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2 February 1645
Battle of Inverlochy, the third of the great
victories of James Graham, Fifth Earl and First Marquis of Montrose, who
championed the king's cause in Scotland by force of arms as an extension
of the English Civil War. This followed his Christmas raid on the
stronghold of the King's Covenanting Campbell enemies at Inverarry and
an extended march back to the Great Glen. There at Kilchumen (Fort
Augustus), Montrose learned that Archibald, Eighth Earl and First
Marquis of Argyll, had assembled a force of 3,000 men at Inverlochy
(near Fort William). In an epic countermarch,
Montrose's army passed through the mountains to a spot above Inverlochy
Castle, from where they came and set upon the Covenanters. Alasdair
MacDonald and Manus O'Cahan, commanding the Irish division, were
stationed on the flanks of the army while the center was divided into
three lines. The Irish charged first, defeating the Lowland infantry,
followed by the center, which broke the Covenanters' ranks and captured
the castle. An injured Argyll watched from the decks of a galley as
about 1,300 of his men were slaughtered as they attempted to flee the
field. Among the slain was Campbell of
Auchinbreck who was beheaded by Alasdair MacDonald.
5 February 1723
The Birth of John Witherspoon, the only
clergyman to sign the American Declaration of Independence, at Yester,
near Edinburgh. A son of the Reverend James Witherspoon and Anne Walker,
he was educated at the University of Edinburgh, taking a master of arts in
1739 and a divinity degree in 1743. He was ordained at Beith, Ayrshire in
1745 and three years later married Elizabeth Montgomery, with whom he had
ten children. In 1757, he became pastor at Paisley and a leader of the
conservative Popular Party against the moderates in the Scottish
Presbyterian Kirk. In 1768, he went to America to serve as President of
the College of New Jersey (Princeton). The able administrator soon became
a community leader as well. In 1776, he was chosen as a delegate to the
Continental Congress and arrived in time to argue in favor of the
Declaration of Independence and, indeed, to become to only clergyman to
sign it. He served in Congress until 1782, sitting on many committees,
including the very important board of war and the committee on secret
correspondence or foreign affairs. He spent 1782 to 1794 attempting to
rebuild the college and also served in the New Jersey State Legislature in
1783 and 1789 and the ratifying convention in 1787. He also worked from
1785 to 1789 to organize the American Presbyterian Church on national
lines. Following the death of his first wife, he married the considerably
younger Ann Dill in 1791, with whom he had two daughters, and died on his
farm on 15 November 1794. He was buried in the President's Lot at
Princeton.
7 February 1603
Clan Battle at Glen Fruin between the
Colquhouns and the MacGregors. The Colquhouns were a small clan favored
by the Stuart monarchy for their loyalty to the Crown. After several
were killed on their lands near Loch Lomond by raiding MacGregors, they
received royal permission to dispense retribution. In a pre-emptive
strike, the MacGregor Chief, Alasdair, advanced to Glen Fruin with about
three hundred MacGregor clansman, as well as some allied Camerons and
MacDonalds, and decimated a hastily assembled force of Colquhouns and
Buchanans. For King James VI, who despised Highlanders, this was the
last straw, especially after some sixty Colquhoun widows accosted him at
Stirling carrying their husbands' bloody shirts and crying for revenge.
The King ordered that the "detestable race" of MacGregors
be "extirpated and rooted out." They became outlaws that could be
killed with impunity. It became a capital offense for more than four of
them to assemble together. Their name was abolished and any that bore it
were required to take another, often a mother's maiden name. Clergy were
forbidden to baptize MacGregor children and women who failed to take
another name could be branded on the face and deported. Surviving
children were sent to Ireland or the Lowlands and rewards were offered
for MacGregor heads. Alasdair MacGregor avoided capture for over a year
but surrendered on promise of safe
conduct to England. He was taken safely across the border to Berwick,
then returned to Edinburgh and hanged with eleven of his kinsmen. The
clan was hunted down and dozens executed. They caused little trouble
for the next hundred years until their most famous member, Rob Roy,
known legally as Rob Campbell, became a legendary cattle thief and
rebel.
7 February 1883
Birth of mathematician and science
fiction writer, Eric Temple Bell, in Aberdeen. A son of James Bell and
Helen Jane Lindsay-Lyall, he was educated at the University of London then
emigrated to the United States in 1902. He earned an A.B from Stanford in
1904, the worked as a mule skinner and a surveyor. He then returned to
academia, earning another A.B., from the University of Washington in 1908
and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Columbia University in 1912. He served as
Professor of Mathematics at the University of Washington from 1912 to 1926
then at the California Institute of Technology from 1927 to 1953. He also
served as a member of the National Academy of Science, Vice President of
the American Mathematical Society, Vice President of the American Academy
of Arts and Science, and President of the Mathematical Association of
America. He published nearly 300 articles and edited several professional
journals. Two books, Algebraic Arithmetic and The Development of
Mathematics became standards in the field. His real fame, however, was as
a writer of science fiction under the pseudonym of John Taine. He was
especially prominent in the 1920s and 1930s writing novels as well as
pieces for pulp magazines. He combined good science with good
storytelling. The major themes overall were theoretical inquiry, grand
adventure, and technological disaster. Among his most notable works were
Seeds of Life and G.O.G. 666 dealing with genetic
manipulation, The Purple Sapphire and The Greatest Adventure
concerning lost civilizations, and The Time Stream exploring the
dynamics of time travel. He married Jessie Lillian Brown in 1910 and died
on 21 December 1960 in Watsonville, California.
8 February 1587
The execution of Mary Queen of Scots at Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire, England. Mary, who had been Queen
of Scots since her birth year of 1542, and briefly Queen of France as
well, was a focal point of the religious conflicts between Catholics and
Protestants in both Scotland and England. A practicing Roman Catholic
who was bad at selecting husbands, Mary was a rival and potential
replacement to her Protestant cousin, Elizabeth I of England. Mary's
apparent conspiracy with her third husband, Bothwell, to murder her
second husband, Darnley, resulted in a total loss of public support in
Scotland and her abdication in favor of her infant son, James VI, in
1567. Her only refuge was in England where Elizabeth kept her imprisoned
for 19 years. Elizabeth was in an awkward position, not wanting to
restore her Catholic
rival yet not wanting to sanction the removal of a legitimate sovereign.
The unfortunate Mary became the center of numerous Catholic plots
against Elizabeth, which eventually forced the latter to act, however
reluctant she was to shed the blood of a royal cousin. In July 1586,
details of the Babington plot were discovered, with a letter from Mary
agreeing to the assassination of Elizabeth. Following her trial, Mary
was formally condemned in October. Parliament petitioned for her
execution and, after some delay and indecision, Elizabeth signed the
warrant. The Council, acting on its own because the Queen still
hesitated, sent the warrant to Fotheringhay Castle where sentence was
carried out. Elizabeth made a display of public displeasure and sent the
bearer of the warrant to the Tower. Realistically, however, she knew the
action was necessary as it removed the center of Catholic plotting and
greatly diminished the threat of a popular rising on behalf of the
Catholic cause. A delicious irony that Mary would have enjoyed is the
fact that it was her son, James VI, who succeeded the childless
Elizabeth on the English throne, and it is Mary's descendants, not
Elizabeth's, who unified Scotland and England and have held the British
throne to this day.
10 February 1306
This day witnessed the most famous
sacrilegious act in Scottish history. Robert the Bruce and John Comyn,
rival claimants to the Scottish throne, vacant since 1296, arranged to
meet at the Greyfriar's Church at Dumfries to seek some kind of
accommodation. What ensued was a heated argument which ended when, in
front of the high altar, Bruce struck Comyn down with his knife and left
the Church. His men then entered and dispatched the wounded man as he
lay there. Facing murder charges and excommunication, Bruce decided on a
bold course to seize the throne and defend his
rights, and himself, against his enemies, both Scottish and English. He
was able to mobilize widespread support, especially in the south west of
Scotland, and managed to seize several castles from the English. Bruce
had himself crowned King of Scots in March of 1306 and would eventually
triumph but only after decades of war and destruction. In defending his
rights, he
was also able to secure a precarious independence for Scotland from
England.
13 February 1692
The infamous massacre at Glencoe,
where over three dozen MacDonalds, suspected as being Jacobite
supporters and late in swearing allegiance to King William, were
brutally killed by soldiers commanded by Captain Robert Campbell of Glen
Lyon. This situation developed in the aftermath of the 'Glorious
Revolution' of 1688 that toppled the Roman Catholic King James II of
England and VII of Scotland. His daughter, Mary II, and her husband, the
Dutch William of Orange, replaced James and were welcomed throughout
England and the Scottish Lowlands but not in most of Ireland or the
Scottish Highlands. In these two areas, military action in support of
the new government was necessary. In fact, the Highlanders under
John
Graham of Claverhouse, the 'Bonny Dundee' or ‘Bloody Clavers,' depending
on one's preference, won a great victory over government forces at
Killiecrankie in 1689. Unfortunately for them, they were not able to
follow this up, primarily due to the death of their leader in that
battle. By 1691, the Highlands had largely been subdued and the clans
ordered to swear fealty to William by New Year's Day 1692. Alastair
MacIan, Chief of the MacDonald Sept of Glencoe, was six days late when
he swore fealty on 6 January 1692. John Dalrymple, the Master of Stair
and William's Secretary of State, decided to make an example of him and
suppressed news of the oath. The crime was a particularly notorious
affront to traditional notions of Highland hospitality as the Campbell
force had been stationed with the MacDonalds for two weeks in relative
friendship before taking their drastic action. Although the King was
implicated and Stair eventually resigned, the Highlands had been
effectively subdued. Glen Lyon, who was an uncle to the famous outlaw
Rob Roy, was no stranger to treachery, in 1680 he had perpetrated a
murderous slaughter against drunken Sinclair clansmen commanded by
George Sinclair of Keiss.
14 February 1858
Birth of explorer Joseph Thomson at Penpont,
Dumfries. Working in a stone quarry as a youth, he became fascinated
with Geology and graduated with honors in Geology and Natural Science
from the University of
Edinburgh in 1877. Two years later, he joined a Royal Geographical
Society expedition to East Africa under Keith Johnston. When the latter
died suddenly, Thomson took command and pushed on into the African
interior. He reached Lake Nyasa in Malawi on 20 September 1879, the
first Europeans to arrive there overland. He continued on to Lake
Tanganyika, traveled through the Congo, and returned to the coast and
Zanzibar in July 1880. The following year, he undertook a smaller
excursion, traveling the Rovuma River, and then returned to Scotland. In
1883, he led another Royal Geographical Society
expedition, this to penetrate the Masai territory and explore the area
of Mount Kenya and Mount Kilimanjaro. He crossed a 14,000 high mountain
range, survived hostile encounters with the Masai, endured sickness, and
reached Lake Victoria in December 1883. Returning to London in 1884, he
received a gold medal from the Royal Geographical Society and wrote a
best-selling book about his experiences. In 1885, he went up the Niger
River to negotiate with Native leaders to forestall German colonization
attempts, and spent the next three years recuperating from poor health.
In 1888, he climbed some of the
highest peaks in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco and in 1890-1891 worked
for Cecil Rhodes' British South Africa Company in present day Malawi and
Zambia to place them under British protection. He became seriously ill
with lung
problems and spent some time recovering in Capetown but died soon after
returning to England, on 2 August 1895, at the age of 37.
20 February 1874
Birth of opera singer Mary Garden in
Aberdeen. The daughter of Robert Davidson Garden, an engineer, and Mary
Joss, her father established himself in the United States and sent for
his family when Garden was six years old. The family lived in New York,
Massachusetts, and Chicago where her regular schooling was sporadic. She
began
taking voice lessons when she was sixteen and studied violin and piano
earlier and had sung before groups as a child. In 1900, she began her
singing career in Paris where she had romantic liaisons with composer
Claude Debussy, conductor Andre Messenger, and director Albert Carre.
She was later engaged to Harold McCormick, head of International
Harvester and manager of the Chicago Opera House, but she never married.
After 1907, she began to perform at the Manhattan Opera House in New
York and won fame in the role of Melisande in Debussy's Pelleas et
Melisande. She worked for MGM in Hollywood in the 1930s and then
returned to Paris. She was forced to flee the German invasion of France
in 1940 and returned to her native Aberdeen and Scotland became her
primary home in later years. From 1949 to 1954, she traveled in the
United States to lecture in forty cities and to audition singers for the
National Arts Foundation. She published an autobiography, Mary
Garden's Story in 1951 in which she said her private life was empty
compared with the lives she lived through her operatic roles. She was
often called a singing actress and was noted for defying convention. She
died in Aberdeen on January 3, 1967.
27 February 1545
The Battle of Ancrum Moor. The Scottish
lords captured at the disastrous Battle of the Solway Moss in 1542
agreed to King Henry VIII of England's demand for the marriage of their
infant Queen Mary to his son and
heir, Edward, Prince of Wales. Not surprisingly, Mary's mother, the
French born Mary of Guise, refused and convinced the Scottish
Parliament, with assistance from Cardinal David Beaton, to repudiate the
treaty and make alliance with France instead. Henry's reaction was
predictable and destructive as he ordered his armies to "put all to the
sword." Thus began the 'Rough Wooing' campaign in which numerous
Scottish cities and monasteries were destroyed with many people
slaughtered. Early in 1545, an English force of some 3,000 German and
Spanish mercenaries, 1,500 English borderers, and 700 renegade Scots,
commanded by Sir Ralph Eure, advanced upon Jedburgh. Near the city, at
Ancrum Moor, a Scottish army of about 3,000, commanded by the Earls of
Arran and Angus as well as Lesley of Rothes and Sir Walter Scott of
Buccleuch, opposed them. Faking a retreat, they flanked and routed the
English force with a brutal charge of pike and lance. Joined by both the
renegades and the local peasantry, the Scots killed Eure and revenged
themselves upon the fugitives. According to tradition, the bravest of
the Scottish warriors was a woman named Lilliard. A stone erected on the
spot of the battle is inscribed thus:
'Fair Maiden Lilliard lies under this stane (stone),
Little was her stature, but great was her fame;
Upon the English loons she laid many thumps,
And when her legs were cuttit off, she focht (fought) upon her stumps!'
28 February 1638
Signing of the National Covenant in the Greyfriar's Churchyard, Edinburgh. Initiated by Scottish churchmen, it
rejected attempts by King Charles I to force Scotland to adopt English
church governance and
liturgical practice, especially the Book of Common Prayer. The Covenant
included the King's Confession of 1581, statements by Scottish Church
leader Alexander Henderson, and an oath. It was signed by over 30,000
Scotsmen and
reaffirmed the Reformed faith and Presbyterian discipline. It also
proclaimed loyalty to the king. After the signing, the Scottish
Assembly abolished episcopacy and in the Bishops' Wars of 1639 and 1640
fought successfully to preserve religious liberty. The financial
problems resulting from the conflicts led to the English Civil War. In
September 1643, in the Solemn League and Covenant, the Scots pledged
military aid to the English Parliament against the king on the condition
that the Anglican Church would be reformed. The Covenanter army
intervened in the English Civil War, fighting bravely at Marston Moor in
1644, and received Charles I's surrender in 1646. However, it became
clear that Parliament had no intention of honoring their agreement with
the Scots. When Charles agreed to the Solemn League and Covenant in
1647, Scots went over to him. They also fought for Charles II, who
signed the covenant in June 1650, but were defeated in both
campaigns by Oliver Cromwell. They chaffed under Cromwell's rule but it
was the restoration of the English monarchy in 1660 that brought the
Covenanters' period of martyrdom. Presbyterian legal restrictions were
removed, episcopacy
was restored, and covenants declared as unlawful. Years of persecution
ensued and three rebellions were brutally defeated. Following the
Glorious Revolution of 1688, a religious settlement re-established the
Presbyterian Church in Scotland but did not renew the covenants.
By William John Shepherd
Note On Sources: Some dates are based upon concise chronologies
published by
Ronald McDonald Douglas in his Scottish Lore And Folklore (1982) and
John
Wilson McCoy in the pages of The Highlander magazine in 1997. Additional
dates and information have been gleaned from my varied readings in
Scottish
history. These sources include but are not limited to the following:
Brown,
P. Hume. A Short History Of Scotland (1908, 1961); Donaldson, Gordon and
Morpeth, Robert. A Dictionary of Scottish History (1996); Fisher,
Andrew. A
Traveller's History Of Scotland (1990); Gordon, Ian Fellowes. Famous
Scots.
London: Shepheard-Walwyn Publishers, 1988; Keay, John and Julia (eds.).
Collins Encyclopedia Of Scotland (1994); Mackie, J.D. A History Of
Scotland
(1964, 1991); MacLean, Sir Fitzroy. A Concise History Of Scotland (1970,
1988); Prebble, John. The Lion In The North (1971, 1973); Sadler, John.
Scottish Battles (1998); Smout, T.C. A History Of The Scottish People,
1560-1830 (1969, 1998); Traquair, Peter. Freedom's Sword: Scotland's
Wars Of
Independence (1998); Warner, Philip. Famous Scottish Battles (1975,
1996).
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