The Massacre of Glencoe
MUCH HAS BEEN WRITTEN AND SAID ABOUT GLENCOE BUT WHAT ACTUALLY
HAPPENED? JAMES IRVINE ROBERTSON TRIES TO CUT THROUGH THE MYTHS
Truth often loses out to myth. Myth is more simple, and better at rousing the emotions. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Massacre of Glencoe in 1692, when the Campbells treacherously fell upon the Macdonalds of Glencoe and slaughtered them, man, woman and child. But it wasn’t quite like that.
James II of England, and VII of Scotland, succeeded his brother Charles II as King in 1685. James was a committed Catholic and, as his second wife, had married Mary of Modena, a 14-year old Italian Catholic princess.
In an uncompromisingly Protestant England, he was immensely unpopular, and when the Queen gave birth to a son there was an upsurge of unrest among the Whig majority in the country who intensely disliked the prospect of a Catholic heir to the throne.
However, Mary, James’s eldest daughter by his first marriage, had been brought up as a Protestant, and when her father embarked upon a policy of religious toleration, she and her stoutly Protestant husband, William of Orange, were invited to invade Britain in what became known as The Glorious Revolution.
James fled to France with his wife and son, and William and Mary were jointly crowned to take his place.
Some Scots objected and rose up in rebellion, led by Graham of Claverhouse. He defeated a redcoat army at Killiecrankie, but was among the casualties. After that, discontent and a low grade war in the Highlands rumbled on, but the cause was without strong leadership.
William’s main purpose in accepting the thron.....
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By James Irvine Robertson
Section : Scottish History
Page number : 20
