Fighting against William and Mary had also been going on in Scotland;
for Claverhouse, or "Bonny Dundee" (S472), was an ardent adherent of
James II and vowed, "Ere the King's crown shall fall, there are crowns
to be broke."[2] But the Jacobites, or adherents of James (S495), had
been conquered, and a proclamation was sent out commanding all the
Highland clans to take the oath of allegiance before the beginning of
the new year (1692).
[2] Scott's Poems, "Bonny Dundee."
A chief of the clan of the Macdonalds of Glencoe, through no fault of
his own, failed to make submission within the appointed time. Scotch
enemies of the clan told the King that the chief had refused to take
the oath, and urged William "to extirpate that set of thieves." The
King signed an order to that effect, without clearly understnading
what was intended.
Thereupon the Scotch authorities sent a body of soldiers to Glencoe,
who were hospitably received by the Macdonalds. After stopping with
them a number of days, they rose before light one winter morning, and,
suddenly attacking their friendly hosts, murdered all the men who did
not escape, and drove the women and children into the snowdrifts to
perish of cold and hunger.
They finished their work of destruction by burning the cabins and
driving away the cattle. By this act, Glencoe, or the "Glen of
Weeping," was changed into the Valley of the Shadow of Death. The
blame which attaches to William is that he did nothing toward
punishing those who planned and carried out the horrible massacre.