As a blood member of Clan Campbell I always make every effort to avoid the subject of Glencoe. For some reason though I picked up this book and I am glad that I did. John Prebble has done an excellent job of telling the whole story in this book and I have found that the legends leave a lot of the story out. This is a book that would be of interest to all people with Scottish ancestry, especially to those of Clans Campbell and MacDonald. It seems that King William had become the target of mocking tongues around Europe because he could not control the Highlanders. He and his Secretary for Scotland, the Master of Stair were willing to do anything to solve the problem except spend money. Stair, a Lowlander had the normal Lowlander's hatred for the Highlanders and it was he who was most responsible for the massacre. But there is plenty of blame to go around.
The Campbells of course are not blameless for they actually carried out to plan, although they had no idea what they had been sent to Glencoe for until just hours before the deed was to be carried out. There were also very thinly veiled threats against the commander of the expedition if he failed to carry out the orders delivered to him less than twelve hours before the massacre was to commence. Campbell of Glenlyon, the commander of the troops involved, and most of his command had very good reason to despise the MacDonalds of Glencoe and were well chosen for the mission. After the massacre many Campbell troops carried home household items and animals that had been stolen from them by this set of MacDonalds. There was even a kettle in the chief's kitchen that had been stolen from the Campbell commander himself. Still warnings were apparently given to some of the Glencoe families and that along with a blinding snowstorm allowed most of the intended victims to escape. The author makes a very good argument that if Lowland or English troops had been sent instead of Campbells, the slaughter would have been much greater.
MacDonald of Glencoe himself must bear part of the blame for he knew full well that he must take the oath of loyalty before his local sheriff but since that officer was a Campbell he showed up at Fort William only twenty-four hours before the deadline hoping to avoid appearing before the Campbell sheriff. The commander of the fort as well as the Sheriff were sympathetic to MacDonald and asked that his late submission be accepted. The Master of Stair again enters the picture, making sure the oath wasn't accepted and ordering the attack. Even James II bears some responsibility as he delayed for an unreasonable time in freeing the clans from their oath to him, thereby putting his most loyal supporters in grave danger for no real reason.
Stair had assumed that there would be no repercussions from the raid since no one seemed to be all that fond of the MacDonalds of Glencoe. They had after all stolen from most of their neighbors and Stair figured this was just the group to hold out as an example of what happened to those who opposed King William. On one point Stair was correct for several other chiefs after hearing of Glencoe began to submit to the King. Stair had not taken into account the political hay that could be made of such an event however and he would shortly pay the price. The Jacobites were quick to try and use the massacre for their own purpose but they never got very far. On the other hand, Stair's political enemies were much more successful and in the end the King blamed Stair and the troops involved for the whole mess. It's good to be the King!
Well written, interesting account of an event that was and is far more notorious among Lowland and English politicians and American tourists than among the Clans themselves. Not a proud moment for us Campbells but I enjoyed the book anyhow.
