Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 25 on 17/02/2006.

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A lament for Killicrankie

It was one of Scotland’s bloodiest conflicts but Killicrankie is often forgotten today. James Irvine Robertson reports

King James VII of Scotland and II of Great Britain was Catholic. His father Charles I had been found guilty of tyranny and decapitated in 1649 but the son believed himself to be the divinely appointed absolute ruler of the realm.

He busied himself appointing Catholics to positions of political power. This was tolerated because his heir was his staunchly Protestant eldest daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange. But on 10th June 1688, his second wife, Queen Mary of Modena, bore him a son, raising the prospect of a continuation of a Catholic dynasty.

On 30th June, William and Mary were invited to take the British throne. In November, the Orange Army landed in England and William and Mary were crowned in February 1689.

Staunchly Protestant Scotland had initially backed King James on his succession from his brother, Charles II. As always, the powerful were faced with a terrible dilemma. For themselves and their families to survive, let alone prosper, they had to back the winning side.

It soon became clear that the new regime had established itself down south and the Scots magnates moved across to William. James’s strongest supporter was John Graham of Claverhouse, whom the King had created Viscount Dundee. Both factions had troops at hand when the Scottish Convention ‘declared King James to have forfeited the crown, by his attempts to overcome the religion and liberties of his subjects.’ The Prince and Princess of Orange were accordingly proclaimed joint monarchs at E.....

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By James Irvine Robertson

Section : Scottish History

Page number : 20