Meet the Jacobites (with a bit of the tragic history of Glencoe)
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Jacobite hopes Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons |
This is a really complicated part of the history of the British Isles and although I'm paraphrasing madly here, there's quite a bit to plough through in order to get some understanding of the Jacobites and why the massacre at Glencoe was so significant.
King Henry the VIII gets a pretty bad press these days for his treatment of women. What tends to be forgotten is that he was, almost exclusively, the architect of some of the most divisive royal, religious and political events witnessed in these Isles for over two hundred years after his death.
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| Portrait of a young King Henry VIII circa 1515-20 Anglesey Abbey |
He was a second son and as a youngster he was well educated. Unlike Arthur, the first son who was destined to be King and thus was deemed to be infallible and therefore not in need of an education. Then fate lent a hand and Henry became King at the age of eighteen. Henry was a deep thinker and instead of relying on gut-feelings, he had ideas, and one of those ideas was to question to the role of the church.
For all the pomp and circumstance of the monarchy today, from the dark ages until the 14th century the reigning monarch was basically the biggest thug around. Being a big thug meant that others could be persuaded to join the gang. Canvassing the church, which in the early days meant kow-towing to Rome was important, because if God was on your side, more people would support you. At the same time, Rome looked to back winners and thus reinforce the ‘power of God’.
By Henry the VIII’s time the influence of the Roman Catholic Church was being questioned by the new protestant faiths. It’s often claimed that Henry broke with Rome in order to get a divorce but actually it was more of a sovereignty issue, with some personal gain thrown in. In many respects we were breaking up with Europe - something that sounds familiar, even today.
Catholicism went underground as it had been banned by the King. His daughter Queen Elizabeth, zealously carried on the purge.
The Stuarts
At the beginning of the seventeenth century, England was without an heir to the throne. To have asked one of the other major English families to step into the breach would have been very risky. Meanwhile in Scotland they had a ready made King, King James the VI. So the English* outsourced the Royal family duties to the Scots, to side-step a potential civil war. (*It could be argued that the last proper English King was Harold in 1066.)
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| King James 1. Karel van Mallery, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons |
This was basically a tight balancing act that pleased nobody but all of the opposing factions opposed each other, so everyone was unhappy. Apart from the King, who would travel down from Edinburgh and generally have a jolly time of it.
King James I, as he was in England, meanwhile had formed a pretty strong idea called the ‘Divine Right of Kings’. He stated that since the King had been put on the throne by God, a King's actions were therefore an extension of God and could not be questioned by an earthly authority, such as a Parliament.
His son, Charles when he became King found the general thrust of the ‘Divine Right of Kings’ very much to his liking. He would recall Parliament every time his purse was getting bit low and extract some more money, which caused the Parliamentarians to question just how divine his rights were.
The Civil War
What followed was the civil war that the Stuart monarchy had been brought in to prevent and the rise of Cromwell and republicanism. Cromwell’s victory led to the trial and beheading of the King.
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| The beheading of Charles 1. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons |
Also under Cromwell there was another strong purge of Catholics, as some had felt that there were underlying Catholic sympathies in the Stuart dynasty. Both Ireland and Scotland especially suffered under the severe hand of the Lord Protector.
The Stuarts (again?)
Cromwell’s death led to the restoration of the monarchy and the Stuart line was re-instated with Charles II. Part of the deal was that the Crown had to forgo all that 'Divine Right' stuff and were then allowed to reign. Parliament did the serious business of governing and was where the final authority now rested.
Next in line was King James II. James II became increasingly unpopular in England due to his open Catholic faith and his attempts to grant religious tolerance to Catholics. Many English Protestants feared that James II would try to restore Catholicism as the official religion of England and thereby remove their rights and freedoms.
The Glorious Revolution
Which led them to outsource the monarchy once again, this time to William III, a Protestant prince from the Netherlands, who was invited to invade England and depose James II. (I would love to know what form this invitation took. A fancy printed card? A humble address?)
William landed in England with a Dutch army and was joined by many English supporters, including James II's daughter Mary, who was married to William. (Awkward.) James II fled to France, and William and Mary were declared joint monarchs of England.
But it could never be that easy as the Jacobites (which was the name of James II supporters, after Jacob the Latin name for James) were not willing to accept the new monarchs and continued to support James II. In Scotland, the Jacobites raised an army and declared James II to be the rightful king. In Ireland, the Jacobites were supported by the Catholic majority and launched a rebellion against William III's Protestant government.
The Jacobites were led by James II himself, who landed in Ireland with French troops. The Jacobites won several early battles, but were ultimately defeated by William III's army at the Battle of the Boyne in July 1690. James II fled to France once again, and the rebellion was effectively over.
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| Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons |
Glencoe
Due to suspicions of the role of Highlanders in the uprising, they were required to make an oath of allegiance to King William III and Queen Mary II. This had to be completed by January 1st, 1692.
The head of the Clan MacDonald from Glencoe, MacLain, had waited until he was freed of the oath of allegiance he had sworn to the defeated James II before heading to Fort William, where there was no one to take his oath. He then travelled on to Inverary and arrived a couple of days too late for the deadline.
It could have all been settled at that moment as a misunderstanding; people in the wrong place at the wrong time and therefore faults on both sides. But with good reason neither side trusted the other. Highlanders were always suspicious of Lowlanders and the English, while Lowlanders held prejudices against Highlanders as barbaric and uncivilised. The Clan MacDonald in particular had an unsavoury reputation for cattle rustling and lawlessness over a long period.
A company of men from the Earl of Argyll regiment was sent to 'quarter' with the MacDonalds. In many respects, this could have been seen as a way of punishing the clan, as they had to offer complementary food and lodging to 120 men of the clan Campbell, (with which they had a long history of bad blood) and this carried on for twelve nights.
Only one officer of the company was aware of the actual reason for their presence. On the night of February 12th, a messenger brought their chilling orders:
| “You are hereby ordered to fall upon the rebels, the MacDonalds of Glencoe, and put all to the sword under seventy. You are to have a special care that the old fox and his sons do upon no account escape your hands. You are to secure all the avenues that no man escape.” |
Then, at 5 am on February 13th, 1692, the army turned on their hosts and viciously butchered 38 men, women, and children. Another 40 are thought to have perished in the snow while fleeing the terror.
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| The order for the massacre at Glencoe National Library of Scotland, via Wikimedia Commons |
It was an astonishing act of brutality sanctioned by the King. The order was signed by him (although we mustn't forget that Parliament now makes the big decisions) and carried out by a regiment of mainly Lowland Scots.
The massacre has been regarded as the root cause of the present day clan feud between the Campbells and the MacDonalds. A more nuanced understanding of the massacre suggests that some of the soldiers tried to warn their hosts once they had been made aware of the order to kill. A Campbell piper was said to have played a lament the night before. Afterwards, two officers who refused to take part in the killings were sent to Fort William for court-martial.
If the purpose was to shore up support for the new King and Queen, then it failed spectacularly, as they remained highly unpopular in the Highlands throughout their reign. What did suit the Government was the idea that this was a clan feud, rather than what we would regard today as state-sanctioned terror.
The '15
Time did not heal these wounds and in 1715 another Jacobite rebellion (also known as the 15), attempted to restore the Stuart dynasty to the throne. It was led by ‘the old Pretender’ James Francis Edward Stuart, son of the deposed James II, and was supported by a ragbag of Scottish Highlanders, English Tories, and disaffected Whigs.
The rebellion began in Scotland in August 1715, with the raising of the Stuart standard at Braemar. James's forces quickly gained control of much of the Scottish Highlands, and he was proclaimed King James VIII of Scotland and III of England. However, the rebellion soon faced setbacks, with the government forces of King George I (the Royal duties now having been outsourced to a minor German principality) gaining the upper hand in a number of battles. One of the most significant battles of the rebellion was the Battle of Sheriffmuir. This battle was a bloody draw, with both sides claiming victory. However, it effectively ended the Highland uprising and forced James to flee to France.
The '45
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| The Glenfinnan Monument. Son of Groucho from Scotland, via Wikimedia Commons |
The aftermath of the rebellion was brutal, with the government cracking down hard on the Jacobites. A series of laws were passed aimed at suppressing Highland culture, including banning the wearing of traditional Highland dress, and then there were the Highland clearances, which saw many Highlanders evicted from their land. These repressive policies had a lasting impact on the Highlands and a vast number of Highlanders emigrated in search of a better life.
In England, the Jacobite rebellions are ancient history but in Scotland the schism is deep and the wounds are still open, as can be witnessed at 'Old Firm' matches in Glasgow between the Catholic supporters of Celtic and the Protestant and Unionist supporters of Rangers.
Echoes of the rebellions have also played a role in the development of Scottish nationalism, with the desire for greater autonomy and independence from England still a hot issue in Scottish politics.
Thanks to the Royal Stuart website I can tell you that there's still an extant 'pretender to the throne', Duke Franz of Bavaria (House of Wittelsbach, Bavaria) although none of the line of succession have ever made claim since 1807.
Old Henry the VIII has a lot to answer for.
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