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| Aberuthven & Marquis of Montrose |
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Shrouded in mystery and romance, The Marquis of Montrose, James Graham. A highly complex character his life has been clouded by poets and writers ever since his dramatic execution. A charismatic figure, able to lead and inspire clansmen and keep their loyalty to the end. Poet, visionary, mystic, he had an almost suicidal devotion to his beliefs. He once incorporated his philosophy thus - "He either fears his Fates too much, Or his deserts are small, That puts it not unto the Touch, To win or lose it all." He earned his place in the history books through one glorious year of campaigning vigorously. He won overwhelming victories over superior forces with his ragtag army, marching over huge areas of the country executing his elaborate tactics. Montrose, as an elder of the church, was a member of the General Assembly and was there when it met in St. Mungo's Cathedral in 1638. He over-stepped the royal prerogative and denounced King Charles 1st by anglicising and forcing a Book of Common Prayer upon the northern Presbyterians. Montrose was educated at St. Andrews University where he enjoyed sport and gambling, after which he went on European tour. He later signed the National Covenant (an anti-Royalist petition defending its independence and attacking the Papacy), organised the rebel army leading troops against the Earl of Huntly, and beat royalist forces at the Battle o' the Brig o' Dee. But the civil turmoil engendered by the Covenent was gradually disillusioning Montrose. He still retained a loyalty to Charles and when he was negotiating with him, while putting forward solutions in Convenanting councils, his royalist sympathies came to the fore. These sympathies were multiplied when he found out that his arch enemy, Archibald Campbell, Earl of Argyll (champion of the Kirk), was touted as being a future dictator. Montrose, accusing Campbell of treason, upset his former Convenenting colleagues. He refused to support the union between The Scottish Parliament and the English Roundheads, effectively set up by the Solemn League and Convenant of 1643. He was imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle for five months. 
A King's man or nothing at all, he turned down commanding the Covenanting forces even though he was being heavily pursued to take the position. He joined up with Charles at Oxford and became a lieutenant general. He had convinced Charles of his loyalty and, at the age of 32, started the most exciting period in his life. In the Highlands in August 1664 he recognised the opportunity to strike against the Campbells and raised an army from the highland rabbles. He was helped out by the fierce MacDonald, Alasdair MacColla and his men, who had a bitter hatred of the Clan Campbell. MacColla commanded two thousand men and, armed with great strength and military expertise, was a valuable ally.
Montrose captured Perth after a fierce battle with an army three times the size of his. Montrose determined to win Scotland for Charles and also divert enemy troops from England. He marched to Aberdeen which was quickly taken but the bold Marquis for once had a moral lapse, allowing his troops to ransack the city in an orgy of rape and pillage (more than a hundred peaceful citizens were brutally murdered) which caused great bitterness in the north east against his force. The Royalist army then headed through Strathbogie to Speyside and turned south through Badenoch to Atholl before wheeling east through Angus to approach Aberdeen once more. Argyll was now in pursuit and the Royalists destroyed anything that might sustain their enemies while the Covenanters cruelly punished anyone remotely suspected of helping the rebels. Winter bogged down the pursuit and Alasdair suggested a daring march through the mountains to fall on the Argyll heartlands. They brought carnage to Inveraray at Christmas and Argyll, racing to rescue his homelands, ended up fleeing down Loch Fyne, leaving his clansmen to their fate. The jubilant Royalists then withdrew to the north, crossing into Lochaber and marching up the Great Glen where they were caught between the Earl of Seaforth marching down from Inverness and fresh troops rallied by Argyll coming up from Inverlochy. But Montrose and Alasdair were not easily put down and they turned into the hills at the south end of Loch Ness and doubled back behind the mountains and caught Argyll's army by surprise in the rear. More than 1500 Campbell clansmen were slaughtered and the bards of Keppoch celebrated the event for decades afterwards.
Montrose and his army went on to a succession of stunning victories at Auldearn, Alford and Kilsyth. In a brilliant year he had cleared much of Scotland of the King's enemies and if the Royalist forces south of the border had been even remotely as competent and ruthless then Charles would not have lost his head. But already national events were working against Montrose. He was unable to recruit the support of the nobility and had antagonised various factions. Meanwhile, Alasdair left his side to continue his own personal vendetta against the hated, tyrannical Campbells of Argyll; and a lack of an intelligence arm to Montrose's forces meant that he consistently underestimated his opponents and was always in the dark with regards to their actions. On 13th September, 1645, at Philiphaugh outside Selkirk, this was to prove calamitous. Here Montrose finally came up against a worthy opponent - David Leslie, the best of the Covenanting generals, brilliant and brutal, who was marching north to deal with the upstart at the head of a force of 6,000 men, mostly cavalry. The Royalists moved up the Tweed in the vain hope of raising the Border clans; then camped in a strong position on a hillside, the other three sides being protected by the Ettrick and the Yarrow rivers. The sentries could not see the approach of Leslie's horsemen, who had forded the Ettrick during the night as a dense mist lay over the camp, although pickets had vaguely warned of an enemy force in the area. As the sun broke through the greyness, the Covenanting troopers charged while the Royalists were still finishing their breakfasts.
Montrose was billeted in a lodging at Selkirk when the alarm was raised. He jumped on a horse and galloped to his camp where he found his men fighting for their lives while some of their colleagues had quickly deserted at the first charge. Fortunately the Royalists had taken the precaution of building up defensive earthworks and these proved vital in fending off attack after attack. Gradually, the rebels were beaten back behind dry-stone dykes and fought hand-to-hand until more than 400 were cut down. Montrose rallied a hundred horsemen and led them in a mad charge which was repeated again and again but each time the Royalists were decimated by superior forces. The remainder of Leslie's cavalry saw the brave but futile efforts of the Royalists, forded the river and attacked them from the flank. Six hundred Royalists had stood bravely and defiantly against a vastly superior enemy force, only a handful survived. Among them was Montrose, who was miraculously unhurt and was prepared to die in action. But he was talked out of this, his entourage arguing that his King would need his services in the future. He rode to Clydesdale then northwards and took refuge in the Perthshire hills. He left behind prisoners who were executed, as were their camp followers. His lieutenants were either beheaded or hung, after surrendering in the belief that their lives would be spared.
Montrose had tried vainly to raise another army before he fled abroad where he was feted as a hero. When he was told of the King's execution, Montrose locked himself away for two days, devastated with grief. He was determined to write Charles's epitaph "in blood and wounds" and set about recruiting a force of mercenaries which invaded the north of Scotland from Sweden via the Orkneys on behalf of Charles II. Napoleon once said all successful generals must have a precious kind of luck, Montrose had lost it. His small troop was decimated by the charge of dragoons from woodlands as he blundered into a rudimentary trap at Carbisdale. Montrose had his horse shot out from under him but he escaped on foot to the glens and sought shelter from the Laird of Assynt.
Assynt betrayed his guest to Government troops as there was a price on Montrose's head, one of the few instances of a fugitive being betrayed for gold. Montrose was taken to Edinburgh on a cart, bound and bareheaded, and preceded by the hangman as he was taken up the Royal Mile. As he passed Moray House, he met the eyes of Argyll looking out from behind a half closed blind. Having been tried in his absence and convicted, he knew what to expect and composed his farewell to the world as he lay in prison: "Let them bestow on ev'ry airt a limb; Open all my veins, that I may swim To Thee my Saviour, in that crimson lake; Then place my pur-boil'd head upon a stake; Scatter my ashes, throw them in the air; Lord (since Thou know'st where all these atoms are) I'm hopeful, once Thou'll recollect my dust, And confident Thou'lt raise me with the just." Montrose was hanged and disembowelled at the Mercat Cross and as one eye witness put it, he was dressed more like a bridegroom than a convicted criminal. He was dressed immaculately in scarlet and silver lace with white gloves, silk stockings and ribboned shoes. In 1888 his remains were entombed in a splendid marble memorial in St. Giles, when the legend had well and truly taken over from harsh reality.
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