A Well Seasoned Story

written by Chris Chiller

Murder Under Trust

Early in Book twelve of the Admiral Inn Mysteries, AJ Alanson refers to an event as ”Murder Under Trust.” This edition of Facts of Fiction will take a look at English and Scottish history to clarify  the phrase and the most perfidious betrayal in Scottish memory. 

Murder Under Trust is enshrined in Scots legal language and is the most serious charge of murder. The term is exemplified by a singular event, but the background  must be examined to explain how it was even possible for the murderers to do the deeds. 

The background is full of action and choices most of us would never make. After researching this topic, I can’t believe how unlucky the Scots were over the course of just three years between the Glorious Revolution and the rise of the Stuarts. There’s no test later, just a quick flyover look at what led up to the event.

To understand, let’s start with a couple of stereotypes that contain enough truth to influence our understanding of Scottish culture. The Scots were renowned for their fierce loyalty and for their intense religious conviction. Both qualities sprang from and were amplified by their clan system. Clan members’ loyalty was part of their identity and was binding unless released by the clan chief. 

In 1517 Martin Luther in Wittenberg, Germany famously started what became known as the Reformation. For over a hundred years, Europe seethed with conflict and violence between, broadly, Catholic and Protestant faithful. 

In 1519, John Calvin published his Institutes of the Christian Religion. This theology became the inciting document of Reformed Protestantism. 

Scotland, which must have felt they hadn’t suffered enough, over time shifted to strict Calvinist Presbyterianism though there remained committed Catholic and Episcopalian areas in the western Highlands and Islands. This division by religion set the stage for a proverbial betrayal.

To be clear, religion was not the entire driving force behind the changes in Scots culture that allowed heinous behavior a hundred and fifty years later. As with most group endeavors, politics played a large part. The foundation of the Murder under Trust was laid during three tumultuous years. We need to look at the timeline through those years-trust me, the payoff is worth it. 

The Setup

The road that leads to the infamous act begins with the Scottish royals. 

In 1538 King James V of Scotland married Mary of Guise who came from a staunchly Catholic family of Dukes in Northern France, very near Belgium. James was compelled to try to defend against an attack by Henry VIII in 1542, but did not get universal support from among his nobles. The Army he was able to raise was soundly defeated in the battle of Solway Moss. James died less than two weeks later. 

Just before James died, he got word that Mary of Guise had given birth to his only heir, a daughter, who was only six days old when she became the queen of Scotland. 

Henry VIII saw an opportunity and tried to force a marriage between young Mary, Queen of Scots, and his youngest son. Mary of Guise out foxed Henry in 1548 by arranging a betrothal between her 5 year old daughter and the 4 year old Dauphin, the French equivalent of crown prince. Mary of Guise then sent her daughter to be raised in the French court. 

Mary of Guise was installed as Regent in 1554 on behalf of her daughter who would have been about 12. As Regent, Mary of Guise put French troops in Scottish fortresses. She also replaced important Scots ministers with French men. 

Regent Mary tolerated Protestant nobles, but obviously intended to keep Scotland Catholic. She came close in 1558 when her daughter married the Dauphin. Also in 1558, Archibald Campbell, 4th Earl of Argyll died after telling his son and heir to publicly declare his Protestant faith and to promote it throughout the Campbell clan.

Three Turbulent Years

The dilemma facing Mary of Guise was exacerbated by a Catholic priest turned Protestant itinerant preacher, John Knox. Returning to Scotland in 1559, Knox was a genuine iconoclast and a fiery preacher who knew how to inspire a crowd to action. After hearing  him mobs tore down Catholic images, altars, and monasteries across the country. You could see the chaos their cross purposes could cause. 

Archibald Campbell, 5th Earl of Argyll ( we might refer to him as Junior) became a supporter of Knox and led a group of protestant Scottish Nobles who formed  the Lords of the Congregation  and took up arms in rebellion against Mary of Guise.

Meanwhile, France’s King Henry II died unexpectedly in a jousting accident, passing the crown to young Mary’s husband Francis II. He was 15. Mary became Queen Consort of France at 16, while retaining her title as Queen of Scots. Francis was frail and handed the reins of power over to Mary’s Guiseienne uncles. 

The Lords of the Congregation’s rebellion was both religious, in that it used the public sentiment stoked by John Knox, and an attempt by powerful Lairds to resist the threat that Scotland might be absorbed by France. Their fears were not unfounded. Weeks before her marriage to the Dauphin, Mary Queen of Scots had signed documents agreeing that should she die without heir, Scotland and her claim to the English throne would be handed over to France.

The Lords of the Congregation initially thought to bring their unified forces directly against Edinburgh, but were rebuffed by French troops. The Lords realized they could not win alone. 

They appealed to Protestant Queen Elizabeth I of England for help and she responded by immediately sending a fleet into the Firth of Forth, the long navigable inlet that leads to Edinburgh. In February of 1560 the Treaty of Berwick authorized English intervention and the English army joined with the forces of the Lords the next month and attacked and laid siege to  the French stronghold at Leith.

Now outnumbered and with Scotland seething with religious unrest, Mary of Guise had no cards to play. She retreated to Edinburgh castle and died aged 44 in June of 1560. Her death broke the blockaded French defense, and in July of 1560 the Treaty of Edinburgh was signed between France and England. Both great nations agreed to vacate Scotland and control of the government was handed to a provisional council established by the Lords of the Congregation. 

The Lords wasted no time. Their parliament passed the articles of Scottish Reformation in August 1560. Highlights included repudiating the authority of the Pope, outlawing Catholic Mass, and adoption of the Scots Confession, a Calvinist statement of faith written by John Knox and five other Protestant ministers. We can be sure that Knox was elated. He had won the struggle.

In December 1560 Francis II died, passing the French throne to his ten year old brother Charles IX with Charles’ mother Catherine de Medici as Regent. This stripped Mary of all her power and her uncles of their influence and Mary was forced to return to Scotland in 1561. 

She immediately clashed with John Knox and her protestant nobles. In 1565 she married Henry Stuart, her cousin. Both were grandchildren of Henry VIII’s older sister, so their union amplified the claim to the English throne for her son James VI. In 1567 Mary abdicated and James became King of Scotland. 

What Three Years Wrought

When Elizabeth I died childless in 1603, the Tudor line ended and James VI of Scotland was declared James I of England. While this was partly because of the connection of his parents to the Tudor bloodline, this was known as the rise of the House of Stuart Dynasty. James I, for the first time, united the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland,and ruled as a Calvinist Protestant. All the noisy doings of the monarchies had a profound effect on the clans and their loyalties that will show up later.

The tensions between Catholics and Protestants remained as the Stuart Dynasty continued. England fought a civil war over religious issues, executing Stuart King Charles I in 1649, but the Stuarts revived the monarchy in 1660. 

In 1685, Charles’ second son James II ascended to the throne. Though Catholic, James was accepted by many as a continuation of Charles II policies and stability. Also he was already 51 with only two Protestant daughters, so most elites assumed his Catholic rule would be temporary. James was an unpopular king, disregarding laws and customs and investing heavily in a large standing army while guided by a small group of Catholic advisers.

James’ daughter Mary had married William of Orange, a Dutch Stadholder, (Not a monarch in a republic, but with many monarchical prerogatives.) They were each Protestants. In 1688 A group of seven prominent English nobles sent William an invitation to invade England to defend Protestantism and liberty. William’s RSVP was a large fleet and 15,000 soldiers.

As William marched towards London, James watched as many at his side defected, including his top general and his daughter Anne. James became convinced he was about to meet the same fate as his father and fled to France. He spent the remaining 14 years of his life there, while England installed William as co-regent with his wife Mary. 

William had problems with many of the Highland clans that had not become Protestant and were supporters of James in his exile. They called themselves jacobites after Jacobus, the Latin form of James. The Protestant Argylls , AKA clan Campbell,  had become very powerful, though they might clash with Highlanders from time to time. The Macdonalds of Glencoe remained Scottish Episcopalians, similar to the Church of England, refusing to conform to the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Now the fierce Scots loyalty becomes a trap.

William tried to address the issue of a potential uprising in the north by declaring that all Highland clan chiefs must swear an oath of allegiance to him by January 1 1692. This was harder than it might sound to us today, because of the Scots loyalty. These clan chiefs had already sworn a sacred binding oath to James II. Swearing a new oath to William was considered treason and a great dishonor even though the threat was death. 

The chiefs sent a messenger to James in France asking to be released from their oaths, so that they might protect their clan members from retribution. James still hoped the French would invade England and restore him to his throne, but the French by this time had taken his measure and strung him along. As a result James did not release the clans until mid-December 1691. He was as bad a king in exile as he had been on the throne.

By the time the messenger struggled through the winter storms and reached Glencoe and the chief of the Macdonald clan in that valley, Alexander Maclain, it was December 28. Maclain had just three days to reach a magistrate and swear an oath to William. On the mistaken impression that he could swear the oath in Fort William, about 17 miles from Glencoe, Maclain set off on foot. 

Maclain arrived at the fort on Dec 31, 1691 only to learn that the fort’s commander could not receive his oath. Colonel Hill, the commander, gave him a letter explaining Maclain had presented himself in time, then advised that he would need to go to Inveraray, about 70 miles south, through heavy winter blizzards. 

There the Sheriff of Argyll could legally take his oath. It took Maclain three days travelling through a heavy blizzard to reach Inveraray, only to find the Sheriff was away celebrating the New Year with his family. Even now the end of December is the worst time to get any important government paperwork done. Maclain finally swore the oath on Jan 6 1692, A date doomed to live in infamy.

The official report sent to Edinburgh contained a copy of Colonel Hill’s letter, but Scottish secretary of state, Lord Stair did not release the document and used the late oath as a pretext to order the elimination of the Glencoe MacDonalds. Lord Stair was actually John Dalrymple, a lowland Protestant who wanted to break the clan system entirely. He privately wrote that the Highlands would never be tranquil until the MacDonalds of Glencoe were “extirpated”. Who uses words like extirpated? It tells much about Dalrymple’s character.

Glencoe is extraordinarily beautiful, but not fertile and is a poor place to raise livestock. The MacDonalds had a long habit of acting as reivers, cattle rustlers, especially against their neighbors the Campbells. The MacDonalds had been key to the Jacobite victory in the battle of Killiecrankie just two years earlier and Maclain remained a fierce Jacobite loyalist. In April of 1691 the Macdonalds had marched into a neighboring glen to remove a Presbyterian minister who was trying to oust the Episcopal priest. 

In early February a Regiment commanded by Captain Robert Campbell arrived in Glencoe, about 120 men in all, composed of highland and lowland soldiers with a few Campbells. Maclain’s son went out to ask them why they were there. He was assured that they were merely there to collect back taxes and to relieve overcrowding at Fort William.

The Betrayal

The MacDonalds followed the Gaelic traditions of hospitality and opened their homes to the troops who were then billeted within. The troops spent twelve days, eating and sleeping in MacDonald homes. They played cards and drank whiskey along with their hosts. 

Captain Campbell was distantly related to Maclain and regularly dined at the clan chiefs home. On the night of February 12 Campbell played cards with Maclain’s sons and accepted an invitation to dine with the chief the following day. Late that night the Captain received these written secret orders,”You are hereby ordered to fall upon the Rebels, the McDonalds of Glenco, and putt all to the sword under seventy. You are to have a special care that the old Fox and his sons doe upon no account escape your hands, you are to secure all the avenues that no man escape.” and”This is by the Kings speciall command, for the good & safty of the Country, that these miscreants be cutt off root and branch. See that this be putt in execution without feud or favour, else you may expect to be dealt with as one not true to King nor Government, nor a man fitt to carry Commissione in the King’s service.”

5 AM the next day greeted all with a blizzard. Whatever Campbell’s personal feelings, he took the threat seriously enough to direct his men to carry out the orders he had received. According to the record from the Parliamentary Inquiry, soldiers knocked on Chief Maclain’s door and shot him in the back when he turned to order them drinks. They stripped his wife of her clothing and jewelry, and she died the next day of exposure. Maclain’s sons heard shooting and got their families away into the mountains though it was winter. 

Women and children fled into the mountains as well and many died from exposure. Men were bayoneted or shot in their beds. In one holding, eight men were chained together and shot dead.

38 MacDonalds were killed directly by the troops and about 40 women and children died attempting to get over high mountain passes without warm clothing or shoes. All these were people who had been sharing meals and shelter the evening before. What terror mixed with rage the survivors must have felt.

Not all of the troops were monsters. There were flashes of conscience.To their credit, two Lieutenants refused to take part in the massacre and broke their swords in protest. They were arrested on the spot, stripped of their commands and sent to Glasgow to face court-martial.  

Adding insult to injury, before the troops went back to Fort William, they burned all Macdonald homes and drove off some 1500 horses, cattle, and sheep. This left survivors with neither shelter nor food.

Because of the blizzard, two detachments sent to block the eastern and western ends of Glencoe did not arrive until 10 A.M. This allowed about 200 of the valley’s 300 residents to escape and survive. Maclain’s sons led groups of survivors to the territory of Appin, where the Stewarts took them in. Word spread like wildfire across the Highland clans about the troops’ abuse of hospitality.

The Consequences

Meanwhile, officers and soldiers began talking about the awful things they had been ordered to do. Copies of the order from Major Duncanson to Captain Campbell began circulating in Edinburgh. By April the Jacobite court in France had compelled the Paris Gazette to publish an account of the massacre, using it to call out the Protestant crown as bloodthirsty tyrants.

By the next year, pamphlets had been distributed giving an accurate account of what had happened and the public was horrified, not just by the murders, but by the government using soldiers as guests to kill their sleeping hosts and families. The scandal became so severe that in 1695 King William was forced to establish a Royal Commission of the Scottish Parliament to investigate. The two Lieutenants who refused to participate were called to testify, and were cleared fully of any wrongdoing. 

The Scottish parliament passed a resolution on July 10, 1695 explicitly ruling that the massacre was a Murder Under Trust which, under Scots law since 1587, had its own classification as a treasonous form of murder, subject to the death penalty. Parliament voted that John Dalrymple had exceeded his authority and requested that the King punish him. They also called for the extradition and trial of the military officers involved. 

None of the military were brought to trial and the king allowed Dalrymple to step down as secretary of state. 

In retrospect it appears that the religious differences and the outlaw life the Glencoe Macdonalds lived amplified their political Jacobite identities and made them a large target. Two of those elements arose from forces completely outside of any Macdonald’s choice. Yet the divisive climate of the time made the clan seem like nothing but transgressive pests to be “extirpated”.

 Even if they were bad neighbors and rowdy partisans ready to violently resist any time, turning guests into executioners violated every code of honor. AJ Alanson’s use of the term in book 12 is deliberate and carries the weight of this back story within. The Glencoe Massacre is the definitive example of Murder Under Trust. 

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