Moira M. reviewed on + 50 more book reviews
This is a terrific love story based on two historical clans of the Scottish Highlands. The Author's Note gives the best detail of this beautiful historical read:
"The MacGregors and the Campbells are two well-known clans in the history of the Highlands. The MacGregors, who motto "Royal is my race" indicates a claim to descent from Griogar, King of Alpin in the eighth century, received the lands of Glenorchy, Glenstrae, Glenlyon, and Glengyle for service to the king, Alexander II, in his conquest of Argyll. They maintained their possession of this land by right of the sword and earned themselves a reputation for being warlike. Sir Walter Scott called them Children of the Mist.
The MacGregors were proscribed at various times, a process that stripped away their titles and lands and caused their very name to be banned. They were forbidden weapons or the right to gather in numbers more than five. A bounty was placed on their heads, their leaders hanged, their women branded, and their children taken away and given to other clans. The Campbells were very much a cause of the proscriptions described in this book and were ruthless in squeezing lesser clans from their lands. Unlike the MacGregors, however, the Campbells did not use force so much as they made use of their growing influence with the crown.
The fortunes of the MacGregors turned, however, and they won favor again. They fought for the Stewart cause and sheltered the fugitive Bonnie Prince Charles and were stout defenders of the Highland Gaeldom.
Kilchurn Castle was a holding of the Campbells', as was Edinample Castle of the MacGregors'.
As for the attitude of superstition and fear regarding witches in Scotland, King James was especially militant in trying to rid his country of witches, even going so far as to write his tract, Demonology, in which he outlines the mystery of witchcraft and espouses women as more susceptible to magic and the "grosse snares of the divell, as was overwell prooved to be trew, by the serpent's deceiving of Eve." It's interesting to note here that Jon Knox himself, the great father of Protestant Reformation in Scotland, was thought to be a wizard by Scotland's Catholic Church.
Unfortunately many who were accused of witchery were old women with no means or family to protect them. They were tortured until they confessed, then burned on Castle Hill in Edinburgh. Oftentimes their children or anyone known to be associated with such women were also accused of withcraft and tortured into confession. Witches were thought to have a secret mark in their eyes or the mark of a cloven hoof on the roof of their mouth."
"The MacGregors and the Campbells are two well-known clans in the history of the Highlands. The MacGregors, who motto "Royal is my race" indicates a claim to descent from Griogar, King of Alpin in the eighth century, received the lands of Glenorchy, Glenstrae, Glenlyon, and Glengyle for service to the king, Alexander II, in his conquest of Argyll. They maintained their possession of this land by right of the sword and earned themselves a reputation for being warlike. Sir Walter Scott called them Children of the Mist.
The MacGregors were proscribed at various times, a process that stripped away their titles and lands and caused their very name to be banned. They were forbidden weapons or the right to gather in numbers more than five. A bounty was placed on their heads, their leaders hanged, their women branded, and their children taken away and given to other clans. The Campbells were very much a cause of the proscriptions described in this book and were ruthless in squeezing lesser clans from their lands. Unlike the MacGregors, however, the Campbells did not use force so much as they made use of their growing influence with the crown.
The fortunes of the MacGregors turned, however, and they won favor again. They fought for the Stewart cause and sheltered the fugitive Bonnie Prince Charles and were stout defenders of the Highland Gaeldom.
Kilchurn Castle was a holding of the Campbells', as was Edinample Castle of the MacGregors'.
As for the attitude of superstition and fear regarding witches in Scotland, King James was especially militant in trying to rid his country of witches, even going so far as to write his tract, Demonology, in which he outlines the mystery of witchcraft and espouses women as more susceptible to magic and the "grosse snares of the divell, as was overwell prooved to be trew, by the serpent's deceiving of Eve." It's interesting to note here that Jon Knox himself, the great father of Protestant Reformation in Scotland, was thought to be a wizard by Scotland's Catholic Church.
Unfortunately many who were accused of witchery were old women with no means or family to protect them. They were tortured until they confessed, then burned on Castle Hill in Edinburgh. Oftentimes their children or anyone known to be associated with such women were also accused of withcraft and tortured into confession. Witches were thought to have a secret mark in their eyes or the mark of a cloven hoof on the roof of their mouth."
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