-18th century.Template:Sfn A hoard of coins was found in a house linked to MacIain in August 2023, which archaeologists believe may have been hidden there by a victim of the Massacre.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2021, a full-size reconstruction of one of the buildings excavated at Achtriachtan was created using traditional techniques and materials at the National Trust for Scotland Visitor Centre.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Explanatory notes

[edit]

Template:Notelist

References

[edit]

Template:Reflist

Sources

[edit]
[edit]

Template:Scottish clans Template:Early Modern Scotland Template:Jacobitism Template:Scottish clan battles Template:Authority control

Retrieved from "https://wiki.niidae.com/index.php?title=Massacre_of_Glencoe&oldid=126754"