the massacre of eigg in 1577 by ross crawford
Post on 15-Sep-2014
335 views
DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
ROSS CRAWFORD
SUPERVISORSMARTIN MACGREGOR (SCOTTISH HISTORY)
THOMAS CLANCY (CELTIC)
The Massacre of Eigg in 1577
![Page 2: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Encapsulation of Eigg
‘The less I inquired into its history on the spot, the more was I likely to feel satisfied that I knew something about it’
Reverend John Swanson, Free Church Minister for Small Isles parish, 1844.
Ref: Hugh Miller, The Cruise of Betsey (Boston 1862), 42.
![Page 3: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
Entrance of the ‘Massacre Cave’
The most notorious massacre of ‘Linn nan Creach’, the ‘Age of Forays’.
It is alleged that in 1577, c. 395 men, women and children of the Clanranald were asphyxiated in a cave by a MacLeod raiding party.
![Page 4: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
Map of Eigg
Circled in red, Uamh Fhraing (the ‘Cave of Frances’) is located on the south coast of the island.
The cave became a major tourist attraction in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
![Page 5: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
Walter Scott, Tales of a Grandfather
Eigg and the other ‘wild wars of the islanders’ will provide ‘some idea of the fierceness of their manners, the low value at which they held human life, the cruel manner in which wrongs were revenged, and the unscrupulous violence by which property was acquired.’
Ref: Walter Scott, The Prose Works of Sir Walter Scott, Vol. III 1524-1644 (Edinburgh 1836), 294-5.
![Page 6: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
Dr Samuel Johnson on Eigg
‘I have heard of nothing curious in it, but the cave in which a former generation of Islanders were smothered by MacLeod.’
Ref: Samuel Johnson, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (London 1791), 295.
![Page 7: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
Historiography
Most modern academic works follow Donald Gregory’s silence.
Some critical analysis by John Lorne Campbell, A Very Civil People (2000), Camille Dressler, Eigg: the story of an island (1998) and Denis Rixson, The Small Isles: Canna, Rum, Eigg and Muck (2001).
![Page 8: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
Ben Kiernan, Blood and Soil (2007)
Eigg proves theory of ‘genocidal massacres’.
Source: internet forum
Emphasises need for reassessment.
![Page 9: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Aims/Themes
• Investigate this notorious event without seeking to prove or disprove.
• Significance: arguably the most notorious act of violence in Gaelic Scotland in this period.
If a reasonable degree of doubt can be found, there may be cause to re-evaluate paradigm of ‘Linn nan Creach’.
• Trace the evolution of Gaelic tradition as it interacts with the external.
![Page 10: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
Structure
Section 1Contemporary Context and Sources
Section 2Local Tradition and the Travellers
![Page 11: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
CONTEMPORARY CONTEXT AND SOURCES
Section 1
![Page 12: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
Earliest Source: ‘The Description of the Isles of Scotland’,
c. 1595
‘… in March, anno 1577, weiris and inmitie betwixt the said Clan Renald and McCloyd Herreik, the people with ane callit Angus John McMudzartsonne, their capitane, fled to ane of the saidis coves, taking with thame thair wives, bairnis, and geir, quhairof McCloyd Herreik being advertisit landit with ane great armie in the said Ile, and came to the cove and pat fire thairto, and smorit the hail people thairin to the number of 395 persones, men, wife, and bairnis’.
W. F. Skene, Celtic Scotland, vol. III (Edinburgh 1890), 440
![Page 13: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
‘The note of the Weste Isles of Scotland’, 1593‘The note of the Weste Isles of Scotland’, 1593
‘Account of the West Isles of Scotland’, April 1596
‘Account of the West Isles of Scotland’, April 1596
(Ruaraidh) MacLeod of Lewis is ‘famous for the massacring of his awen kinsemen’.
Details the ‘barbarous wars’ fought between the clans in the 1580s.
Refers to the ‘controversy between MacLeod Harris and the Clan Ranalds…whereof great murders have ensued but old MacLeod had always the upper hand’.
Other Reports on the Isles
![Page 14: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
Dean of Limerick: Unreliable Source?
In the ‘Account’ (April 1596), Campbell states he ‘never took special regard’ of his ‘slender observations’, and pledges to correct any errors or omissions when he is ‘more certainly and fully instructed in the same’.
‘The Description’ was written before 1595, prior to trip to meet with Argyll.
Argyll: more reliable informer? In altering his account of the MacLeod/Clanranald
feud, is Campbell correcting an error?
![Page 15: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
Clanranald/MacLeod feud in 1570s: Possible Origin?
In 1574, Regent Morton granted the lands of Glenelg in Lochalsh to the Clanranald.
Results in ‘cruel slaughter and hership’ by that clan.
• Ancient patrimony of the MacLeods of Harris (originally known as MacLeods of Glenelg).
![Page 16: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
Glenelg
Strategically crucial area.
Bernera Barracks built following the 1715 Jacobite Rising.
Seat of MacLeods: Dunvegan Castle
Seat of Clanranald:Tioram Castle
![Page 17: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
Clanranald/MacLeod feud in 1570s (2)
Bond of manrent between Iain (John) Muideartach, chief of Clanranald, and Colin, earl of Argyll in September 1576.
Iain agrees to…
‘…demit the lands of Glenelg in favour of Tormoud McLoyd, bind themselvis to join with the McLanes and to refer all matters regarding [all slaughters and hairscheepis, debates betwixt the said] McCloyd of Herra to the said Earl’
Argyll Transcripts, vol. VII, 19.
![Page 18: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
Clanranald/MacLeod feud in 1570s (3)
Contract between Tormod MacLeod of Dunvegan and Allan Mackane Moidart, captain of Clanranald (Iain’s son) on 11 July 1577.
Tormod and Allan agreed to cease hostilities consisting of…
‘…debaitis, contraverseis, slauchtaris, hairschippis and all uthir injuries commitit and done be alther of thame agains utheris preceeding the dait heiroff’.
Argyll Transcripts, vol. VII, 26.
![Page 19: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
Iain (John) MuideartachIain (John) Muideartach Allan, son of IainAllan, son of Iain
Clanranald Seals
![Page 20: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
Timeline: Political Background
1551: Death of William MacLeod of Harris.His daughter, Marie, is sole heiress of MacLeod lands.1559: Bond of friendship between Argyll and Tormod
(William’s brother and successor)1566: Argyll becomes ward of Marie.Marries her to kinsman, Duncan Campbell of
Auchinbreck.• Marie agrees to renounce her claim to her uncle, Tormod.• Tormod pays Argyll £1000 in exchange.• 1573: Marie renounces claim but not confirmed until
1579.
~Clanranald attack in 1574 risks Argyll’s plans?~
![Page 21: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
MacLeod Family Tree & Campbell Relations
Tormod MacLeod
(brother of William)
William MacLeod(d. 1551)
Marie MacLeod(sole heiress)
Dougall Campbell of Auchinbreck
(revives claim, 1630s)
Colin Campbell, earl of Argyll
Duncan Campbell
of Auchinbreck
Fri
en
dsh
ip
1559
Wardship 1566Arr
ange
s
mar
riag
e
![Page 22: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
Legal Struggle Between Frasers & MacLeods
• 1527: Frasers claim Glenelg.• 1535: Receive charter from crown.• 1550s: Succession crisis within MacLeods.Clanranald installed as tenants of Clan Fraser.• 1570s: MacLeod recovery?• 1574: Clanranald attack on Glenelg.• 1574-1610: Clanranald occupation.Peaceful cohabitation after 1577?• 1611: Glenelg formally granted to MacLeods by
crown.
![Page 23: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
Internal Strife Within the Clanranald
1577 Contract: the first-born son (Allan Og) and brother (Angus) of Allan, the Clanranald chief, had both committed ‘offensis and injuries’ against their own friends and kin ‘in support of the said tormoid’.
Allan spurned first wife, daughter of MacLeod of Harris, in favour of MacLean of Duart’s daughter.
New marriage threatened the inheritance of his first-born son, Allan Og, who supported his mother.
Coincided with Allan’s succession: weak position?
![Page 24: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
Allan’s ‘Domestic Irregularities’
Tormod MacLeod of
Harris
Tormod’s daughter
Allan Og
Allan, captain of Clanranald
Hector’s daughter
Hector Og MacLean of
Duart
John of Strome
Angus(Allan’s brother)
Threat to inheritance
Allies
2 nd marriage
1st
mar
riag
e
![Page 25: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
Summary
Tumultuous period for MacLeods and Clanranald.Frasers and Campbells were major players too.• Poor relations between MacLeods and ClanranaldProbable feuding between clans 1574-77. Infighting within Clanranald: potential coup? - No record of this violence in Privy Council.
- No direct evidence for massacre on Eigg or elsewhere.
![Page 26: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
Later Events on Eigg
• c. 1595: ‘The Description’ states Eigg could still ‘raise 60 men to the weiris’ at the time of writing.
• 1615: Sir James MacDonald’s muster.
• 1625: Catholic mission ‘converted’ 198 of inhabitants.
• 1626: No mention of massacre in Iain Muideartach’s letter to Pope Urban VIII.
![Page 27: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
Lachlan MacLean’s raid
• Lachlan MacLean raided Eigg, Canna and Rum in October 1588:
• ‘thay tressonablie rased fyre, and in maist barbarous, shamefull and cruell maner, brynt the same Illis, with the haill men, wemen and childrene being thairintill, not spairing the pupillis and infantis’.
• True origin of the Eigg massacre? Deliberate transference?
![Page 28: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/28.jpg)
Eigg Omitted By Other Works
• ‘The History of the Feuds and Conflicts Among the Clans’ (1612-1625)
• Robert Gordon, A Genealogical History of Sutherland (1615-30)
• Hugh MacDonald, ‘History of the MacDonalds’ (mid-1600s)
• Niall MacMhuirich, The ‘Red Book of Clanranald’ (late-1600s)
Martin Martin, A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland (1703)
Donald Gregory, History of the Western Highland and Isles of Scotland (1836)
![Page 29: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/29.jpg)
LOCAL TRADITION AND LITERARY LEGACY
Section 2
![Page 30: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/30.jpg)
The tomb of Alasdair Crotach MacLeod
St Clement’s church in Rodel, Harris.
Alasdair died in 1547.
Tradition generally maintains that Alasdair was responsible for the massacre of Eigg.
![Page 31: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/31.jpg)
Evidence for Alasdair’s Involvement
‘Alexander [Alasdair Crotach] MacLeod of Harris, having married the Laird of Muidort’s [Clanranald’s] daughter sent her home some time thereafter, but the Laird of Muidort afterwards apprehending him in Egg hanged MacLeod’s brother and kept himself prisoner for seven years at Castle Tirrim where he got his back broke which made him hunch backed all his lifetime.’
Ref: ‘History of the MacDonalds’ in Highland Papers, vol. I, 68.
![Page 32: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/32.jpg)
First Recording of the Gaelic Tradition
Boswell & Johnson’s local guide, Donald MacLean, laird of Coll, imparts the story.
Coll is knowledgeable & respectful of local tradition/history.
Sponsors the University education of the next storyteller.
James Boswell
![Page 33: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/33.jpg)
Traditional Story by Reverend Donald MacLean
MacLeods land on Eigg and ‘maltreat’ the women.Clanranald ‘pursued and destroyed those strangers’.- Alastair Crotach swears vengenace.
• Islanders flee to a hidden cave which the MacLeods cannot find.
They send out a scout who is spotted and tracked to the cave by his footprints in the snow.
• Brief negotiation before islanders are ‘smoked to death’.
![Page 34: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/34.jpg)
Hugh Miller (1845)
• Read Sir Walter Scott in advance, frustrated by the island’s ‘various and somewhat conflicting editions’.
• Like James Wilson, indulges in grave robbing.
Leaves with ‘relics of the cave’, including pieces of a jar, the fragment of a porringer, and a horse’s tooth.
Ref: Miller, Betsey, 40.
![Page 35: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/35.jpg)
James Wilson (1842)
• His crew were ‘stopping over the damp and slimy floor, in search of relics of the fatal day’.
• Some young locals play up to his expectations.
‘…strange sights…seen about the mouth of the cavern’.
Ref: Wilson, A Voyage Round the Coasts of Scotland and the Isles
(1842), 235-8.
![Page 36: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/36.jpg)
Local Scepticism of the Event?
Travellers are horrified by the cave interior, yet the locals seem fairly nonchalant.
James Wilson observes the locals herding their pigs into the
‘ancestral cave’.Very pragmatic.Bones left unburied for hundreds of years.- Scepticism?
![Page 37: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/37.jpg)
Prospect of Tourism?
• Iona was a clear benchmark.
Tourism of ‘undeniable’ benefit to the island.
- Evidence of similar dealings on Eigg.
• Harness what was available to their benefit?
Complicity in perpetuating the story.
![Page 38: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/38.jpg)
M.E.M. Donaldson (1923)
• New female protagonist offered by Mairi of the Post Office.
• A local landmark, ‘a huge basaltic column from the Sgurr’, is ‘only other relic of the massacre’.
A new addition to the story, embeds the tale within the landscape.
Ref: Donaldson, Wanderings in the Western Highlands and Islands (1923), 254-6.
![Page 39: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/39.jpg)
Duncan Ferguson (1965)
Confirms the connection of the stone.
Consistent with earlier tradition, yet weaves in the 1577 date and number of victims from Skene.
Ferguson admits scepticism, a feeling shared by many locals.
Clanranald were too powerful.The bones were left to moulder.Nobody knows the location of the burial.
![Page 40: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/40.jpg)
Explanations for Distrust?
Caveat is unusual: tradition generally recounted in earnest.
External interest, or even origin, of event made it inauthentic?
Cumulative embellishment made it hard to believe.
Misleading image of island life and Gaeldom?
![Page 41: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/41.jpg)
Conclusion
![Page 42: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/42.jpg)
‘Professor’ Maruma, last private landowner of Eigg in 1995:‘Professor’ Maruma, last private landowner of Eigg in 1995:
Dr Samuel Johnson in 1773:Dr Samuel Johnson in 1773:
‘When I went to the cave, I knew this was the right place to be. The cave is the island’s soul because this is where it has been hurt.’
‘I have heard of nothing curious in it, but the cave in which a former generation of Islanders were smothered by MacLeod.’
Defining an Island
![Page 43: The Massacre of Eigg in 1577 by Ross Crawford](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022061104/54161f6e7bef0ad0328b70ac/html5/thumbnails/43.jpg)
Eigg: The Island
Picture by Kevin Walsh