The Rivals

Montrose and Argyll and the Struggle for Scotland

Murdo Fraser

• Publisher: Birlinn
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781780273068
• eBook ISBN: 9780857902481
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Historical Biographies
• Index: History

This dual biography "deftly revisits 17th century Scotland to assess the roles of…two charismatic nobles who fought for supremacy" ( Scotsman, UK).
The struggles of the Scottish Civil War of 1644-45 could easily be personified as a contest between James Graham, 1st Marquis of Montrose and Archibald Campbell, 8th Marquis of Argyll. Yet at first glance there seems to be more that unites them than separates them. Both came from ancient and powerful families and considered themselves loyal subjects of Charles I. Both were also betrayed by Charles II and died at the hands of the executioner.
In The Rivals, Murdo Fraser examines these two remarkable men and shines a light on their contrasting personalities. Montrose was a brilliant military tactician, bold and brave but rash. Campbell was altogether a more opaque figure, cautious, considered and difficult to read. The resulting volume offers a vivid insight into two individuals who played a significant part in writing Scotland's history, as well as a fascinating portrait of early modern Scotland.

1

Chosen People

1607–37

In the spring of 1633, Captain David Alexander of Anstruther in Fife, of the ship Unitie, was contracted to lead an expedition in search of a new land. Seafarers had reported the sighting of a previously unknown island lying in the Atlantic Ocean to the west of the Outer Hebrides, and there was great excitement as to the opportunities that this might present. The Captain was to be paid £800 Scots in advance and £400 Scots on his return for his expenses, which included the cost of providing his ship fully equipped, and a crew of a skipper, mate, and ten sailors. By the 20 April of the following year he had to travel from Anstruther to the Hebrides, and from there ‘searche, seek, and use all utter and exact diligence’¹ to locate the island, make full note of its size, assets and population, and report back by 1 August.

In addition to his costs Captain Alexander was to be rewarded with an undisclosed sum, for his ‘aine paynes’, should he be successful. His employer in this venture, putting up the reward, was the young Archibald Campbell, Lord Lorne, the eldest son and heir of the 7th Earl of Argyll. On 13 May 1633 King Charles I granted a disposition to Lord Lorne and his heirs male of this soon to be discovered land, but leaving the name and location blank for subsequent completion: ‘that isle lying without the whole known and inhabited isles of the Kingdom of Scotland, called Hebrides Insulae, and now lately known by the name of _______, and lying ______, or of whatsoever other name or designation the same be of, with the castles, towers, fortalices, manor-places, houses, buildings, burghs of regality, burghs of barony, towns, seaports, avons, harbours, mills, woods, and the fishings of salmons and other fishes, with the lochs, cunnings [rabbits], cunningares [rabbit warrens], coals, coal heughs, parts, pendicles, and personance of the said isle whatsoever, with the mines and minerals of gold and silver, tin, lead, brass, copper, etc.’² This Atlantis, with its unsuspecting population inhabiting their towns and castles, was to be annexed to the Sheriffdom of Tarbet and form part of Lord Lorne’s heritable office of Sheriff, and he would have power to appoint weekly markets, yearly free fairs, erect parish kirks, and create burgesses and other officers as required.

Sad to say, Captain Alexander was to be disappointed. There was of course no mystery land to be discovered, and not even a solitary rabbit could be found to repay the skipper’s employer for his investments. But the ambition demonstrated by this expedition, and the confidence being placed in him by his King, is illustrative of the 26-year-old Lord Lorne’s growing stature in Scottish society.

Archibald Campbell had been born into a powerful Scottish family holding an ancient earldom. The Campbells – Clan Diarmid as they were sometimes known – were originally from the Lowlands but had moved north and west into the Western Highlands. By the early seventeenth century they had become the most powerful clan in the Highlands, based in Argyllshire while maintaining extensive estates in the Lowlands, including in Dumbarton, Stirling, Clackmannan, Perth, Angus, Fife and Midlothian. The Chief of Clan Campbell was traditionally addressed using the Gaelic title of MacCailein Mor, ‘son of the great Colin’, in a reference to the thirteenth-century founder of the House of Argyll. The Campbells found favour with the Scottish monarchy over many centuries, and the heads of the family were ennobled first as Lords in 1445, and then as Earls in 1457. Through a combination of military might and shrewd political manoeuvring, Clan Diarmid greatly expanded their landholdings in the Highlands, swallowing up the territory of smaller clans. Their great rivalry was with the once mighty Clan Macdonald, which by the early seventeenth century had fractured into smaller factions, individually too weak to challenge the Campbell might.

The Stewart Kings of Scotland had taken great strides in bringing the once lawless Highlands under their rule. Royal authority was exercised by local clan chiefs, answerable, at least in theory, to the monarch, but with substantial local autonomy. Someone holding the dual offices of a powerful and wealthy earldom such as Argyll and the leadership of a large clan like the Campbells was in effect a ‘mini-king’, able to pursue his own expansionist policies at the expense of weaker neighbours. Clan society was still highly patriarchal, and with every able-bodied man expected to be a warrior, the chief of Clan Campbell had a ready-made standing army at his disposal, waiting to do its master’s bidding. Much more so than a Lowland nobleman, the Highland chief had a force of men always at his back, hungry for a fight for clan pride, personal glory and, perhaps most important of all, plunder.

The 7th Earl of Argyll, father of Lorne, was a remarkable character with a turbulent life. He was known as Gillespie Grumach, ‘Archibald the Grim’, for his supposedly sullen nature (the nickname is sometimes also applied to his son). This appears to have been no handicap in public life, and the 7th Earl was honoured by the Scottish monarchy, carrying the crown, sceptre and sword of state at the openings of the Scots Parliament by King James VI.

Archibald Campbell, the future 8th Earl and Marquis of Argyll, was born, it is believed, in 1607, although there can be no certainty about the date. On his birth, as heir to the earldom, he was granted the courtesy title Lord Lorne. Lorne’s mother died the year he was born and his maternal cousin, William Douglas, Earl of Morton, became his guardian. Lorne, as was usual for many members of the Scottish nobility, went to St Andrews University to study at the age of 14. He left after studying for less than three years and without gaining a degree, but this was not unusual, as only those who were studying to become professionals, such as lawyers, would seek to graduate formally. For many young nobles university life was not just about formal education but also afforded the opportunity to participate in a wide range of recreations. Even then St Andrews was noted as a venue for golf, and the young Lord Lorne became an enthusiastic player of the game (which he described as: ‘That excellent recreation of Golf-ball, than which truly I do not know a better.’)³ He was also clearly an accomplished archer, winning the annual student ‘Silver Arrow’ competition in 1623.

This same medal was won some five years later by the man who would become Lorne’s great rival, James Graham, 5th Earl of Montrose, also a student at St Andrews (in the intervening years it had also been won on separate occasions by David Leslie and Lord Elcho, both of whom Graham would later meet in battle). Montrose had been born in 1612, the only son of John, the 4th Earl. Some unfortunate omens surrounded the birth of the young Lord. His mother was reputed to have consulted witches about her son’s birth, and his father was said to have commented to a neighbour that his son would trouble all of Scotland. We are also told, rather improbably, that the infant Montrose swallowed a toad.

In contrast to the Campbells who straddled both Highlands and Lowlands, the Grahams who held the Earldom of Montrose had land interests mainly in Perthshire and Stirlingshire, around the Forth and Earn valleys. Their ancestor Sir John Graham had been a follower of William Wallace and had died in battle against the English at Falkirk. The Grahams gained their peerage in 1451, and thereafter Lord Graham was made the Earl of Montrose. Unlike the still occasionally turbulent Highlands with its warlike clans, by the beginning of the seventeenth century Lowland Scotland was mostly peaceful, well settled, and relatively prosperous, although the twin threats of famine and plague were never far distant. Here English (or more accurately Scots) was the dominant language, although many Lowlanders would be familiar enough with the Gaelic which held sway in the Highlands. The backbone of the economy was agriculture with tenant farmers holding land from the nobility such as the Grahams. In the growing cities and towns there was an emerging middle-class – the burgesses – whose expanding economic power was leading to greater demands for political influence. It would be a shrewd politician who would enhance his own power by being seen to champion these ambitions.

Montrose’s mother died when he was just five, and when the 4th Earl died in 1626 the young heir inherited the title at the age of 14, having lost both parents but with older sisters at home to care for him. At twelve he was entrusted to William Farrat and studied at college in Glasgow, but on the death of his father returned to the family seat at Kincardine in Strathearn. He then went to study at St Salvator’s College in St Andrews in 1627. Like Lord Lorne, Montrose was a keen sportsman, and enjoyed not just archery but also golf and hawking. He had a particular fondness for gambling, regularly attending the Cupar races, and donating his winnings to the Church. More often than not he would lose out, on occasions squandering substantial sums at cards; it would become clear in later life that he enjoyed the risk and excitement of playing for high stakes. He was also noted for his generosity towards servants and the poor.

History does not tell us a great deal about the early life of Montrose. We do know that at the age of 17 he married Magdalen, the youngest daughter of Lord Carnegie (later Earl of Southesk), whose castle at Kinnaird was close to the Graham family seat at Old Montrose. The young Montrose had his fair share of female admirers, but the marriage was most likely one arranged for him by his family and guardians as a suitable coupling for the head of one of Scotland’s great families. In due course there were to be five children, four boys and one girl. Marriage, and the birth of heirs, were encouraged for young noblemen at an early age to ensure the continuation of the family line, and as Montrose was an only son it was particularly important that this vital matter was attended to before he set off into the wider world.

It was expected of the sons of earls at the time that they would earn their spurs in military adventure, and both Montrose and Lorne naturally fell into line. Having done his duty in producing two male heirs, Montrose left his native shores to travel through Europe, from France (where he was Captain of the Scottish Guard at the Royal Court) to Italy. He had time to progress in his studies, taking a particular interest in reading about great heroes of history. Already, it seems, he had a vision for himself as a romantic hero. Gilbert Burnet, the Royalist bishop, wrote that he was: ‘a young man, well learned, who had travelled, but had taken upon him the part of a hero too much, and lived as in a romance, for his whole manner was stately to affectation’.⁴

On his return to home shores Montrose arrived in London to be presented to King Charles I. Young noblemen were expected to be formally introduced to the monarch, and this rite of passage would have been eagerly anticipated. Dressed in his finest clothes, James Graham arrived at the glittering Court of St James looking forward to his reception, and the compliments of his peers which would inevitably follow. But it was all to go horribly wrong. The Marquis of Hamilton, the King’s chief counsellor in Scotland, was suspicious of Montrose and warned Charles that the young man’s ambition might present a threat to Royal authority. So when the Earl came before the King he received a chilly reception, Charles simply giving him the Royal hand to kiss, and then turning aside. It was a devastating blow for an eager Montrose. Humiliated in front of the assembled Court, who would all have observed the deliberate slight, he must have left and returned to Scotland fuming. He had from this point no reason to show loyalty to, or love for, his King.

In contrast to Montrose we know a lot more about the activities of the young Lord Lorne. In 1625 the Privy Council of Scotland issued a warrant authorising the Archbishop of Glasgow and Sir William Livingston of Kilsyth to go to Ayr to fit out a ship for a mission to subdue the rebellious Clan MacIain. Lorne was instructed to join the expedition with his forces. It was clearly successful, for shortly thereafter Lorne travelled to London where he met the then newly-installed King Charles, and, unlike the reception which awaited Montrose, he was warmly received. Charles even tried to arrange a marriage between his relative Elizabeth Stewart, sister of the Duke of Lennox, to Lorne, not realising that she had already formed a romantic attachment with the eldest son of the Earl of Arundel. Such was the King’s anger that the lovers were thrown into the Tower of London for three months. Any disappointment which Lorne felt was clearly short-lived, for within four months he was married to Margaret Douglas, daughter of his guardian the Earl of Morton. He was 19 and she was 16. The couple were to have two sons and four daughters.

By this time the relationship between Lorne and his father, who was remarried with a new second family, had become strained. There was dispute over the peninsula of Kintyre which had come into Campbell hands recently and therefore did not form part of the entailed estate which was Lorne’s rightful inheritance. Money worries were very much at the forefront of the young nobleman’s concerns, and indeed this continued to be the case throughout his life. Large estates required careful hands-on management, and the cost of maintaining military forces and upholding justice and the rule of law throughout large parts of the Highlands was high. In this respect Lorne was no different from any other nobles of his generation, but the sheer scale of the Campbell family interests made his position all the more precarious.

Relations between the 7th Earl of Argyll and his heir deteriorated further when the father renounced the Reformed faith and became a Roman Catholic, and left the country to enter the service of the Spanish king. It may simply be a later invention, but the attitude of the 7th Earl to his son and heir might be summed up in what he allegedly told Charles I about Lorne: ‘Sir, I must know this young man better than you can do: you have brought me low that you may raise him; which I doubt you will live to repent; for he is a man of craft, subtlety and falsehood, and can love no man; and if ever he finds it in his power to do you mischief, he will be sure to do it’.⁵ Even at an early age the young nobleman was developing a reputation as a skilled political operator. He developed an unusual habit, which served him well in later life, of abruptly leaving the room and shutting the door behind him when a conversation took a turn he did not care for.

The contemporary historian Patrick Gordon observed that Lorne was ‘of a homely carriage, gentle, mild, and effable, gratious and courteous to speak too’ and had ‘suche plaine and homely aspect, as he seemed rather inclined to simplicitie then any ways tented with a loftie and unsatiable ambition, though he proved the deepest statesman, the most craftie, subtill and over-reacheing politician that this age could produce.’⁶ Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, wrote of him: ‘His wit is pregnant, and his humour gay and pleasant, except when he liked not the company or the argument.’⁷ Burnet, hardly a political sympathiser, added that he was ‘a solemn sort of man, grave and sober, free of all scandalous vices, of an invincible calmness, and a pretender to high degrees of piety: but he was a deep dissembler, and a great oppressor in all his private dealings, and he was noted for a defect in his courage on all occasions when danger met him.’⁸ This accusation of personal cowardice was one which would gain currency with Lorne’s political opponents.

Lorne’s progress in public life continued despite his father’s hostile attitude towards him. In 1628 he was appointed a Privy Councillor, and thus at the very heart of national decision-making. His military exploits continued with the capture and subsequent execution of the famous outlaw Gilderoy, more accurately called Patrick McGregor, who with his band of outlaws had terrorised parts of the Highlands.

Portraits of Lorne as a young man show him attired as a courtier, with lace cuffs, tunic with slashed sleeves, cloak and knee breeches. He had long red hair, small blue eyes, and a long nose. He had a pronounced squint in one eye, which does not seem to have affected his prowess in archery. He wore a full moustache and a goatee beard in the fashion of the day. The most famous portrait of Lorne, or the Marquis of Argyll as he had then become, is David Scougall’s perhaps deliberately unflattering portrayal from 1652, showing the subject as an older man, in clerical garb with a skull-cap, and looking rather dour and severe.

Montrose is described as being of middle stature and gracefully built, with chestnut hair, keen grey eyes and a high-bridged nose. Portraits show him with long, flowing hair, and the popular moustache and small beard of the time. Unlike Lorne he is often depicted in military gear. Contemporaries describe him as strong in body and limbs and highly skilled in riding a horse and in use of arms. Montrose’s chaplain George Wishart wrote that, ‘He was a man of a very princely carriage and excellent address, which made him be used by princes, for the most part, with the greatest familiarity. He was of a most resolute and undaunted spirit, which began to appear in him, to the wonder and expectation of all men, even in his childhood.’⁹

Like Lorne, and indeed l...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: Caesar and Pompey
• Prologue: Inverlochy
• 1 Chosen People
• 2 Revolution
• 3 Allies against the King
• 4 An Uneasy Peace
• 5 King Campbell
• 6 Drawing Swords
• 7 Annus Mirabilis
• 8 Montrose the Master
• 9 The Tide Turns Again
• 10 ‘Nothing but Jews’
• 11 The Covenanted King
• 12 The Cavalier’s Last Hurrah
• 13 A Better Crown
• 14 Post Mortem
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index