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A
DETAILED account of the
causes which led to the Civil War in the time of
Charles I. would be beyond the scope of this work. The
ill-advised scheme of establishing Episcopacy in
Scotland, which, so far as Scotland was concerned, was
the main cause of the troubles, had, even before the
Union of the Crowns, been a favourite project of James
VI., who was of opinion that "a Scottish Presbytery
agreeth as well with a monarchy as God with the
devil." So long as the seat of monarchy remained at
Edinburgh it was hopeless for any Scots sovereign to
force a great religious change upon an unwilling
people. The increase of power and independence which
came with the accession to the English throne put the
King in a very different position. In i6o6 the
Scottish bishops were restored, with seats in
Parliament. In i6i8 the famous Five Articles of Perth
were passed in a General Assembly held there. By these
certain forms of Episcopal worship were introduced.
They were harmless enough from the modern point of
view, but at the time they aroused deep and bitter
feeling throughout the country. [The Five Articles
sanctioned - (1) Kneeling at Communion; (2)
administration of Communion to the sick in their own
houses; (3) private baptism; (4) confirmation of
children; and (5) observance of the festivals of
Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, and
Pentecost.] An ecclesiastical Court of High Commission
was established, and in 1621 the Five Articles were
ratified by the Estates, a majority being obtained
with the utmost difficulty.
James
VI. died in 1625. Charles I. inherited his purposes,
but set about their realisation in a stern and
resolute temper very different from his father’s. What
to James had been matter of policy was to Charles
matter of conscience. His course of action soon
brought matters to a serious crisis. One of his first
acts was the resumption, by an act of prerogative, of
the Church revenues which had been granted away by the
Crown since the Reformation. [See, for an account of
the exceedingly important transactions with regard to
ecclesiastical property at this time, Hill Burton’s
History of Scotland, vol. vi., pp. 75-85.] These
were chiefly held by the higher nobility, and the
result of the King’s act was to create bitter
hostility to the Crown on the part of many of the
great nobles, and to array them on the side of the
popular party in the Church. The King’s visit to
Scotland in 1633 brought further matter of offence.
Serious allegations were made that he had tampered
with the constitutional powers of the Estates. The
appointment of Laud as Archbishop of Canterbury gave
the King as his chief adviser an ecclesiastical
statesman who was little disposed to compromise, and
who, as it proved, knew nothing of the temper of the
Scottish people. In 1636 the Episcopalian Book of
Canons was promulgated by royal authority. In the
following year the Service Book was issued. The
attempt to enforce its use caused the long-gathering
storm to break.
The new
liturgy was used for the first time in St. Giles’s
Cathedral, Edinburgh, on Sunday, July 23, 1637.
The riot which took place in the church, of which
Jenny Geddes is the traditional heroine, is one of the
best known incidents in Scottish history. Similar
riots took place all over the country, and these were
only the beginning of an agitation which soon became a
great national movement. The popular party was known
as the Supplicants, and assumed throughout an attitude
of scrupulous humility. The Government was obdurate;
the King and his advisers seem to have entirely
misjudged the strength and character of the
opposition. In the winter of 1637 was formed the
committee known as the Tables, which was recognised by
the Privy Council as representing the whole body of
the Supplicants, and which soon became a power in the
State co-ordinate with the Council itself. The Tables
were four in number, representing respectively the
nobles, the lesser barons, the burghs, and the
ministers. Each Table consisted of four persons. A
member of the Table of nobility was the young Earl of
Montrose.
In
February 1638 the National Covenant was signed. This
famous document was in the form of a renewal of the
Covenant which had been signed in the early days of
Protestantism, with additions relative to the new
dangers which threatened Church and State. It was
scrupulously loyal in its language, but very explicit
with regard to the great question of the hour. "We
promise and swear," said the signatories, "by the
great name of the Lord our God, to continue in the
profession and obedience of the said religion; and
that we shall defend the same and resist all those
contrary errors and corruptions, according to our
vocation, and to the utmost of that power which God
hath put into our hands all the days of our life."
The
project of renewing the Covenant is commonly
attributed to Archibald Johnston of Warriston. It was
an admirably devised and entirely successful plan for
uniting and organising the anti-prelatical party
throughout the kingdom. In the Greyfriars Churchyard
at Edinburgh, on February 28, 1638, the Covenant was
subscribed by a vast crowd amid a scene of wild
enthusiasm. Copies were sent all over the country.
Every effort was used to obtain signatures; both
persuasion and coercion were freely employed and
thousands of names were adhibited. Henceforth the
popular party was known by the historic name of
Covenanters, and came to be identified not only with
the cause of Presbyterianism as against Episcopacy,
but with the cause of national independence as against
English aggression.
In the
summer of 1638
the Marquis of Hamilton came down
from London as Commissioner from the King to deal with
the Covenanters. He had the widest powers. His
confidential instructions were to gain time by every
possible means, until the King should be in a position
to suppress the Covenanters by force.
The demands of
the Covenanters were explicit enough. They included
the abolition of the Court of High Commission, the
withdrawal of the obnoxious Book of Canons and
Liturgy, a free Parliament, and a free General
Assembly. It was well understood that Parliament and
the Assembly would probably make a clean sweep of
Episcopacy, and Hamilton tried in vain to obtain from
the Covenanting leaders a guarantee that in the event
of their meeting they should not go beyond certain
limits. At length, after much temporising, and various
journeyings between London and Edinburgh on the part
of the High Commissioner, an entire surrender was
announced. The Service Book, the Book of Canons, and
the High Commission were revoked. A meeting of
Assembly was proclaimed for November 21, and
Parliament was to be summoned in the following May.
By this time,
however, it was clear that sooner or later matters
must come to the arbitrament of the sword. The
Covenanters were quietly making preparations for war.
Early in the year the nucleus of a war-chest was
raised by subscription, the list of subscribers being
headed by Montrose. Arrangements were made for the
collection throughout the country of a "voluntary"
contribution, which seems to have been as rigidly
exacted as any tax. Large quantities of arms were
purchased in Holland. Scots officers trained in the
Thirty Years’ War were unobtrusively brought over from
the Continent. The great stronghold of the Royalist
party was in Aberdeenshire, and by far the most
powerful of the King’s adherents was the "Cock of the
North," George, Marquis of Huntly, chief of the great
house of Gordon. An attempt was made to gain him over.
Colonel Robert Monro, the original of Scott’s Dugald
Dalgetty, was sent to Strathbogie with tempting
offers, including a promise to pay off the Marquis’s
debts, which amounted to about £100,000 sterling.
Huntly’s answer uncompromisingly expressed the spirit
of Cavalier loyalty. "His family," he said, had risen
and stood by the Kings of Scotland, arid for his part,
if the event proved the ruin of this King, he was
resolved to lay his life, honours and estate under the
rubbish of the King’s ruins."
On November 21,
1638, the General Assembly met in Glasgow Cathedral.
The Marquis of Hamilton was present as Commissioner;
Alexander Henderson was chosen Moderator, and Johnston
of Warriston Clerk of Assembly. The elections had been
worked by the Tables so as to produce a thoroughly
Covenanting Assembly. Everybody knew what its main
business was to be—the trial of the bishops. The first
few days were occupied in formal and preliminary
business. On the seventh day of meeting it was
formally decided that the bishops were amenable to the
jurisdiction of the Assembly. Thereupon the
Commissioner, in the King’s name, declared the
Assembly dissolved, and on the following day its
further meeting was discharged by proclamation under
pain of treason.
The Assembly proceeded with its
business. The bishops were tried and deposed on
various grounds ;
six of them, together with
the two archbishops, were excommunicated. The whole
fabric of Episcopacy, Service Book, Book of Canons,
Articles of Perth and all, was demolished, and the
Episcopal office was declared to be for ever
abrogated. The Assembly rose on December 20.
"We
have now," said the Moderator,
"cast down the walls of Jericho;
let him that rebuildeth them
beware of the curse of Hiel the Bethelite."
The Covenanters
had now openly defied the royal authority, and war was
inevitable.
The great
struggle was to take place in England, but it was in
the north of Scotland that the first blow was struck.
Aberdeenshire was, as we have seen, the main
stronghold of the Royalist party, and there efforts to
gain adherents to the Covenant had met with little
success. In prospect of a more serious conflict in the
south, the Covenanting leaders determined first to get
rid of the enemy in their rear, and for this purpose
an army of some three or four thousand men was
organised under the Earl of Montrose.
James Graham,
Earl and afterwards Marquis of Montrose, head of the
house of Graham, was at this time a young man of
seven-and-twenty. He was a man of unbounded energy and
ambition; his mental powers had been trained by
education at the University of St. Andrews and by
foreign travel; and, as was soon to appear, he
possessed in the highest degree the qualities of a
leader of irregular troops—personal courage, dash,
resourcefulness in emergency, and unfailing constancy
in misfortune. Cardinal de Retz said of him that more
nearly than any man of his age he resembled one of the
heroes of antiquity. He seems to have possessed a
marvellous personal magnetism. Patrick Gordon of
Ruthven says of him that "he was so affable, so
courteous, so benign, as seemed verily to scorne
ostentation and the keeping of state, and therefore he
quickly made a conquest of the hearts of all his
followers, so as when he list he could have led them
in a chain to have followed him with cheerfulness in
all his enterprises; and I am certainly persuaded that
this his gracious, humane, and courteous freedom of
behaviour . . . was it that won him so much renowne
and enabled him chiefly, in the love of his followers,
to go through so great enterprises." His early
association with the Covenanters is attributed to his
having met with an unexpectedly cold reception from
the King on his return from his travels. Be this as it
may, we find him in the spring of 1639 at the head of
the Covenanting army destined for the North.
Having been
joined by General Alexander Leslie, the veteran of the
Thirty Years’ War, who acted as his military adviser,
Montrose marched on Aberdeen. His army was excellently
equipped and organised, "weill armed," says Spalding,
"both on horse and foot, ilk horseman having
five shot at the least, with ane carabine in his hand,
two pistols by his sides, and the other two at his
saddell toir; the pikemen in their ranks, with pike
and sword; the musketeers in their ranks, with musket,
musketstaff, bandelier, sword, powder, ball, and
match. Ilk company, both on horse and foot, had their
captains, lieutenants, ensigns, sergeants, and other
officers and commanders, all for the most part in
buffle coats and goodly order."
On the approach
of the Covenanting army Aberdeen was abandoned by the
Marquis of Huntly, and Montrose entered the town
peaceably on March 30. At Aberdeen his army was
augmented by the accession of 500 Campbells, whom
Argyll had sent from the west, and of many Frasers,
Keiths, and others, who joined him rather out of
hatred to the Gordons than from any love of the
Covenant. Leaving a strong garrison in Aberdeen, he
marched northward against Huntly. Huntly, however,
opened negotiations, and was ultimately induced to
come to Aberdeen, where he was made a prisoner and
sent to Edinburgh. There the strongest pressure was
brought to bear on him to sign the Covenant, but he
remained steadfast in his loyalty. "For my own part,"
said he "I am in your power, and resolved not to leave
that foul title of traitor as an inheritance upon my
posterity. You may take my head from my shoulders, but
not my heart from my sovereign."
The main body of
the Covenanting army marched southward in April. In
the following month the first blood was drawn in the
civil war. A body of some 2000 Covenanters assembled
at Turriff on May 13. There they were attacked by a
force of the Gordons, with four field-guns. The
Covenanters were defeated and driven out of the town.
This was the affair known as the "Trot of Turray." The
victors marched on Aberdeen, and entered it on May 15.
A few days later they disbanded their army. The chiefs
remained in Aberdeen until they were driven out by the
advent of the Earl Marischal, who entered the town on
May 23. Two days later he was joined by Montrose with
4000 men.
After some
operations against the castles of some of the
Aberdeenshire Royalists, Montrose again retired to the
south, and in June Aberdeen was once more occupied by
the Royalists under Lord Aboyne. On June 14 they
advanced upon Stonehaven. They camped for the night at
Muchalls, and on the following day were attacked and
defeated by the Earl Marischal and Montrose, who had
marched north to meet them. They fell back on
Aberdeen. Montrose followed them up, forced the Bridge
of Dee, and again entered Aberdeen in triumph. Next
day hostilities were brought to an end by the news of
the Pacification of Berwick.
While these
events were taking place in the north, preparations
for war on a much larger scale were going on in the
Lowlands. On February 27 the King, determined to
reduce his rebellious subjects to obedience, issued
the Commission of Array, calling upon the feudal force
of England to assemble at York. In Scotland the royal
fortresses were seized by the Tables, and an army of
over 22,000
men, well organised and equipped, was assembled at
Edinburgh. On May 21 it began its march towards the
Border under the command of that "little old crooked
soldier," Alexander Leslie. The army was accompanied
by a contingent of Argyll’s Highlanders. These
"uncanny trewsmen "—the phrase is Robert Baillie’s
[The letters of the Rev. Robert Baillie, afterwards
Principal of the University of Glasgow, form one of
the most valuable sources of information as to the
military and political events of the time.]—seem to
have been a source of considerable anxiety to their
friends. It is curious to note that Highland troops
should have made their first appearance on the Borders
as the allies of the Covenant.
The two armies
never came to blows. The Scots encamped on Duns Law.
The King was on the other side of the Tweed.
Negotiations were opened, which resulted in the
Pacification of Berwick. It was agreed that the royal
fortresses were to be restored, and the questions at
issue were to be left to the arrangement of a free
General Assembly and a free meeting of the Estates.
The Pacification
of Berwick merely postponed hostilities. From the
first each party accused the other of bad faith. War
broke out again in the following summer. In July the
Scots army was again assembled for the invasion of
England, and on August
28, 1640, the battle of
Newburn was fought.
During
the next four years there was no important fighting in
the north. In Scotland the Covenant was supreme. What
restlessness there was among the Aberdeenshire
Royalists was suppressed by a force under General
Monro. In the summer of 1640 Argyll, acting under a
"Commission of Fire and Sword" from the Estates,
ravaged the lands of his feudal enemies in the central
Highlands and in Angus. It was during this ferocious
raid that there took place that destruction of Airlie
Castle, which forms the subject of the ballad of the
"Bonnie House of Airlie."
The
Long Parliament met in November 1640. In the autumn of
1641 the King visited Scotland, and was present at a
meeting of the Estates, at which, in outward form, all
was harmony; the troubles were brought to an end, and
honours and offices were lavished on the Covenanting
leaders. On Charles’s return to London he found his
difficulties with the English Parliament thickening
fast. On August 25, 1642, the Royal Standard was
raised at Nottingham and the great English Civil War
began.
At
first things went badly for the Parliamentary cause,
and every endeavour was made by its leaders to secure
the help of Scotland against the King. In 1643 the
Solemn League and Covenant was signed. It was followed
by the march of a Scots army into England, again
commanded by Sir Alexander Leslie, now Earl of Leven,
who had as his major-general his more famous nephew,
David Leslie. On July 3, 1644, the combined armies
decisively defeated the King at Marston Moor.
Long
before this Montrose had severed his connection with
the Covenant, and had cast in his lot with the King.
Immediately after the raising of the Royal Standard at
Nottingham, Charles had written to him asking for his
advice and assistance. Now that the English
Parliamentary party had secured the co-operation of
the forces of the Covenant, the King was sorely
overmatched. If the Scottish army could be compelled
to recross the Border, the conditions would be again
equalised. Montrose knew the Highlanders thoroughly.
They were unaccustomed to discipline; they owned no
allegiance except to their own chiefs; it was hopeless
for any ordinary general to attempt to handle them as
a regular army: but Montrose well knew how formidable
a force they might be under a leader who could secure
their confidence and who knew how to manage them. He
believed that he was himself such a leader, and, as
the result proved, his belief was entirely justified.
He conceived the idea of marching into Scotland with a
force which was strong enough to make its way to the
Highlands, and which might there form the nucleus of
an army to be composed of the loyal clans and certain
Irish supports which had been promised by the Earl of
Antrim.
Montrose received from the King a commission, dated
February 1, 1644, by which he was appointed Lieutenant
- General of the royal forces in Scotland. He found
himself, however, unable to obtain a body of troops
sufficient to force his way to the Highlands as he had
designed. He accordingly resolved to find his way
through the enemy’s country in disguise, a
characteristic beginning of the brilliant and daring
enterprise which has immortalised his name, and
thoroughly in accordance with the character of the
leader who was ever ready to stake all upon a single
cast.
The
companions of his perilous journey were Major,
afterwards Sir William, Rollo and Colonel Sibbald.
Montrose passed as their servant. On August 22 the
party reached the house of Tullibelton, near Dunkeld,
which belonged to Montrose’s kinsman, Graham of
Inchbrakie.
There
he lay for some time in hiding, and sent out
messengers to collect intelligence as to the state of
the royal cause in the country. They returned with the
worst news. Under the stern rule of Argyll and the
Committee of Estates, the King’s adherents had been
thoroughly cowed. The enterprise seemed hopeless.
At last
news came that the promised Irish succour had landed.
Instead of the 10,000 men who were expected, a force
of some 1500, commanded by Alastair Macdonald (called
Colkitto, "the left-handed,") had reached the Hebrides
in July, and had subsequently landed in Knoydart. They
had found little support among the western clans.
Montrose succeeded in communicating with Colkitto, and
directed him to march with all despatch into Atholl.
They met at Blair, and there the standard was joined
by some 800 of the Atholl men, chiefly Stewarts and
Robertsons.
Montrose was now at the head of some 3000 men.
Promptitude of action was everything. Argyll, who had
assembled a force to attack Colkitto, was approaching
from the west. Montrose at once determined to strike a
blow at Perth before Argyll could come up. He
accordingly marched southward and crossed the Tay.
Perth
was defended by a force of 6000 foot and 700 horse,
with four guns, the whole commanded by Lord Elcho.
Montrose was thus vastly outnumbered; he had neither
cavalry nor artillery; and not a few of his men had no
better arms than the stones which they picked up on
the battle-field.
The
armies met on the 1st of September at Tippermuir,
between four and five miles to the west of Perth. The
right wing of the Covenanters was commanded by Elcho;
the left by Sir James Scott, and the centre by the
Earl of Tullibardine. Montrose drew up his men three
deep, with as long a front as possible. An attack by a
party of Elcho’s horse, under Lord Drummond, was
easily beaten off. Then Montrose’s line
advanced to the attack. It was made in the traditional
Highland manner, which was so often to prove
successful against regular troops. The assailants
advanced to within short range; then such of them as
had muskets fired a volley; then they rushed in and
attacked with the broadsword; The peaceable burghers
of whom the Covenanting army was largely composed had
little chance in a hand-to-hand conflict with savage
mountaineers. They broke and fled in utter rout. The
Rev. John Robertson, one of the ministers of Perth,
describes the sorry plight of some of the citizens who
reached the town, "all forefainted and bursted with
running, insomuch that nine or ten died that night in
town without any wound." "The Provost came into one
house," he says, "where there were a number lying
panting, and desired them to rise for their own
defence: They answered—their hearts were away—they
would fight no more although they should be killed."
The number of killed on the Covenanting side is
variously stated; Wishart, Montrose’s chaplain and
chronicler, gives it as 2000. On the same day Montrose
entered Perth as a victor. There he was able to
provide his army with clothing, abundance of arms and
ammunition, and six pieces of cannon.
At the
head of "a pack of naked runagates," as Baillie calls
them, Montrose had now defeated an immensely superior
force in the field, and had captured one of the chief
towns of the kingdom. It was no part of his policy to
remain there. After a victory a Highland army always
began to melt away, the men returning homewards to
secure their plunder and save their harvest. In any
case an open town could not be defended against a
regular siege by Argyll’s army. Elcho had retreated to
Aberdeen, and Montrose resolved to follow him up.
He
marched northwards through Angus and the Mearns, being
joined on the way by the old Earl of Airlie and a
considerable force of the Ogilvies and their friends.
On reaching the Dee he made no attempt to force the
bridge at Aberdeen, but marched up the right bank of
the river and forded it at the Mills of Drum. On the
night of September 11 he camped at Crathes. On the
13th the Covenanters marched out of Aberdeen to meet
him. Their force, which was commanded by Lord Balfour
of Burleigh, consisted of some 2000 foot and 500
horse. Montrose had about 1500 foot and only 44
mounted men. The armies met a little to the west of
the city, "between the Craibstane and the Justice
Mills," where the Hardgate now runs. After a four
hours’ engagement the Covenanters broke and fled.
Montrose’s Irish troops behaved with great spirit in
action, but after the battle they seem to have got
badly out of hand, and horrible atrocities were
committed by them in Aberdeen. "The men that they
killed," says Spalding, "they would not suffer to be
buried, but tirred (stripped) them of their clothes,
syne left their naked bodies lying above the ground.
The wife durst not cry or weep at her husband’s
slaughter before her eyes, nor the mother for the son,
nor daughter for the father, which if they were heard
then they were presently slain also. Nothing," he
says, "was heard but pitiful howling, crying, weeping,
mourning through all the streets."
Montrose left Aberdeen on September 16. He had hoped
for a large accession of strength in the Gordon
country, but found himself disappointed in this,
apparently through the personal jealousy of the
Marquis of Huntly. With the force at his command he
could not meet Argyll’s army in the field, so during
the following weeks we find him moving rapidly from
place to place in the Highlands, on Speyside, in
Badenoch, in Atholl, down in Angus, and again up in
Aberdeenshire. Argyll had marched northward from Perth
on September 14 with a force of some 3000 foot and two
regular cavalry regiments, besides ten troops of
horse. After following Montrose all over the country
he came up with him at Fyvie on October 28.
Notwithstanding the great disparity of’ forces
Montrose gave him battle. Argyll was repulsed, and
allowed Montrose to retreat into Strathbogie. He
himself returned to Edinburgh, "where," says Spalding,
"he got but small thanks for his service against
Montrose." Thence he withdrew to his castle at
Inverary.
Montrose again marched down through Badenoch into the
Atholl country. Notwithstanding his military successes
his prospects did not seem very cheering. He had not
succeeded in raising anything like the force he
expected from among the clans, and many of his Lowland
officers had left him. Old Lord Airlie and his two
sons alone remained faithful throughout. A descent
upon the Lowlands was thought of and abandoned. Then
was conceived the most daring and brilliant operation
of the whole campaign—one of the most daring in all
military history. This was to attack Argyll in his own
impregnable fortress of Inverary. A blow struck there
would shake the Covenanting power to its very
foundation, and would gather to the royal standard the
many enemies of the well-hated race of Campbell. A
forced march in mid-winter over the Argyllshire
mountains was only possible to such an army as
Montrose’s. It was effected with startling rapidity.
Montrose passed like a meteor from Blair Atholl along
Loch Tay, through Breadalbane and Glenorchy, ravaging
the Campbell lands as he went. Argyll fancied himself
absolutely secure, believing as he did that Inverary
was quite inaccessible to an army from the east. He
was rudely undeceived. Early in December some
shepherds arrived from the hills with the news that
Montrose was close at their heels. Argyll had just
time to save his own skin. He escaped by sea to
Roseneath. For six weeks, till near the end of January
1645, Montrose’s troops pillaged the Campbell country
at their pleasure.
His
next move was to march northward by Glencoe and
Lochaber, with the object of attacking Inverness,
which was held by a Covenanting force under Seaforth.
By this time he had been joined by many of the western
chiefs. At Kilcummin, now Fort Augustus, on January 29
and 30, a bond promising support to the royal cause
was subscribed by the chiefs present. Among the
signatures appear those of Maclean of Duart, Maclean
of Lochbuy, Macdonald of Keppoch, Macdonald younger of
Glengarry, the Captain of Clanranald, the Tutor of
Struan, the Tutor of Lochiel, the Macgregor, the
Macpherson, and Stewart younger of Appin. It was
immediately after the signature of this bond that the
news reached Kilcummin that Argyll was again on
Montrose’s track at the head of some 3000 men, partly
his own clansmen and partly some of the troops which
had been recalled from England. With these he was
ravaging Lochaber. Montrose’s resolution was at once
taken. He made one of his astonishing forced marches
over Corryarrack, and down Glen Roy, and on the
morning of February 2 swooped on Argyll at Inverlochy.
We have
Montrose’s own account of this famous march and fight,
written to the King the day after the batttle:-
"My march was
through inaccessible mountains," he says, "where I
could have no guides but cowherds, and they scarce
acquainted with a place but six miles from their own
habitations. If I had been attacked with but one
hundred men in some of these passes I must have
certainly returned back, for it would have been
impossible to force my way, most of the passes being
so strait that three men could not march abreast. I
was willing to let the world see that Argyle was not
the man his Highlandmen believed him to be, and that
it was possible to beat him in his own Highlands.
"The
difficultest march of all was over the Lochaber
mountains, which we at last surmounted, and came upon
the back of the enemy when they least expected us,
having cut off some scouts we met about four miles
from Inverlochy. Our van came within view of them
about five o’clock in the afternoon, and we made a
halt till our rear was got up, which could not be done
till eight at night. The rebels took the alarm and
stood to their arms, as well as we, all night, which
was moonlight and very clear. There were some few
skirmishes between the rebels and us all the night,
and with no loss on our side but one man. By break of
day I ordered my men to be ready to fall on upon the
first signal, and I understand since, by the
prisoners, the rebels did the same. A little after the
sun was up both armies met, and the rebels fought for
some time with great bravery, the prime of the
Campbells giving the first onset, as men that deserved
to fight in a better cause. Our men having a nobler
cause did wonders, and came immediately to push of
pike and dint of sword after their first firing. The
rebels could not stand it, but after some resistance
at first began to run, whom we pursued for nine miles
together, making a great slaughter, which I would have
hindered if possible, that I might save your Majesty’s
misled subjects. For well I know your Majesty does not
delight in their blood, but in their returning to
their duty. There were at least fifteen hundred killed
in the battle and the pursuit, among whom there are a
great many of the most considerable gentlemen of the
name of Campbell, and some of them nearly related to
the Earl. I have saved and taken prisoners several of
them, that have acknowledged to me their fault and lay
all the blame on their chief. Some gentlemen of the
Lowlands that had behaved themselves bravely in the
battle, when they saw all lost fled into the old
castle, and upon their surrender I have treated them
honourably and taken their parole never to bear arms
against your Majesty. . . . We have of your Majesty’s
army about two hundred wounded, but I hope few of them
dangerously. I can hear but of four killed, and one
whom I cannot name to Your Majesty but with grief of
mind—Sir Thomas Ogilvy, a son of the Earl of Airlie,
of whom I writ to your Majesty in my last. He is not
yet dead, but they say he cannot possibly live, and we
give him over for dead. Your Majesty never had a truer
servant, nor there never was a braver, honester
gentleman."
The defeat at
Inverlochy was a crushing blow to the Covenanters. The
power of the Campbells was humbled to the dust. From
the safe refuge of a boat on Loch Fyne Argyll had
witnessed the rout of his army and the slaughter of
his kinsmen. Montrose thought that he would shortly
have Scotland at his feet, and that he would ere long
cross the Border at the head of a victorious army. "I
am in the fairest hopes," he writes to Charles, "of
reducing this kingdom to your Majesty’s obedience. And
if the measures I have concerted with your other loyal
subjects fail me not, which they hardly can, I doubt
not before the end of this summer I shall be able to
come to your Majesty’s assistance with a brave army,
which, backed with the justice of your Majesty’s
cause, will make the rebels in England, as well as in
Scotland, feel the just rewards of rebellion. Only
give me leave, after I have reduced this country to
your Majesty’s obedience, and conquered from Dan to
Beersheba, to say to your Majesty then, as David’s
General did to his master, ‘Come thou thyself lest
this country be called by my name.’"
Montrose did not
rest upon his laurels. After his victory he again
marched northward, up what is now the line of the
Caledonian Canal. The Covenanting army at Inverness
melted away at his approach. On February 19 he reached
Elgin. Here he received a welcome accession of
strength; he was joined by a force of the Gordons
under Lord Gordon, Huntly’s eldest son, and Lord Lewis
Gordon.
His object now
was to strike at the Lowlands. The road to the south
was blocked by a force of the troops who had been
recalled from England, commanded by General William
Baillie of Letham, an old soldier of Gustavus
Adolphus’s, and a much more formidable antagonist than
the amateur commanders whom as yet Montrose had had
opposed to him. There was also a force of some 600
horse under Sir John Hurry, a soldier of fortune who
changed sides four times during the troubles.
From Elgin,
Montrose marched by Huntly and Kintore to Stonehaven,
plundering the lands of the north-country Covenanters
as he went. Near Fettercairn he came into touch with
Hurry’s cavalry, who retreated before him. Baillie
well knew the peculiar weakness of a Highland army. He
determined to avoid an engagement as long as possible,
knowing that every day of waiting and manoeuvring
would weaken his enemy by desertions. Wishart tells a
characteristic story of the two commanders. The armies
had come face to face with each other at Coupar-Angus,
on opposite banks of the Isla. Neither could cross the
river without serious loss if the passage was
disputed. Montrose, in the spirit of old-world
chivalry, sent Baillie a challenge by a trumpeter. He
asked permission to cross the river unopposed, or if
the Covenanting general preferred he might himself
cross to Montrose’s side, if he would pledge his
honour to fight without further delay. The old
campaigner drily replied "that he would mind his own
business himself, and would fight at his own pleasure,
and not at another man’s commands."
At last Baillie
retired towards Fife, without ever having come to an
action. Montrose marched westward and occupied Dunkeld.
The way to the south was now open, but Baillie’s
Fabian policy had succeeded. Montrose’s army had
melted down to some 800 men. With such a force it was
out of the question to invade the Lowlands. Montrose’s
information was that the whole of Baillie’s force was
now on the west side of the Tay. He determined to make
a dash on Dundee. Early in the morning of April 3 he
started from Dunkeld. Dundee was reached next day, and
occupied with little resistance. Montrose, however,
had been misinformed as to Baillie’s movements, and he
just escaped irreparable disaster. His men had
scattered through the town in quest of drink and
plunder, when news came that Baillie and Hurry, with
3000 foot and 800 horse, were within a mile of the
town. Montrose managed to collect his troops—a notable
example of his personal power of command—and escaped
from the east gate of the town just in time. Baillie
followed close at his heels during the night, hoping
to corner him against the sea at Arbroath. Montrose,
however, doubled back, slipped round Baillie’s rear,
crossed the South Esk at Careston Castle at sunrise,
and succeeded in reaching the Grampians. It was a
wonderful achievement; the men had been marching and
fighting for three days and two nights without food or
sleep, and were half dead with hunger and fatigue.
Wishart says that he often "heard officers of
experience and distinction, not in Britain only, but
also in Germany and France, prefer this march of
Montrose to his most famous victories."
As we have seen,
Montrose’s army had dwindled to a mere handful. Lord
Lewis Gordon, always untrustworthy, had deserted, and
had taken many of the Gordons with him. There was
nothing to be done but to retire again to the North
and endeavour once more to build up an army. Baillie
was watching the Highlands from Perth, and Hurry had
gone north to Inverness to collect forces for an
attack on the Gordons. Lord Gordon had gone home to
his own country to raise further levies, and, if
possible, to bring back the men who had been carried
off by Lord Lewis.
After picking up
some recruits in Perthshire, Montrose found his way
into the Mar country. There he met Lord Gordon at the
head of 1000 foot and 200 horse. He had already been
joined by Lord Aboyne, who, with a few horsemen, had
escaped from beleaguered Carlisle. By a daring raid on
Aberdeen Aboyne secured a much-needed supply of
gunpowder. Then it was decided to attack Hurry.
Montrose marched
over the hills by the route which is now followed by
the road from Cocksbridge to Tomintoul, and then down
Strathspey. Hurry advanced from Inverness to meet him.
Near Elgin the armies came into touch. Hurry retired
on Inverness, closely followed by Montrose. At
Inverness the Covenanting army received a large
accession of strength, being joined by the Earl of
Seaforth, who had again changed sides, the Earl of
Sutherland, and a force of the Frasers. This placed
Hurry at the head of nearly 4000 men, of whom 400 were
cavalry. Montrose’s force did not amount to more than
1500 foot and 250 horse, the latter consisting chiefly
of the Gordons. Hurry turned upon his enemy, secure of
victory. On the evening of May 8 Montrose reached the
village of Auldearn, on the road between Forres and
Nairn, some two miles east of the latter. Here he was
attacked by Hurry on the following morning.
Montrose took up
his position along the ridge crowned by the village of
Auldearn, at right angles to Hurry’s line of advance.
The village itself was the centre of his position. It
was only occupied by a handful of men, enough to lead
the assailants to believe that it was held in force.
Alastair Macdonald with 400 Irish was posted on the
right, in a position strongly defended by dykes and
ditches. Montrose himself was on the left, behind the
ridge, with the remainder of the infantry and the
whole of the cavalry, the latter under Lord Gordon.
Hurry’s right wing was commanded by Campbell of Lawers,
his left by Captain Drummond; he himself remained in
the rear in command of the reserves.
The royal
standard had been entrusted to Macdonald, with the
object of causing Hurry to believe that Montrose
himself was stationed on the right, and if possible of
inducing him to make his main attack there. The ruse
was successful. Hurry sent the bulk of his force to
attack the Irish. Macdonald in an evil moment allowed
himself to be drawn from his strong position, and
narrowly escaped disaster, though
he himself performed
Homeric feats of personal prowess. "Some of the
pikemen," says Wishart, "by whom he was hard pressed
again and again pierced his target with the points of
their weapons, which he mowed off with his broadsword
by threes and fours at a sweep." News was sent to
Montrose that the right wing was routed. Wishart
describes what followed. "To prevent a panic among his
men at the bad news, with admirable presence of mind
he (Montrose) at once called out, ‘Come, my Lord
Gordon, what are we waiting for? Our friend Macdonald
on the right has routed the enemy and is slaughtering
the fugitives. Shall we look on idly and let him carry
off all the honours of the day?" With these words he
hurled his line upon the enemy. The shock of the
Gordons was irresistible. After a brief struggle
Hurry’s horse wavered, recoiled, wheeled, and fled,
leaving their own flanks naked and exposed. Though
deserted by the horse, the infantry, being superior in
numbers and much better armed, stood their ground
bravely until Montrose came to close quarters and
forced them to fling down their arms and save
themselves by flight." Having thus disposed of Hurry’s
right wing, Montrose turned upon those who were
assailing Macdonald’s position. "The horse fled
headlong, but the foot, mostly veterans from Ireland,
fought on doggedly, and fell man by man almost where
they stood." The victory was complete. The Covenanters
were pursued for miles with tremendous slaughter. The
whole of their colours, baggage, and ammunition were
captured by the Royalists.
A week
before the battle of Auldearn, Baillie, whom we left
at Perth, had broken into the Atholl country, where
Blair Castle was held for the King. On hearing of the
battle he marched northward, and at Strathbogie was
joined by Hurry with the remains of his defeated army.
Montrose, weakened by the desertion of many of his
Highlanders, was in no haste to fight, and withdrew up
Strathspey into Badenoch. Lord Lindsay was collecting
a force in Forfarshire with the object of advancing
against Montrose from the south. An attempt on
Montrose’s part to attack him was frustrated by the
desertion of the bulk of the Gordon horse. Montrose
retired into Strathdon, and took up his position at
Corgarff Castle, there to await events.
By the
end of June he was once more in a position to fight.
Lord Gordon and Colonel Nathaniel Gordon had succeeded
in bringing back most of the Gordons, and Alastair
Macdonald had brought in more men from the Highland
glens. Montrose was at the head of some 2000 men.
Baillie, on the other hand, had been seriously
weakened by the transfer to Lindsay’s force of over
1000 of his best men, in exchange for 400 recruits. He
was still in the North, where he had been ordered by
the Estates to lay waste Huntly’s country.
Montrose accordingly endeavoured to bring Baillie to
an engagement at Keith. Baillie, who occupied a strong
position there, was not to be drawn. Montrose retired
south towards the Don. Baillie had to follow him or
leave the road to the Lowlands open. Montrose crossed
the Don at Alford and took up his position on a ridge
of high ground to the south of the river. There
Baillie attacked him on July 2.
The
forces were nearly equal in respect of numbers; the
Covenanters had rather the best of it in cavalry.
Montrose’s force was drawn up along the crest of the
ridge with the cavalry on the flanks, under Lord
Gordon and Aboyne. Part of the force was concealed
behind the ridge. Baillie forded the Don about half a
mile in front of Montrose’s centre, crossed a piece of
boggy ground near the river-side, and advanced up the
slope of the hill to the attack. He was not waited
for. The horse on Montrose’s right wing, headed by
Lord Gordon and supported by a body of Irish
musketeers, charged his cavalry and drove it back in
confusion. Then the main body rushed down and fell on
with the claymore. The Covenanting infantry made a
brave stand, but soon they too broke and fled.
Montrose had won another decisive victory. Young Lord
Gordon was struck down in the moment of victory by a
shot from one of the fugitives. His death was a
terrible loss to the army and to the royal cause in
Scotland. "Montrose," says Wishart, "could not
restrain his grief, but mourned bitterly as for his
dearest and only friend."
The
victory at Alford cleared Montrose’s way to the south.
Six days after the battle the Covenanting Parliament
met at Stirling and resolved to levy a new army from
the Lowland counties. It was to assemble at Perth on
July 24. The unlucky Baillie, foreseeing certain
disaster, twice tendered his resignation, but it was
not accepted, and to make matters worse he was
subjected to the control of a military committee whose
members could not even agree among themselves.
Montrose in the meantime was receiving great
accessions of strength. The news of his victory and
the prospect of a descent on the Lowlands brought
crowds of clansmen to his standard—Macleans from the
west, Macdonalds of Clanranald and Glengarry,
Macgregors, Macnabs, Macphersons from Badenoch,
Farquharsons from Braemar, and a contingent of Atholl
men under Patrick Graham of Inchbrakie. Towards the
end of July he marched south from Fordoun, where he
had awaited his reinforcements, and appeared in the
neighbourhood of Perth. He was still expecting further
reinforcements and had no desire to fight a serious
battle just yet. A few skirmishes took place, in which
the Covenanters always had the worst of it. Early in
August he was joined at Dunkeld by a strong force of
the Gordons, and by eighty horsemen of the Ogilvies
under the brave and ever loyal old Earl of Airlie. All
was now ready for the advance into the Lowlands.
Montrose marched down through Kinross, descended the
vale of the Devon, destroyed Argyll’s castle of Castle
Campbell near Dollar, and crossed the Forth at the
Fords of Frew. On August 14 he reached Kilsyth.
Baillie
had to follow him. He crossed the Forth at Stirling
Bridge, and on the night of the 14th he camped at
Hollinbush, about two and a half miles east of
Montrose’s position. According to Wishart his force
consisted of 6000 foot and 800 horse, while Montrose
had 4400 foot and 800 horse. The Covenanting force,
however, consisted of hastily raised and untrained
levies, mostly Fifeshire men who could with great
difficulty be persuaded to serve out of their own
shire, and their commander was sorely hampered by the
Committee which had been set over him, and which
included among its members Argyll, whom Montrose had
beaten at Inverlochy, Elcho, whom he had beaten at
Tippermuir, and Balfour of Burleigh, whom he had
beaten at Aberdeen.
The
Committee imagined that Montrose was anxious to avoid
an engagement. Exactly the reverse was the case. A
Covenanting force of 1500 men had been raised in
Clydesdale by the Earl of Lanark; they were
approaching from the west, and were now within 12
miles of Kilsyth. Montrose’s one object was to fight
Baillie before Lanark could come up. He drew up his
men in an open meadow a little to the east of Kilsyth.
On the morning of the15th the Covenanters advanced to
attack him over rugged ground.
To the
north of Montrose’s position there was a hill which
commanded his left flank. It appeared to the Committee
that if this could be occupied they would be in a
position to cut off Montrose’s expected retreat. They
accordingly directed Baillie to move to his right and
take possession of the hill. To try to execute a flank
movement across the front of an active and determined
enemy was simply fatuous, and Baillie knew it, but the
Committee insisted on their point. The fatal movement
was begun. Montrose saw what was aimed at and
despatched a force under Adjutant Gordon to hold the
hill. A glen with a burn running through it had to be
crossed by the Covenanters. The obvious result
happened. The straggling column was charged in flank
by the Macleans and Macdonalds and cut in two. Its
head was attacked on the hill by Gordon, who was soon
strongly reinforced, and was cut to pieces. The rout
became general, and the fields were soon covered with
terrified fugitives. The pursuit was remorseless and
the slaughter frightful; Wishart says that 6000 of the
Covenanters perished. Some of their leaders took
refuge in Stirling Castle; some escaped by sea; Argyll
went on board ship at Queensferry and reached
Newcastle.
Kilsyth
was Montrose’s crowning victory. Baillie had told the
Committee that the loss of the day would mean the loss
of the kingdom, and he was right. The King’s
Lieutenant now had Scotland at his feet. The
Covenanting leaders fled or submitted; the western
levies dispersed to their homes. The imprisoned
Royalists were set at liberty. The towns opened their
gates; Edinburgh surrendered in the most abject
manner. It seemed that the royal authority was
completely restored, and Montrose, in the King’s name,
summoned a meeting of Parliament for October.
His
immediate object, however, was to go to the help of
the King in England. He had assured Charles that he
would soon cross the Border at the head of 20,000 men.
He had imagined that the Lowlanders, once freed from
the tyranny of Argyll and the Kirk, would flock to his
standard, and that he would continue his career of
victory till the royal cause was- triumphant
throughout the island.
He was
bitterly undeceived. Mr Gardiner comments with justice
on the astonishing absence of all grasp on the
concrete facts of politics, which in Montrose was
coincident with the most intense realisation of the
concrete facts of war. He entirely misjudged the
temper of the Lowlands. The sympathies of the common
people were all on the side of the Kirk; probably most
of them desired nothing more than to be left in peace
by both parties to get their harvests in; in any case
they hated and feared the Highlander and the Irishman,
who had won Montrose’s victories. Montrose entirely
failed to raise a Lowland army; what recruits he did
get were almost all of the upper classes. On the other
hand, the army of Kilsyth was rapidly melting away.
The clansmen had no fancy to be led south of the
Tweed; they were disappointed in not getting the
plunder of the Lowland towns; they all found pressing
reasons of one kind or another for returning to their
homes. The Macdonalds left in a body with Alastair at
their head. Montrose marched southward from Bothwell
in the beginning of September. Before he reached the
Border he found himself in command of a mere handful
of men.
In the
meantime a formidable antagonist was approaching from
the south. David Leslie, at the head of 4000 cavalry,
had been detached from the Scottish army before
Hereford, and was making for the Border with all
possible speed. In the first week of September he
crossed the Tweed at Berwick. He continued his march
towards Edinburgh, expecting to fight Montrose in the
Lothians. When in East Lothian he heard that his enemy
was at Kelso. He turned to the west, marched down by
Gala Water, and on the night of September 12
encamped at the village of Sunderland.
Montrose was at Selkirk. The greater part of his army
was encamped on Philiphaugh, on the north side of the
Ettrick. The number of men with him is variously
given. According to Mr Gardiner, he had only 500 of
his faithful Irish and some 1200 horse, of whom only
150, under Lord Airlie and Nathaniel Gordon, took part
in the fight. He was badly served by his cavalry
scouts. On the morning of the 13th, favoured by a
thick mist, Leslie with his whole force succeeded in
surprising the doomed Royalists. With such disparity
of force the battle was a mere rout. A brief and
gallant stand was made in vain. Montrose and a few
others succeeded in saving themselves by flight; most
of the men were slain or taken prisoners. The
Covenanters butchered their prisoners in cold blood.
Among the camp followers were some 300 Irish women,
the wives of the soldiers, with their infant children.
These shared the fate of their husbands and fathers.
Most of the prisoners of rank perished on the
scaffold.
The
crushing disaster of Philiphaugh ended Montrose’s
brilliant and fruitless career of victory. Ever since
the battle of Naseby (June 14, 1645) the royal cause
in England had been hopeless. It was now equally
hopeless in Scotland. Montrose escaped to the
Highlands, where he attempted in vain to reconstruct
an army. In May 1646 the King surrendered himself to
the Scots army in England. Shortly afterwards he
commanded Montrose to disband his forces. Montrose
himself escaped to Norway in September. "His high
enterprise had failed," says Mr Gardiner. "No skill of
warrior or statesman could deal successfully with a
problem the solution of which depended on the one hand
upon the wisdom of Charles, and on the other on the
discipline of the Gordons and of the Highland clans."
Four
years later Montrose again appeared in arms in
Scotland. The last act of his drama is brief and
tragic. The execution of Charles I. took place on
January 30, 1649. The dominant faction in Scotland
acknowledged Charles II. as his successor in the
kingdom of Scotland, and proceeded to open those
negotiations which led to his appearance in Scotland
for a brief period in the character of a "Covenanted
King." Montrose, filled with grief and rage by the
death of his master, was burning with desire to avenge
his blood and to restore his son to the crown.
Charles, while actually in treaty with the
Covenanters, granted to Montrose a commission
authorising him to solicit help from the Northern
Powers and to effect a descent on Scotland. Montrose
landed in Orkney in March 1650 with some 700 men.
There he remained some weeks, and was joined by about
800 men from the islands. With this force he crossed
into Caithness. A strong force under David Leslie was
sent north to meet him. On April 27 he was attacked
and defeated at Carbisdale by a detachment under
General Archibald Strachan. He escaped wounded from
the fight, and a few days later was captured by
Macleod of Assynt and handed over to the Covenanting
general.
His
fate was now sealed. He was sent as a prisoner to
Edinburgh. After the battle of Inverlochy the doom of
forfeiture and death had been pronounced against him
by the Estates, and by the Church he had been
"delivered into the hands of the devil." No trial was
needed. On May 21, 1650, he was put to death at the
Cross of Edinburgh with every circumstance of insult
and degradation.
With
the justice of his cause we are not here concerned,
nor with the vindication of his political conduct. As
to the latter, his own point of view is clear enough.
"The Covenant which I took," he said to the
Covenanting ministers the day before his death, "I own
it and adhere to it. Bishops, I care not for them. I
never
intended to advance their interest. But when the King
had granted you all your desires, and you were every
one sitting under his vine and under his fig-tree,
that then you should have taken a party in England by
the hand, and entered into a League and Covenant with
them against the King, was the thing I judged it my
duty to oppose to the yondmost." His military
reputation is beyond question. Dr Hill Burton speaks
of it depreciatingly, on the ground that "he was
defeated on the only occasion when he met face to face
with another commander of repute." So he was, when the
"other commander of repute" outnumbered him five to
one. The story of his campaign speaks for itself. He
was one of the greatest commanders of Highland troops
that ever lived, and in personal loyalty and bravery
he has left an illustrious example to all ages.
The battles of
Dunbar and Worcester were followed by the rule of the
Commonwealth in Scotland. One more attempt was made
for the King in the North. In
1653 a force was raised in
the West Highlands by the Earl of Glencairn, who was
joined by Glengarry, Lochiel, and Atholl. His idea,
apparently, was to emulate the feats of Montrose, but
he was not the man to do it. The command of the force
was taken over by General Middleton, who arrived from
England, having escaped from the Tower. He held a
commission as generalissimo of the King’s forces in
Scotland. An army of 3000 men, under Monk and General
Morgan, marched northward against the Royalists.
Morgan met and defeated them on the banks of Lochgarry.
Lochiel held out in the west for some time; but
ultimately submitted. There was no more important
warfare in the Highlands for a generation. |
