JAMES GRAHAM MONTROSE
(James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose)
5th Earl of Montrose. The public reaction to a new prayer book issued by the King and created by the King’s religious appointees. Although Protestant in nature, it was created without the early Scottish Protestant tradition of consultation with many levels of clergy and society. It was seen as authoritarian and much like the Catholic mass which was proscribed by Rome. The National Covenant was a document of protest. It was first drafted by Alexander Henderson and Johnston of Wariston, and signed by others, but Montrose was the first signer and the acknowledged leader of the Covenanters.
5th Earl of Montrose. Argyle had sentenced him to death. When he appeared at the scaffold he was formally and elegantly dressed and began combing his long hair. Argyle asked what why he was doing such a foolish thing at that time. These were his famous last words.
James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose was a Scottish nobleman, poet and soldier, lord lieutenant and later viceroy and captain general of Scotland. Montrose initially joined the Covenanters in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, but subsequently supported King Charles I as the English Civil War developed. From 1644 to 1646, and again in 1650, he fought in the civil war in Scotland on behalf of the King. He is referred to as the Great Montrose.
