Restoration
and Revolution (II)
|
Deliverance
1689-90
The
crunch came in 1685 when Charles II died and was succeeded by
his brother James, a Catholic. Many Scots were extremely troubled
over taking an oath which acknowledged a Catholic as the head
of their Protestant Kirk. However, deliverance came for the Presbyterians
in 1688 when William of Orange invaded England and King James
fled to France. Many Scots exiles who had fled the Stuart regime
returned with William from Holland, and a Scottish convention
drafted the Claim of Right, which demanded a free Parliament
and a Presbyterian Kirk. The exiled James VII ordered the convention
to obey their rightful king, whilst the Scottish Parliament proclaimed
William King of Scots and reclaimed their political power.
The Birth of Jacobitism 1689-90
The Jacobites were the supporters of the exiled Stewart dynasty,
and, in particluar, the exiled James VII, his son James Francis
Edward Stuart (The Old Pretender), and his grandson Charles Edward
Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie or The Young Pretender). They believed
that the natural order of Scottish society, with the rightful
Stuart King at the top, was being destroyed by the Presbyterians.
In 1689 John Graham of Claverhouse (Bonnie Dundee) led the first
Jacobite rising - drawing most of his support from the Highlands,
an area beyond the government’s control and a Jacobite hotbed.
Claverhouse was victorious at the Battle of Killiecrankie, but
was struck down by a stray bullet at the moment of victory and
the rising collapsed.
William
of Orange
William of Orange is the famed King Billy. He was a Dutchman and
wasn’t particularly interested in Scotland; his life-long
struggle was with Louis XIV of France and he relied on the money
markets of London and Amsterdam to fund his war with the French.
His invasion of England in 1688 was in many ways an indirect war
effort against the French King. Scotland was either an irritation
or a source of much needed troops to William. He left the governance
of Scotland to his lieutenants, like Dalrymple of Stair, whose
simple solution to the problem of the Jacobite highlanders was
to threaten and violently suppress the Clans into submission.
However, when it seemed genocide wasn’t a viable proposition,
Dalrymple decided to make an 
example
of one small clan instead: the MacDonalds of Glencoe.
The Massacre
of Glencoe, 1692
On 13th Febuary 1692, a detachment of Government
soldiers led by Captain Robert Campbell of Glenlyon marched into
Glencoe. After accepting two weeks of MacDonald hospitality they
butchered 38 of the clan. Glenlyon was acting on direct orders
from Dalrymple of Stair, orders counter-signed twice by William
of Orange. The massacre shocked Scotland and provided ample propaganda
for the Jacobites, who published copies of the orders and conspired
with greater urgency. The Scottish Parliament declared the whole
affair an act of murder and Dalrymple lost his office, although
William remained unimpeachable. The next 50 years of British history
were characterised by Jacobite risings.
