Lang The History Of Scotland - Volume 9: From The Restoration To The Death Of Dundee

1. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-3-8496-0469-1
Verlag: Jazzybee Verlag
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 188 Seiten

This is volume 9, covering the time from the Restoration to the death of Dundee. In many volumes of several thousand combined pages the series 'The History of Scotland' deals with something less than two millenniums of Scottish history. Every single volume covers a certain period in an attempt to examine the elements and forces which were imperative to the making of the Scottish people, and to record the more important events of that time.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Lang, Andrew

Leseproben

BOTHWELL BRIDGE. 1679-1680.

THE events which are to be recorded in the following chapter are, perhaps, more widely known to the world than any others in Scottish history. The tragedy of Mary Stuart, and the war and wanderings of Prince Charles, are also popular topics, but the end of Archbishop Sharp, and the sufferings of the Covenanters between 1679-1688, even yet thrill the hearts of the country people in the Lowlands. The memories of what both parties might well call "the killing time" are kept alive by conventicles held at the graves of the sufferers, and are the themes of preachers and of rhetorical popular historians. When one of these tells us that the Argyll executed for treason in 1661 "was baptised into the forgiving ruth (sic) of Calvary, and that the younger brother " (Argyll) " reminds us of the elder and His exceeding grace," we appreciate the firm and enduring hold which the fond legend of the "martyred" marquis exercises. Nor is he alone in this privilege. " Who will deny that they " (the men who passed three-quarters of an hour in shooting, slashing, and galloping a horse over the body of Archbishop Sharp), " knew the secret of our Lord? " Thus writes the Rev. Mr. Alexander Smellie, M.A., in the year of grace 1903. Against such determined credulity, and such a conception of "the secret of our Lord," criticism is powerless.

The state of society and of parties in the last ten years of the scuffle on which we now enter has been rendered with almost Shakespearian genius in ' Old Mortality.' It is true that Scott made some unexpected slips, such as leaving it to be understood that the liturgy was commonly used in the churches of conformist ministers. But his errors were probably like that voluntary mistake which represents the kettle-drums of Claverhouse sounding on a night march. The kettle-drums did not clash in fact, but they do so with much effect in art. Sir Walter was writing fiction, not history; he introduced picturesque though " unwarrantable " details; but his novel gives the colour of the times so truly and so vividly that we need only point to his romance, and say Tolle, Lege!

Torn by intestine controversies and personal disputes, the wandering bands of Covenanters were also given to subjective experiences which they could only interpret as of spiritual origin. Even the learned and prayerful Cotton Mather in the next generation was visited by a strange phantasm which entertained him with literary criticism. Men like Peden had similar experiences, angelic or satanic, which culminated in the case of "Muckle John Gibb," a fanatic who ended his career as a tribal medicine-man among the Red Indians. Cold and hunger on the wet moors, mist and clouds, wind and rain, aided the assaults of the Enemy. The Covenanters were also well informed about the diabolical accomplishments of their adversaries, such as Sharp's early prophetic dream, and the appearance of his wraith to two of his servants at St Andrews while he was in Edinburgh, a case of "bilocation" common in the biographies of the saints. The ' Analecta ' of Wodrow are rich in such anecdotes, though the narrator usually guards himself with "a very sincere Christian told" this or the other circumstance, or some equivalent remark. The wandering preachers of " the honest party," on the other hand, are credited by their admirers with powers of prevision, of healing, of shining in a light not of this world (N rays?), and were even occasionally attended by rappings and knockings. The Covenanters, in defiance of their distaste for good works, and distrust of a righteousness that is but filthy rags, styled many of the brethren "saints," and their records are now and then as rich in miracles as those collected by the Bollandists. Pious men had " great outpourings "; and a text that haunted the memory was regarded as a supernal monition, borne in upon the spirit. The doctrine of the lawfulness of tyrannicide was cherished by many; it could be justified by scriptural and classical parallels, by the cases of Phineas, Harmodius, and Aristogiton. Knox had been of this mind, though approval of murderers was certainly not a tenet of the "sober Presbyterians" of 1679. To them the death of an enemy was " a gracious providence," while the murderer need not be a good man. But among the more spiritually minded were many men not thoroughly sanctified, it is feared, who avenged personal sufferings with the carnal weapon, and justified themselves by the examples of Phineas or Jehu.

By the faction of Balfour of Kinloch (called Burley) and his kinsman Robert Hamilton (of the House of Preston), as, indeed, by Covenanters of both sexes in general, Sharp was above all men hated. A contemporary 'Life' of Sharp, which is not without hostile bias, tells us that his grandfather was a piper, and suggests that he should give the pipes to a church, " to save the expense of a pair of organs." His wife, a Miss Moncrief of Randerston, is spoken of by our author as " an ordinary swearer, tippler, scold, and prophaner of the Sabbath day." "The treachery of Judas, the apostasy of Julian, and the cruelty of Nero did all concenter in him." " He was by all that knew him taken to be no better than a flat Atheist," says Kirkton, " a man of flagitious life, and not only a debauched palliard, but a cruel murtherer." As a student at St Andrews, Sharp became the father of an illegitimate child, and " strangled it with his own hands." " Many believed him to be a demoniack and a witch." Kirkton was one of the more temperate of his party, and, when he could make these assertions in cold blood, we may guess at the beliefs of the left wing of the Covenant. While Mr. Osmund Airy does not press the charges of atheism, witchcraft, diabolical possession, debauchery, murder, and descent from a piper grandfather against this father in God, he shows that, by such precisians as Lauderdale and his gang, Sharp was reckoned "a poltroon of serviceable ability, and a liar whose lies could be reckoned upon. . . . When dirty work had to be done he did it really well." 

Even on this gentler estimate by the modern historian, Sharp was no admirable character. He was in 1679 more than ever hated. Poor Mitchell accused him of keeping back a clement letter of the king which would have saved bloodshed after the Pentland Rising. It does not quite seem certain that Sharp had the chance to do this, as, according to Gilbert Burnet, his own namesake, Archbishop Burnet of Glasgow, brought down the letter from London, and himself kept it secret till after the executions. But Sharp's evidence at Mitchell's own trial in 1678 bears, Mr. Hill Burton says, marks of "crooked prevarication." "There was no assurance of life given him, or any sought by him there" said Sharp, namely, at the Council bar, when Mitchell "acknowledged his confession made before the Committee of the Council." Sharp spoke only as to that of which he was a personal eye-witness; he had not been on the Committee of the Council which examined Mitchell. 

Concerning Sharp's own murder on May 2, 1679, there is a needless controversy as to whether it was or was not the result of a premeditated plot, like the slaughters of Cardinal Beaton and Riccio. If these were pious deeds, as Knox held, why should they not be premeditated? Are we only to do good by impulse? The Presbyterian author of the popular ' Hind Let Loose ' vindicates such actions as "lawful, and, as one would think, laudable." "Several worthy gentlemen, with some other men of courage and zeal for the cause of God, and the good of the country, executed righteous judgment upon him." Kirkton gives the case for non-premeditation away when he says that Sharp received " some warnings " at Kennoway, where he lodged on the morning of his death. 

Among the narratives of the deed, that of James Russell, "in Kettle," one of the doers, who later divided his party by the preciseness of his opinions, and the niceties of his conscience, is notable. He regarded the use of heathen names of days of the week, Thursday or Wednesday, as sinful, and a ground of separation. Russell begins with an account of a meeting of the brethren near Rathillet (April 8, 1679), when much was said about recent armed and successful resistance to the troops of the Government in Fife. On April ii Russell and his friends met again, and decided to "take some course " with Carmichael, the Sheriff Depute, who was accused by them of torturing people, and other ferocities. If they found Carmichael in Sharp's house " all present judged duty to hang both over the port." " Other worthy Christians had used means to get him " (Sharp) " upon the road before." The intended double murder was referred to a later meeting (April 18). Hackston of Rathillet was to be asked to command the party. He was known to be at enmity with Sharp about a civil lawsuit. On April 29 messengers were sent to collect the opinions "of other ministers and Christians." After more consultations. Rathillet fixed up a paper in the town of Cupar, threatening all who bought the distrained goods of passive resisters to cess, or to summonses before courts. Balfour of Kinloch (called Burley), Rathillet's brother-in-law, noted for active resistance, was summoned. On Friday, May 2, twelve men met, Balfour on a bay horse, and Rathillet on a gray; their idea was to kill, or perhaps to terrorise Carmichael. Rathillet and Balfour were the only landed men present. They hunted for but missed Carmichael; however, Balfour, "having inquired the Lord's mind" recently, thought of the...