Jennifer Roberson
Page 53
SIR JOHN DALRYMPLE, Master of Stair; Secretary of Scotland
Throughout his political life, Stair made powerful enemies. Thus it became a simple matter for these enemies to lobby for the Commissioners to pin the genesis of the now-unpopular massacre on him. But Stair, having succeeded to his late father’s viscountcy, deprived his enemies of satisfaction by retiring from public life.
King William did not call for any action; in fact, he exonerated Stair by claiming that in London, so far from the Highlands, he could not have known anything of the barbarous method of execution. But William died, as did Mary, and Mary’s sister Anne became queen.
In Queen Anne’s reign Stair was welcomed back into public affairs, where he remained until his death in 1707.
CAPTAIN ROBERT CAMPBELL, Laird of Glen Lyon
In 1695, three years after the massacre, Glenlyon died a pauper in Bruges following a long illness and was later buried in an unknown grave. After departing the Highlands to fight with William in Flanders, he never again saw Scotland. He left behind piles of debts, few possessions, and no means to pay; even his eldest son, now Laird of Glenlyon, was forced to ask his kinsman Breadalbane for money to continue. It was granted, and the children of the ‘drukken man’ began a long attempt to restore their name.
This task proved nearly impossible. A story is told that Glenlyon’s grandson, called the Black Colonel, was ordered to carry out the execution of deserters, except that at the last moment he was to give them reprieve. As planned, the colonel pulled the reprieve from his pocket—but in so doing he dropped his handkerchief. The firing squad, responding to the customary signal, executed the men. The Campbell of Glen Lyon, seeing this, cried out it was the Curse of Glencoe.
He later resigned his commission. Unmarried, the Laird and his two childless brothers were the last of the direct line of Glenlyon Campbells.
COLONEL JOHN HILL, Governor of Fort William
Long a champion of the Highlanders and of Glencoe MacDonalds in particular, Colonel Hill was absolved of guilt by the Commissioners, who found that he had delayed acting on orders to kill the MacDonalds until left with no choice when identical orders were sent to his deputy governor, Lieutenant Colonel John Hamilton. Hill gave evidence against others, including Glenlyon, at the Inquiry and later returned to his duties at Fort William, where he did his best to speak on behalf of the surviving MacDonalds and other Lochaber men who were nearly broken by harsh taxes.
Governor Hill was eventually given a knighthood, but in 1698 his regiment was disbanded. He was discharged from the army at half pay, and died later in England.
ROBERT STEWART, Heir to Appin,
Although when carried by stretcher to Fort William to swear he would take the oath, young Robert Stewart made no haste to do so. For several years after the massacre he proved an irritant to Governor Hill and his soldiers. Eventually Stewart was called to Edinburgh to explain his behavior; on the way he insulted one of Hill’s captains, and in Edinburgh got into a fight with two of the city’s officers. He was thrown into the Tolbooth until he swore the oath and agreed to apologize to Hill and his captain.
KING WILLIAM (III), Formerly Prince of Orange
William was much annoyed by the aftermath of the massacre. His war in Flanders was going badly, and his primary advisors on the Scottish problem, Stair and Breadalbane, were under fire for their part in the massacre. Highly insulted by a Parliament that demanded specific royal action, William ignored continuing requests for an Inquiry and refused to accept any written reports.
It wasn’t until questions became so imperative that the king at last addressed them. William professed himself to be ignorant of the slaughter until eighteen months after it had occurred and claimed he was filled with horror by it. He pardoned all those involved save the soldiers and officers quartered on Glencoe. His wife, Queen Mary, had been so horrified she felt all those involved should be hanged, but Mary was dead.
William did nothing. He died of asthma complications in 1702.
KING JAMES (II), Self-exiled King of England residing in France
Despite the support of the Jacobites, James lived out the remainder of his life in France, wholly oblivious to the political repercussions of his reign and exile. He had outlived his childless brother Charles II, from whom he inherited, and his sisters, Mary and Anne, who became queens because he could not be king. His son James Francis Edward grew up in exile and was denied the throne of England; there was also a persistent rumor that this child was not James’s son at all, but a servingwoman’s newborn smuggled into the queen’s bedchamber in a warming pan.
James II died in 1701; his son, called the Old Pretender and referred to in toasts as the “king over the water,” was proclaimed in Scotland as James III and briefly served as figurehead to the unsuccessful Jacobite Rebellion of 1715.
The Old Pretender sired Charles Edward Stuart, referred to as the Young Pretender, and it was this “bonnie prince” who, at the behest of Jacobites and the French, later sailed to Scotland to claim his inheritance.
This infamous attempt at restoring what James II had lost two generations before ended disastrously on the field of Culloden in 1746, when the Highlanders were slaughtered by English troops led by George II’s son, the Duke of Cumberland, later known as “Butcher” for his actions against the Scots.
An’ we’ll gang nae mair a’rovin,’
A-rovin’ in the nicht,
An’ we’ll gang nae mair a-rovin,’
Let the müne shine e’er sae bricht.
KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by
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Copyright © 1996 by Jennifer Roberson
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
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ISBN: 978-0-7582-9220-9
ISBN-13: 978-0-7582-9223-0
ISBN-10: 0-7582-9223-6
First Kensington Electronic Edition: August 2013