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GRA spent the closing years of his eventful life. From the days of Bruce downwards, the Grahams have always taken a prominent part in public, and especially in warlike affairs. In the early part of the fifteenth century, they formed an alliance with the royal family— having married for his second wife Mary, daughter of Robert III. , the eldest son of this lady, was ancestor of the Grahams of Claverhouse, to whom John, Viscount Dundee, the notorious persecutor of the covenanters, belonged. Her second son,, became bishop of St. Andrews, primate of Scotland, and papal nuncio, and died a prisoner in Lochleven castle in 1498, having fallen a victim to the malice of the monks, whose hatred he had provoked by his ecclesiastical reforms. , the youngest son of Lady Mary, was the ancestor of the late gallant Lord Lynedoch, the victor of Barossa. , of Kincardine, was elevated to the peerage in 1445 by the title of Lord Graham. His grandson,, fought with great gallantry on the side of James III. at the battle of Sauchieburn in 1488, and was raised to the dignity of Earl of Montrose in 1504. He fell along with his royal master, James IV., at the fatal battle of Flodden. , third earl, son of Robert, Lord Graham, who was slain at the battle of Pinkie, was one of the most powerful noblemen in Scotland, and held in succession the offices of lord treasurer, lord chancellor, and viceroy of Scotland, after the union of the crowns. The glory, however, of the family is his grandson—

, fifth earl and first marquis, usually designated the great marquis of Montrose, who was born in 1612, and succeeded his father, John, fourth earl, in 1626. He studied at St. Andrews, and after completing his education, he married in his nineteenth year the daughter of the earl of Southesk, and spent several years on the continent, where he acquired a knowledge of some of the modern languages, as well as great skill in martial exercises, and was reckoned one of the most accomplished gentlemen of his age. He returned to Scotland in 1634; and on his appearance at court was ungraciously received by the king, whose frigid manners were fitted to repel, rather than attract, an ardent and high-spirited youth. Scotland was then agitated by the attempt of Charles and Laud to introduce the liturgy into the Scottish church, and Montrose at once joined the covenanters, and became one of their most active leaders. In 1639 he was sent to chastise the prelatic town of Aberdeen, and imposed the covenant on the citizens at the point of the sword. When the covenanters took up arms in defence of their liberties, and entered England in 1640, Montrose was the first man who forded the Tweed at the head of his own battalion, and a few days after, routed the vanguard of the English cavalry at Newburn on the Tyne. He soon became dissatisfied, however, with the proceedings of the covenanting leaders, whom he suspected of a design to overthrow the royal authority, and resenting the preference given to the marquis of Argyll, he gradually became alienated from his party, and ultimately espoused the cause of the king. In June, 1641, he was accused of carrying on a secret correspondence with Charles, and along with three of his friends, was confined in the castle of Edinburgh, where he remained a close prisoner until the beginning of 1642, when he was set at liberty on the intercession of the king himself. After the breaking out of the civil war, the earl, who greatly disliked the timorous and trimming policy of the marquis of Hamilton, the king's minister for Scotland, urged that an army of royalists should immediately be raised to prevent the covenanters from making common cause with the English parliament. But this hold though prudent advice was disregarded, and the result was that a powerful army was sent from Scotland to the assistance of the parliament, and turned the scale in their favour. On the disgrace and arrest of Hamilton in the beginning of 1644, Montrose was appointed by the king lieutenant-general in Scotland, and shortly after was advanced to the dignity of Marquis. He made a daring attempt to cut his way into Scotland at the head of a small body of troops, with the view of raising the Scottish royalists on the side of the king, but was encountered on the Borders by a superior force, and compelled to fall back on Carlisle. After the fatal battle of Marston Moor, however, he set out in August, 1644, in the disguise of a groom, and accompanied only by two friends, succeeded in reaching the Highlands without detection. He found at Blair Athol about twelve hundred Irish auxiliaries, who had shortly before landed in the West Highlands to aid the royal cause, and immediately displayed his commission, and assumed the command of these troops. The Highlanders flocked to the royal standard in great numbers; and the marquis, finding himself at the head of a considerable force, lost no time in directing his march to the low country. At Tippermuir, three miles from Perth, he encountered (1st September) an army of six thousand covenanters under Lord Elcho, whom he defeated with the loss of three hundred men, together with all his artillery, arms, and baggage. Perth immediately surrendered, and the victors obtained from the terror-stricken citizens a seasonable supply of clothing and arms. The approach of Argyll at the head of a powerful army, compelled Montrose to quit this city; and proceeding northward to Aberdeenshire, he attacked and defeated another army of covenanters at the Bridge of Dee under Lord Burleigh and Lewis Gordon, and pursued the fugitives into the town of Aberdeen. On the approach of Argyll he proceeded up the Spey, then doubling back, plunged into the wilds of Badenoch, and thence into Athol, always pursued, but never overtaken, by his enemy. Completely tired out by these rapid and harassing marches, Argyll returned to Edinburgh on the approach of winter, supposing that Montrose had retired into winter quarters. But the marquis availed himself of the opportunity to invade the county of Argyll, which he plundered and laid waste with merciless severity. He then withdrew towards Lochaber, whither he was followed by a strong body of the Campbell clan along with their chief, and some battalions from the Lowlands, while General Baillie at the head of a considerable force was advancing towards them from the east, and another strong body under Lord Seaforth was stationed at Inverness. Montrose was proceeding towards the latter place, when receiving notice of the march of the Campbells, he resolved to give them battle before fresh reinforcements should arrive, and instantly retracing his steps, he attacked the enemy at Inverlochy (2nd February, 1645), and defeated them with great slaughter. Then hurrying to the north-east, he destroyed with fire and sword the lowlands of Aberdeenshire, Moray, and other districts supposed to be favourable to the parliament. On the 4th of April he stormed the town of Dundee, and set it on fire; but learning that a covenanting army, four thousand strong, under Baillie and Sir John Urray, were within a mile of the town, he instantly called off his soldiers, and by a series of masterly manœuvres, kept the enemy at bay; and after a hurried march of seventy miles, found refuge in the mountains. The covenanting generals unwisely divided their forces, and were successively defeated by Montrose—Urray at Auldearn, near Nairn (9th May), and Baillie at Alford, on the Don (2nd July). The fame of these victories attracted great numbers of the Highland clans to Montrose's standard; and, descending from the mountains at the head of six thousand men, he marched towards Stirling, laid waste the estates of Argyll in that district, and destroyed Castle Campbell, his noble mansion, near Dollar. The parliament had meanwhile, by the most vigorous exertions, succeeded in raising a new army, superior in numbers to the Highlanders, but composed of raw and undisciplined troops, utterly unfit to cope with Montrose's veterans. Baillie, the commander, wished to avoid a battle, but was overruled by the committee of Estates. The conflict took place near the village of Kilsyth, and after a brief struggle, terminated in the total defeat of the covenanters, with the loss of upwards of four thousand men. This crowning victory made Montrose for the time master of Scotland, and great numbers of the Lowland nobles, who had hitherto stood aloof, now declared in his favour. A new commission was sent by the king appointing him lieutenant-governor and captain-general of Scotland, and he marched towards the Borders with the view of leading his victorious army into England to the assistance of his sovereign. But on the 12th September, while encamped on Philiphaugh, near Selkirk, he was surprised and completely defeated by General Leslie, who had been recalled from England to the assistance of the Estates; Montrose, himself with difficulty regained his Highland fastnesses, accompanied by only two hundred men. The remnant of his army, and the fruits of his six splendid victories, were thus swept away at one blow.

On the termination of the first civil war, Montrose, in compliance with the king's command, laid down his arms and sought shelter on the continent. After the execution of Charles I. the marquis advised his son. Prince Charles, not to accept the crown on the stringent terms proposed by the Scottish Estates; and offered to place him by force of arms on the throne of his ancestors. Charles, with characteristic duplicity, entered into