The first part of my thesis...19:41 Aug 15 2008
Times Read: 671
Here is just a sample (okay it is 2500 words here of the over 11,000 already written) of the thesis chapter I am turning in for my degree change from MPhil to PhD at the end of the month.
Go me!
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The Lineage of a Magnate
Perthshire’s position in the centre of Scotland has ensured that a variety of traditions have shaped its culture and identity. North and West lay the highlands, while the Lowlands are to the South and East. Perthshire itself incorporates both Highland and Lowland terrains and is the gateway from the land of the much-romanticized Highland clans to the Southern Lowlands, where the ground is domesticated into fields and all roads led to Edinburgh or London. Since at least the twelfth century much of northern Perthshire itself was under the local rule of the Mormaer, this title designating the status of a regional or provincial ruler in the medieval Kingdom of the Scots. According to J.D. Mackie in A History of Scotland, mormaers were first recorded ‘in Gaelic (c. 1150) additions to the Book of Deer (Latin, ninth century)’ where mention was made of a mormaer or Great Steward giving gifts to a monestary. Professor Mackie suggests that they ‘may represent the old provincial sub-king’. The Mormaer, later the Earl of Atholl, was an early Stewart descendant from the line of later Scottish kings as ‘in 1457 King James II conferred the Earldom of Atholl on his half-brother, Sir John Stewart of Balvenie’.
The pedigree of the Atholl line is complex and can be confusing. However for present purposes, it is sufficient to know the direct line from which the marquis of Atholl and his son, Lord John Murray, later styled earl of Tullibardine and then 1st duke of Atholl, descend. Their paternal ancestor, William Murray, 2nd Earl of Tullibardine, married Lady Dorothea Stewart, heiress to John, 5th Earl of Atholl. The Earldom of Atholl devolved to her oldest son, John, upon her father’s death. John, first (Murray) earl of Atholl inherited the Stewart influence over the clans which ‘in Perthshire spread northwards into the central region. ’, was a firm Royalist during the years of the English Revolution fighting beside his cousin the Marquis of Montrose in defence of King Charles I, and died in 1642 leaving an eleven-year-old heir who would later become the first marquis of Atholl. It is important to realize the crucial fact that the earldom of Atholl passed to the Murrays by marriage. This made the previous Lords of Tullibardine, who had only been raised to the peerage within the fifty years prior to the Atholl marriage, the leaders of a vast Highland clan to which they had indirect ancient blood ties. As Allan Macinnes observes in Clanship, Commerce and the House of Stuart, 1603 –1788, ‘Although traditional virtue and authentic title were of complementary importance in confirming the status of the clan elite, the authority of the chief as of the fine was primarily personal, not institutional’.
The Murrays of Atholl are unique in that they held on to enormous institutional power over their clansmen without possessing the traditional virtues of Highland Chiefs over the Stewart, Robertson and the other affiliated clans comprising the Atholl Men. These peoples were the ancient landholders in the Earldom of Atholl, so the Murrays’ controlled their lands and army in a distant route through the matrilineal line, therefore they did not have an authentic title through the male line. In an era when old partisan loyalties were shifting, and former hostilities and noble ties were not as unqualified between England and Scotland as before the Union of the Regal Crowns in 1603, this overlord status of the Murrays’ was less personal than that of the Stewart line; their name was different, not to mention their historical ties. Hence, since the Murrays had only acquired the ancient, nobler Atholl Highland titles through marriage, by Macinnes’s definition, they held no personal claim from or to the loyalties of the Atholl Men and tenants in the traditional sense that equally titled Highland clan chieftains could call upon as historically their own clan of Murray and its underlying septs had been their fine. Although gentry in their own right they were still considered ‘lesser nobility’ but through adroit and well-timed deeds they had continually added to their lands and power, finally being rewarded with the Earldom of Tullibardine in 1606. They have oddly been overlooked in spite of their quick rise to power. Within 100 years of their peerage the Murray family combine the Earldoms acquired by heredity and marriage, rose to the highest martial and political offices, but also married into the noblest lowland noble family and ultimately attained a Dukedom. These were either a sheer strokes of luck or well-conceived strategies to empower the family resulting in the domination of lands comprising the middle of Scotland and most major routes from the Highlands to the Lowlands.
It is not that the Murray’s lacked significant ties in the power structure elite of Scotland prior to this marriage; Sir William of Tullibardine was a friend and defender of Lord Darnley and, after the death of his brother-in-law the Earl of Mar, one of the governors of young King James VI . One of their most notable acquisitions took place in August 5, 1600. According to the 7th Duke’s history of the families, The Chronicles of the Atholl and Tullibardine Families, Volume I:
William Murray, younger of Tullibardine, then a very young man, happened to be in Perth, accompanied by some of his father’s servants, on the occasion of the alleged attempt on the life of King James VI, by the Earl of Gowrie and his brother, and had the good fortune to aid his Majesty by quieting the tumult of the townspeople, who had become very turbulent on learning that their provost, Lord Gowrie had been slain. For this service he was rewarded with the hereditary Sherriffship of Perthshire, which had belonged to the Earl of Gowrie. For a similar service on the same occasion his cousin, Sir David Murray of Gospetrie (later Lord Scone, 1605) obtained from his Majesty the lands belonging to the Abbacy of Scone, of which Gowrie had been commendator, and also that Earl’s forfeited ‘Barony of Ruthven, with the castle thereof,’ which was re-named Huntingtower.
These men were adroit at being in the right place at the right time to add to their status and nobility and weren’t at all diffident in doing what needed to be done to ingratiate themselves with their sovereign to achieve those goals. In this they were little different from most of the Scottish landed gentry. Marrying into the actual Stewart line certainly helped acquire the pedigree from which future heirs would benefit. In fact, it appears that the Murrays actively sought means to further ennoble their name and fortunes during the reign of Queen Mary and her son, James VI. During this time the Atholl family was treated almost regally. After becoming a Marquis in 1676, ‘in accord with the size of his estates – one of the wealthiest in the country – Atholl was often addressed as ‘Most High Prince’.
From the beginning of the Murrays’ lordships over Atholl, they created an institutional, almost feudal style system of management with all the grandeur given to their fellow well-heeled Scottish Peers, lacking the old-style loyalty of the Atholl fine of their inherited Highland clans. Interestingly and oddly to the studied observer of their archival record is how they managed to maintain this control over their Highland tenants in the turbulent Union and Empire eras. Highland Scotland, becoming absorbed by dominating English interests would find itself a people apart, yet akin to their brethren in the South and ultimately, firmly invested in the budding principles of Manifest Destiny, founded in dominating through financial and militaristic means indigenous cultures in the “New World”. Somehow, this family, led by Lord John Murray managed to maintain some degree of control over his tenants against the backdrop of the late Restoration period, the ousting of the Stuarts in favour of the Williamites and the most intimidating of the Jacobite rebellions in 1715. His politics and policies were adroit enough to earn him the highest level of peerage. To omit the Murrays of Atholl from the major body of academic historic work is to ignore key players in the political, social, ecclesiastical and, militaristic history of Scotland.
When the lands of Tullibardine devolved to the Marquis on the death of his cousin James, 4th Earl of Tullibardine in 1670 family finances from the Highland black cattle trade were supplemented with Lowland income from linen cultivation. This set them apart from the rest of Scottish aristocracy, both Highland and Lowland, which couldn’t boast of such strategic and diverse economic interests. After acquiring the lowland industrial income of linen and later coal they added to the revenue generated by the cattle exported from the Atholl Highlands. In this ‘…the nobility led the way, as it did in the expansion of the cattle trade with England, the most dynamic sector of the late seventeenth century economy.’ Furthermore, ‘low grain prices in the latter half of the century persuaded noblemen to take the lead in exploiting estate resources like salt and coal’. The Murrays of Atholl were no exception. Although the management of the Estates was not under complete financial control generating vast income until the time of Lord Murray’s son, James, 2nd Duke of Atholl, Lord John Murray strategically managed his estates to provide the trappings of a Scottish Peer in spite of the general economic depression resulting from continuing political wars on the continent and religious and succession uprisings in Scotland occurring throughout his life. According to letters in the Blair Castle archives as early as 1698 the Earl of Tullibardine (as Lord Murray would become in 1696) rented land with stipulations to “Archibald Paterson for 800 merks per year excepting for the coal and mines”; the Earl retained direct income rights from portions of the property. Although the first archival mention of the linen trade does not exist until anonymous proposals dated 1708, it is certain that the tenants on the Tullibardine lands under Atholl control cultivated linen to help pay their rents.
At the time Lord Murray matured, many who in the Scottish nation had signed the Presbyterian covenant in 1638 continuously caused the entire country sharp divisions over the issue of religion. Fortunately for the Highland army of Atholl Men, primarily Stewarts and Robertsons who were mainly of the Episcopalian affinity, their Murray landlords were committed Royalists and of the same religious persuasion. The first (Murray) Earl of Atholl’s commitment to the royal cause brought him to an early death in 1642, when his heir, who would become the second Earl, was only eleven. The curators appointed for the young Earl, his uncle the Earl of Tullibardine and the Earl of Kinghorn, if anything, reinforced in him his father’s convictions, as these were primarily the same as their own. The second earl’s religious and political positions are clearly in evidence in the archival records from as early as the age of nineteen, when he took part in the unsuccessful campaigns in 1649 under Lord Ogilvie and General John Middleton, first earl of Middleton, later a most trusted advisor to Charles II, to oust the covenanters. In spite of their failure at this time, his continued zeal for the royal cause won him a good friend in Charles II and from an early age, the young Earl sought further extensions to his power through service to the very English Stuart monarchs. These efforts were rewarded when the King Charles II made him Marquis of Atholl in 1676. These were lessons if not strategies passed down through the acquisitive nature of his Murray antecedents, which in due course he would teach his own young son and heir, who with his sensitive, insightful nature succeeded beyond his father’s expectations. In 1703, Queen Anne having recently taken over the throne upon the death of her brother-in-law, William, and also the same year that the Marquis and Marchioness both died, their son, heir and protégé, Lord John Murray became the first Duke of Atholl; the highest rank of peerage. He overcame all the disadvantages brought to the Scottish nobles beginning in the 1640’s with the British Civil War, marking the final century of internal battle within the main British Islands. Lord John Murray not only witnessed but also overcame the repercussions of the Stuart monarchs’ inept administration and handling of ecclesiastical matters, which resulted in sweeping political change and finally, after centuries of English attempts, ended the old lifestyle of the Highland Clans. He did his best to defend the rights of his people and the Scottish nation. However, he was born into an era in which ‘defending the rights of his people’ was a concept which bore agonizingly diverse interpretations, and the smaller goal of defending the family and clan interests might also produce extremely divergent political decisions. The defence of ‘Scotland’ as an independent nation with differing religious and economic interests and the political, social and economic contentions with England were also deeply problematic for him. He realised that Scotland’s political economic, and cultural future were intertwined with that of England and were quite dependent on Westminster’s good will along with the threat of English military intervention. Lord Murray’s responses to these crucial subjects have much to tell us about, not only a fresh perspective on the events themselves, but of his character and his ability to manage not only his and his tenants own internal squabbling and private affairs but those of his nation. As a young man and then throughout his life, he is a much more compelling character and leader than has been historically realized and recorded.
Due to Murray’s conciliatory politics, military actions and manners, he has either been pigeonholed or difficult to characterize and therefore has been undeservedly overlooked as a historical figure. Despite his magnate status, his considerable personal army, and his position amongst the Scottish peerage, most historians have seen him as ineffectual, inadequate, or unimportant. P.W. J. Riley in King William and the Scottish Politicians quotes Argyll as viewing Murray as ‘a silly piece of statesman…who can never purge the Gillicrankie blood, taken in either sense.’ Further, Paul Hopkins discussing the siege of Blair Castle in his book, Glencoe and the End of the Highland War describes Lord Murray as having ‘a strong, moralistic, somewhat priggish religious belief [which was] partly checked by his inherited magnate pride and violent temper.’ In opposition to these statements, the argument of this thesis will be to propose that as a man whose significance was both local and national, the primary concerns throughout his adult life were to balance both responsibilities while also revising these previous unjust and somewhat disingenuous views of a nobleman and magnate who held his country and his position in the highest regard while also manoeuvring to place his family within the highest ranks of peerage. Viewed in this light, with constantly shifting political sands and very little precedence given the themes dominating his life, Murray’s achievements are very far from negligible, and also revelatory of the checks and balances, which existed in every facet of the life of this early modern Scottish magnate.
COMMENTS
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BloodExtacy
04:15 Aug 30 2008
they say drinking is sometimes a luxery if done in portions otherwise it's just a bad habbit lol
Cinnamon
04:26 Aug 30 2008
I always appreciate enthusiasm and this just reeks of it. Never mind that it might be alcohol induced enthusiasm. ;) It's still enthusiasm all the same.
So, how exactly do you dramatize these history lectures of yours? Are there props and costumes involved? :)
JedixMasterxCheryl
23:17 Sep 06 2008
Possibly props and costumes at times - there needs to be a relaxed feel to any learning environment as most people tend to absorb more information in an evironment where they feel at ease.
I had a professor who was teaching us Military History and WWII Europe as an undergrad and he would sometimes come dressed up as Kaiser Wilhelm or in an SS Outfit (he was a German Jew too so that was really ironic) and would always start class with his quote of the day from the Simpsons.
He was truly a class act and what inspired me to teach history at the collegiate level.