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In 1689 the MacDonalds of Glencoe fought alongside other Stewart supporters at the Battle of Killiecrankie, just months after James VII had lost his title to William of Orange. Although they won the battle, their leader, Viscount Dundee, was killed, and they lost their cause. In August 1691 William of Orange proclaimed a pardon for the rebel clans, provided that they sign an oath of allegiance before January 1692, and Maclain, chief of the Glencoe MacDonalds, being a man of high honour and integrity, felt that he had to gain the permission of this 'true king', the exiled King James, before taking any oath to a Dutch usurper. The letter was sent to France, and the king's permission arrived in Glencoe on 31 December 1691. That very day Maclain presented himself to the governor of Fort William to discover that the oath could be administered only by a civil magistrate, so Maclain was sent packing to Inveraray, sixty wintry miles away, to take his oath before Campbell of Ardkinglas, the Sheriff Depute. He took with him a signed letter from Colonel Hill, the governor of Fort William, to confirm that he had made a verbal acceptance of allegiance before the official expiry date. Maclain, unfortunately, was severely held up on his journey by snow and by government troops at Barcaldine, and on his arrival at Inveraray he discovered that Ardkinglas was absent. The oath was not administered until 6 January 1692. Maclain was warned that his lateness in taking the oath would have to be submitted to the privy council in Edinburgh but was also assured that Colonel Hill in Fort William would be asked to take the clan under his protection. Maclain returned to Glencoe convinced that all was well. But on the next day Sir John Dalrymple, the Master of Stair and Secretary of State for Scotland, wrote to Sir Thomas Livingstone, the army's commanding officer in Scotland, with orders to destroy the clan. He, along with the Campbell earls of Argyll and Breadalbane, the hereditary foes of the MacDonalds, had been planning the massacre for over a month. While the Campbells' arguments were long-standing and political, it seems that Dalrymple's motives were religious. In one letter he described the MacDonalds as 'all Papists'. They were in fact episcopalian. Using the lateness of Maclain's submission as an excuse, on 30 January 1692 Dalrymple wrote to Livingstone again, and to Colonel Hill at Fort William, urging them to root out the MacDonalds and cut them off. He suggested that it be carried out in "secret and sudden ... better not to meddle with them than not do it in purpose, to cut off that nest of robbers who have fallen in the mercy of the law now when there is force and opportunity". On 1 February 1692,120 of Argyll's regiment arrived in Glencoe under the command of Captain Robert Campbell of Glenlyon. In his pocket was a document containing the following instructions: "You are hereby ordered to fall upon the Rebells, the McDonalds of Glenco, and putt all to the sword under seventy, you are to have special! care that the old fox and his sones do upon no account escape your hands, you are to secure all the avenues that no man escape. This you are to putt in execution at fyve of the clock precisely ..." Campbell told Maclain that the garrison at Fort William was overcrowded and that his soldiers must be billeted in the glen. He gave his word that he came in peace and, although traditional enemies, he and his troops lived with the people of Glencoe, eating their food, living under their roofs and accepting their hospitality. In the early hours of 13 February a blizzard broke out and Glenlyon gave orders for his men to fall about their hosts. Maclain himself was shot in the back as he rose from his bed. His wife was stripped and was so brutally beaten that she died. Other men in the house were killed or badly wounded. Children and old folk alike were butchered. Burning and murder went on indiscriminately, the bedridden burned alive in their cottages. Hell was a haven for those who escaped, a freezing cold white hell in the high mountain passes, and many died from exposure, half-naked in their hasty retreat. Clan Campbell History. The most in-depth and authoritative history of the Clan Campbell available. Commissioned by the Clan Campbell Education Association in Louisiana, it is a full history in three volumes with a foreward by the Duke of Argyll. Fully illustrated throughout with maps and genealogies and twenty pages of plates. It includes six appendices with a full genealogical analysis of the Clan and includes an authoritative account of the Clans' tartans. A History of Clan Campbell |
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