Hampered by lack of men and resources, Dundee gambled on a decisive battle which he hoped would attract wider support. Although Killiecrankie was an unexpected and stunning victory, his army suffered heavy casualties and he was killed in the final minutes. It did little to change the overall strategic position, and the Jacobites were unable to take advantage of their success.
By 1680, over 95% of Scots belonged to the Church of Scotland, or the Kirk; Catholics numbered less than 2% of the population and even other Protestant sects were barred.[3] The 1681 Scottish Test Act required holders of public office to be members of the Kirk; James' attempts to repeal it undermined his own supporters, while rewarding the extreme Presbyterians who backed Argyll in 1685.[4]
In June 1688, two events turned dissent into a crisis, the first being the birth of James Francis Edward on 10 June. This created the prospect of a Catholic dynasty, rather than James being succeeded by his Protestant daughter Mary, and her husband William of Orange. The second was the prosecution of the Seven Bishops, which seemed to extend official policy beyond mere tolerance for Catholicism to an assault on the established church. Their acquittal on 30 June destroyed James' political authority in both Scotland and England.[5]
In 1685, many feared a return to civil war if James were bypassed; by 1688, anti-Catholic riots made it seem only his removal could prevent one.[6] William landed in Brixham on 5 November with 14,000 men; as he advanced, James' army deserted, and he went into exile on 23 December. The Parliament of England offered the English throne to William and Mary in February 1689.[7]
On 14 March, a Convention met in Edinburgh to agree a settlement for Scotland. The Convention was dominated by supporters of the new administration, with 'Jacobites' restricted to those linked to James by religion or personal ties.[8] However, the number of activists on either side was tiny, the vast majority being unenthusiastic about either option. On 12 March, James landed in Ireland, and the Convention offered the Scottish throne to William and Mary on 11 April. On the following day, Dundee raised the Royal Standard on Dundee Law.[9]
William's military commander in Scotland was General Hugh Mackay, head of the veteran Dutch Scots Brigade. His force of 3,500 included the Brigade regiments of Mackay, Balfour and Ramsay, the English Hastings Regiment and two newly raised Scots units. When Ewen Cameron of Lochiel learned of William's landing, he began recruiting men to fight for James; but the short-term nature of clan warfare meant they needed to be put to use as soon as possible.[10]
In April, Dundee joined him at Glenroy and on 18 May, took his force of around 1,800 Highlanders and attempted to bring Mackay to battle. He failed to do so and returned in June, after which most of the clansmen went home, leaving him with less than 200 men.[11] On 27 June, Dundee wrote to the Earl of Melfort asking for reinforcements; the loss of Kintyre after the Battle of Loup Hill made resupply from Ireland extremely difficult, and the letter details alternative landing spots. As time went on, his position weakened due to continued defections – the surrender of Edinburgh Castle on 14 June being especially discouraging.[12]
His requests for additional resources were denied, partly due to an internal dispute with the Catholic 'Non-Compounders', who dominated James's court in Ireland and urged him to refuse any concessions to regain his throne. Dundee and other Scottish Jacobites were mostly Protestant 'Compounders', for whom concessions were essential, and thus viewed with suspicion. The only reinforcements sent to Scotland were 300 Irish soldiers under the Catholic Alexander Cannon, who landed near Duart Castle on 21 July.[13]
A 'Jacobite' garrison under Patrick Stewart of Ballechin occupied Blair Castle, a strategic point controlling access to the Lowlands and seat of John Murray, 1st Marquess of Atholl. This illustrates how many families balanced both sides; claiming ill-health, Atholl went to England, leaving his eldest son, John Murray, to 'besiege' his ancestral home. Stewart himself was a trusted family retainer and one of Atholl's key lieutenants in the suppression of Argyll's Rising in 1685.[14]
In late July, Jacobite reinforcements arrived at Blair; Murray withdrew and Mackay moved north to support him, with somewhere between 3,600 and 5,100 troops. Seeing a chance to intercept, Dundee set out with his available forces, ordering the clans to follow "with all haste." Lochiel's sons were sent to raise additional levies; he and 240 Camerons plus Cannon's Irish contingent reached Blair on 26 July.[15]
On the morning of 27 July, Dundee learned Mackay's forces were entering the Pass of Killiecrankie, a track nearly 3 kilometres (1.9mi) long with the River Garry on the left and steep hills on either side. Sir Alexander McLean and 400 men were sent to skirmish with the advance guard, while Dundee assembled the rest of his troops on the lower slopes of Creag Eallich, north of the pass. As they advanced into the pass, the government army had the Jacobites on the high ground above and the river behind, while the narrow track made advance or retreat equally hazardous. Mackay halted, moved off the track and deployed his troops facing uphill in a long line, only three men deep, to maximise firepower.[16]
Mackay's force included Balfour, Ramsay and Mackay's regiments of the Scots Brigade, along with the newly raised regiments of Kenmure and Leven, part of Hastings' regiment, and 100 cavalry. As the most experienced, the Scots Brigade under Balfour and Lauder was placed on the left, which provided the best field of fire.[17]
The Jacobites formed into columns and were in position by late afternoon but Dundee waited until sunset, just after 8:00pm to begin his attack. Balfour's front line fired three volleys, killing nearly 600 Highlanders but their fire was partly masked by a shallow terrace on the hillside, while the regiments to their right apparently fled without firing a shot.[18] Following their usual tactics, the Highlanders fired a single volley at 50 metres, dropped their muskets, and using axes and swords crashed into Mackay's centre.[19]
Killiecrankie is the first major action in which British troops are known to have employed the plug bayonet. Once 'plugged' into the musket barrel, further reloading or firing was no longer possible, so fixing them was delayed until the last possible moment. Inexperience in their use and the speed of the Highland charge left the government troops defenceless and many fled, abandoning Balfour, who was killed along with James Mackay, Hugh's younger brother.[20]
Aftermath
Mackay managed to reform Hastings and Leven's regiments from the centre and right; some 800 men made it back to Stirling with relative ease, while others straggled in over the next few days. The Highlanders halted their pursuit to loot the baggage train, and their own casualties were enormous, with between 600 and 800 wounded or killed, the vast majority on the government left. Dundee was fatally wounded towards the end of the battle, and died shortly afterwards; a letter sent under his name to James reporting the victory is generally thought to be a forgery, although it provides a useful summary of the action.[21]
The stone marking the alleged spot where Dundee died
Based on muster rolls before and after the battle, government losses were around 2,000 killed, wounded or missing, although some of the "missing" may well have deserted. As colonels were paid for the number of men in their regiment, there was an obvious temptation to over-report pre-battle figures, but it is possible they suffered losses of up to 50%.[22]
Alexander Cannon took over as leader, and while not as talented a commander as Dundee, he faced the same problems; without siege equipment, he could not capture a port, making resupply almost impossible, while lack of cavalry made them vulnerable in the open. In addition, his most reliable unit, the Camrons, suffered particularly heavy casualties, while many other Highlanders went home with their loot. These factors meant time was on Mackay's side, so long as he avoided another ambush.[20]
After an assault on Dunkeld in August was repulsed with heavy losses, Cannon ended the campaign. Mackay spent the winter reducing Jacobite strongholds and constructing a new base at Fort William, while harsh weather conditions led to severe food shortages.[23] When Thomas Buchan replaced Cannon in February 1690, he could only mobilise some 800 men; he was taken by surprise at Cromdale in May and his forces scattered. Mackay pursued him into Aberdeenshire and in November 1690 relinquished command to Livingstone.[24]
In 2004, a fragment of a hand grenade was found, providing evidence of their first use in Britain 30 years earlier than that previously recorded at Glen Shiel in 1719.[25] A detailed survey carried out in 2015 confirmed the location and intensity of the close-quarter fighting, along with the discovery of large numbers of pistol and musket balls.[26]
The Massacre of Glencoe took place in Glen Coe in the Highlands of Scotland on 13 February 1692. An estimated 30 members and associates of Clan MacDonald of Glencoe were killed by Scottish government forces, allegedly for failing to pledge allegiance to the new monarchs, William III and Mary II.
John Graham, 7th of Claverhouse, 1st Viscount Dundee was a Scottish soldier and nobleman, a Tory and an Episcopalian. He was responsible for policing southwest Scotland during and after the religious unrest and rebellion of the late 17th century, and went on to lead the Jacobite rising of 1689.
Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel was a Scottish soldier and the 17th Chief of Clan Cameron. He fought as a Cavalier during the Civil War and would go on to become one the principal Jacobite leaders during the 1689 Rising. He is regarded as one of the most formidable Scottish clan chiefs of all time. Whig statesman and historian Lord Macaulay praised him as the "Ulysses of the Highlands" and further wrote, "Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel, surnamed Black, was in personal qualities unrivaled among the Celtic Princes. He was a gracious master, a trusty ally, a terrible enemy." An incident demonstrating Lochiel's strength and ferocity in single combat, when he tore out the throat of an enemy with his teeth, is used by Sir Walter Scott in Lady of the Lake.
Hugh Mackay was a professional soldier from Sutherlandshire in Scotland, who spent most of his career in the service of William of Orange and later settled in the Dutch Republic. He was killed at the Battle of Steenkerque in July 1692.
The Battle of Dunkeld was fought between Jacobite clans supporting the deposed king James VII of Scotland and a regiment of covenanters supporting William of Orange, King of Scotland, in the streets around Dunkeld Cathedral, Dunkeld, Scotland, on 21 August 1689 and formed part of the Jacobite rising of 1689, commonly called Dundee's rising in Scotland. The battlefield was added to the Inventory of Historic Battlefields in Scotland in 2012.
The Highland charge was a battlefield shock tactic used by the clans of the Scottish Highlands which incorporated the use of firearms.
The Battle of Glen Shiel took place on 10 June 1719 in the West Scottish Highlands, during the 1719 Jacobite Rising. A Jacobite army composed of Highland levies and Spanish marines, was defeated by British troops, reinforced by a Highland Independent Company.
Clan Cameron is a West Highland Scottish clan, with one main branch Lochiel, and numerous cadet branches. The Clan Cameron lands are in Lochaber and within their lands lies Ben Nevis which is the highest mountain in the British Isles. The Chief of the clan is customarily referred to as simply "Lochiel".
Donald Cameron of Lochiel, popularly known as the Gentle Lochiel, was a Scottish Jacobite, soldier and hereditary chief of Clan Cameron, traditionally loyal to the exiled House of Stuart. His support for Charles Edward Stuart proved pivotal in the early stages of the 1745 Rising. Lochiel was among the Highlanders defeated at the Battle of Culloden, and thereafter went into hiding before eventually fleeing to France.
Alexander Cannon was a Scottish professional soldier in the second half of the 17th century, who served in the armies of William of Orange and James VII and II.
The Battle of Loup Hill took place near Loup Hill in Kintyre on 16 May 1689, during the Jacobite rising of 1689, a connected conflict of the Williamite War in Ireland.
Ewen MacPherson of Cluny, known as "Cluny Macpherson", was the Chief of Clan MacPherson during the Jacobite Rising of 1745. He took part as a leading supporter of Prince Charles Edward Stuart. After the rebellion was crushed, he went into hiding and eventually escaped to France. He was the uncle of poet James Macpherson, who collected, translated, and adapted the epic poem Ossian, based upon the Fenian Cycle of Celtic mythology.
Robert Duncanson, 1658 to May 1705, was a Scottish professional soldier from Inveraray; a retainer of the Earl of Argyll, he began his career during the 1685 Argyll's Rising, and is now best remembered for his involvement in the February 1692 Glencoe massacre.
The Glorious Revolution in Scotland refers to the Scottish element of the 1688 Glorious Revolution, in which James VII was replaced by his daughter Mary II and her husband William II as joint monarchs of Scotland and England. Prior to 1707, the two kingdoms shared a common monarch but were separate legal entities, so decisions in one did not bind the other. In both countries, the Revolution confirmed the primacy of Parliament over the Crown, while the Church of Scotland was re-established as a Presbyterian rather than Episcopalian polity.
The Independent Highland Companies were irregular militia raised from the Scottish clans of the Scottish Highlands by order of the British government between 1603 and 1760 in order to help keep the peace and enforce the law in the Highlands and were recognized as such by the government. The officers of the Independent Highland Companies were commissioned as officers of the British Army but the Independent Companies were not recognized as official regiments of the line of the army. The Independent Highland Companies were the progenitors of the Highland Regiments of the British Army that began when ten Independent Highland Companies were embodied to form the Earl of Crawford's Highland Regiment that was numbered the 43rd Regiment of Foot in 1739.
Thomas Buchan (c.1641–1724) was a Scottish professional soldier from a Catholic family in Aberdeenshire who served in the armies of France, the Netherlands and Scotland. He remained loyal to James II after the 1688 Glorious Revolution and participated in the War in Ireland before taking command of Jacobite forces in Scotland in February 1690. After the Highland chiefs submitted to William III in early 1692, he was given safe passage to France and later allowed to return home in 1703. He maintained links with the Stuart exiles and played a small role in the 1715 Rising but escaped punishment and died at Fyvie in 1724.
Lieutenant-General George Ramsay was a younger son of the Earl of Dalhousie and Scottish professional soldier.
Lieutenant-General James Douglas (1645–1691), younger brother of the Duke of Queensberry, was a Scottish military officer, who served as MP for Peeblesshire in the 1685 to 1686 Parliament of Scotland.
The Jacobite rising of 1689 was a conflict fought primarily in the Scottish Highlands, whose objective was to put James VII back on the throne, following his deposition by the November 1688 Glorious Revolution. Named after "Jacobus", the Latin for James, his supporters were known as 'Jacobites' and the associated political movement as Jacobitism. The 1689 rising was the first of a series of rebellions and plots seeking to restore the House of Stuart that continued into the late 18th century.
Sir Thomas Livingstone, Viscount Teviot was a military officer of Scottish descent who was born in the Dutch Republic, and spent his career in the service of William of Orange.
Lenman, Bruce (1995). The Jacobite Risings in Britain, 1689–1746. Scottish Cultural Press. ISBN189821820X.
Mackay, John (1836). Life of Lieut.-Gen. Hugh Mackay of Scoury: Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in Scotland, 1689 and 1690 (2017ed.). Forgotten Books. ISBN1333263538.
Macpherson, James (1775). Original Papers: Containing the Secret History of Great Britain (2017ed.). Hansebooks. ISBN3743435721.
Miller, John (1978). James II: A study in kingship. Methuen. ISBN978-0413652904.
Oliver, Neil; Pollard, Tony (2003). Two Men in a Trench II: Uncovering the Secrets of British Battlefields (2015ed.). Penguin. ISBN0141012129.
Private and local clan battles (Many of these also had links at national level, including the feuds between Clan Donald and the Crown, Clan Douglas and the Crown and the Mary, Queen of Scots civil war)
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Covenanters 
Jacobites 
