Both of my grandmothers were Campbells, so when I went back to Scotland to serve a Mormon mission, I had a vague awareness that that I had Scottish heritage. I didn’t know anything about the Campbell Clan. After arriving in Scotland, it took a couple of episodes upon the announcement that I was a Campbell for me to realize that my Scottish heritage wasn’t appreciated by all. MacDonalds, in particular, reacted with revulsion when I related my genealogy. This reaction mystified me. Now that I understand the history of clans in Scotland better, I understand that reaction.
The Campbell Clan emerged in the thirteenth-century as other clans were establishing an identity in the country. The Campbells were broadcast over a wide range of the western Highlands, and over the centuries they became the dominant clan in the nation. This medieval period was nasty, brutish, and long throughout most of Europe, but this was particularly true of Scotland. The Highlands were (and are) rich in rain and rocks, so farming wasn’t a path toward riches. The tribes largely made their living off plunder and warfare. Keep in mind that the Norsemen (the Vikings) started invading Scotland in the eighth century. The outer islands (Shetlands and Orkneys) even remained in possession of Norway until the 1400s. The Gaelic inhabitants of Scotland were Irish originally (combined with some Picts and other tribes). Tribal warfare in such conditions was inevitable and constant.
For those who imagine that tribes in Africa or Central Europe will never get along with each other, consider that the English thought the same thing about the Scots just three centuries ago, despite the fact that Scotland had more universities than England did not long before that. Keep in mind that the Romans thought the same thing about the English and Germans in an earlier time; the Greeks thought the same about the Italians who later became Romans. Just to give you an idea of how brutal life was in Scotland, let me give a few examples before focusing on the Campbell Clan. Just before the years rolled over to 1500, Archibald of Argyll (Argyll is the ancient home of the Campbells, so we are talking about the Campbell leader here) wanted to broaden his power base northward. When John of Cawdor died in 1495 without an heir but with a daughter born posthumously, Archibald determined to become the girl’s legal guardian. He pressed charges of robbery against the girl’s grandfather to acquire the legal status and sent an armed guard north to bring the girl back. When someone asked him what would happen if the girl were to die, he replied that as long as any red-haired girl could be located in the Campbell lands, Muriel couldn’t die. Muriel’s household had foreseen such trouble and her mother had branded her with a hot key so such a switch couldn’t take place. Her nurse had bitten off the end of a finger to make it easier to identify the girl. But Argyll didn’t have any such murderous plans in mind; he married her to one of his sons instead.
Other examples of bloodthirstiness are easy to find among the Scots. In 1654 the Catholics and Protestants were fighting to see who would gain ascendance in Scotland. Sir Ewen Cameron fought on the Catholic side. During a battle with English troops Ewen killed an English officer, using his teeth. He bit the officer’s throat and called it “the sweetest bite I ever had in my life-time.” Years later, Ewen was visiting London and stopped for a shave at a barber’s. Hearing his accent, the barber asked if Ewen were from Scotland. The barber related how those people were barbarians; his own father had died on an expedition up north when a Scotsman tore his throat with his teeth. “I only wish I had that fellow’s throat near me, as I have yours,” said the barber as he finished the shave.
The Campbell clan dominated a large part of the western Highlands and eventually became the most powerful clan in all of Scotland. Their ancestral home is Inverary Castle where the Duke of Argyll still resides.
The Campbells were often led by astute political operatives and sometimes even good generals. They threw their loyalty first to the Protestant Reformation and later the Stuart lines of kings. By remaining loyal to these two institutions (Scottish Presbyterianism and the Scottish--and later combined Scottish and English--monarchy), the Campbells were able to expand their holdings at the expense of other clans.
If you go north and west of Glasgow, almost to Oban, you will come across Inverary. That is the ancestral home of the Campbells. The entire region between Glasgow and Oban, then to the south, is known as Argyll. What little of the region I have seen is beautiful, full of deep lochs (or lakes) resting at the bottom of deep gorges. The near continuous rain keeps the land deluged with plants and groundwater.
The Duke of Argyll now sits in Parliament and probably wears a dirk only on ceremonial occasions where people with a giggle ask him what he is wearing under his kilt. But there was a day when his ancestors drew the small knives to draw blood. The Duke doesn’t raise money by confiscating the lands of fellow Scots anymore to pay for rebuilding Inverary Castle after being burned down by Montrose; instead, he comes to America after the roof on the castle burns and raises money at fancy dinners by selling engraved shingles to Americans of Scottish and other descent.
When John Knox brought Protestantism back from Geneva, the Christian religions dueled for dominance in Scotland for a few centuries. The Campbells mostly adhered to Presbyterianism, an austere version of Calvinism. Archibald Campbell, Eighth Earl of Argyll, was prominent in the warfare to determine whether Scotland would stay Catholic or become predominantly Protestant. “The Gleyed Argyll,” as he was called, was known for his brutality and cunning, not for his honesty and courage.
John Knox had returned to Scotland not long before Mary Queen of Scots had. She brought back from France not only her Catholicism but also her love for parties and plays. Who knows which the dour Scot disliked more? Mary couldn’t hold onto Scotland and ended up fleeing to the safety of England and the embrace of her half-sister Elizabeth I. Remembering that Mary had at one point claimed not only the crown of Scotland but also of England, Elizabeth eventually had her relative beheaded. But Mary’s son James became king of England and of Scotland after biding his time, and noting that Elizabeth couldn’t marry because she would have to marry either a Protestant or a Catholic, and therefore overthrow the delicate balance she had held throughout her reign regarding the religion of her subjects. James the Protestant was succeeded by his son, Charles I, who had decided Catholic tendencies. It was under Charles’ reign that warfare broke out in both in Scotland and England after Charles imposed a new book of common prayer on both the Church of Scotland and the Church of England. Charles ended up getting his head chopped off by Oliver Cromwell, but before that happened he decided to impose his will by force on the Scots. The Presbyterian Covenanters took an oath not to accept Catholic influences, including the new prayer book. At first the battle went badly for the Covenanters. At times they had to abandon Protestant worship in their kirks and take it up on the heaths. The Catholic agent of Charles was Montrose and he swept across Scotland at will, even burning down Inverary Castle and forcing Argyll to leave dinner to hop into a boat in escape. But the Campbells eventually got the upper hand with the help of Lowland forces and eventually the English.
Campbell forces were still needed, even with the defeat of Montrose’s forces in 1651. Charles I eventually surrendered in Scotland and was turned over to the English, who cut off his head. Oliver Cromwell ruled for a decade. But after Cromwell’s death, England invited Charles’s son, Charles II, back as king. When Charles had a son and thus ensured Catholic succession, the Glorious Revolution ensued in 1688. This eventually led to Charles and family fleeing to France and a new Protestant King was brought in from the Netherlands—William of Orange.
It was during this struggle that the event giving the Campbell’s their darkest stain on the Clan’s reputation occurred. The MacDonalds were ancient enemies of the Campbells. The MacDonalds were also mostly Catholic and supported the Stuart line when the Campbells had switched allegiance to the House of Orange and later to the Hanoverian kings. The Campbells sent a detachment of soldiers to Glencoe to take care of old monetary and political debts. The operation, as most Campbells assert, was directed from London and Edinburgh, but the Campbells receive most of the blame. MacIan MacDonald took in a contingent of Campbell soldiers and feasted them for a few weeks. When the command came, Captain Robert Campbell attacked on February 12, 1692. Many of the MacDonalds were caught in their sleep, although only about 40 of 300 were killed. The command was to kill any person under the age of 70, which included women and children. One Campbell chewed the fingers off Lady Glencoe’s fingers to get at her rings. But even Scotsmen who were willing to kill each other for revenge or entertainment disliked the idea of accepting someone’s hospitality then killing them afterward. The Campbells have borne the stain of that treachery since.
When you visit Scotland now you enter a haven for tourists. You can buy bagpipes and tartan of approved and unapproved designs. Every Scot used to be a genealogist who could recite family history for hour upon hour. The stories these poets told echo down through time into the tongues and ears of Scots today. Upon hearing my American accent, I often was approached by a Scottish veteran on the street with stories about how the Scots and the Americans all by themselves rescued the hapless English and French in World War II. The Gaelic language was outlawed at one time by the English in order to disintegrate Scottish society with its bloody history, rebellions against throne and bishops, and revenge killings. The Scots now exemplify a civilized society with parliaments and courts instead of tribal warfare. They have some of the world’s best universities and its best high-tech industries. They still export more whiskey than linoleum, but the latter represents the future.
The Campbells. They exported their children, to America, to Canada (Nova Scotia was founded by a Campbell), to England, and Australia. So occasionally you will find in North Carolina or Arizona a collection of Scottish descendants throwing the caber or dancing to pipes. These Highland Games have replaced the deadly combat that used to exemplify my ancestors. Enlightenment thinkers from Voltaire to Locke claimed humans were progessive beings. The history of warfare in the twentieth-century largely disproved that as did attacks on Enlightenment thinkers by Romantics, nihilists, and postmodern philosophers. But perhaps the Campbells in specific, and the Scots in general, are mild counterexamples showing that there is some progress in the world. Outside of Scotland I have friends who are MacDonalds, and even a few within the old country.
Written by Alan Goff
