Posted on February 7, 2013 by Donald
‘Many a white-headed champion fell into rank around your banner, and many a handsome youth was mangled under horses' hooves...' 'Song to Sir Hector', Eachan Bacach
The execution of King Charles I changed the whole course of the Civil war. The Scots recognized his successor. Cromwell pushed North ...
Posted on February 6, 2013 by Donald
The crowns of Scotland and England had become one in 1603 and Cromwell had tried to bind the countries’ political systems together fifty years later, but Scotland still wanted to govern its own religious, financial and political affairs.
The eighteenth century began for Scotland with financial ru...
Posted on February 6, 2013 by Donald
For twenty years the London East India Company had enjoyed soaring success, bringing incredible fortunes to its stockholders through its virtual monopoly of Eastern trade.
By 1695 competitors in the market were using every scandalous technique to have Bills in their favour passed in England’s Par...
Posted on February 6, 2013 by Donald
While the other MacDonald clans suffered through the 1500s, the MacDonalds of Glencoe survived notably well. Perhaps their greatest protection was their home environment acting like a natural fortress. They certainly never found the need to build one. Also only the strongest of people could develo...
Posted on February 6, 2013 by Donald
James had converted from Protestantism to Catholicism in 1668 whilst his brother Charles II was monarch. When the King too converted and tried to re-install Catholicism among his subjects around 1672, there was outrage. Acts were passed in Parliament, such as the Test Act, so only Anglicans could ...
Posted on February 6, 2013 by Donald
Near Pitlochry in Perthshire is the Pass of Killiecrankie, a gorge with a six feet wide riverside track.
News came to Jacobite leader Viscount Dundee, John Graham of Claverhouse, that General Hugh MacKay would be moving his men from Stirling to Blair Castle. Dundee, known by his supporters as Bon...
Posted on February 6, 2013 by Donald
Following success against the military at the recent Battle of Drumclog, the Conventiclers’ support had swollen to six thousand when they came together at Hamilton in June 1679.
Differences between Covenanters which had undermined them through the 1650s, again created factions among their numbers...
Posted on February 6, 2013 by Donald
Born in 1671 at Loch Katrine, the third son of a Lieutenant-Colonel, MacGregor’s inherited long arms and great strength gave him abilities with the broadsword that made his name known to many. He fought at Killiecrankie for Viscount Dundee in 1689 before joining the Lennox Watch.
When the name Ma...
Posted on February 6, 2013 by Donald
The covenanting ministers who rejected the Restoration settlement with Charles II’s additions, found themselves replaced by curates and without a living.
The congregations had their own opinions, of course, and some, who became known as ‘Conventiclers’, regrouped to practice the Covenant with the...
Posted on February 6, 2013 by Donald
The Calvinists were in support of Charles II when he became King and signed both the Covenants in 1649. Cromwell, however, was not. With sixteen thousand men he invaded Scotland in July and headed for Edinburgh, expecting to rendezvous with his supply ships at Leith. David Leslie and the Scots arm...