'Clan, King and Covenant' explores the turbulent history of the Highlands during the seventeenth century.
The signing of the National Covenant in 1638 first challenged the powers of Charles I in Scotland, but it was only when Alasdair MacDonald joined Montrose in raising the Royalist clans that the country erupted into civil war. Central to the conflict was the ancient enmity between the MacDonalds and the Campbells, Earls of Argyll, as Clan Donald attempted to reclaim their ancestral lands in Argyll. There followed a whirlwind year of spectacular victories for Montrose in the name of the King and the Highland clans emerged upon the national stage, before his campaign subsided into eventual defeat.
However it was only after the Restoration of Charles II that a bitter and protracted struggle broke out between Church and Crown, after bishops were reappointed to the national Church. Political and religious tension mounted with the accession of James VII of Scotland (James II of England) as a Catholic king ruling over a predominantly Presbyterian people. It reached a climax in the outbreak of the Highland War, when Viscount Dundee won a devastating victory at Killiecrankie on behalf of James VII over the Presbyterian forces of Lowland Scotland, but at the cost of his own life.
Subsequently, the Crown imposed an uneasy peace upon the Highlands, after the cold-blooded plotting of 'murder under trust' culminated in the Glencoe Massacre. Condoned by William of Orange, few events in the blood-stained history of the Highland clans have quite the dreadful resonance of this act, carried out so cynically as a matter of public policy.
Contents:
Acknowledgements
Foreword
1. The Highlands Before 1625
2. Prelude to Civil War
3. Clan Donald and the Earl of Argyll
4. Montrose and Alasdair MacDonald
5. Victory and Defeat
6. Campaign in the Highlands
7. Montrose's Last Campaign
8. Cromwell and the Highlands
9. Restoration and Reaction
10. End of the Restoration Regime
11. Outbreak of the Highland War
12. End of the Highland War
13. 'Murder Under Trust'
14. An Uneasy Peace
Bibliography
Index
