Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 15:22:59 +0000
Subject: Re: Scots finally win major world sporting championship



Andy wrote

 > Another example of Campbell treachery

The Campbells have had a bad press, but the idea that they
were more treacherous than, say, the MacDonalds, or the MacGregrors,
is just a myth, with little connection to historical reality. There
were Campbells on both sides in the Jacobite wars, there were
MacDonalds on both sides, and as for Rob Roy MacGregor,
he was basically a double agent in the pay of the government.

This myth has been encouraged by the Roman Catholic Church
because the Campbells were strongly protestant. In 1685 the Duke
of Argyll (an earlier one than the elephant polo guy) led a protestant
rebellion against King James the Second, a Catholic. Argyll's rebellion
in Scotland was in alliance with the Monmouth Rebellion in England.
Both rebellions were defeated. People suspected of sympathising
with Argyll's Rebellion, not just men but women and very young children,
were rounded up and put into dungeons where many of them, particularly
the children, died. After several months, the survivors were shipped
off to South Carolina, Georgia, and East New Jersey. Argyll himself
was executed, as was the Duke of Monmouth, by being hung, drawn,
and quartered. All of this made James the Second even more unpopular
than before, which is why, when William of Orange arrived from
the Netherlands three years later, he was welcomed as a liberator
by most people in Scotland and in England. Only the daft Paddies
thought that having James the Second as king in London was
a cause worth fighting for. And of course, after the suppression
of Argyll's rebellion a couple of years earlier, the Campbells
and many other clans in the Scottish highlands were enthusiastic
about King Billy. Well, at least to begin with they were.
Until they found out just how treacherous _he_  could be.

Dave C