Scotland’s Sioux

While the aristocracy fought over who should be king and why during the reign of the Stuart kings the Killing Time in South West Scotland is often overlooked. During the time of Charles 1 the people of that area rose against the imposition of an alien form of worship, Episcopalianism. To suppress this Charles brought 5000 Highlanders and a group of wild Irish to the area. It didn’t stop there. In later years the locals were forced to worship on the moors at what were called Conventicles. The conventicles were attacked and slaughtered by cavalry and I ask myself – What effect did it have on the ordinary people of Scotland? It made the South West hate the Stuarts, and, through that, the English. It made them hate the Highlanders and leave them to their own fate. When they eventually defeated the Stuarts, they had learned that the ordinary people could have a say, that the days when some lord or king (Robert Bruce?) could tell them to go out and get slaughtered in his name were drawing to a close. Now, what kind of opportunities does this provide for historical fiction? In fact it’s a bit like a Western with the seventh cavalry attacking the Sioux but with the Conventical taking the role of the Sioux village. Now Major Dundee and his Irish Highlanders are the villains and John Wayne is a preacher at the conventicle with Maureen O’Hara, the laird’s daughter being in love with him. The laird is torn between his loyalty to the king and his daughter’s happiness; Wayne is on the run and the cavalry captain, who is in love with O’Hara and her father’s estate, grabs her to draw Wayne out but, instead, draws the laird’s servant, also in love with O’Hara or her servant, and kills him – lots of possibilities for betrayal and sacrifice and a bit of gore.
The first time I found a connection between Scottish history and the American West was when I discovered a friend of my mother-in-law had been been a drover and it made me think of the Chisholm Trail and films like The Cowboys. So many dramas and plots that it led me to the fun of writing Drover.