The Massacre of Glencoe[a] took place in Glen Coe in the Highlands of Scotland on 13 February 1692. An estimated 30 members and associates of Clan MacDonald of Glencoe were killed by Scottish government forces, allegedly for failing to pledge allegiance to the new monarchs, William III and Mary II.
By May 1690, the Jacobite rising of 1689 had largely been suppressed, but unrest in the Highlands consumed military resources needed for the Nine Years' War in Flanders. In late 1690, the Scottish government agreed to pay the Jacobite clans a total of £12,000 in return for an oath of loyalty to William and Mary; however, disagreements among the chiefs over its division meant by December 1691 none of them had taken the oath.
Under pressure to ensure the deal was adopted, Secretary of StateLord Stair decided to make an example as a warning of the consequences for further delay. The Glencoe MacDonalds were not the only ones who failed to meet the deadline, as the Keppoch MacDonalds did not swear until early February. The precise reasons why they were selected for punishment are still debated, but appear to have been a combination of internal clan politics, and a reputation for lawlessness that made them an easy target.
While similar events had been relatively common in earlier Scottish history, this was no longer the case by 1692, and the brutality of the massacre shocked contemporaries. It became a significant element in the persistence of Jacobitism in the Highlands during the first half of the 18th century, and remains a powerful symbol for a variety of reasons.
Background
Some historians argue the late 17th-century Scottish Highlands were more peaceful than often suggested, in part because chiefs could be fined for crimes committed by their clansmen. The exception was the area known as Lochaber, identified as a refuge for cattle raiders and thieves by government officials, other chiefs and Gaelic poets. Four Lochaber clans were consistently named in such accounts: the Glencoe and Keppoch MacDonalds, the MacGregors and the Camerons.[2]
Levies from all four served in the Independent Companies used by the government of James VII and II to suppress the Conventicles in 1678–80, and took part in the devastating raid led by the Marquess of Atholl that followed Argyll's Rising in 1685. Primarily directed against areas in Cowal and Kintyre settled by Lowland migrants, Atholl's raid destabilised large parts of the central and southern Highlands. As a result, the government had to use military force to restore order; James VII and II outlawed the Keppoch MacDonalds for attacking his troops at the Battle of Mulroy, before he was deposed by the November 1688 Glorious Revolution.[3]
When James landed in Ireland to regain his kingdoms in March 1689, the Camerons and Keppoch MacDonalds joined a small force recruited by Viscount Dundee for a supporting campaign in Scotland. Dundee and 600 Highlanders died in the victory at Killiecrankie on 27 July; although organised Jacobite resistance largely ended after Cromdale in May 1690, much of the Highlands remained out of government hands.[4] Policing them used resources needed for the Nine Years' War in Flanders, while close links between Western Scotland and Ulster meant unrest in one country often spilled into the other.[5] Since peace in the Highlands required control of Lochaber, achieving this had wider strategic importance than might appear.[6]
After Killiecrankie, the Scottish government tried to negotiate a settlement with the Jacobite chiefs,[b] with terms varying based on events in Ireland and Scotland. In March 1690, Secretary of StateLord Stair offered them a total of £12,000 in return for swearing an oath of allegiance to William. The chiefs agreed to do so in the June 1691 Declaration of Achallader, with John Campbell, Earl of Breadalbane, signing for the government. Crucially, it did not specify how the money was to be divided, and disputes over this delayed the oath. In addition, Breadalbane argued part of it was owed him as compensation for damage done to his estates by the Glencoe MacDonalds.[7]
The Battle of Aughrim on 12 July ended Jacobite chances of victory in the Williamite War in Ireland, and any immediate prospects of a Stuart restoration. On 26 August, the Scottish government issued a Royal Proclamation that offered a pardon to anyone taking the Oath prior to 1 January 1692, with severe reprisals for those who did not. Two days later, secret articles began circulating which cancelled the Achallader agreement in the event of a Jacobite invasion. These were allegedly signed by all the attendees, including Breadalbane, who claimed they had been manufactured by the MacDonald chief Glengarry.[8] From this point onward Stair's letters focused on enforcement, reflecting his belief that, forged or not, none of the signatories intended to keep their word.[9]
In early October, the Jacobite chiefs asked the exiled James II for permission to take the oath unless he could mount an invasion before the deadline, a condition they knew was impossible.[10] A document granting his approval was sent from Saint-Germain on 12 December and received by Glengarry on 23 December, who did not share it with his colleagues until 28th. While his reasons for the delay are unclear, one suggestion attributes it to an internal power struggle between Episcopalian MacDonalds like Glencoe, and the Catholic minority headed by Glengarry.[11]
As a result, it was not until 30 December that MacIain of Glencoe left for Fort William to take the oath from its military governor, Lieutenant Colonel John Hill. Since he was not authorised to accept it, Hill sent MacIain to Inveraray with a letter for Sir Colin Campbell, the local magistrate. He administered the oath on 6 January, after which MacIain returned home.[12]
Lord Stair, Secretary of State for Scotland
Glengarry himself did not take the oath until 4 February, while others did so by proxy, but only MacIain was excluded from the indemnity issued by the Scottish Privy Council.[13] Stair's letter of 2 December to Breadalbane shows the decision to make him an example was taken well before the deadline for the oath, originally as a much bigger operation; '...the clan Donell must be rooted out and Lochiel. Leave the McLeans to Argyll...'[14]
In January, Stair wrote three letters in quick succession to Sir Thomas Livingstone, military commander in Scotland; on the 7th, the intention was to '....destroy entirely the country of Lochaber, Locheal's lands, Kippochs, Glengarrie and Glenco...;' on the 9th, '...their chieftains all being papists, it is well the vengeance falls there; for my part, I regret the MacDonalds had not divided and...Kippoch and Glenco are safe.' The last, on 11 January, states; '...my lord Argile tells me Glenco hath not taken the oaths at which I rejoice....'[15]
The Scottish Parliament passed a Decree of Forfeiture in 1690, depriving Glengarry of his lands, but he continued to hold Invergarry Castle, whose garrison included the senior Jacobite officers Alexander Cannon and Thomas Buchan. This suggests the Episcopalian Glencoe MacDonalds only replaced the Catholic Glengarry as the target on 11 January; MacIain's son John MacDonald told the 1695 Commission the soldiers came to Glencoe from the north '...Glengarry's house being reduced.'[16]
The targeting of the Glencoe MacDonalds appears to have been driven by a variety of factors. After two years of negotiations, Stair was under pressure to ensure the deal stuck, while Argyll was competing for political influence with his kinsman Breadalbane, who also found it expedient to concur with the plan.[17] As well as eliminating an internal rival, Glengarry was pardoned and had his lands returned by the Williamite government. At the same time, he managed to bolster his reputation for loyalty at the Jacobite court by being the last to swear.[18]
Massacre
Glengarry's house; Invergarry Castle in 2009
In late January 1692, two companies or approximately 120 men from the Earl of Argyll's Regiment of Foot arrived in Glencoe from Invergarry. Their commander was Robert Campbell of Glenlyon, an impoverished local landowner whose niece was married to one of MacIain's sons.[c] Campbell carried orders for 'free quarter', an established alternative to paying taxes in what was a largely non-cash society.[20] The Glencoe MacDonalds had themselves been similarly billeted on the Campbells when serving with the Highland levies used to police Argyll in 1678.[21]
Highland regiments were formed by first appointing Captains, each responsible for recruiting sixty men from his own estates. Muster rolls for the regiment from October 1691 show the vast majority came from areas in Argyll devastated by the 1685 and 1686 Atholl raids.[22] On 12 February, Hill ordered Lieutenant Colonel James Hamilton to take 400 men and block the northern exits from Glencoe at Kinlochleven. Meanwhile, another 400 men under Major Duncanson would join Glenlyon's detachment and sweep northwards up the glen, killing anyone they found, removing property and burning houses.[23]
On the evening of 12 February, Glenlyon received orders from Duncanson carried by another Argyll officer, Captain Thomas Drummond; their tone shows doubts as to his ability or willingness to carry them out.
'See that this be putt in execution without feud or favour, else you may expect to be dealt with as one not true to King nor Government, nor a man fitt to carry Commissione in the Kings service.' As Captain of the Argylls' Grenadier company, Drummond was senior to Glenlyon; his presence appears to have been to ensure the orders were enforced, since witnesses later claimed he shot two people who asked Glenlyon for mercy.[24]
In letters written on 30 January to Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton and Colonel Hill, Stair expresses concern that the MacDonalds would escape if warned, and emphasises the need for secrecy. This correlates with evidence from James Campbell, one of Glenlyon's company, stating that they had no knowledge of the plan until the morning of 13 February.[25] MacIain was killed, although his two sons escaped, and the 1695 Commission was given various figures for the number of casualties. The often-quoted figure of 38 dead was provided by Hamilton's men, who were at the opposite end of the glen from where the killing took place,[d] while the MacDonalds themselves claimed 'the number they knew to be slaine were about 25'.[26] Modern research estimates deaths resulting from the Massacre as 'around 30', while claims others died of exposure cannot be substantiated.[1]
Since he arrived two hours late at 7:00 am, Duncanson joined Glenlyon only after most of the killings had been carried out, then advanced up the glen burning houses and removing livestock. Hamilton was not in position at Kinlochleven until 11:00; his detachment included two lieutenants, Francis Farquhar and Gilbert Kennedy, who often appear in anecdotes claiming they 'broke their swords rather than carry out their orders.' This differs from their testimony to the Commission and is unlikely since they arrived hours after the killings, which were carried out at the opposite end of the glen.[27]
In May, fears of a French invasion meant the Argylls were posted to Brentford in England, then Flanders, where they served until the end of the Nine Years' War in 1697 when the regiment was disbanded. No action was taken against those involved; Glenlyon died of disease in Bruges in August 1696, Duncanson was killed in Spain in May 1705 while Drummond survived to take part in another famous Scottish disaster, the Darien scheme.[28]
Investigation
On 12 April 1692, the Paris Gazette published a copy of Glenlyon's orders, allegedly found in an Edinburgh tavern and taken to France.[29] Despite criticism of the government, there was little sympathy for the MacDonalds, Livingstone writing it's not that anyone thinks the thieving tribe did not deserve to be destroyed, but that it should have been done by those quartered amongst them makes a great noise.[30] The motivation for investigating the affair was largely political; having served in the old and new regimes, Stair was unpopular with supporters of both.[17]
The killing of the De Witt brothers, 1672; the Massacre was first mentioned in a broadsheet accusing William of their murder
In the debate that followed, Colonel Hill claimed most Highlanders were peaceful, and even in Lochaber, a single person may travell safley where he will witout harme. He argued lawlessness was deliberately encouraged by leaders like Glengarry, while the midle sort of Gentrey and Commons....never got anything but hurt from it. The 1693 Highland Judicial Commission encouraged using the law to resolve issues like cattle theft, but the clan chiefs opposed it as reducing control over their tenants.[31]
The issue appeared settled until the English Licensing of the Press Act 1662 expired in May 1695. The result was a huge increase in the number of political pamphlets published in London, among them Gallienus Redivivus, or Murther will out, &c. Being a true Account of the De Witting of Glencoe, Gaffney. Written by Jacobite activist Charles Leslie, it focused on William's alleged complicity in the 1672 death of Johan de Witt, with Glencoe and other crimes as secondary charges.[32]
A Commission was set up to determine whether there was a case to answer under 'Slaughter under trust', a 1587 act intended to reduce endemic feuding. The law applied to murder committed in "cold-blood", for example when articles of surrender had been agreed, or hospitality accepted.[33] It was first used in 1588 against Lachlan Mor Maclean, whose objections to his mother's second marriage led him to murder his new stepfather, John MacDonald, and 18 members of the wedding party. Interpretation varied, for example in the cases of James MacDonald, who locked his parents inside their house before setting it on fire in 1597, and the killing of prisoners after the 1647 Battle of Dunaverty. Both were deemed to have been committed in "hot blood", and thus excluded.[34]
As a capital offence and treason, it was an awkward weapon with which to attack Stair, since William himself signed the orders and the intent was widely known in government circles. The Commission instead considered whether participants had exceeded orders, not their legality, and concluded Stair and Hamilton had a case to answer, but left the decision to William.[35] While Stair was dismissed as Secretary of State, he returned to government in 1700 and was made an earl by the last Stuart monarch, Queen Anne.[36] An application by the survivors for compensation was ignored; they rebuilt their houses, and participated in the 1715 and 1745 Jacobite risings.[37] An archaeological survey in 2019 showed Glencoe was occupied until the Highland Clearances of the mid-18th century.[38]
Aftermath
Glencoe, by Horatio McCulloch, 1864; depopulated in the Highland Clearances, McCulloch presented it as a remote and empty landscape
The brutality of the Massacre did not shock Scottish society and became a Jacobite symbol of post-1688 oppression. Doing the Jacobite rising of 1745, Prince Charles ordered Leslie's pamphlet and the 1695 Parliamentary minutes reprinted in the Edinburgh Caledonian Mercury.[39] Glencoe then disappeared from public view until 1850, when it was referenced by historian Thomas Macaulay in his History of England.[40] He sought to exonerate William from every one of Leslie's charges, and is the origin of the claim that the Massacre was simply part of an ongoing feud between the MacDonalds and Clan Campbell.[41]
Victorian era Scotland developed values that were both Unionist and Imperialist, while also being uniquely Scottish.[42] Historical divisions meant this was largely expressed through a shared cultural identity, while Scottish history as a separate topic virtually disappeared from universities.[43] Instead of being analysed as an historical event, this meant Glencoe was incorporated into 'the emotional trappings of the Scottish past...bonnie Scotland of the bens, glens and misty shieling, the Jacobites, Mary, Queen of Scots, tartan mania and the raising of historical statuary.'[44] Even when the study of Scottish history re-emerged in the 1950s, Leslie's propaganda continued to shape views of William's reign as particularly disastrous for Scotland. The massacre became one of several such incidents, including the Darien scheme, the famine of the late 1690s, and the 1707 Union.[45]
The Massacre is still commemorated in an annual ceremony by the Clan Donald Society; initiated in 1930, this is held at the Upper Carnoch memorial, a tapering Celtic cross installed in 1883 at the eastern end of Glencoe village.[46] Another memorial includes the Henderson Stone, a granite boulder south of Carnach; originally known as the 'Soldier's Stone',[47] in the late 19th century, it was renamed Clach Eanruig, or 'Henry's Stone', after the man reputed to be Piper to MacIain.[48]
In the television series Mad Men, it is implied that the Campbell–MacDonald feud is still active as of 1970, when Pete Campbell's daughter is rejected from an elite New York preschool headed by a MacDonald.[52]
Recent archaeological work
After the Massacre, the Glencoe MacDonalds rebuilt their homes; a military survey undertaken between 1747 and 1755 shows seven separate settlements along the glen, each containing between six and eleven buildings.[53] In 2018, a team of archaeologists organised by the National Trust for Scotland began surveying several areas related to the massacre, with plans to produce detailed studies of their findings.[54] Work in the summer of 2019 focused on the settlement of Achadh Triachatain, or Achtriachtan, at the extreme end of the glen; home to an estimated 50 people, excavations show it was rebuilt after 1692 and still occupied in the mid-18th century. [38] In August 2023, a hoard of coins was found in a house linked to MacIain, which archaeologists believe may have been hidden there by a victim of the Massacre. [55]
^In this context, the extent to which "Jacobite" implied loyalty to the Stuarts, versus a desire to increase individual clan power and territory remains a matter of debate
^John MacDonald, who along with his brother Alistair served in the Jacobite defeat at Cromdale in May 1690 [19]
^As below, none of the Argyll regiment were in Scotland when the Commission heard evidence in 1695
^You are hereby ordered to fall upon the rebells, the McDonalds of Glenco, and put all to the sword under seventy. you are to have a speciall care that the old Fox and his sones doe upon no account escape your hands, you are to secure all the avenues that no man escape. This you are to putt in execution att fyve of the clock precisely; and by that time, or very shortly after it, I’ll strive to be att you with a stronger party: if I doe not come to you att fyve, you are not to tarry for me, but to fall on. This is by the Kings speciall command, for the good & safety of the Country, that these miscreants be cutt off root and branch. See that this be putt in execution without feud or favour, else you may expect to be dealt with as one not true to King nor Government, nor a man fitt to carry Commissione in the Kings service. Expecting you will not faill in the full-filling hereof, as you love your selfe, I subscribe these with my hand att Balicholis Feb: 12, 1692.
Cobbett, William (1814). Cobbett's Complete Collection Of State Trials And Proceedings For High Treason And Other Crimes And Misdemeanors. Nabu Press. ISBN1-175-88244-5.
Dorson, Richard (1971). "Sources for the Traditional History of the Scottish Highlands and Western Islands". Journal of the Folklore Institute. 8 (2): 147–184. doi:10.2307/3814103. JSTOR3814103.
Firth, Charles Harding (1918). "Macaulay's Treatment of Scottish History". The Scottish Historical Review. 15 (60): 273–291. JSTOR25519104.
Frank, William (1983). Charles Leslie and Theological Politics in Post-Revolutionary England (PHD). University of McMaster.
Gordon, John (1845). Papers Illustrative of the Political Condition of the Highlands of Scotland, 1689–1706 (2015 ed.). Sagwan Press. ISBN978-1-340-25271-7.
Goring, Rosemary (2014). Scotland: The Autobiography: 2,000 Years of Scottish History by Those Who Saw it Happen. Penguin. ISBN978-0-241-96916-8.
Harris, Tim (2015). Rebellion: Britain's First Stuart Kings, 1567–1642. OUP Oxford. ISBN978-0-19-874311-8.
Harris, Tim (2007). Revolution: The Great Crisis of the British Monarchy 1685-1720. Penguin. ISBN978-0-14-101652-8.
Hopkins, Paul (1998). Glencoe and the end of the Highland Wars. John Donald Publishers Ltd. ISBN0-85976-490-7.
Howell, Thomas Bayly (2017). A Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason. Forgotten Books. ISBN978-1-333-01932-7.
Kennedy, Allan (2014). Governing Gaeldom: The Scottish Highlands and the Restoration State 1660–1688. Brill. ISBN978-90-04-24837-3.
Kidd, Colin (1997). "The Strange Death of Scottish History Revisited; Constructions of the Past in Scotland c1790-1914". Scottish Historical Review. lxxvi (100): 86–102. doi:10.3366/shr.1997.76.1.86. JSTOR25530740.;
Lang, Andrew (1912). The History Of Scotland: Volume 3: From the early 17th century to the death of Dundee (2016 ed.). Jazzybee Verlag. ISBN978-3-8496-8564-5.
Lenman, Bruce (1980). The Jacobite Risings in Britain 1689–1746. Methuen Publishing Ltd. ISBN978-0-413-39650-1.
Lenman, Bruce; Mackie, JL (1991). A History of Scotland. Penguin. ISBN0-14-013649-5.
Leslie, Charles; Gallienus Redivivus, or Murther will out, &c. Being a true Account of the De Witting of Glencoe, (Gaffney, 1695);
Levine, Mark (1999). The Massacre in History (War and Genocide). Bergahn Books. ISBN1-57181-935-5.
Macaulay, Thomas Babington (1859). The History of England from the Accession of James II, Volume IV.
MacConechy, James (1843). Papers Illustrative of the Political Condition of the Highlands of Scotland (2012 ed.). Nabu Press. ISBN1-145-17438-8.;
MacInnes, Allan (1986). "Repression and Conciliation: The Highland Dimension 1660–1688". The Scottish Historical Review. 65 (180): 167–195. JSTOR25530202.
Somers, John (1843). A Collection Of Scarce And Valuable Tracts, On The Most Interesting And Entertaining Subjects: Reign Of King James II. Reign Of King William III (2014 ed.). Nabu Press. ISBN978-1-293-84222-5.
Szechi, Daniel (1994). The Jacobites: Britain and Europe, 1688–1788. Manchester University Press. ISBN0-7190-3774-3.
Macaulay's History of England, chapter XVIII Includes a well-written and moderately detailed account of the massacre in its political context, with footnotes to original source documents. However, it should be read with caution as Macaulay had a very specific perspective.
Glen Coe Massacre Detailed account of the events leading up to the massacre and the massacre itself.
Glencoe Very detailed and balanced account of the plot and massacre.
Private and local clan battles (Many of these also had links at national level, including the feuds between Clan Donald and the Crown, Clan Douglas and the Crown and the Mary, Queen of Scots civil war)
Kingdom of Scotland
.jpg)
