Part 165

In 1654, "Cromwell completed another work which the Long Parliament and the Barebone Parliament had both undertaken and left unfinished. Under favour of the discussions which had arisen between the great powers of the Commonwealth, the Scottish royalists had once more conceived hopes, and taken up arms. … The insurrection, though chiefly confined to the Highlands, descended occasionally to ravage the plains; and towards the beginning of February, 1654, Middleton had been sent from France, by Charles II., to attempt to give, in the king's name, that unity and consistency of action in which it had until then been deficient. {2871} No sooner had he been proclaimed Protector, than Cromwell took decisive measures to crush these dangers in their infancy: he despatched to Ireland his second son, Henry, an intelligent, circumspect, and resolute young man, and to Scotland, Monk, whom that country had already once recognized as her conqueror. Both succeeded in their mission. … Monk, with his usual prompt and intrepid boldness, carried the war into the very heart of the Highlands, established his quarters there, pursued the insurgents into their most inaccessible retreats, defeated Middleton and compelled him to re-embark for the Continent, and, after a campaign of four months, returned to Edinburgh at the end of August, 1654, and began once more, without passion or noise, to govern the country which he had twice subjugated. Cromwell had reckoned beforehand on his success, for, on the 12th of April, 1654, at the very period when he ordered Monk to march against the Scottish insurgents, be had, by a sovereign ordinance, incorporated Scotland with England, abolished all monarchical or feudal jurisdiction in the ancient realm of the Stuarts, and determined the place which its representatives, as well as those of Ireland, should occupy in the common Parliament of the new State."

_F. P. Guizot, History of Oliver Cromwell, book 5 (volume 2)._

ALSO IN: _J. Lingard, History of England, volume 11, chapter 1._

SCOTLAND: A. D. 1660-1666. The restored King and the restored prelatical Church. The oppression of the Covenanters.

"In Scotland the restoration of the Stuarts had been hailed with delight; for it was regarded as the restoration of national independence. And true it was that the yoke which Cromwell had imposed was, in appearance, taken away, that the Scottish Estates again met in their old hall at Edinburgh, and that the Senators of the College of Justice again administered the Scottish law according to the old forms. Yet was the independence of the little kingdom necessarily rather nominal than real: for, as long as the King had England on his side, he had nothing to apprehend from disaffection in his other dominions. He was now in such a situation that he could renew the attempt which had proved destructive to his father without any danger of his father's fate. … The government resolved to set up a prelatical church in Scotland. The design was disapproved by every Scotchman whose judgment was entitled to respect. … The Scottish Parliament was so constituted that it had scarcely ever offered any serious opposition even to Kings much weaker than Charles then was. Episcopacy, therefore, was established by law. As to the form of worship, a large discretion was left to the clergy. In some churches the English Liturgy was used. In others, the ministers selected from that Liturgy such prayers and thanksgivings as were likely to be least offensive to the people. But in general the doxology was sung at the close of public worship, and the Apostles' Creed was recited when baptism was administered. By the great body of the Scottish nation the new Church was detested both as superstitious and as foreign; as tainted with the corruptions of Rome, and as a mark of the predominance of England. There was, however, no general insurrection. The country was not what it had been twenty-two years before. Disastrous war and alien domination had tamed the spirit of the people. … The bulk of the Scottish nation, therefore, sullenly submitted, and, with many misgivings of conscience, attended the ministrations of the Episcopal clergy, or of Presbyterian divines who had consented to accept from the government a half toleration known by the name of the Indulgence. But there were, particularly in the western lowlands, many fierce and resolute men who held that the obligation to observe the Covenant was paramount to the obligation to obey the magistrate. These people, in defiance of the law, persisted in meeting to worship God after their own fashion. The Indulgence they regarded, not as a partial reparation of the wrongs inflicted by the State on the Church, but as a new wrong, the more odious because it was disguised under the appearance of a benefit. Persecution, they said, could only kill the body; but the black Indulgence was deadly to the soul. Driven from the towns, they assembled on, heaths and mountains. Attacked by the civil power, they without scruple repelled force by force. At every conventicle they mustered in arms. They repeatedly broke out into open rebellion. They were easily defeated and mercilessly punished: but neither defeat nor punishment could subdue their spirit. Hunted down like wild beasts, tortured till their bones were beaten fiat, imprisoned by hundreds, hanged by scores, exposed at one time to the license of soldiers from England, abandoned at another time to the mercy of troops of marauders from the Highlands, they still stood at bay, in a mood so savage that the boldest and mightiest oppressor could not but dread the audacity of their despair."

_Lord Macaulay, History of England, chapter 2 (volume 1)._

The Scottish Parliament by which Episcopacy was established at the king's bidding is known as the Drunken Parliament. "Every man of them, with one exception, is said to have been intoxicated at the time of passing it [October 1, 1662]. Its effect was that 350 ministers were ejected from their livings. The apparatus of ecclesiastical tyranny was completed by a Mile Act, similar to the Five Mile Act of England, forbidding any recusant minister to reside within twenty miles of his own parish, or within three miles of a royal borough."

_J. F. Bright, History of England, period 2, page 729._

"The violence of the drunken parliament was finally shown in the absurdity of what was called the 'Act Rescissory,' by which every law that had been passed in the Scottish parliament during twenty-eight years was wholly annulled. The legal foundations of Presbytery were thus swept away."

_C. Knight, Crown History of England, chapter 29._

ALSO IN: _J. Aikman, Annals of the Persecution in Scotland, volume 1, books 2-5._

SCOTLAND: A. D. 1669-1679. Lauderdale's despotism. The Highland host.

"A new Parliament was assembled [October 19, 1669] at Edinburgh, and Lauderdale was sent down commissioner. … It were endless to recount every act of violence and arbitrary authority exercised during Lauderdale's administration. All the lawyers were put from the bar, nay banished, by the king's order, twelve miles from the capital, and by that means the whole justice of the kingdom was suspended for a year, till these lawyers were brought to declare it as their opinion that all appeals to Parliament were illegal. A letter was procured from the king, for expelling twelve of the chief magistrates of Edinburgh, and declaring them incapable of an public office, though their only crime had been their want of compliance with Lauderdale. … {2872} The private deportment of Lauderdale was as insolent and provoking as his public administration was violent and tyrannical. Justice likewise was universally perverted by faction and interest: and from the great rapacity of that duke, and still more of his duchess, all offices and favours were openly put to sale. No one was allowed to approach the throne who was not dependent on him; and no remedy could be hoped for or obtained against his manifold oppressions. … The law enacted against conventicles had called them seminaries of rebellion. This expression, which was nothing but a flourish of rhetoric, Lauderdale and the privy council were willing to understand in a literal sense; and because the western counties abounded in conventicles, though otherwise in profound peace, they pretended that these counties were in a state of actual war and rebellion. They made therefore an agreement with some highland chieftains to call out their clans, to the number of 8,000 men; to these they joined the guards, and the militia of Angus: and they sent the whole to live at free quarters upon the lands of such as had refused the bonds [engaging them as landlords to restrain their tenants from attending conventicles] illegally required of them. The obnoxious counties were the most populous and most industrious in Scotland. The highlanders were the people the most disorderly and the least civilized. It is easy to imagine the havoc and destruction which ensued. … After two months' free quarter, the highlanders were sent back to their hills, loaded with the spoils and the execrations of the west. … Lest the cry of an oppressed people should reach the throne, the council forbad, under severe penalties, all noblemen or gentlemen of landed property to leave the kingdom. … It is reported that Charles, after a full hearing of the debates concerning Scottish affairs, said, 'I perceive that Lauderdale has been guilty of many bad things against the people of Scotland; but I cannot find that he has acted anything contrary to my interest.'"

_D. Hume, History of England, chapter 66 (volume 6)._

ALSO IN: _G. Burnet, History of My Own Time, books 2-3._

_J. H. Burton, History of Scotland, chapter 78 (volume 7)._

SCOTLAND: A. D. 1679 (May-June). The Defeat of Claverhouse at Drumclog.

"The public indignation which these measures [under Lauderdale] roused was chiefly directed against the Archbishop of St. Andrews [Dr. James Sharp], who was generally regarded as their author or instigator, and was doubly obnoxious as the Judas of the Presbyterian Church." On the 3d of May, 1679, the Archbishop was dragged from his carriage on Magus Moor, three miles from St. Andrews, and murdered, by a band of twelve Covenanters, headed by Hackston of Rathillet, and Balfour of Burley, his brother-in-law. "The great body of the Presbyterians, though doubtless thinking that 'the loon was weel away,' condemned this cruel and bloody deed as a foul murder; and they could not fail to see that it would greatly increase the severity of the persecution against their party. … It was now declared a treasonable act to attend a conventicle, and orders were issued to the commanders of the troops in the western district to disperse all such meetings at the point of the sword. … Towards the end of May preparations were made to hold a great conventicle on a moor in the parish of Avondale, near the borders of Lanarkshire. The day selected for the service was the first of June. No secret was made of the arrangement, and it became known to John Graham of Claverhouse, the 'Bloody Claverhouse,' as he was called, who commanded a body of dragoons, stationed at Glasgow, for the purpose of suppressing the Covenanters in that district. … Having been apprised of the intended meeting, he hastened towards the spot at the head of his own troop of horse and two companies of dragoons. … The Covenanters had assembled on the farm of Drumclog, in the midst of a high and moorland district out of which rises the wild craggy eminence of Loudoun Hill, in whose vicinity Robert Bruce gained his first victory. … The preacher, Thomas Douglas, had proceeded only a short way with his sermon when a watchman posted on an adjoining height fired his gun as a signal that the enemy was approaching. The preacher paused in his discourse, and closed with the oft-quoted words—'You have got the theory; now for the practice.' The women and children were sent to the rear. The armed men separated from the rest of the meeting and took up their position. … Claverhouse and his dragoons were descending the slope of the opposite eminence, called Calder Hill, and with a loud cheer they rushed towards the morass and fired a volley at the Covenanters. It was returned with great effect, emptying a number of saddles. The dragoons made several unsuccessful attempts to cross the marsh, and flanking parties sent to the right and to the left were repulsed with considerable loss. At this juncture John Nisbet [an old soldier of the Thirty Years' War] cried out, 'Jump the ditch and charge the enemy.' The order was instantly obeyed. Balfour, at the head of the horsemen, and Cleland, with a portion of the infantry, crossed the marsh and attacked the dragoons with such fury that they were thrown into confusion and took to flight, leaving from forty to fifty of their number dead on the field. Claverhouse himself had his horse killed under him and narrowly escaped his pursuers. … The victory at Drumclog roused the whole country. Great numbers poured in to join the victors, and in a short time their ranks had swelled to upwards of 6,000 men."

_J. Taylor, The Scottish Covenanters, chapter 4._

ALSO IN: _M. Morris, Claverhouse, chapter 4._

_Sir W. Scott, Old Morality._

SCOTLAND: A. D. 1679 (June). Monmouth's success at Bothwell Bridge.

"The King was for suppressing the insurrection immediately by forces from England to join those in Scotland, and the Duke of Monmouth to command them all. … The Duke of Monmouth, after a friendly parting with the King, who had been displeased with him, set out from London, June 18, for Scotland, where he arrived in three days, with an expedition considered incredible, and took the command. The Covenanters were 5,000 or 6,000 strong, and had taken up a position six miles from Hamilton, at Bothwell Bridge, which they barricaded and disputed the Duke's passage. These Covenanters were irresolute. An attempt to negotiate was made, but they were told that no proposal could be received from rebels in arms. One half hour was allowed. The Covenanters went on consuming their time in theological controversy, considering 'the Duke to be in rebellion against the Lord and his people.' {2873} While thus almost unprepared, they were entirely defeated in an action, 22d of June, which, in compliment to the Duke of Monmouth, was too proudly called the battle of Bothwell Bridge. Four hundred Covenanters were killed, and 1,200 made prisoners. Monmouth was evidently favourable to them. … The Duke would not let the dragoons pursue and massacre those (as Oldmixon calls them) Protestants. … The same historian adds, that the Duke of York talked of Monmouth's expedition to Scotland, as a courting the people there, and their friends in England, by his sparing those that were left alive; and that Charles himself said to Monmouth, 'If I had been there, we would not have had the trouble of prisoners.' The Duke answered, 'I cannot kill men in cold blood; that's work only for butchers.' The prisoners who promised to live peaceably were set at liberty; the others, about 270, were transported to our plantations, but were all cast away at sea! The Duke of Lauderdale's creatures pressed the keeping the army some time in Scotland, with a design to have them eat it up; but the Duke of Monmouth sent home the militia, and put the troops under discipline; so that all the country was sensible he had preserved them from ruin. The Duke asked the King to grant an indemnity for what was past, and liberty to the Covenanters to hold their meetings under the King's license; but these softening measures fell with Monmouth, and rage and slaughter again reigned when the Duke of York obtained the government of Scotland."

_G. Roberts, Life of Monmouth, chapter 4 (volume 1)._

ALSO IN: _J. H. Burton, History of Scotland, chapter 79 (volume 7)._

SCOTLAND: A. D. 1681-1689. The pitiless rule of James II. The hunting of the Cameronians. Claverhouse's brutalities.

In 1681 the government of Scotland was committed to the king's brother, the duke of York (afterwards James II.), as viceroy. "Succeeding the duke of Monmouth, who was universally beloved, he was anxious to exhibit as a statesman that capacity which he thought he had given sufficient proof of as a general and as a naval commander. In assuming the direction of the affairs of Scotland, he at first affected moderation; but at a very early period an occasion presented itself for displaying severity; he was then pitiless. A few hundred presbyterians, under the conduct of two ministers, Cameron and Cargill, having taken arms and declared that they would acknowledge neither the king nor the bishops, he sent the troops against them. The insurgents, who called themselves Cargillites and Cameronians, were beaten, and a great number of them killed. The prisoners, taken to Edinburgh, were tortured and put to death. The duke was present at the executions, which he witnessed with an unmoved countenance, and as though they were curious experiments."

_A. Carrel, History of the Counter-Revolution in England, chapter 2._

"Unlike the English Puritans, the great majority of the Scottish Presbyterians were staunch supporters of monarchy. … Now, however, owing to the 'oppression which maketh a wise man mad,' an extreme party arose among them, who not only condemned the Indulgence and refused to pay cess, but publicly threw off their allegiance to the King, on the ground of his violation of his coronation oath, his breach of the Covenant which he solemnly swore to maintain, his perfidy, and his 'tyranny in matters civil.' A declaration to this effect was publicly read, and then affixed (June 22d, 1680) to the market cross of Sanquhar in Dumfriesshire, by Richard Cameron and Donald Cargill, two of the most distinguished Covenanting ministers, accompanied by an armed party of about twenty persons. … These acts of the 'Society men,' or Cameronians, as they were called after their leader, afforded the government a plausible pretext for far more severe measures than they had yet taken against the Hillmen, whom they hunted for several weeks through the moors and wild glens of Ayr and Galloway."

_J. Taylor, The Scottish Covenanters, chapter 4._

"He [James II.], whose favourite theme had been the injustice of requiring civil functionaries to take religious tests, established in Scotland, when he resided there as Viceroy, the most rigorous religious test that has ever been known in the empire. He, who had expressed just indignation when the priests of his own faith were hanged and quartered, amused himself with hearing Covenanters shriek and seeing them writhe while their knees were beaten flat in the boots. In this mood he became King, and he immediately demanded and obtained from the obsequious Estates of Scotland, as the surest pledge of their loyalty, the most sanguinary law that has ever in our islands been enacted against Protestant Nonconformists. With this law the whole spirit of his administration was in perfect harmony. The fiery persecution, which had raged when he ruled Scotland as vicegerent, waxed hotter than ever from the day on which he he came sovereign. Those shires in which the Covenanters were most numerous were given up to the license of the army. … Preeminent among the bands which oppressed and wasted these unhappy districts were the dragoons commanded by John Graham of Claverhouse. The story ran that these wicked men used in their revels to play at the torments of hell, and to call each other by the names of devils and damned souls. The chief of this Tophet, a soldier of distinguished courage and professional skill, but rapacious and profane, of violent temper and obdurate heart, has left a name which, wherever the Scottish race is settled on the face of the globe, is mentioned with a peculiar energy of hatred. To recapitulate all the crimes by which this man, and men like him, goaded the peasantry of the Western Lowlands into madness, would be an endless task."

_Lord Macaulay, History of England, chapter 4 (volume 1)._

ALSO IN: _J. Cunningham, History of the Church of Scotland, volume 2, chapter 6._

_M. Morris, Claverhouse._

_J. Aikman, Annals of the Persecution in Scotland, volume 2, books 5-12._

_A Cloud of Witnesses._

_J. Howie, The Scots Worthies._

SCOTLAND: A. D. 1685. Argyll's invasion. Monmouth's rebellion.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1685 (MAY-JULY).

SCOTLAND: A. D. 1687. Declarations of Indulgence by James II.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1687-1688.

{2874}

SCOTLAND: A. D. 1688-1690. The Revolution. Fall of the Stuarts and their Bishops. Presbyterianism finally restored and established.