Posted on 11/21/2009 8:59:07 AM PST by Dysart
THEY were the words that launched one of the darkest episodes in Scottish history, remembered and resented to this day.
• Clan Campbell murdered Clan MacDonald in Glencoe in 1692
Now the original handwritten order for the massacre at Glencoe "to fall upon the rebels ... and put all to the sword under seventy" goes on show in Edinburgh this week.
Sent to Robert Campbell of Glenlyon, in 1692, the simple 20-line letter triggered the murder of 38 members of the MacDonald clan and is the centrepiece of an exhibition of cultural "treasures" at the National Library of Scotland.
It is on display alongside other literary and historical landmarks, from a handwritten Robert Burns poem recently reclaimed from the US, to a Sherlock Holmes story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
The library's chief executive, Martyn Wade, said the exhibition for the year of Homecoming was a rare chance "to see this collection of priceless Scottish treasures."
The Glencoe letter will be exhibited until early January, in low light conditions and with flash photography banned, staff said.
The order, signed by Major Robert Duncanson, came after a proclamation requiring the chiefs of the Scottish clans to take an oath of allegiance to William III before the end of the 1691.
Alasdair MacDonald of Glencoe missed the deadline, providing the authorities with an opportunity to crush his clan. Forty women and children were said to have died after the killings from exposure, after their homes were burned.
The massacre – with the Campbells ordered to attack their hosts after enjoying their hospitality – became a rallying cry for the Jacobite cause, and inspired writers and artists from Sir Walter Scott to The Corries.
Other highlights of the show include On the Battle of Sheriff-Muir, a poem written by Burns in 1790 commemorating a clash between Hanoverian troops and the Jacobites 75 years before. It is the first time the manuscript has been seen since it was bought by the library in the US for £30,000.
Also on show is the Forlani Map, thought to be the first printed map solely of Scotland, along with a copperplate map of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island produced for the 1895 memorial "Edinburgh edition" of his works.
Other items on display range from "The Lyon in Mourning" – Bishop Robert Forbes's collection of Jacobite papers, various early designs for the Union flag, the 1814 Waverley manuscript by Walter Scott and The Adventure of the Illustrious Client by Conan Doyle.
Two months ago, the library showed the last letter of Mary Queen of Scots in its new exhibition space, part of a £2.24 million overhaul to make the national collection more accessible to the general public.
As a student of flatulence, I’d like to know how many Scots were served and did everyone eat the same?
Oh, that Campbell, well this was before there was a load of compromisin’
LOL, that sounds like an interesting field of study!
I’ve known people to use it successfully as a weapon.
What’s hilarious is that as the aristos go broke, all the historic homes and trinkets are being snatched up by foreigners who don’t pay taxes here and football players who are domiciled in the Isle of Man. And that guy who’s urging more inheritance tax knows this. If it cost nothing more than the luxuries of a few toffs I wouldn’t mind as much but once you disperse the contents of these great houses, you’ve lost history. The govt might pay through the nose to keep a Holbein, but they let all the rest, like letters and inventories and uncatalogued items, disperse to all four corners of the world.
These houses in the UK are not like Hearst Castle, they are not random gatherings of artifacts. These pieces, together, in context, provide historical knowledge we are losing through these schemes which don’t even generate useful money.
You are hereby ordered to fall upon the rebels, the McDonalds of Glenco, and put all to the sword under seventy. You are to have a special care that the old Fox and his sons doe upon no account escape your hands, you are to secure all the avenues that no man escape. This you are to putt in execution at fyve of the clock precisely; and by that time, or very shortly after it, I’ll strive to be att you with a stronger party: if I doe not come to you att fyve, you are not to tarry for me, but to fall on. This is by the Kings speciall command, for the good & safety of the Country, that these miscreants be cutt off root and branch. See that this be putt in execution without feud or favour, else you may expect to be dealt with as one not true to King nor Government, nor a man fitt to carry Commissione in the Kings service. Expecting you will not faill in the fulfilling hereof, as you love your selfe, I subscribe these with my hand att Balicholis Feb: 12, 1692
For their Majesties service
To Capt. Robert Campbell
of Glenlyon
(signed) R. Duncanson
Never trust a Campbell they have always been a worthless clan.
My paternal grandmother had the maiden name of McDonald, but she always said that her family came from County Meath, Ireland.
Well, my paternal line traces back to Ireland, then east to Scotland, then to the U.S. in 1696. This was not uncommon, and neither was a back-and-forth movement. Same people for the most part, so it wouldn’t exactly be a stretch to believe you may have ancestors here.
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