Glencoe: The Infamous Massacre, 1692

A startling new history of the Campbell massacre of the MacDonald Clan, one the most emotive episodes in Scottish history.

Traditional view of the massacre as laid out in the two classic books on the subject (John Buchan Glencoe 1930 and echoed in the 1960s by John Prebble's Glencoe) is that Clan Campbell conspired with the English to murder their local rivals Clan Macdonald. John Sadler reveals that this was not the case and that the real cause was mix of incompetence and overzealousness on the part of handful of English Army officers who exceeded their orders.

In the early hours of 13 February 1692, English Redcoats under the command of Campbell of Glenlyon, who for the past week had been peacefully quartered on the inhabitants of Glencoe, fell upon their MacDonald hosts. In the ensuing hours thirty eight defenseless men, women, and children were murdered in cold blood.

The massacre, sanctioned by the new king of England, William of Orange, was initially covered up, but news of such treachery could not kept quiet and it has become a cause ce'le'bre of Scottish history. John Sadler's reinvestigation of the sources and contemporary accounts has yielded valuable new insights into why the order was given, turning the previously accepted view of events on its head.