James [VI of Scotland, later I of England] intended to see the Highland clans of the mainland assimilated and those in the Isles colonized, a policy he would eventually extend to his new kingdom of Ireland.
In the meantime, they had recently boasted two bloody massacres: the Glengarry Macdonalds had burned to death a congregation of the Mackenzies in a church at Kilchrist on 7 February. Their piper reportedly walked around the building taunting those inside by playing a clan pibroch as they screamed and died.
More significantly – since it involved the deaths of a small number of Lowlanders close to the court – a band of up to 200 Colquhouns of Luss was killed in the same month by the Macgregors at Glenfruin, the so-called Glen of Sorrow. The punishment of the Macgregors was decided at a secret meeting at Holyrood eight days later, when the Scots Privy Council proscribed the entire clan, “that the whole persons of that clan should renounce their name and take them some other name, and that they nor none of their posterity should call themselves Gregor or Macgregor thereafter, under pain of death.”
Author’s Note:
The law against the Macgregors would not be repealed until 1774, during which time supplementary laws were passed that no more than four Gregors could meet together at any time or carry any weapons, save a pointless knife for their meat. Their enemies were encouraged to hunt them down with bloodhounds known as “black dogs.” If any of the Macgregors were caught, their heads were sold to government officials or they were sent into slavery in America. The survivors hid in the hills and became known as “the Children of the Mist.”
Source:
Lisle, Leanda De. "Lots Were Cast Upon Our Land" After Elizabeth: The Rise of James of Scotland and the Struggle for the Throne of England. New York: Ballantine, 2005. 124. Print.
The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, edited by David Masson, vol. 6, 1599-1604, p. 558.
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