The Great Montrose

A kind of week-late addendum to the discussion of pirates and outlaws: one of the points AVI brought up was that pirates were all but certain to be executed if caught, which might suggest that there was a particular infamy associated with their ways. Yet the greatest of all men might be executed torturously and grievously, even the Great Montrose. (Well, even Jesus.)

Montrose studied at age twelve at the college of Glasgow under William Forrett who later tutored his sons. At Glasgow, he read Xenophon and Seneca, and Tasso in translation.... The king signed a warrant for his Marquessate and appointed Montrose Lord Lieutenant of Scotland, both in 1644. A year later in 1645, the king commissioned him captain general. His military campaigns were fought quickly and used the element of surprise to overcome his opponents even when sometimes dauntingly outnumbered....

Highlanders had never before been known to combine, but Montrose knew that many of the West Highland clans, who were largely Catholic, detested Argyll and his Campbell clansmen, and none more so than the MacDonalds who with many of the other clans rallied to his summons. The Royalist allied Irish Confederates sent 2000 disciplined Irish soldiers led by Alasdair MacColla across the sea to assist him. The Irish proved to be formidable fighters.

In two campaigns, distinguished by rapidity of movement, he met and defeated his opponents in six battles....

The fiery enthusiasm of the Gordons and other clans often carried the day, but Montrose relied more upon the disciplined infantry from Ireland. His strategy at Inverlochy, and his tactics at Aberdeen, Auldearn and Kilsyth furnished models of the military art, but above all his daring and constancy marked him out as one of the greatest soldiers of the war. His career of victory was crowned by the great Battle of Kilsyth on 15 August 1645. Such was the extent of his military fame that King Louis XIV offered him the position of Marshal of France.

He fell into the power of his political enemies and was hanged, his body dismembered and buried in unhallowed ground. Years later Charles II had his body moved to a church and gave a lavish funeral, but that didn't do anything to repair the execution. Bear in mind that this is almost exactly the same time -- and the same king, Chares II -- that was rewarding Sir Henry Morgan with a knighthood and governorship of Jamaica.  

Here's a song about the Great Montrose. The particular battle is apocryphal, but of a piece with the actual battles he so frequently won.