Scotland Back in the Day: Victory and death – the story of Bonnie Dundee

By most historians’ reckoning there were actually five such risings between 1689 and 1746 when Culloden finished Jacobite military resistance once and for all. The planned French invasion of Britain in 1759 originally involved the Young Pretender, Charles Edward Stuart, but the French were less than impressed by the Bonnie Prince and politely declined his assistance, and the invasion never happened after the Battle of Quiberon Bay saw the Royal Navy smash the French fleet.

In this two-part account, we are going to look at the first and often forgotten rising, often known as Dundee’s Revolt, which took place in 1689-90 and is named after John Graham of Claverhouse, one of the few men in Scottish history who has come down to us with two nicknames – Bluidy Clavers and Bonnie Dundee.

We will look in depth at two extraordinary battles that took place during the rising – Killiecrankie and Dunkeld. Please note also the use of the word rising at all times, as those followers of James, Jacobus in Latin, did not consider themselves rebels.

On 4 November, 1688, Prince William of Orange, the Stadtholder (Steward and leader) of the Dutch provinces, and his wife and cousin, Mary Stuart, daughter of King James II, arrived at Torbay in England to assume the joint throne of England, Scotland, and Ireland – as they were styled – that had been offered to them by the leaders of the aristocratic ‘Parliamentarian’ faction that wanted James deposed largely because he had a Catholic heir, James Francis Edward Stuart, who would later become the Old Pretender.

It was a bloodless coup, James II fleeing to France the following month. The English Convention Parliament of early 1689 confirmed the joint reign of King William III and Queen Mary II. Both were good Protestants, and the Bill of Rights and the ending of any Catholic influence in the affairs of the land made them very popular at first.

Not so in Scotland, where the deposition of King James VII caused huge disagreements within the country. James’s Catholicism had been a great problem for many Presbyterians, and after William arrived in England, there had been riots in Edinburgh and elsewhere with Catholic items destroyed by a mob who attacked James’s chapel in Holyrood Abbey.

William called a Convention of the Estates, like a Parliament only more inclusive of the people who actually ran the country, and in March, 1689, the full extent of the divisions between the various factions in Scotland became obvious.

The Convention was arranged to have William and Mary acclaimed as King and Queen of Scots, with William given the power to rule, though there was much disagreement about his actual powers. As a by-product, Presbyterianism was confirmed as the state religion, and an interesting discussion on a possible union with England did not proceed any further because the English Parliament did not want it.

The real division that emerged was between those loyal to King James II and those who wanted William to rule. It is approximate to say so, but the division was between the Highland clans and Episcopalians mostly from the north east against the Presbyterian lowlanders.

Loyal to James, John Graham, 1st Viscount Dundee, left the Convention in mid-discussions, and defied an order to return, the Convention declaring him to be a rebel. Meanwhile in the north of the country, the great clan warlord Sir Ewan Cameron of Lochiel had already started to rally the clans that were loyal to James.

On April 11, the Convention formally offered the Scottish throne to William and Mary. Two days later on Dundee Law, the city’s famous hill, John Graham raised the standard of King James II and promptly set off for the Highlands and Lochiel.

William quickly named his army commander in Scotland. General Hugh Mackay of Scourie was actually James’s chosen man first, but he had no difficulty in serving William.

Bizarrely, Mackay and Dundee had served together in William’s army in the Netherlands. When a promotion became available, the two candidates had been Mackay and Graham. Despite Graham having saved his life at the Battle of Seneffe in 1674, the dourly Protestant Prince William had chosen Mackay, whose stern Calvinist faith was renowned, prompting the Episcopalian Graham to return home to Scotland.

Mackay had been an officer in Dumbarton’s Regiment when it fought for the Catholic King of France. He married a Dutchwoman, Clara, and her Protestant religion influenced him to become even more Calvinist, so that he transferred to The Scottish Brigade of William’s Army which he eventually commanded.

William of Orange and James Stuart had once been on friendly terms, so Mackay and the Brigade came over to help suppress the Monmouth Rebellion. Though they never fought, such was the Brigade’s professionalism that King James made Mackay a Major-General and a privy councillor for Scotland.

Graham, meanwhile had been helping to suppress the Covenanters, and it’s a matter of dispute as to whether he really earned the nickname given him later by the Presbyterian writers – Bluidy Clavers. He was handsome and debonair, hence his nickname Bonnie, but had the reputation of being a devil in a fight.

BY May, 1689, Bonnie Dundee was most certainly on the other side from Hugh Mackay, whose family estates were at Scourie in Sutherland, near to where his two elder brothers, William and Hector, were brutally murdered in Caithness. No one was ever indicted for that brutal crime.

Mackay’s problem was that his army in Scotland was newly-formed, and consisted of a couple of battle-hardened companies but many more companies with far too many untrained soldiers. They were given basic drill in musket, bayonet, pike and sword, but they would be up against determined and experienced Highlanders who were very used to battle –usually against each other, it has to be said.

General Mackay’s tactics were simple: to contain the Highland army which was soon bolstered by troops from James’s loyal forces in Ireland led by a Colonel Cannon.

Mackay had some success in Inverness and elsewhere by putting garrisons into forts and castles to ensure that surrounding areas did not join the rebellion.

It was clear that Dundee would lead his army south, and Blair Castle in Atholl was seen by both sides as crucial as it gave the perfect jumping-off point for invasion of the lowlands.

The Marquess of Atholl promptly went on holiday to Bath, and his son Lord John Murray returned home to find the Castle occupied by his father’s chamberlain, Patrick Stewart of Ballenich, who had taken charge of Blair in the name of Dundee.

Slowly but surely Dundee and the Jacobite army came south, and Mackay determined to meet and stop him south of Blair Castle but north of Perth. We know all that because Mackay left a stirring account of all his doings.

Mackay marched his army, almost all infantry and numbering around 4,000, through the Pass of Killiecrankie and took up what appeared to be a strong defensive position on Urrard hill. It was July 27, 1689 and the stage was set for the Battle of Killiecrankie.

Dundee’s army of around 2,500 clansmen, Irish infantry and cavalry, appeared and then stopped to allow all their forces to come together. The battle plan was simple – a Highland charge to sweep away the Government army.

Just as the sun began to set, Dundee gave the order for the charge. The ferocity of it can only be imagined.

Mackay’s line broke and some ran before the battle was even joined, and though the Jacobite army took heavy volley fire, the battle was over in minutes. Many Government-issue muskets were found later without their bayonets having been fixed, such had been the speed of the charge.

It was a complete rout. Colonel James Mackay, the General’s brother, was killed, several Government regiments simply fled from the field, and were chased by the victorious clansmen.

Then, at the moment of his greatest victory, luck ran out for John Graham of Claverhouse. Whether he was shot by sniper fire as some claim, or killed as he chased Government troops from the field, he took a musket ball in the lungs and bled to death. He was 41, and was buried at the parish church of St Bride at Blair Castle where he rests to this day.

His last words were said to be: “How goes the day?”, to which one of his men replied, “Well for King James, but I am sorry for your lordship.” Graham then replied, “If it goes well for him, it matters the less for me.”

On the Government side the number of dead was between 1,500 and 2,000, with a further 500 wounded. It represented a total catastrophe, though the Jacobites had also suffered the loss of as many as 500 men.

Taking command of his fleeing troops, General Mackay force-marched them and their few horses over hill and bog, progressing first east and then doubling back west to head south through Perthshire down to Stirling, arriving there two days after Killiecrankie. It was a considerable feat of military endeavour, especially as Mackay knew time was of the essence.

Hearing of the Scottish Privy Council plan to cede the north to the rebels, Mackay dashed off letters telling them to desist, and immediately ordered all his remaining forces in Scotland to Perth. It was the town nearest the centre of Scotland, and Mackay knew it was the gateway south for the clans. It was a gate that had to be slammed shut and held at all costs, or else the Jacobite Army would be free to march to Edinburgh and beyond.

The decisive battle, however, would not be at Perth but at Dunkeld.