When you think of ethnic cleansing, you probably don t conjure up the image of
Tobermory Bay on the Isle of Mull. You probably never for a minute think
of the beauty of the tranquil Isle of Iona and yet these are the places I m taking you today
to talk about the Ethnic cleansing of James VI
If you re interested in the people, places and events in Scottish history then click
the subscribe bottom right of the screen. In the meantime let me tell you a story
In the autumn of 1608, a group of Island chiefs were invited to a religious service onboard a ship
out there in Tobermory Bay. On the ship they would hear to a
sermon by Andrew Knox, the Bishop of the Isles but when they got to the boat what they actually
heard was the Eagles playing Hotel California they could never leave
In fact they were taken to Edinburgh and held under confinement until they agreed to dismantle
their very way of life. So how did we get here.
James VI had no time for the Gaels. He saw them as barbaric.
He saw their language as barbaric, their oral culture, their traditions,
but I m guessing that what upset him most was that each clan leader had men at arms
and didn t pay their taxes. There was also inter clan warfare.
When there wasn t inter clan warfare many of these island warrior class had been hired out
as mercenaries in Ireland fighting with the Irish against Elizabeth of England.
Now James had turned a blind eye to that but now that HE was king of England
he d bought himself a new pair of spectacles. If there was gong to be warfare
he should control it. The confidence gained
by having men at arms is probably why the chiefs hadn t paid their dues to James.
If I had an army, I don t think I d pay my council tax.
In their own lands they felt safe from royal authority.
James knew that hence the subterfuge
of hospitality on the boat and come and hear the preacher.
What James really wanted was much more draconian
James had already activated colonisation schemes to replace Gaels with Lowlanders in Kintyre,
in Lewis and was in the process
of de-Gaelicising the north of Ireland. I ve made videos about Lewis and the North of
Ireland and there ll be links at the end... but there had also been failed plans for
colonisation of Uist and Skye. With the addition of England to his
investment portfolio, James was more powerful than he d ever been
and, it seemed, no less determined to wipe out the power,
authority and way of life of clan chiefs or as James would have put it
persuade them to become civilized good citizens.
If I understand the timeline correctly then in spring 1608 a Commission had been
set up to implement James s requirements. His planned method of persuasion a proper
military expedition to the isles to bring the chiefs to heel.
They would be answerable to James s laws, submit to his courts.
They would hand over all their castles to the crown, destroy their warships,
be forbidden from carrying arms, accept reduced landholdings and send their children to be
educated in schools in the lowlands , and everyone would conform to the
religious practises of the state
effectively the dismantling of their social and power structure.
The only reason James didn t get his way was that the Convention of Estates weren t prepared to fund
such a military expedition so in autumn 1608
would ye like tae come oot on ma boat and talk tae the minister?
Now they re in Edinburgh. James wasn t there. He was down in London,
but his instructions were clear. Crush their power. Dismantle their
retinues and anglicise them from the top down oh and get them to pay their parking fines.
In November, after having been stuck in Edinburgh for a while, the clan chiefs said:
OK, we admit it, we were illegally parked, but it
was only a single yellow and it wasn t clear what the restrictions were.
How about we promise to be more careful in future and you let us go back to our lands,
because there s no telling what the young uns are getting up to in Tobermory when we re no there.
Those scallywags could be parking in disabled bays as we speak.
Oh no, no, no. Do ye think we re buttoned up the back?
You re going nowhere. The Following February they said:
So what if we pay the fines, but you don t clamp our car?
Basically, the chiefs had offered to pay their taxes and follow James s laws,
but NOT to dismantle their way of life.
The Commissioners said: Sorry mate, it s more than my job s worth.
One way or another, hostages taken for surety, they were eventually released ,
Tell me this. Do you watch these videos for the scenery?
I d be interested to know in the comments. How important are the locations for you
on a scale of 1-10? It ll help me deciding on locations for the future.
This is the beautiful island of Iona and around a year after that initial abduction off Tobermory,
and after a show trial where the MacDonald heir of Dunnieveg
had a conviction for treason dangled over his head
Bishop Knox arrived here with a negotiating committee to meet the Southern Hebridean chiefs.
It was here that were agreed a set of nine statutes that resonate down the years.
Just before I give you the statutes I recently had a FANTASTIC chat with Dr Martin MacGregor,
Glasgow University s lecturer in Highland culture.
Martin was part of the team who produced the FREE online course about Scottish clans.
It s called The Scottish Highland Clans: Origins, Decline and Transformation.
You ll find it on Futurelearn and I ll leave a link in the description.
I spoke to him for this month s Conversation with Experts.
We chatted for more than an hour and a half about clans,
Highland culture and the Statutes of Iona. He was brilliant and if you want a more in depth,
nuanced explanation than I can give you, then click on the white tab,
become a Patreon member and hear what Martin had to say.
What the chiefs signed up to was One Churches throughout their lands
with the same ministry, discipline, and observance as in the Lowlands
You can see the Bishop was in the negotiating seat
Two As a replacement for Highland hospitality culture,
Inns would be set up in all the Islands for the accommodation of travellers.
Three Chiefs would limit their household retinue.
Both bards and men at arms would be key targets here.
Four No billeting of the Lord s soldiers upon the tenantry.
I bet the MacDonald s of Glencoe found that ironic
Five A ban on importation or sale of wine or whisky
Six Every gentleman with more than 60 cattle had to send his eldest son or,
daughter to school in the Lowlands and brought up speak English.
Seven The ban on guns was to be strictly enforced.
Eight Wandering bards are to be apprehended, put in the stocks, and expelled from the islands.
Nine The chief of every clan is responsible for enforcing these laws and delivering malefactors
to a competent judge to be dealt with. These statutes would change the
very nature of island society, and for many years they ve been a key milestone on
the road to the loss of the culture of the Gael. In the conversation I mentioned with Martin
MacGregor we had a really interesting discussion on the balance between
imperialist imposition on the one hand or indigenous autonomy on the other.
It seems to me that ethnic cleansing isn t just about moving people off their land,
but denying them the culture in which they live. Like James, you may think their
culture needed to be extirpated, I still meet Scots who think that.
In so many of these stories somebody thinks they re civilising and improving
whilst somebody else is having change forced on them for their own good or ill.
The reason I think that resonates is that it s not history,
it s life. Wherever that balance lay here,
there was coercion somewhere , if for no other reason than for the
first time ever island chiefs recognised that their authority came down from the king,
not up from the people.
I think the bards would ve had something to say about that
If they could If you want to
know more about the ethnic cleansing of James VI there s a video coming up on screen now.
In the meantime
Tha mi an d chas gum bi lath math leibh. Tiorridh an drasda