Killing Fields of Scotland Read online

  For Ella and Louie, in the hope that they will never

  experience the terrible tragedy of war

  Killing Fields of Scotland

  AD83 to 1746

  R J M Pugh

  First published in Great Britain in 2013 by

  Pen & Sword Military

  an Imprint of

  Pen & Sword Books Ltd

  47 Church Street

  Barnsley

  South Yorkshire

  S70 2AS

  Copyright © Roy Pugh 2013

  9781783469888

  The right of Roy Pugh to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.

  Typeset in 11pt Ehrhardt by

  Mac Style, Driffield, E. Yorkshire

  Printed and bound in the UK by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CRO 4YY

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  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  List of Illustrations

  List of Abbreviations

  Acknowledgements

  Foreword

  Introduction

  Chapter 1 - The Roman Occupation

  Chapter 2 - The Dark Ages

  Chapter 3 - The Early Middle Ages

  Chapter 4 - The Wars of Independence: 1296 – 1313

  Chapter 5 - The Wars of Independence: Bannockburn, 1314

  Chapter 6 - The Wars of Independence: 1329 – 1371

  Chapter 7 - The Stewart Dynasty: 1371 – 1541

  Chapter 8 - The Rough Wooing and Mary, Queen of Scots: 1542 – 1568

  Chapter 9 - Civil Wars: 1594 – 1654

  Chapter 10 - The Killing Time: 1666 – 1688

  Chapter 11 - Jacobites: 1689 – 1719

  Chapter 12 - Jacobites: 1745 – 1746

  Appendix

  Select Bibliography

  Index

  Battle maps courtesy of Moira Dempster, Dunbar. © Moira Dempster 2013. The map of the battle of Dunbar 1650 featured in The Life of General George Monck: For King & Cromwell by Peter Reese is reproduced by kind permission of Peter Reese and Paul H. Vickers. © Paul H. Vickers, 2008

  List of Illustrations

  1.Aberlemno Stone depicting what is believed to be a scene from the battle of Dún Nechtáin, AD 685. By kind permission and courtesy of the Reverend Brian Ramsay, Aberlemno Parish Church, near Forfar (photograph by Mark Hooghiemstra).

  2.Close-up of Aberlemno Stone showing detail. By kind permission and courtesy of the Reverend Brian Ramsay, Aberlemno Parish Church (photograph by Mark Hooghiemstra).

  3.Possible site of the first battle of Dunbar, 1296. (Courtesy of John V. Harris.)

  4.Athelstaneford Visitor, commemorating the battle of Athelstaneford, AD 832. (Courtesy of John V. Harris.)

  5.& 6. Wallace Monument, Abbeycraig, Stirling. (Courtesy of Simon Lee.)

  7.Detail of two statues of William Wallace. (Courtesy of Simon Lee.)

  8.Full statue of Robert the Bruce by C. d’O. Pilkington Jackson. (Courtesy of Simon Lee.)

  9.Close-up of Bruce wielding his war axe. (Courtesy of Simon Lee.)

  10.Robert the Bruce. (Courtesy of Simon Lee.)

  11.Oliver Cromwell. (Author’s collection.)

  12.David Leslie. (Author’s collection.)

  13.James Graham, 1st Marquis of Montrose. (Painting attributed to William van Hauthorst.)

  14.Monumental inscription commemorating the Battle of Dunbar, 1650. (Author’s collection.)

  15.John, Lord Graham of Claverhouse, 1st Viscount Dundee. Painting by an unknown artist. (Courtesy of the National Galleries of Scotland.)

  16.Charles Edward Stuart, Bonnie Prince Charlie. (Author’s collection.)

  17.Drummossie Moor. (Courtesy of Simon Lee.)

  18.Monument to the raising of the Jacobite Standard at Glenfinnan. (Courtesy of Simon Lee.)

  19.Scene depicting the battle of Culloden, 1746, from an engraving published in 1797. (Courtesy of the National Museum of Scotland.)

  20.William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland. Painting after Sir Joshua Reynolds. (Courtesy of the National Galleries of Scotland.)

  21.Inscription on the Culloden Memorial Cairn, Drummossie Moor. (Courtesy of Simon Lee.)

  22.Clan Mackintosh grave. (Courtesy of Simon Lee.)

  23.Clan Fraser grave. (Courtesy of Simon Lee.)

  List of Abbreviations

  APS = Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland

  CDS = Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland

  CPS = Calendar of State Papers relating to Scotland

  ERs = Exchequer Rolls of Scotland

  Acknowledgements

  My first thanks go to the Historic Scotland team who kindly offered advice and information about their initiative in preserving Scotland’s battlefields. Special thanks are due to Kevin Munro, Senior Designations Officer (Battlefields and Conflict Heritage), for taking the time to read the manuscript, offer advice, support, correcting several errors of fact and for providing the Introduction. Andrew Burnet, Publications and Information Manager, Historic Scotland, gave general advice on various matters, for which I am grateful. I also wish to thank Michelle Andersson, Image Librarian, Historic Scotland, who directed me to sources where some of the illustrations I have used were available.

  For documents and State papers quoted in the Notes to each chapter, my thanks are due to the staffs of the National Library of Scotland and Edinburgh Central Library (Scottish Room).

  I wish to thank Christina Watson, Search Room, Royal Commission on Historical and Ancient Monuments of Scotland, who kindly directed me to sources which assisted in the production of this book Thanks are also due to George Wilson and Ian Riches, National Trust for Scotland, who provided me with information on the battlefields of Bannockburn, Glenshiel and Culloden.

  I am indebted to Moira Dempster, illustrator, Dunbar, for producing all but one of the maps of some of the battle sites featured; her professionalism as an illustrator speaks for itself. Thanks are also due to Peter Reese, author of Cromwell’s Masterstroke Dunbar 1650 and The Life of General George Monck For King and Cromwell published by Pen & Sword Books Ltd and his colleague Paul H. Vickers, who gave me their permission to reproduce Mr Vickers’s excellent map of the battle of Dunbar 1650 which appears in Monck.

  I also wish to pay tribute to my dear friend Kate Covey, who kindly agreed to read the manuscript and in the process, correct my many typing errors and offer sound advice, especially on those occasions when I over-egged the pudding! Thanks are also due to Simon Lee, Operator and Guide, Spirit of Scotland Tours, and my good friend John Harris, who both provided some of the illustrations. Double thanks
to John who compiled the Index and, in the process, made me think again about certain aspects of the text.

  Finally, last but by no means least, I would like to thank Jamie Wilson and Richard Doherty, my editors at Pen & Sword Books Ltd, who gave me support, encouragement and sound advice in the process of producing this book

  R. J. M. Pugh,

  Dunbar,

  East Lothian

  2012

  Foreword

  In terms of warfare, the history of Scotland is hardly comparable to that of ancient Rome, Greece, Persia, nor the great dynastic nations of Europe – France, Spain, Germany, Austria, Spain, Russia and England. However, in many ways, Scotland’s history was not dissimilar to these nations except in scale. It is the nature of human society to wage wars in order to obtain self-government, independence, internal security, political stability, all of which are vital to economic, social and cultural development. Scotland was no different.

  The modern, mainland and island territorial boundaries of Scotland date only from 1266, in which year Magnus, King of Norway, ceded the Hebrides (the Western Isles) to King Alexander III of Scotland. The Orkney and Shetland Islands remained Danish territory until 1468, when they were pledged to Scotland as part of the dowry of Margaret, King Christian of Denmark’s daughter who married King James III of Scotland. The islands were not fully annexed by Scotland until 1472.

  The boundaries of Scotland were drawn over several centuries of conflict, with various tribes, then factions vying with each other for supremacy. During its long and colourful history, Scotland has known many bloody battles, the killing fields which took place along the road to unification, especially during the bitter Wars of Independence from 1296 to 1560. These wars were foisted on Scotland by her aggressive neighbour, England; ultimately successful, the kingdom of Scotland would survive as an independent, sovereign nation until her union with England in 1707. Even then, the killing did not cease until a further four decades passed.

  This account begins with the Roman occupation of Scotland, a period of which we know very little. There are scant references to or dependable evidence written about this period of over three centuries; we know virtually nothing about the fierce and bloody conflicts which took place in Scotland’s early history. When primitive man first inhabited the northern part of Britain, he was preoccupied with survival; struggling against Nature – herself red in tooth and claw – early man learnt to fashion tools and weapons, not just to obtain food but to defend and protect his territory. Tribal man’s life was one of constant fear and danger; his rudimentary existence gave him a taste for blood, not just that of the animals he hunted for food but also neighbours who threatened his survival. These early, nameless tribes have left little to mark their presence save for the occasional finds of implements, weapons and fragments of settlements which at least offer the archaeologist a glimpse into the past. The conflicts which occurred during Scotland’s primitive period are not unexpectedly lost in the mists of time. Scotland’s landscape is, however, liberally sprinkled with hill-forts and settlements both great and small, usually circular with outer and inner walls built of earth, turf and even stone. These offer few clues about their builders, although the purpose of these structures is clear. Primitive man built on high ground to enable him to observe the land he occupied and warn satellite settlements on lower ground of approaching danger. Thus he prepared himself for defence as well as protecting the flocks and herds on which his survival depended.

  The history of Scotland does not come alive – in the written, recorded sense – until the Roman occupation of Britain. However, we know from the writings of the Greek poet Homer that the island was visited by Phoenician traders; the commerce of the Phoenician seaport of Tyre (now in the Lebanon) spread over the known world. The Phoenician traders came to Britain with the express purpose of obtaining tin from the mines of Devon and Cornwall. Julius Caesar’s two expeditions in 55 BC and 54 BC made Britain’s existence known to Rome but it was not until the reign of Emperor Claudius (10 BC – AD 54) that the Romans made a serious attempt to incorporate Britain into the Roman Empire. The first invasion of north Britain by trained, disciplined soldiers did not occur until AD 80, when Agricola, the governor of Britain, crossed the river Tweed into Caledonia (the ancient name for Scotland) to conquer the disparate tribes in the north. What persuaded him to do so is not entirely clear. Not only was the country barbaric, with large tracts of uninhabitable, unproductive land, it also offered little of material value. Furthermore, the country suffered from harsh winters that seemed to – and did – last longer than those in the sunnier, drier climate in Roman England. It was in part these factors but more so the threat to Rome herself in AD 410 by the Visigoths of northern Europe which brought about the evacuation of Britain. However, in AD 81, Agricola was determined to subdue the tribes of northern Britain. To do so, he built a line of forts from the Firth of Clyde to the Firth of Forth (these were subsequently consolidated into a turf wall by Antoninius, a later governor).

  Little is known about the Roman occupation of northern Britain apart from an account of the battle of Mons Graupius in AD 83. Although a defeat for the Caledonians, Mons Graupius taught the native tribes a valuable lesson – that strength lay in unity, which would ultimately bring about the unification of Scotland.

  After the departure of the Romans, northern Britain descended into chaos, with the Caledonians (now known as the Picts) constantly at odds with the Scots of Dalriada, the Britons of Strathclyde and the Angles of Bernicia (modern Northumberland). During the so-called Dark Ages, the main external aggressors were the Angles, then Danes and Norsemen (the terms are often confused but I have tried to resist using the term Vikings wherever possible). When Duke William of Normandy – the Normans were descendants of the Vikings – invaded England in 1066 and defeated the Anglo-Saxon King Harold, William drew the boundary of England at the river Tweed. Thus it was a Normanized England which would pose the greatest threat to Scotland in her entire history. This struggle, known as the Wars of Independence, would last for nearly three centuries until Scotland regained her former independence, finally recognized by England as a free and sovereign nation.

  This account examines the battles which took place between AD 83 and 1746. Each chapter roughly relates to the period, political events and cultural developments which took place and which led to these conflicts. Beginning with the Roman occupation, then the Dark Ages – a period of a thousand years when little was recorded; what was written down is both fragmentary and obscure. Scotland’s history becomes better documented around the late thirteenth century, the beginning of the Wars of Independence. However, from the early fifteenth to the mid-eighteenth centuries, detailed descriptions were written down about the conflicts during the Stewart dynasty, the Civil Wars, the Covenanter uprisings and the Jacobite rebellions. Apart from two Border battles fought on the English bank of the river Tweed, this account does not investigate those such as Flodden; nor does it cover the clan battles, of which there were hundreds, probably even thousands, of scraps and skirmishes.

  As this account hopefully makes clear, many of the battles fought after the Wars of Independence were in fact civil wars; northern Scotland fought against southern Scotland, Protestant fought Catholic and Protestant fought Protestant. In the Highlands, a long and bitter rivalry between the over-powerful Clan Campbell of Argyle and the MacDonalds of Skye, Clanranald, Glengarry and Glencoe often resolved their traditional feuds by finding a safety valve in major conflicts such as the Jacobite rebellions, justifying their grudges by supporting pretenders to the Scottish throne. That bitterness and squabbling survived until Culloden and continues in a milder vein to the present day; in certain districts of the Highlands, mention of the name Campbell still raises eyebrows …

  This book owes its existence to what is documented and stored in the National Archives of Scotland, Historic Scotland and contemporary accounts of battles in the Second Millenium, including those of modern historians. Looking at the ov
erall Scottish historical canvas, we will find that in the first ten centuries of the Christian Era, battles are briefly mentioned by the early chroniclers, their accounts often suspect, having more to do with the stuff of legend and romance rather than historical fact. Some of these follow the romantic traditions in which Scotland is steeped; it is possible that there were battles which went unrecorded because they did not kindle the imagination of the chroniclers of the time. It is equally likely that accounts of other battles have not survived. The hard-nosed historian, labouring in the sticky clay of historical fact, demands factual proof and evidence of these battles – and rightly so. History is about what was, what happened; fiction is about what did not. However, this rule cannot be written in tablets of stone, since fiction does not combust spontaneously out of thin air. It is based on human experience, the human condition and is often rooted in fact. If we ignore folk-memory, we do so at our peril, inflicting an injustice upon the people of Scotland who for many centuries could not write, let alone read. They could, however, converse with each other and handed down history from generation to generation in tales told by the fireside. Few, if any, of these folk had the opportunity, let alone the power or the knowledge to influence events other than to stand in the battle lines and await their fate, which lay in the hands of others.

  It was not just in the domestic battles that Scotsmen proved themselves tenacious, brave – if undisciplined – warriors and soldiers on the killing fields. Scottish mercenaries fought in the armies of the kings of France, Spain, Sweden, the Low Countries and Russia, often facing their own countrymen. Was this a particular trait in the Scottish psyche? Did these men reach instinctively for the sword rather than the pen to resolve their problems? Only the professional psychologist can answer the question. One is reminded of the comment made during the American Civil War (1861 – 65) by the Confederate General Robert E. Lee at the battle of Fredericksburg in December, 1862: ‘It is well that war is so terrible. We should grow too fond of it.’