The Last Highlander

The Last Highlander

SCOTLAND’S MOST
NOTORIOUS CLAN CHIEF,
REBEL & DOUBLE AGENT

SARAH FRASER

CONTENTS

Title Page

Dedication

Epigraph

List of Illustrations

Maps

Lovat Family Tree

Prologue: Death of a Highland chief

PART ONE:
FORMATIVE YEARS, C.1670–1702

ONE:
Home, birth, youth,
c
.1670–94

TWO:
To be a fox and a lion, 1685–95

THREE:
‘Nice use of the beast and the man’, 1695–96

FOUR:
‘No borrowed chief!’, 1696–97

FIVE:
‘The Grand Fornicator of the Aird’, 1697–99

SIX:
Victory and loss, 1699–1702

PART TWO:
AT THE COURT OF THE SUN KING, 1702–15

SEVEN:
The Stuart Court of St Germains, 1702

EIGHT:
Planning an invasion, 1702–04

NINE:
‘A disposition in Scotland to take up arms’, 1703

TEN:
The ‘political sensation’, autumn 1703

ELEVEN:
The ‘Scotch plot’ exposed, winter 1703–04

TWELVE:
‘You walk upon glass’, 1704–14

THIRTEEN:
The end of exile, 1714

FOURTEEN:
A necessary change, 1714–15

FIFTEEN:
Return to Scotland, 1715

SIXTEEN:
Fighting for the prize, 1715

PART THREE:
THE RETURN OF THE CHIEF, 1715–45

SEVENTEEN:
Home, 1715–16

EIGHTEEN:
The legal battles begin, 1716

NINETEEN:
Living like a fox, 1716

TWENTY:
‘What a lion cannot manage, the fox can’, 1717–18

TWENTY-ONE:
Matters of life and death, 1718–21

TWENTY-TWO:
Networking from Inverness, 1722–24

TWENTY-THREE:
Lovat under Wade’s eye, 1725–27

TWENTY-FOUR:
Tragedy, 1727–31

TWENTY-FIVE:
Kidnapping and election-rigging, 1731–34

TWENTY-SIX:
A pyrrhic victory, 1734–39

PART FOUR:
LORD LOVAT’S LAMENT, 1739–47

TWENTY-SEVEN:
Floating between interests, 1738–43

TWENTY-EIGHT:
‘A foolish and rash undertaking’, 1743–45

TWENTY-NINE:
Rebellion, July–December 1745

THIRTY:
A quick victory, and long march to defeat, December 1745–June 1746

THIRTY-ONE:
The beginning of the end, 1746–47

THIRTY-TWO:
Dying like a lion

Picture Section

Footnotes

Select Bibliography

Acknowledgements

Notes

Copyright

About the Publisher

ILLUSTRATIONS

Etching of Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat after William Hogarth. (
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
)

James II and family, 1694, by Pierre Mignard. (
The Royal Collection © 2011 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II/The Bridgeman Art Library
)

Queen Mary II,
c
. 1685, studio of Willem Wissing. (
Kenwood House, London © English Heritage Photo Library/The Bridgeman Art Library
)

King William III by Godfried Schalcken. (
© The Crown Estate/The Bridgeman Art Library
)

Prince James Francis Edward Stuart, 18th century English School. (
© Scottish National Portrait Gallery/The Bridgeman Art Library
)

Louis XIV in Royal Costume, 1701, by Hyacinthe Rigaud. (
© Louvre, Paris/Giraudon/The Bridgeman Art Library
)

View of Edinburgh by J Slezer (engraved copper plate) produced for D. Browne, London, 1718. (
© The British Library Board
)

Major James Fraser of Castle Leathers,
c
. 1720, attributed to John Vanderbank. (
Private Collection
)

John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll and Greenwich, William Aikman. (
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
)

Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll, attributed to Allan Ramsay. (
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
)

Sir James Grant. Etching by John Kay, 1798. (
© The Mary Evans Picture Library
)

The death of Colonel Gardiner on the field of Prestonpans. Sir William Allan lithograph by E. Walker. (
© The Mary Evans Picture Library
)

George II at the Battle of Dettingen by David Morier. (
© Private Collection/Arthur Ackerman Ltd/The Bridgeman Art Library
)

Field-Marshal George Wade, attributed to Johan van Diest. (
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
)

Prince Charles Edward Stuart, by William Mosman. (
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
)

The Battle of Culloden, 1746. Coloured engraving published by R. Sayer and J. Bennett, London
c
. 1780. (
© The National Army Museum, London
)

William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, mid 18th century English School. (
© Royal Armouries, Leeds/The Bridgeman Art Library
)

Lord Lovat’s ghost. Mezzotint by Samuel Ireland. (
© Grosvenor Prints/The Mary Evans Picture Library
)

Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat. Engraved by Cook after a portrait by Le Clare. (
© The Mary Evans Picture Library
)