Late on the evening of Saturday 2nd May 1685, the Anna set sail from Holland with a small heavily-bearded man called ’Mr Carr’: so began the last desperate throw of the dice for the ninth earl of Argyll.
Clan Campbell had suffered much in the grim years of turmoil and civil war which characterised the 17th century. With one earl executed for disloyalty, the clan’s position at the court of Charles II rested on very shaky foundations. The accession of James marked a decisive shift, and, from exile, the ninth earl joined the unstable and mercurial Duke of Monmouth, illegitimate son of Charles II, in a plot against the new king. Support was muted at best and riven by dissensions in command. His small army gradually found it itself boxed in and disintegrating in the face of overwhelming government strength.
Final collapse took place with the destruction of the rebel stores on Eilean Dearg near Colintraive. Argyll himself was captured near Inchinnan. He could only have one fate: ’Argile in pomp and glory carrid our imperiall croun before the King when Duke of York in his Parliament of 1681 and now, in four years tyme, he is ignominiously led up that same street by the hangman.’ After the execution of the ninth earl the fortunes of the clan sank yet further, and James II even considered proscribing the name ’Campbell’. The fate of the clan removed a force for stability in the Highlands, and the subsequent years saw a steady disintegration of law and order until their fortunes were reversed under William of Orange.
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