[lit-ideas] Mort Ghlinne Comhann
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 19:09:58 EDT
In a message dated 6/3/2009 6:41:43 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
"The editors are seeking contributors with expertise in the conduct
of massacre, especially in Canada, Ireland, the Caribbean and Central
and South America."
----
Massacre Studies
post-classical Latin mazacrium, masacrium slaughter (1218, 1222),
further etymology uncertain.
Französisches Etymol. Wörterbuch referred ultimately to the same base as
MACE n.2
Macella can scarcely, on phonological grounds, be the sole etymon, but it
might perhaps be an element in a blend.
Massacre of Glencoe n. the massacre of the Macdonalds of Glencoe on 13
February 1692, perpetrated by soldiers under the command of Archibald Campbell,
acting with royal authority, ostensibly on account of Alexander
Macdonald's failure to take an oath of allegiance to William III.
a1715 BP. G. BURNET Hist. Own Time (1734) II. 156 The Massacre in Glencoe,
made still a great noise. a1715 BP. G. BURNET Hist. Own Time (1734) II. 157
The Report of the Massacre of Glencoe, was made in full Parliament.
1957 ‘H. MACDIARMID’ Battle Continues 1 Franco has made no more horrible
shambles Than this poem of Campbell's, The foulest outrage his breed has to
show Since the massacre of Glencoe!
The Massacre of Glencoe occurred in Glen Coe, Scotland, in the early
morning of 13 February 1692, during the era of the "Glorious Revolution" and
Jacobitism. In Gaelic, the event is named 'Mort Ghlinne Comhann' (murder of
Glen Coe). The massacre began simultaneously in three settlements along the
glen—Invercoe, Inverrigan, and Achnacon—although the killing took place all
over the glen as fleeing MacDonalds were pursued. Thirty-eight MacDonalds
from the Clan MacDonald of Glencoe were killed by the guests who had
accepted their hospitality, on the grounds that the MacDonalds had not been
prompt
in pledging allegiance to the new monarchs, Mary II and William II.
Another forty women and children died of exposure after their homes were
burned.
In 1688, William, glad to enlist English help in his wars with France,
accepted the invitation to take the throne of the Kingdom of England. The
Scottish Parliament was more cautious and invited letters from him and James
VII
(ousted as James II of England). When the arrogant response from James
persuaded the Scots to accept William, John Graham, 1st Viscount of Dundee,
led Scottish Highlanders in Jacobite uprisings in an attempt to return the
throne to King James. Dundee was killed at the Battle of Killiecrankie, and
the rising in Scotland suffered inconclusive defeat at the Battle of
Dunkeld. On their way home from this battle, the MacIains of Glencoe, a sept
of
Clan MacDonald, together with their Glengarry cousins, looted the lands of
Robert Campbell of Glenlyon and stole his livestock, increasing his problems
with gambling debts and forcing him to take an army commission to provide
for his family. In his subsequent appeal for compensation, Campbell clearly
believed the Glengarry men to be the more culpable, making no mention of
Glencoe.
The Scottish Jacobites were heavily defeated at the Haughs of Cromdale on 1
May 1690, and James was defeated on 1 July 1690 at the Battle of the Boyne
in the Kingdom of Ireland.
On 27 August, 1691, William offered all Highland clans a pardon for their
part in the Jacobite Uprising, as long as they took an oath of allegiance
before 1 January, 1692 in front of a magistrate; if they did not sign, they
were threatened with reprisals. The Highland chiefs sent word to James, now
in exile in France, asking for his permission to take this oath. James
dithered over his decision, convinced that he was close to returning to
Britain
to reclaim his throne. When it became apparent that this was not going to
happen before the deadline, James sent orders back to Scotland authorising
the chiefs to take the oath. This message reached its recipients in
mid-December, only a few weeks before the deadline in difficult winter
conditions.
A few managed to comply promptly, but others did not comply. Alastair
MacIain, 12th Chief of Glencoe, waited until the last day before setting out
to
take the oath.
On 31 December, 1691, he travelled to Fort William and asked Colonel Hill,
the governor, to administer the required oath. Colonel Hill, however,
demurred on the grounds that he was not authorized to receive the necessary
oath. He instructed MacIain to proceed quickly to Inveraray to make his oath
before Sir Colin Campbell, sheriff of Argyll. Colonel Hill gave MacIain a
letter of protection and a letter to Sir Colin asking that he receive
MacIain's oath since MacIain had come to Colonel Hill within the allotted
time.
Colonel Hill also reassured MacIain that no action would be taken against him
without his having the opportunity to make his case before the king or the
king's privy council.
It took MacIain three days to reach Inveraray, partly due to winter
weather, partly due to his being detained for a day at Balcardine Castle by the
1st company of the Earl of Argyll's Regiment of Foot, at the command of
Captain Drummond, ensuring his lateness. On arrival at Inveraray, he was
forced
to wait for three days for the arrival of Sir Colin who was absent,
spending the New Year with his family across Loch Fyne. Upon his return, Sir
Colin
reluctantly accepted MacIain's oath.
MacIain had satisfied the spirit of the oath, and was confident there would
be no action against him or his people. However, elements of the
government saw an opportunity to make an example of the MacDonalds, and to
eliminate
these enemies in one stroke.
A plot was set in motion which apparently[weasel words] involved John
Dalrymple, Lord Advocate and joint Secretary of State over Scotland, Sir Thomas
Livingstone, commander of the forces in Scotland, and even King William,
who signed and countersigned the orders.
In late January or early February 1692, the first and second companies of
the Earl of Argyll's Regiment of Foot, around 120 men, under the command of
Captain Robert Campbell were billeted on the MacDonalds in Glencoe, who
received them in the hospitable tradition of the Highlands. Most of the
regiment was recruited from the Argyll estates, but only a minority actually
bore
the Campbell name. Others, including many of the officers, came from the
Lowlands. Captain Campbell was related by marriage to old MacIain himself
and so it was natural that he should be billeted at the Chief's own house.
Each morning for about two weeks, Captain Campbell visited the home of
Alexander MacDonald, MacIain's youngest son, who was married to Campbell's
niece,
the sister of Rob Roy MacGregor. At this stage, it is not clear that
Campbell knew the nature of their mission — ostensibly the purpose of
collecting
the Cess tax, instituted by the Scots Parliament in 1690. The planning was
meticulous enough that they were able to produce legitimate orders to this
effect from the very Colonel Hill who had tried to help MacIain complete
his oath in the first place, thus dispelling any suspicion the MacDonalds
might have felt, although it was also Colonel Hill who issued the orders to
begin the massacre two weeks later.
On 12 February, 1692, Captain Drummond arrived. Due to his role in ensuring
MacIain was late in giving his oath, Drummond would not have been
welcomed. As Drummond was captain of the grenadiers, the 1st company of the
regiment, he was the ranking officer, yet did not take command. Drummond was
bearing instructions (right) for Robert Campbell, from his superior officer, a
Major Duncanson.
He spent the evening playing cards with his unsuspecting victims and upon
retiring, wished them goodnight and accepted an invitation to dine with
MacIain, the chief, the following day.
Alastair MacIain was killed while trying to rise from his bed by Lt Lindsay
and Ensign Lundie but his sons escaped as initially did his wife. In all,
38 men were murdered either in their homes or as they tried to flee the
glen. Another 40 women and children died of exposure after their homes were
burned. Elsewhere, various members of the two companies found ways of warning
their hosts. Two lieutenants, Lt Francis Farquhar and Lt Gilbert Kennedy
even broke their swords rather than carry out their orders. They were
arrested and imprisoned, but were exonerated, released and later gave evidence
for the prosecution against their superior officers.
In addition to the soldiers who were actually in Glencoe that night, two
other detachments each of four hundred men were, according to the plan, to
have converged on the escape routes. Both were late in taking up their
positions. It is possible that the snowstorm made arrival on time quite
difficult
– especially for those approaching over the Devil's Staircase from
Kinlochleven; it is equally possible that they simply did not want to play any
part in what they knew to be a heinous crime.
Under Scots law there was a special category of murder known as "murder
under trust" which was considered to be even more heinous than ordinary
murder. The Glencoe massacre was a clear example of such.
Though the command of superior officers be very absolute, yet no command
against the laws of nature is binding; so that a soldier, retaining his
commission, ought to refuse to execute any barbarity, as if a soldier should be
commanded to shoot a man passing by inoffensively, upon the street, no such
command would exempt him from the punishment of murder.
The challenge to the inquiry which had been established was to apportion
blame on those responsible for the massacre, and yet the orders which led to
the massacre were signed by the King himself, who could not be seen to be
responsible.
The scandal was further enhanced when the leading Scottish jurist Sir John
Lauder, Lord Fountainhall was, in 1692, offered the post of Lord Advocate
but declined it because the condition was attached that he should not
prosecute the persons implicated in the Glencoe Massacre. Sir George
Mackenzie,
who had been Lord Advocate under King Charles II, also refused to concur in
this partial application of the penal laws, and his refusal (unlike
Fountainhall's) led to his temporary disgrace.
The conclusion of the commission was to exonerate the King and to place the
blame for the massacre upon Secretary Dalrymple. The Scottish Parliament,
after reviewing the commission report, declared the execution of the
MacDonald men to have been murder and delegated the "committee for the
security
of the kingdom" to prepare an address to the king which included
recommendations for the punishment of the perpetrators of the plot and
compensation to
be paid to the surviving MacDonalds. As far as is known, these
recommendations were never acted upon except for the imprisonment of John
Campbell
Earl of Breadalbane for a few days in Edinburgh castle on a charge of high
treason because he had been involved in secret talks with the Jacobite
chiefs.[2]
The Glencoe massacre became a propaganda piece for Jacobite sympathies
which were to come to a head in the next generation in the Rising of 1745. In
the Victorian era interest was revived and the massacre was romanticised in
art and literature, such as Sir Walter Scott's "The Highland Widow". More
recently Glencoe was the subject of Eric Linklater's 1957 story "The Masks
of Purpose", and David Clement-Davies's "Fire Bringer," in which the region
is called the "Valley Of Weeping."
Due to the involvement of Argyll's regiment under Glenlyon's command, the
massacre was regarded not as a government action, but as a consequence of
the ancient MacDonald–Campbell rivalry. Memory of this massacre has been kept
alive by continued ill feeling between MacDonalds and Campbells — since
the late 20th century the Clachaig Inn, a hotel and pub in Glencoe popular
with climbers, has had a sign on its door saying "No Hawkers or Campbells".
In 1883 Macdonald of Aberdeen sculpted the Upper Carnoch memorial to the
massacre, a tapering Celtic cross on a cairn. The memorial is at the eastern
end of Glencoe village,[3] which was formerly known as Carnoch. Each year,
on the 13 February, the Clan Donald Society of Edinburgh arranges an annual
wreath laying ceremony at the memorial to the Massacre of Glencoe.
Clansmen from Clan Donald, from across the world, attend the ceremony, along
with
local people.
For several decades,[Since when? clarification needed] the Scottish
Republican Socialist Movement have held a commemoration on the Sunday closest
to
the anniversary. This is often attended by members of other groups including
Siol nan Gaidheal, na Fir Dileas etc.[4]
Ultimately, it has to be said that stories of ancient clan rivalries have
only obscured the real horror of Glencoe. It was an act of official policy,
conceived by a royal minister, executed by a Scottish commander-in-chief,
approved by the King, and carried out by a Scottish regiment of the British
Army. Indeed, Dalrymple deliberately chose the Argyll Regiment because he
knew how their involvement would be perceived. Lowlanders like Dalrymple had
oft expressed hatred of Highland 'barbarians'. At Glencoe this hatred
finally acquired a murderous form.
Two brothers escaped to Ireland and changed their name to McKern or
MacKern. Descendants moved to Argentina and Australia when the potato famine
struck around 1850. Australian descendants include the late actor Leo
McKern.[5]
The T.S. Eliot poem "Rannoch, by Glencoe" references the event, and the
modern ballad with the haunting refrain: "Cruel is the snow that sweeps
Glencoe and covers the graves o' Donald..."[6] most famously recorded by
Alastair
McDonald, and probably written for him by Jim McLean. The massacre also
features prominently in the novel Lady of the Glen by Jennifer Roberson.
Operation Glencoe was the name of the Metropolitan Police's security operation
for the 2009 G-20 London summit protests.[7]
^ Site Record for Glencoe, National Trust For Scotland Glencoe Visitor
Centre, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland,
_http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/153486/_
(http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/153486/) . Location of NTS visitor
centre.
^ Prebble, John. Glencoe: The Story of the Massacre. Penguin Books. ISBN
0-14-002897-8.
^ Site Record for Glencoe, Massacre Of Glencoe Memorial; Macdonald's
Monument; Glencoe Massacre, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical
Monuments of Scotland, _http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/71831/_
(http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/71831/) . Memorial is at grid reference
NN1050958793.
^ "Glencoe Rally 2006 Pictures". The Scottish Republican Socialist
Movement. 2006. _http://www.srsm.net/srsm/glencoe2006.htm_
(http://www.srsm.net/srsm/glencoe2006.htm) .
^ Leo McKern's family tree Extract from "Just Resting" Leo McKern's
autobiography.
^ Jim MacLean (1963). "The Massacre of Glencoe". Text and melody.
_http://ingeb.org/songs/theycain.html_ (http://ingeb.org/songs/theycain.html) .
Retrieved on 2008-09-06. "Cruel was the foe that raped Glencoe and murdered the
house of MacDonald"
^ "Police warn of 'unprecedented' threat to London from over 2,000 G20
protesters", Daily Telegraph, 2009-03-27,
_http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/g20-summit/5055991/Police-warn-of-unprecedented-threat-to-London
-from-over-2000-G20-protesters.html_
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/g20-summit/5055991/Police-warn-of-unprecedented-threat-to-London-
from-over-2000-G20-protesters.html)
[edit] External links
BBC - History - Massacre of Glencoe 1692 Brief account of the massacre.
Glen Coe Massacre Detailed account of the events leading up to the
massacre and the massacre itself.
The Massacre of Glencoe Very detailed account of the plot and massacre.
Retrieved from "_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_of_Glencoe_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_of_Glencoe) "
J. L. S.
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