On a certain day in 1692, in a remote corner of the Scottish Highlands, English government troops shot, stabbed and burned to death Scottish Highlands a total of 40 Scottish Highlanders. Why, Alan Kennedy asked, would King William III and II authorize such a calculated atrocity? The soldiers rose early, and dawn remained a distant hope. As they assembled in the darkness, they likely could not see the rugged valleys around them, the narrow river in their midst, or the treacherous peaks that surrounded them. Perhaps they did not care either, for the grim task before them was enough to occupy their minds Scottish Highlands. In the name of the United King and Queen of Scotland, William III and Mary II, these roughly 120 men, most of whom were probably from the Scottish lowlands, were charged with the task of bringing order to a remote corner of the kingdom. They were to discipline at gunpoint a group of men who, in the judgment of William and Mary's ministers, had not been sufficiently enthusiastic in their obedience to the authorities.
As they stood in the cold of winter, ready to begin their bloody work, the army could not have known that what they were about to do would forever be remembered as one of the most horrific acts of political violence in English history.On the morning of February 13, 1692, Glencoe became the site of the massacre.
The soldiers, led by Captain Robert Campbell of Glenelg, were stationed at Glencoe for nearly two weeks. The army was ostensibly extracted for a "free season", which meant that the local population (made up of around 200 families) was forced to feed them and board them up - a common punitive mechanism in early modern Scots, such as McDonald's, for not paying taxes. However, preparations for the massacre have been carried out in secret.
It will always be remembered as one of the most horrific acts of political violence in British history
Glenlyon received his final orders on February 12: "You are now ordered to suppress the McDonald's at Rebells, Glenco, and to put to death all persons under the age of seventy. You are to take special care that the old fox and his slaves do not on any account escape you. You must guard all the roads, and no one will escape. You must tell the time accurately."
Kill without hesitation
So Glennon assembled his soldiers at the appointed time, and, skirting the Inverrigan colony, made for the five-mile-long canyon. While he was still there, squads of about twenty men were dispatched to other settlements in the Glen Valley, each with orders to enter the main house and kill without hesitation.
Their first target was Alasdair MacDonald, also known as MacIain, an elderly clan leader and the "old fox" mentioned in Glenlyon's orders. He lived in Powig, near the mouth of the gorge. When the soldiers rushed into his house, he stood up to greet them and began to dress, but when a gunshot struck him in the back, he fell to the ground and died. Marcion's sons, Ian, Alasdair and Archibald, were treated in a similar way, but thanks to the warning of their servants, they all fled to the mountains.
Meanwhile, another party of troops marched towards the settlement of Achnacone, penetrated deep into the ravine, broke into the largest house, and found eight men gathered round a fire. Shots were immediately fired; five of them died, but the others managed to escape. Similar scenes played out all over Glencoe, although the weapon of choice was not always gunfire; in one attack in Likintuim, 80-year-old Archibald MacDonald was shot unconscious and then burned alive in a house where he had taken refuge.
Back in Inverrigan, Glenlyon was not idle. Nine men were bound hand and foot, possibly to keep them from raising the alarm, and shot one by one before the soldiers turned their attention to the rest of the village. The attack seemed chaotic, and many escaped, though others, including an old woman and a boy under five, did not. There was little room for mercy; when Glennon himself tried to save the lives of two young men, one of his colleagues, invoking their orders, overruled him and shot them dead.
Beginning at 7 a.m., Glenlyon began receiving reinforcements from nearby Fort William. By late morning, Glencoe had more than 600 soldiers, but they had little to do. The town of McDonald was littered with smoldering ruins, and most of those not killed had long since fled. Instead, the soldiers rounded up McDonald's cattle and drove them back to Fort William for confiscation-cum-raiding.
The massacre was the result of a combination of short-term crises in the governance of the Scottish Highlands and longer-term trends. Scots have been hostile to Scottish Highlanders since at least the 14th century, and by the 1690s this discourse - which also tended to shape the views of English and other non-Scots - was firmly rooted in the idea that Scottish Highlanders were notions of violence, savagery, uncivilization and basic disorder. To one particularly hostile contemporary observer, Andrew_Fletcher of Salton, they were "more contemptible than the vilest slaves". The worst, it is widely believed, were those who, like Glencoe MacDonalds, lived in Lochaber, a wilderness mountainous region on the southwestern end of the Grand Canyon.
For much of the 17th century, particularly during the reigns of Charles II (1660-85) and James II and VII (1685-89), this antipathy placed particular emphasis on the notion of lawlessness, and as a result, the Highlanders were regarded as incorrigible criminals, most often accused of stealing cattle. Both Charles and James tried various methods to suppress the Highlanders' alleged lawlessness, but as the link between the use of force (or the threat thereof) to bring the Highlanders to a line became more and more apparent. Thus, when William and Mary became King and Queen of Scotland in 1689 (having expelled James VII in the so-called Glorious Revolution), they inherited a kingdom that had become accustomed to treating the inhabitants of the Highlands-probably less than half the population of the whole of Scotland-as a threatening "people". -as a threatening "other" who needed to be tightly controlled.
Potential Suspicion
In the short term, the Glencoe affair had begun three years earlier at Dundee, where John Graham, Viscount Dundee, had raised James VII's flag on April 13, 1689, announcing the beginning of the First James II Rebellion. Dundee's goal was to restore James as King of Scotland, and just two days earlier, the Scottish Parliament had formally declared that James had been deposed and replaced by William and Mary.
Despite the military victory over William's forces at the Battle of Killiecrankie in July, in which Dundee himself was killed, the Rising never posed a particularly serious threat to the new monarch, and by the end of the 1690s it had more or less faded away. Crucially, however, the uprising was sustained almost entirely by Highland manpower, thus confirming underlying suspicions that Highlanders were inherently disloyal and disorganized. The events to come were fundamentally shaped by this belief.
At first, William's government seems to have acted cautiously.
In June 1691, James II began negotiations with the remnants of the James II party, which were held at Aqualad in Berthshire under the leadership of John Campbell, 1st Earl of Breadalbane. In order to ease the negotiations, Bradburne used a slush fund of ￡12,000 to persuade the leaders of the James II party to agree to a three-month ceasefire.
This agreement angered much of the Williamite establishment because of its generosity to James II - after all, it only offered a truce and did not even require the chiefs to abandon their support for James VII. Nevertheless, King William was quick to approve the terms of the Agarad agreement when they were presented to him. There are indications, however, that this apparent moderation masked a more ruthless impulse. The clearest example of this was the establishment of a new military installation at Fort William in 1690, dedicated to providing the government with a coercive force on the ground.
Shortly after the conclusion of the Arcalada negotiations, William upped the ante even further by issuing a proclamation dated August 17, 1691, asking all James II party leaders to sign an oath of allegiance to him by January 1, 1692. If they agreed, they would be pardoned and receive the king's consent; if they disobeyed, they would necessarily be punished.
For some, Glencoe proved the savagery of the Scots and the need for Scotland to be "saved" by a union with England
Over the next few months, all the Jacobite clans surrendered and signed the oath, a process that was largely facilitated by James VII ( JamesVII), who decided in December to release them from the oaths they had previously made to him. But Glencoe's MacDonald was in trouble. Ian arrived at Fort William on December 31, 1691, ready to pledge allegiance to his family. No one at the fort was authorized to receive it. The nearest competent official was at Inveraray, 40 miles away. When MacIain arrived, it was January 6 - five days after the deadline.
The Glencoe-MacDonald family were not the only ones to miss the deadline, but because of the family's small size and long history of perceived trouble, hardliners within the William government felt they could be safely used to teach the brutishly unruly Highlanders a wider lesson. Playing a key role in this was John Dalrymple, Master of Stair, recently appointed Secretary of State by William, who was determined to show his loyalty to the new regime, and on January 7, 1692, Stair issued a decree requiring that all who failed to take the oath of office must be put to death.
A third set of orders, dated January 16 and signed by William himself, confirmed that McDonald was to be "removed". In accordance with these instructions, Glenlyon was sent to Glencoe on February 1 to await approval.
Vigorous public protest
Two weeks later, the bloodshed was a resounding success in the immediate goal of eliminating Highland Jacobitism. After the Glencoe massacre, William never again faced serious James II agitation in Scotland. But that security was offset by devastating reputational damage.
At first, news of the massacre spread slowly. It was not until two months later that the first report of the atrocity appeared in the newspapers - in the form of a brief and rather dispassionate account of the killings, which took place in the James II party press in Paris. Soon, however, the English Jacobins began to capitalize on Glencoe's propaganda potential, and a steady stream of pamphlets, beginning in late 1692, caused a public outcry.
Even in an age accustomed to violence, the government's cold, calculating behavior at Glencoe was shocking, given that the soldiers had lived with their victims for two weeks before attacking them. King William, who was supposed to be the antidote to the despotic regime of JamesVII and the defender of liberty throughout Europe, may now be seen as more evil than the worst of continental tyrants.
In 1693, the Scottish Parliament met and demanded an inquiry into the massacre, a demand that was reiterated even more forcefully in the session of 1695. This time the authorities relented and a Commission of Inquiry was set up, which submitted its report to the King in June.
The 1695 report condemned the massacre, calling it murder and declaring it "barbarous and inhuman". Most of the major players, including soldiers and, most importantly, the king himself, escaped condemnation. But a scapegoat was soon found, and the man chosen to take the blame was John Dalrymple, master of Stair.
The report reads, "The letter of the Master of Styles went beyond His Majesty's instructions for the killing and destruction of the Glencomans." The report goes on to say that Dalrymple "absolutely and positively ordered" the McDonald family to be "destroyed, with no other consideration than that they had not been paid in time."
The Commission thus portrayed Dalrymple as a bloodthirsty obsessive who deliberately betrayed the King's trust, and he was formally censured in Parliament. He never faced trial, but was apparently set to take the blame for the whole sorry affair, and so before the end of the year he was relieved of his duties as Secretary of State.
The height of horror
Many of the McDonald's eventually returned to Glencoe, which was not inhabited until at least the 18th century. Today, little remains of the original settlement or of the massacre itself; visitors must make do with a stone memorial and a modern visitor center. But the murders that took place on that cold February morning in 1692 have long since become stigmatized, and over the years they have been forced to serve a wide variety of agendas.
Some argue that the massacre was a testament to the brutality of the Scots, and that it helped to prove that the Anglo-Scottish Union of 1707 had "saved" Scotland. Others see it as a major damage to the country by the monarchy, which was more interested in England (and especially, in William's case, the Netherlands). The reading of history is more pro-independence than pro-union.
Some saw the Holocaust as the terrible culmination of the Highlanders' mania for violence and strife, which they used to justify the backwardness of Gaelic culture. Others saw Glencoe as a form of anti-Gaelic ethnic cleansing, arguing that it highlighted the fundamental incompatibility of Scottish Gaelic and Lowlander identities.
Many of these interpretations are historically untenable. Yet they demonstrate how the Glencoe massacre gradually entered the Scottish national consciousness. Today, the National Trust for Scotland, which owns much of the glen, is preparing to invest ￡300,000 in a new archaeological survey of its history. It is a good time to reconsider the events of 1692. Above all, we should recognize that behind the layers of mutual recriminations, myths and fabricated stories lies a wrenching human tragedy that still has the power to shock more than three centuries later.
How many years did the Scottish Highland Rebellion lastThe Scottish Highland Rebellion lasted 39 years, from 1707 to 1746.
The main conflict in the world in the 17th and 18th centuries was between feudalism and capitalism. The establishment of capitalist states and institutions was the main theme of this era, and the English bourgeois revolution was an important movement in this melody, which had a significant impact on the whole world.
By the middle of the 17th century, Britain had become a maritime power with vast colonies. Markets expanded and wealth increased, while domestic workshop crafts had already developed considerably. The development of the capitalist economy greatly strengthened the power of the bourgeoisie and the new aristocracy. At that time, the feudal economic base of Britain disintegrated, but the superstructure that protected it was unwilling to automatically withdraw from the stage of history, which became
What level is the Scottish Highland LeagueThe Scottish Highland League level is the lowest tier of the professional soccer league in Scotland. According to the query relevant public information shows Scottish Highlands, the league includes 14 teams Scottish Highlands, respectively Scottish Highlands: AberdeenUniversityFC Scottish Highlands, Buckie, Buckie, Buckie, Buckie, Buckie and Buckie. strong>, BuckieThistleFCScottish Highlands, ClachnacuddinFC, FortWilliamFC, FormartineUnitedFC, HuntlyFC, InverurieLocoWorksFC. KeithFC, LossiemouthFC, NairnCountyFC, StrathspeyThistleFC, WickAcademyFC, BroraRangersFC and WickAcademyFC.
Is Cambridge Oxford next to London? What's the relationship between the Scottish Highlands and the English Lake District? Where is the Isle of Sky? Where is Edinburgh1.The University of Cambridge is located 50 miles north of London in the Scottish Highlands in the county of CambridgeshireScottish Highlands, which itself is a small English town of about 100,000 inhabitants.
2. The University of Oxford is located in the Scottish Highlands of Oxfordshire, England, about 90 kilometers from London.
3.The Scottish Highlands are not related to the English Lake District.
The Scottish Highlands is the name given to the mountainous area west and north of the Scottish Highland Boundary Fault.
And the British Lake District is located on the northwest coast of England, near the Scottish border in a circle of 2300 square kilometers, was designated as a national park in 1951, is the largest of the eleven national parks in England and Wales.
4, the island of the sky is the largest island in the Hebrides, Scotland, it is also the second largest island in the United Kingdom, after the Outer Hebrides of Lewis and Harris Island (excluding the two "mainland" islands of the United Kingdom), and the closest to the mainland of Scotland.
5, Edinburgh is a famous British cultural city, the capital of Scotland, is located in the central lowlands of Scotland, the south shore of the Firth of Forth.
/iknow-pic.cdn.bcebos.com/9922720e0cf3d7caf388a007fd1fbe096b63a941 "target="_blank "title=""class="ikqb_img_alink"/iknow-pic. cdn.bcebos.com/9922720e0cf3d7caf388a007fd1fbe096b63a941?x-bce-process=image%2Fresize%2Cm_lfit%2Cw_600%2Ch_800%2Climit_1%2Fquality% 2Cq_85%2F 2Cq_85%2Fformat%2Cf_auto "esrc=""/
Extended information:
In Scottish In Gaelic, the Island in the Sky is known as Eileana'Cheò, meaning "Island in the Mist". It is a misty, isolated island, hence its name.
This small island from the Mesolithic era of human activity, although and the United Kingdom island is only separated by a strait, but due to the closed traffic and weather, making it difficult to get in and out of, until 1995 built Scottish Highlands Scottish Highlands Sky Bridge across the Lochalsh Channel, to be able to connect with Scotland.
The bridge, which has been described as "a bridge to fairyland that opens the gates of heaven to the world", is dramatic and fascinating in the unpredictability of the weather: when the rain clears and the light breaks through the clouds, the light takes on the shape of pure liquid gold coins, and every moment of the illusion of light and shadow is worthy of being captured on camera.
How high are the Scottish HighlandsBetween 600 and 1,000 meters above sea level.
The Scottish Highlands is the name given to the mountainous area west and north of the Scottish Highland Boundary Fault. Many people refer to the Scottish Highlands as the most scenic region in Europe.
The Scottish Highlands consist of ancient, split plateaus. Ancient rocks were split into glens and lochs by water currents and glaciers. What remains is a very irregular mountainous area. Almost all the mountain tops are about the same height.
The Scottish Highlands are sparsely populated and have several mountain ranges, including Mount Ben Nevis, the highest peak in the United Kingdom. Although it is located on the densely populated island of Great Britain, it is less densely populated than places like Sweden and Norway at similar latitudes.
The beauty of the Scottish Highlands is epic, with sea breezes like a never-ending song, deep blue mountains covered with a layer of purple sky, and the edges of the sky studded with pink clouds, as if this layer of the sky is a little smaller in size for the Scottish Highlands;
From a distance, large pebbles cascade from the tops of the mountains, and then flow into a deep green grassland; and the Scottish lochs that were scattered everywhere, reflecting at times the changes of the firmament.
Scottish Highlands at a Glance
In summer, the sun likes to linger at sunrise and sunset, while in winter, daytime is a brief liaison between dawn and dusk.
The starry night sky is always cool and bright, enveloping the beautiful, silent Scottish Highlands. Walking in the magnificent Scottish Highlands, you can feel a sense of desolation and poignancy, and the sound of bagpipes may be the only thing that can be nurtured in such a landscape.