47. James VII. 1685-1688. The Killing Time.—The death of Charles and the accession of James rather made matters worse than better for the people. Another defiance from the Cameronians, called the Apologetical Declaration, was met by an Act which gave the soldiers power at once to put to death anyone who would not take the Abjuration Oath; that is, swear that they abhorred and renounced this treasonable Declaration. A time of cruel slaughter followed, in which Claverhouse was the chief persecutor. Many heartrending tales are told of the sufferings of the poor creatures whose fanaticism led them to persist in refusing to take this oath. There is a story told that one John Brown, known as the "Christian Carrier," a man of great repute among them, was shot dead by Claverhouse himself, almost without warning, before the eyes of his wife. At another time two women, Margaret Maclauchlan and Margaret Wilson—one old, the other young—were, it is said, tied to stakes on the Solway shore, that they might be drowned by inches by the flowing tide. These tales and others of a like sort, bear witness to the brutality of the one side and to the constancy of the other. Early in James's reign an Act was passed by which attending a Conventicle became a capital crime.
48. Argyle's Rising.—Monmouth was in Holland when his father died, and many refugees from England and Scotland were there with him. Among them they got up a scheme for placing him on the throne in place of his uncle James, who was hated, while Monmouth was very popular. To carry this out they planned a rising, which was to have taken place at the same time in both kingdoms. Argyle was to take the lead in Scotland, but he was subject to the interference of a Committee chosen from among the others. The Government was informed of this intended outbreak, and all the clans that were known to be hostile to Argyle were roused against him. Early in May he landed in Kintyre, and sent out the fiery cross to summon his clansmen, who mustered to the number of 1800. But the quarrels and the jealousy of the Committee placed over him overthrew all his plans. By their advice he marched into the Lowlands, where the people were little disposed to join him. The fort where he had stored his arms and ammunition was seized by the King's men. His men were starving. They deserted in large numbers, and were at last dispersed by a false alarm as they were marching on Glasgow. Argyle himself was taken while trying to escape. He was still lying under the old sentence of death, which had been passed against him for leasing-making. This sentence was executed without any further trial, and with a repetition of all the indignities which had been heaped upon Montrose. After his death the vengeance of the Government fell on his clansmen. The country round Inverary was wasted, while great numbers of the clan were transported to the plantations, many of them having been first cruelly mutilated. At the first alarm of the invasion a large body of prisoners for religious opinion, of all ages and both sexes, had been sent to Dunnottar, a strong castle on the coast of Kincardine, where they were so closely crowded together in one dungeon that many died there. Most of the survivors were also sent to the plantations.
49. The Indulgence.—Up to this time the Council had blindly followed in the lead of the King. They would now do so no longer, as they feared that he meant to restore the Roman Catholic Faith. The Duke of Queensberry, the Commissioner, was deprived of his office, and James Drummond, Earl of Perth, a convert to Romanism, was placed in his stead. James next tried to get a Bill passed by which all the penalties against the Roman Catholics should be done away, while those against the Covenanters should remain in force. To this Bill even the bishops objected, and James saw that there was nothing for it but to treat all sects alike. He published several Indulgences, but it was only the last, in 1688, that was full and complete. It extended toleration to all, even to the Quakers, who had up to this time been as much despised and persecuted as the Covenanters.
50. Deposition of James.—This change of policy on the part of the King had come too late. His attack on the liberties of the Church in England had been resisted by seven of her bishops; and before long his English subjects resolved to bear his tyranny no longer. They invited his nephew and son-in-law, William, Prince of Orange, to come to their aid. He came, and was by common consent invited to mount the throne abdicated by James. When the news of William's entry into London reached Edinburgh, a deputation, headed by Hamilton, was sent to him, to pray him to call a Convention of the Estates, and, till it met, to take the government of Scotland into his own hands, Jan. 7th, 1689.
51. William and Mary, 1689-1702. The Convention. —When the Convention met there was a large Whig majority. They passed a resolution that James by his misgovernment had forfeited the throne; they therefore deposed him, and offered the crown to William and his wife Mary, the daughter of James, on the same terms as had been made in England. The Convention then turned itself into a Parliament, which went on to the end of the reign. The members went in procession to the Cross of Edinburgh, where their vote was read. William and Mary were then proclaimed; and the ministers of parishes were ordered to pray publicly for the King and Queen, on pain of being turned out of their livings. To the Claim of Right, which was much the same as the English one, a special clause was added, declaring prelacy to be an intolerable burthen which had long been hateful to the people, and which ought to be swept away. Three Commissioners were sent with the Instrument of Government to London. Argyle administered the coronation oath; but William, while taking it, declared that he would not become a persecutor in support of any sect.
52. The Rabbling.—The fall of James was followed by the fall of the Episcopal Church, which had made itself hateful to the greater number of the people. They took the law into their own hands, and on Christmas Day, 1688, a general attack was made on the curates or parish priests in the Western Lowlands. About two hundred curates with their families were at once driven out of their houses with every sort of insult and abuse. William did not approve of these excesses, but he had no means of putting a stop to them, for there was no regiment north of the Tweed. He put forth a proclamation ordering all persons to lay down their arms, but it was little heeded. The rabbling and turning out went on much as before. If the bishops would have taken the oaths, William would most likely have protected them; but they remained true to their old master, and shared his fall. For a time all was disorder. In some parishes the curates went on ministering as heretofore, while in others the Presbyterian divines held services in tents, or illegally occupied the pulpits. It was not till June 1690 that the Presbyterian Church was re-established by law. Sixty of the ministers who had been turned out at the Restoration were still living, and to them was given authority to visit all the parishes, and to turn out all those curates whom they thought wanting in abilities, scandalous in morals, or unsound in faith. Those livings from which the curates had been rabbled and driven away were declared vacant. This way of dealing with the Church gave offence both to the Episcopalians and to the extreme Presbyterians, who did not approve of the interference of the King in Church matters. Both these parties continued to look on William and Mary as usurpers.
53. Dundee's Revolt.—When the Convention first met, each party, Whigs and Jacobites alike, had dreaded an outbreak on the part of the other. In the cellars of the city were hidden large numbers of Covenanters, who had been brought up from the West to overawe the Jacobites, while the Duke of Gordon held the Castle for James, and he could, if he had so chosen, have turned the guns upon the city. But the Jacobites, finding themselves in the minority, determined to leave Edinburgh, and to hold a rival Convention at Stirling; while it was agreed that the Marquess of Athole should bring a body of his Highlanders to protect them. But this plan was so ill concerted that Claverhouse, now Viscount Dundee, left hastily before the others were ready, an alarm was given, and they were all secured. Dundee withdrew to his own house in the Highlands, and stayed there quietly for some time. But a few months later certain letters written to him by James fell into the hands of the Government, and an order was sent out for his arrest. Thus roused to action, he summoned the clans for King James. Many of them joined him, more from hatred of Argyle than from love for James. General Mackay, who had come North with three regiments, was sent against him; but he was not used to the Highland way of fighting, and wasted some weeks in running about after an enemy who always kept out of his way. Dundee had no regular troops, but, as Montrose had done before him, he showed what good soldiers the Celts can make with a good leader. As both Dundee and Montrose were Lowlanders, they could not excite the jealousy of the chiefs, and were all the better fitted for the supreme command of a Celtic army. Each clan in such an army formed a regiment bound together by a tie of common brotherhood, and all bound to live or die for the colonel their chief; and so long as the clans could be kept from quarrelling all went well. Dundee wrote to James, who was now in Ireland, for help; but he only sent three hundred miserably-equipped foot, under an officer named Canon. The hopes of the Whigs were placed in Argyle and the western Covenanters, but neither of these did all that was expected of them. Argyle could not, because his country had been so lately wasted; and the Covenanters would not, because the more part of them thought it a sin to fight for a King who had not signed the Covenant. Some of them however thought otherwise, and of these a regiment was raised, and placed under the command of the Earl of Angus. This regiment was called the Cameronians.
54. Battle of Killiecrankie.—The war now broke out again. It was the great aim of each party to win over the adherents of Athole. The Marquess himself, to keep out of harm's way, had gone to England, and of those whom he had left to act for him some were for James, others for the King and Queen. It was of importance to both sides to secure the castle of Blair, which belonged to Athole, and near there the two armies met, at Killiecrankie, a pass leading into the Highlands. Here the Celts won a brilliant and decided victory. The clansmen charged sword in hand down the pass with such fury that they swept their foes before them; and Mackay, with a few hundred men, all he could gather of his scattered army, was forced to flee to Stirling, July 27, 1689. But this success had been dearly bought by the death of Dundee. Thus left without a leader, the victors thought more of plunder than pursuit; nor was there anyone among them fitted to fill Dundee's place, and to follow up the advantage he had won. Recruits came in, their numbers increased, but this only made the disorder greater.
55. Attack on Dunkeld. Buchan's Attempt.—A month later they attacked the Cameronian regiment stationed at Dunkeld. They took the town at the first attack, but the soldiers defended themselves in the church and in a house belonging to Athole in the town with such spirit, that the Highlanders were driven back. They blamed the Irish for the defeat, and the Irish blamed them, and the end of it was that the clans dispersed, and Canon and his Irish withdrew to Mull. In the spring of the next year the clans gathered again, under an officer named Buchan, who came from James with a commission to act as his commander-in-chief in Scotland. But they were surprised and scattered in the strath of the Spey, by Sir William Livingstone, who held Inverness for William. This action ended the Civil War in Scotland, for Gordon had long since given up Edinburgh Castle. To keep the western clans in order, Mackay built a fort in the west of Invernesshire, which was called Fort William, in honour of the King. The castle on the Bass, a rock in the Firth of Forth, was the last place which held out for James, but the garrison were at last obliged to give in, from want of food.
56. Reduction of the Highlands.—Still the chiefs did not take the oaths to William, and were clearly only waiting for the appearance of a new leader to break out again. To win them over to the Government a large sum of money was put into the hands of John Campbell, Earl of Breadalbane. He was accused of cheating both the clans and the King by keeping a part of this sum himself, and he never gave any clear account of what he had done with it. At the same time a proclamation was put forth which offered pardon to all the rebels who should take the oaths to William and Mary before or on December 31, 1691. All who did not take advantage of this offer were after that day to be dealt with as enemies and traitors, and warlike preparations were made for carrying out the threat.