The Campbells, 1250-1513
The Campbells, 1250-1513

Author: Stephen Boardman

Publisher: Birlinn Ltd

Published: 2019-08-08

Total Pages: 504

ISBN-13: 1788854039

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If not perhaps the most popular Highland clan, the Campbells are undoubtedly one of the most successful. The Campbell earls of Argyll have traditionally enjoyed a rather unsavoury historical reputation, viewed by their rivals with a mixture of fear, envy and respect. The spectacular advance of Campbell power in the medieval Scottish kingdom has normally been explained in terms of the family's ruthless and duplicitous suppression of their fellow-Gaels in Argyll and the Hebrides at the behest of the Scottish crown. In particular, Clan Campbell's success is seen to be built on the destruction of older and more prestigious regional lordships in the west, such as those of the MacDougall lords of Argyll and the MacDonald lords of the Isles. This book reassesses these negative images and interpretations of the growth of Campbell authority from the thirteenth century and the opening of the Wars of Independence through to the death of Archibald, 2nd earl of Argyll, at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. The lords who dominated the medieval Clan Campbell emerge more as individuals enjoying complex and ambiguous relationships with the Scottish crown and the culture and politics of Gaelic-speaking Scotland, rather than as unquestioning agents of the Stewart monarchy and committed converts to the aristocratic culture of lowland Scotland.

History of Clan Campbell
History of Clan Campbell

Author: Campbell Alastair Campbell

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Published: 2015-01-28

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 1474408389

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Volume 1 of this history ended with the chief and his followers dead on Flodden field. Volume 2 describes the Clan's recovery. Within five years Colin, 3rd Earl, was Vice-Regent and Lieutenant of the kingdom. Within five decades the Clan had extended their possessions to the Western Isles, reinforced their Highland dominance, and become the most powerful family in the nation. How they managed to remain so for a century and a half, despite everything history could throw at them, is the subject of Alastair Campbell's fascinating, vivid and well-paced narrative.Religious conflict in Scotland during almost the whole of the period was devastating. The Crown vacillated between Reformed, Episcopal, and Catholic doctrine whether it was based in Edinburgh or, after 1603, in London. With one exception by contrast the Campbell chiefs held firm to the Protestant Reformation. In 1556 Colin, 4th Earl, invited John Knox to preach at Inveraray; 90 years later Archibald, 8th Earl and first Marquess of Argyll, led the Army of the Solemn League and Covenant. Late in the sixteenth century, however, a crack appeared in the remarkable unity of the Clan: a nationwide conspiracy involving the Campbells of Glenorchy, Lochnell, and Ardkinglas, led to the death of the Bonnie Earl of Moray, the murder of Campbell of Cawdor, and two attempts on the life of 'Grim-faced Archie' the 7th Earl who subsequently turned Roman Catholic and in 1617 left to serve the King of Spain. Again, however, the Clan recovered. One of the conspirators, Black Duncan Campbell of Glenorchy, scourge of the MacGregors, even received a royal pardon and a Baronetcy. Alastair Campbell describes the onset of the religious and civil wars in the seventeenth century. The greatest figure in Scotland then was the first Marquess of Argyll, an ardent Protestant, who was pitted against the charismatic cavalier, the Marquess of Montrose. On behalf of church and crown in Scotland each led governments and armies against one a