Murder under trust
The Massacre of Glencoe on 13 February 1692 is one of the most infamous events in Scottish history. Government soldiers of the Earl of Argyll's Regiment — many of them Campbells — had been billeted with the MacDonalds of Glencoe for twelve days. They had eaten their food, drunk their whisky, and accepted their hospitality. Then, in the early hours of the morning, they rose and began killing.
Thirty-eight men, women, and children were murdered. The chief, Alasdair MacIain, was shot in the back as he got out of bed. His wife had her rings torn from her fingers, her teeth pulling them off. Many more — perhaps forty — died of exposure fleeing into the winter mountains in their nightclothes. The soldiers burned the houses behind them.
The massacre was ordered by the Secretary of State for Scotland, Sir John Dalrymple, and sanctioned by King William III. The official pretext was that MacIain had been late in taking an oath of allegiance to the new king. The real motive was to make an example of a small, troublesome clan and intimidate the Highlands into submission. What made Glencoe uniquely shocking was the breach of hospitality — "murder under trust," which was considered a worse crime than ordinary murder under Scots law.
A parliamentary inquiry in 1695 condemned the massacre as "murder under trust" but no one was punished. The glen itself remains one of the most atmospheric places in Scotland — the Three Sisters, the Aonach Eagach ridge, and the narrow valley floor where the MacDonalds lived. A memorial cross stands in the old village of Glencoe. Every 13 February, a wreath is laid at the cross. The massacre is not forgotten.