Montrose, Marquis of

Montrose, Marquis of (1612-50), Scottish nobleman and soldier.

James Graham, 1st Marquis of Montrose, fought for King Charles I in Scotland during the Civil War (1642-46).

Earlier he had been opposed to Charles. In 1637, Charles was trying to put an end to the Presbyterian Church but a group of leading Scotsmen, called Covenanters, resisted him. One of them was Graham and in 1638 he captured Aberdeen for the Covenanters. Later he disagreed with them and offered his services to the King in the Civil War.

He returned to Scotland as Marquis of Montrose with two men, four horses and no money. The Covenanters had taken the side of Parliament in the Civil War and Montrose led a small force of Highlanders and Irishmen in a series of victories over them. But he was finally defeated at Philiphaugh, near Selkirk, in 1645 and had to flee to Europe.

He returned to Scotland in 1650 to raise a rebellion for Prince Charles (later Charles II) but was defeated, captured, and later hanged in the High Street of Edinburgh. The crowds watched in silence and it was said that the hangman wept. Eleven years afterwards his bones were recovered and buried in St. Giles Cathedral and a monument marks his tomb today.

See Stuart Reid Auldearn 1645: The Marquis of Montrose's Scottish Campaign