Posted on 05/21/2024 4:51:15 PM PDT by CheshireTheCat
On this day in 1650, James Graham, Earl of Montrose, was hanged in Edinburgh.
The tragic “Great Montrose” was renowned for his tactical genius on the battlefield during the civil wars that cost King Charles I both crown and head. Although Montrose would die as a royalist he first entered the lists in the 1630s’ Bishops’ War as part of the Covenanter army resisting the king’s bid to impose top-down religious governance on Scotland.
But Montrose was the moderate and post-Bishops War found himself a leading exponent of the pro-reconciliation faction, bitterly opposed by the chief of the Campbell clan, the Marquess of Argyll.
These two became the opposing poles for the ensuing civil war in Scotland, at once a local clan war and the vortex of a border-hopping conflict that sucked in Ireland and England too. Although Montrose, now King Charles’s lieutenant-general in Scotland, could kick tail in battle his faction was divided and ultimately outnumbered by the Covenanters. Montrose had to flee Scotland for exile in 1646.....
(Excerpt) Read more at executedtoday.com ...
The “Covenanters” were the first political movement of note to preach that the only legitimate government is one that rules with the consent of the people.
Their idea of who “the people” whose consent was required was much more limited than in the modern sense, but still, considering they were surrounded by a world that mostly was was run by monarchies supposedly empowered by God himself, it was the first step in the right direction.
As the MacDonalds say, never trust a Campbell.
Another Rock and Roll Tragedy.
I played the grooves out of that first Montrose album.
L
Nigel Tranter wrote two books about him that I enjoyed reading as a young person. He wrote many more, including the Robert the Bruce trilogy.
A coat of arms described in a NY genealogy book attributed him as the grandfather of James Graham (1656-1700), the Attorney-General of the Province of New York and my eighth great grandfather. His daughter Isabella married NJ Governor Lewis Morris, my 7th. Morris also co-wrote the first play in the colonies.
On a genealogical trip, I happened across his papers at Rutgers and the librarian pointed at the xerox machine and handed me ALL of the Lewis Morris handwritten papers. I whispered to husband that our travel plans had just changed. Spent 3 days copying EVERYTHING.
That’s cool, and I completely understand. Done the same sort of thing researching family history.
I keep a lot of newspaper subscriptions going if you need any help. Genealogy research is THE BEST.
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