The Scots are highlanders. Which Scots clan is considered the most vile and cruel? Who are the Campbells?

Sir Hugh Tevor-Roper's article in the collection "The Invention of Tradition" edited by E. Hobsbawm produces an interesting impression: "I've already seen this somewhere. Here, recently." The ancient Scotland of the Highlanders, according to the author, turns out to be an illusion, a fairy tale created in several iterations in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. And deconstructing this tale can be very useful for an inquisitive mind.

The "traditional image" of a Scotsman today is a kilt and bagpipes.

Part 1 - The Coming of the Kilt

So, highland Scotland, the homeland of an incredibly attractive type of stern Scotsman in a kilt in the colors of his native clan, who walks through the mountains with bagpipes. Until the 17th century (and partly until the 18th century), western Scotland was culturally a colony of Ireland, strange as it may sound to us. Moreover, the Scottish Highlanders represented an "overflow of Ireland", an excess of Ireland included in the Irish "cultural field" in the role of consumer. The creation of a separate cultural field, the creation of the myth of the Scottish Highlander, a myth polished in the Victorian period, began with three steps:
- from carrying out a kind of cultural revolution and inverting the “consumer-producer” relationship; - now highland Scotland was supposed to act as the cradle of “Celticity”, and not a cultural province;
- from the invention of the “ancient and authentic”; mountain traditions, primarily those that are most noticeable, i.e. external attributes of the “Scottish Highlanders”;
- and finally - with the spread of (from) acquired traditions of traditions to southern and eastern Scotland.

Hollywood creates an image of "good old Scotland" with 18th century kilts and 4th century blue faces.

Throughout the 18th century, a number of Scottish intellectuals developed the concept of the autochthony of the culture (and indeed) of the population of north-west Scotland. In 1738, David Malcolm's book "Dissertation on the Celtic Languages" was published, but the main action began in the 1760s, when namesakes John Macpherson (a priest on the Isle of Skye) and James Macpherson (translator of Ossian) began intensively altering Irish folklore, translating it into the soil of the Scottish highlands. James “found” Ossian’s ballads, John wrote a “Critical Dissertation” in support of the authenticity of the ballads, 10 years later James wrote out the ready-made concept of “Eternal Scotland” in his “Preface to the History of the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland” - as a result, the people of Highland Scotland were presented to the reader , repelling the blows of the Romans and creating a great epic even when the Irish “walked under the table.” Even the cautious Gibbon was captivated by the thoughts of the two Macphersons, who admitted that they were landmarks for him in the history of Scotland. Thorough (and destructive) criticism of the works of both Macphersons began only at the end of the 19th century (when the myth had already taken root and it did not matter what scientists argued about as long as the people were fascinated by the image), although already in 1805 Walter Scott in his critical article about Ossian denied the authenticity of the Ossian ballads. However, in the process of criticism, Scott himself made a rather sensational statement - since ancient times, the highlanders of Scotland wore a kilt (philibeg) made of tartan fabric. Even the MacPhersons did not say this.

Checkered fabric has been known in Scotland since the 16th century, when it began to be imported into the mountains from Flanders through the Scottish valleys, but kilts only came into use after 1707 and were invented by an Englishman. Until the 18th century, the Scottish Highlanders were practically no different from their Irish neighbors - long shirts, short trousers, the richer ones wore plaids and long narrow trousers (trews) made of tartan. Beginning in the 17th century, as cultural ties between the two related regions began to weaken, long shirts were replaced by suits from the Scottish valleys - shirt, trousers and (for the rich) doublet.

However, checkered plaids not only did not disappear, but also began to be widely used by Scottish soldiers during the civil wars of the mid-17th century as cheap outerwear - the plaid was wrapped around the waist, the rest of the fabric was thrown over the shoulder, and in case of bad weather they were simply wrapped up to the neck. It was this way of wearing a plaid (wrapped around the waistband around the pants and thrown over the shoulder) that was originally called a “kilt.” It was only in the late 1720s that the kilt became a kilt - at the initiative of Thomas Rawlinson from Lancashire.

The Rawlinsons were a fairly well-known Quaker family in Lancashire, involved in the steelmaking industry. In the 1720s, experiencing difficulties in supplying coal to his smelters, Thomas Rawlinson turned his attention to Scotland, where, thanks to the country's resources, it was possible to establish smelting production. Therefore, in 1727, Rawlinson leased the forest lands of Ian MacDonald of Glengarry for 20 years, and set up steelmaking on the site, using raw materials from Lancashire (i.e., not coal went to the south, but ore to the north). The enterprise was not successful and was folded after 7 years. In any case, the idea for creating a kilt came to Rawlinson's head while visiting the smelting shops where Scots wrapped in blankets worked. Observing a rather awkward suit (since such a dress is quite uncomfortable in a hot workshop), Rawlinson decided to increase productivity by detaching part of the blanket and leaving it at the waist, but as a skirt - thus, the upper torso was not constrained by the blanket. The experiment was a success - the local garrison sewed skirts from plaids (the tailor was probably quite surprised by such a strange order), which the workers liked. Thus, the legendary skirt was born from workwear for steelworkers, created by an Englishman to increase productivity, and quickly spread throughout Scotland. So quickly that after the Jacobite uprising of 1745, the kilt was among the items of clothing that were prohibited from being worn (thus the British government decided to humiliate the Highlanders). The ban on wearing kilts, tight pants, belt bags, tartan items, etc., hit the local culture so hard that 10 years after the ban, neither tartan nor a kilt, nothing, could be found anywhere. Kilts appeared in the life of Scotland as a local semi-holy symbol such as embroidered shirts for two reasons.

The first reason was the local intelligentsia’s fascination with the concepts of “noble savages,” especially since the noble savage (highlander) was now tamed, moreover, threatened to disappear, which the local elites could not allow. We'll talk about this movement a little later.
The second reason was the use of kilts by the Scottish regiments of the British Army. After the suppression of the uprising of 1745 and the ban on wearing “highland” clothing, a special exception was made for soldiers of the Scottish regiments (primarily the 42nd and 43rd infantry regiments) - they, as loyal and brave highland soldiers, could wear Scottish clothing. The soldiers who initially wore plaids did not fail to take advantage of the idea of ​​​​wearing a kilt, and thus, during the time of general disappearance, the kilt was preserved and received a certain fame as a distinguishing feature in the glorious Scottish regiments.

Moreover, it is possible that the “tartan” system, i.e. identification of a particular clan by a special fabric pattern was born precisely in the Scottish regiments to allocate battalions. However, we will talk about tartans next time.

Part 2 - From kilt to tartan

In the mid-18th century, the kilt-skirt, banned soon after its introduction at historical cost, became a symbol of either the military or hidden Jacobites (or their relatives), while at the same time it did not take root in Scottish society, not only because the Highlanders in Scotland they made up a small (and also constantly decreasing) and not very respected part of the population, but also because for the highlanders themselves the kilt was an innovation. However, in the second half of the century the situation changed.

In 1778, the Highland Society was formed in London with the aim of preserving and promoting ancient Scottish traditions. Although the society included a large number of Scottish aristocrats, it was led by Temple lawyer John Mackenzie. Both of the aforementioned Macphersons were members of the society, one of whom “discovered” Ossian’s texts in Gaelic, after which John Mackenzie handed over the texts for editing and publication (in 1807) to the historian John Sinclair. Thus, the society fought “for the revival of the ancient Gaelic language.”

The second area of ​​activity of the society was the fight for the lifting of the ban on wearing Highlander clothing in Scotland. To this end, the members of the society, quite legally (since they were in London, and not Scotland) gathered: in such clothes, which were famous for being the clothes of their Celtic ancestors, and on such occasions they were supposed to read ancient poetry and explore interesting customs of your country. But even then, the kilt-skirt was not among the items of clothing that members of the society were obliged to wear - such items included only tight trousers and the belted blanket discussed earlier. In 1782, the society, through the Marquis of Graham, was able to lobby Parliament for the lifting of the ban on wearing “highland dress,” which the Scottish intelligentsia was extremely happy about. However, there were also cooler minds, for example, one of the greatest Scottish antiquaries, John Pinkerton, was skeptical about kilts - in his opinion, these were the most perfect innovations, along with tartans.

John Sinclair, the historian of the Highland Society, also did not become a supporter of the idea of ​​kilts - when in 1794 he organized the squads of Rothesay and Caithnes for service during the war with France, he, having tried to dress his charges as “Scotlandish” as possible, did not wear soldiers in kilts, but chose tight tartan trousers. The following year, Sinclair turned to Pinkerton for advice on what to wear. Pinkerton gave a number of arguments as to why plaid should not be worn, pointed out that tartans and kilts are generally a remake, and advised staying true to tight pants. True, Mr. Pinkerton especially noted about Sir Sinclair’s tartan - it’s very pretty, and that’s the main thing.

In 1804, the British War Office, apparently trying to unify the uniform, abolished the wearing of kilts as a uniform item, introducing instead the wearing of tight checkered trousers (i.e., without abandoning the Scottish flavor). This step aroused the indignation of some officers, who believed that military traditions should not be changed in such a way. Some, in the heat of the moment, provided a “historical basis” for their indignation - this is what David Stewart did, for example. This ardent opponent of the abolition of the kilt justified his opinion by citing public opinion that plaids and kilts had been part of the "national costume" of the Scottish Highlanders for many, many years. True, Stewart's critics were ironic about his statements, asking how a man who, from the age of 16, had been in the army far from his home, and who had not seen Scotland for decades, could appeal to the opinion of the highlanders.

In any case, Colonel Stewart, apparently wanting to more thoroughly substantiate his position, after 1815 began to explore sources on the clothing of the highlanders - it was impossible to admit the idea that the kilt was invented by an Englishman. The result of his research was the book “Essays on the Manners, Character and Present Position of the Highlanders of Scotland,” published in 1822, which then became the main work for lovers of mountain clans for many years. The book, however, did not substantiate in any way the traditions of wearing kilts and tartans for clans.

At the same time, in 1820, Colonel Stewart founded the Edinburgh Celtic Society for Young People, whose task was to “promote the general use of ancient Highland dress in the Highlands.” Sir Walter Scott was elected president of the society, and things started to get going - young Scottish aristocrats and intellectuals joyfully held gatherings, drinking parties, processions, and all this in kilts. Walter Scott himself was not inspired by the idea, and continued to wear tight Scottish trousers during events.

The year of the kilt’s triumph can easily be called 1822, the year of the state visit of King George IV to Scotland, the first visit of the monarch of the Hanoverian dynasty. In order to meet the king with dignity, a committee was created to organize the celebrations, the head of which was Walter Scott. His assistant in some of the ceremonies was... Colonel Stewart. It is not surprising that to guard the king, conduct parades, ceremonies and other events, the organizers chose mainly kilt lovers, “dressed in proper costume.” Walter Scott himself appealed to local aristocrats to come to Edinburgh with something like a “retinue”, i.e. the visit turned into some kind of medieval event with carnival costumes and a fake entourage.

But it wasn’t just the kilts that became the “highlight” of the visit. In 1819, when discussions about a future visit began, talk began that “each clan will need to distinguish itself,” including with a tartan (before this, clans did not have “their own” pattern; uniformity in any clan could achieve, for example, by purchasing a large batch of fabric for tailoring. In any case, the aristocrats valued more colorful fabric, regardless of the pattern, it happened that one person's clothes were made from fabric with completely different patterns). Such talk was largely inspired by Scottish woolen manufacturers, who realized that with the visit and mass tailoring, they could earn extra pounds on "exclusivity". Thus, the Wilson and Son company from Bannockburn, the largest manufacturer of woolen fabric in Scotland, began a joint project with the London Highland Society - in 1819, the company sent a catalog of its fabrics to London, and the society distributed the fabrics among clans and confirmed that this or that pattern is the pattern of a specific clan. As soon as the visit was confirmed, the Scottish aristocracy was gripped by real hysteria - good fabrics with “their own patterns” were sold out so quickly that tartans began to be distributed without any system - just to fuel demand. Thus, the MacPherson clan (heirs of James MacPherson, mentioned above) received as a “clan tartan” a pattern that had previously been used in fabrics supplied to the West Indies for sewing clothing for slaves.

As a result of such vigorous activity, “valley” Edinburgh met King George, dressed in the semi-fantastic clothes of the Highlanders, who, according to his son-in-law Walter Scott, were previously considered thieves and robbers by 9 out of 10 Scots. But the celebration of the king’s arrival was a success - George himself, who fell under the spell of Walter Scott, seemed to be mesmerized by the way he, “practically a Stuart and heir to the legitimate rulers of Scotland,” was greeted in Edinburgh by the feudal squads. He dressed in a kilt specially tailored for the occasion with a special “royal Stuart” tartan (the kilt was sewn by the English, by the firm George Hunter and Co. in London, for the entire suit he had to pay more than 1,300 pounds at the prices of that time), and walked, accompanied everywhere by a whole retinue - from event to event, following the script of a huge play developed by Scott with the help of William Henry Murray, a local playwright from Scott's circle of friends. The culmination was a ball given by the Scottish nobility in honor of the king.

The organizers (Scott and co.) strongly recommended coming to the ball in “highlander dress” or uniform, since the king himself had to appear at the ball in a kilt. And so, Edinburgh gentlemen began to look for their Highland roots in order to choose a tartan and sew a kilt. The shortage of kilts was so great in those days that some had to borrow kilts from the military from the Scottish regiments stationed around Edinburgh. The king's visit sparked widespread interest in "ancient dress" and "clan tartans", and also began to create a single image of the Scots, without a real division into Highlanders and Lowlanders. A new mass national identity was emerging. It was now a matter of universal dissemination of the image of the “Scotsman”.

Part 3 - People Work

Despite the fact that Edinburgh was gripped by “tartan fever” in 1822, the true creators of the concept of “Scottish clan tartans” were the Allen brothers.

The grandchildren of British Admiral John Carter Allen, John and Charles, appeared out of nowhere in the tartan story, but they appeared at the right time - between 1819 and 1822. At that time, in anticipation of George IV's trip to Scotland, the firm of Wilson and Son was manufacturing clothes for greeters, and planned to publish a catalog of “clans tartans.” The brothers apparently grabbed the idea, but implemented it independently and many years later. Before that, they traveled around Europe dressed in extravagant “highlander dress”, which amazed continental residents, and at the same time changed their surnames - first to the “more Scottish” Allan, then to Hay Allan, and finally to Hay. At the same time, the brothers began to “confide” about their noble origins - they were descendants of the Hay family, Earls of Errol. In truth, this could be true, because some people associated their grandfather with this surname, but there was no evidence of the connection.

Returning to Scotland, the brothers were able to attract the attention of the local nobility - partly by their behavior, partly by hints of connections and origin. The patrons who were infatuated with them granted them the right to hunt and live on their estates, and to one of these patrons, Sir Thomas Lauder, the brothers confessed that they had in their possession an ancient document that had once belonged to John Leslie, Bishop of Ross, and which was subsequently transferred to to their father Charles Edward Stuart himself (the last of the Stuart claimants to the British throne). This document, Vestiarium Scoticum, contained descriptions of clan tartans. But not just highland clans, this document contained tartans of valley clans - absolutely incredible news! The original, however, is in London, the brothers immediately added, but they have a copy in their hands, which must be published in order to correct errors in the existing tartans.

Such news was simply stunning - especially for the valley aristocrats, some of whom could happily jump at the opportunity to “be inspired by the history of the glorious clan.” But still, the sensation needed confirmation - therefore, they turned to Walter Scott for help, who, however, turned out to be very, very skeptical, indicating that such a dubious document should be checked in London, by specialists from the British Museum. Sir Thomas agreed with this approach, but the brothers provided him with a letter “from their father”, with a complete refusal to provide the document, in the margins of which certain private information was written that was not subject to publicity. In addition, it was written in the letter that Walter Scott is not an authority at all, there is no point in asking his permission. The idea did not gain momentum, because it clearly smacked of a scam, and the brothers hastily retired to the north of Scotland, under the wing of a new patron, Lord Lovat.

There the brothers converted to Catholicism and “threw off their masks”, calling themselves the Sobieski-Stuart brothers (Sobieski - after the surname of their great-great-great-grandmother, Stuart - after the surname of their great-great-grandfathers), John and Charles. Having received a villa from Lord Lovat, the brothers created a small courtyard, called themselves princes, constantly hinted at “secret documents,” and at the same time worked on a new project.

In 1842, edited by the brothers, a richly illustrated publication, Vestiarium Scoticum, was published in a small edition. The document itself, which had changed significantly since the “original” was first found, was accompanied by a preface that proved that it was an authentic document - but all references to other copies of the document that “confirmed everything” usually ended with sighs at the fact that such copies simply disappeared – burned, were stolen or simply evaporated. Despite the fact that the publication did not gain much popularity (partly due to its meager circulation), the brothers continued to work. Two years later they published the tome “Costume of the Clans”, in which they continued the Vestiarium Scoticum line. The new book contained not only rich illustrations, but also a theoretical part, in which the authors talked about how the clothes of the highlanders and their tartans were ancient attire, which at one time all of Europe wore. However, this time too, references to sources raised doubts about the scientific nature of the book - a long series of disappeared manuscripts, or documents that were only in the hands of the Sobieski-Stewart brothers, references to the Vestiarium Scoticum as an authentic document, etc. As a result, A new book did not even become the object of criticism. The brothers continued their work.

The new book caused a stormy reaction, but not the one the brothers expected. The volume of “History of the Century”, published by the brothers, became the reason for the rapid decline of the brothers’ popularity. In “Stories” the brothers decided to move away from the usual description of “ancient highland costumes” and wrote, in fact, a saga about themselves - the descendants of the Stuart dynasty. Considering that the brothers, out of habit, relied on “burnt manuscripts”, criticism left no stone unturned on the “History”, and besides, now it was about politics - contenders for the throne are not announced every day. One cannot even imagine how quickly the brothers became outcasts - in any case, all their patrons turned away from them, sources of funding disappeared, and staying in Scotland became extremely undesirable (a little later we will talk about how the Sobieski-Stewart adventures ended).

However, one thing remained after the brothers - the tartan designs contained in the Vestiarium Scoticum were borrowed unchanged by the London Highland Society. The basis for popularization “among the people” had been created; all that was left was to retell Vestiarium Scoticum so that they would “believe it.”

Part 4 - Securing the image

Despite the fact that Vestiarium Scoticum was never able to gain any value in the eyes of the scientific community, this book has not disappeared from the pages of history. On the contrary, events took a rather predictable turn - the book became the basis for the popularization of tartans among the general public. The London Highland Society began to popularize it, hiring another interesting couple to carry out the work - James Logan and Robert Macian.

James Logan, an Aberdeener, was a great lover of his homeland and its history, even in its mythologized form. In 1831, he published the book “The Scottish Gael”, in which he explained his point of view on what was happening. By analogy with today's lovers of talking about ancient times, Logan set out “the whole truth” about ancient kilts, tartans and other Scottish antiquities, promising readers to continue their research about tartans. For such work, he was elected president of the London Highland Society and began to work. At the same time, Logan was an agent for the Wilson and Son company, so his research took on a somewhat specific tone, taking into account the fact that this largest Scottish company for the production of woolen fabrics appeared wherever tartans were discussed. Logan worked on a work on tartans with his friend, Robert Ronald Makian, an artist.

The result of the work was the book “Clans of the Scottish Highlands”, published in 1843 (a year after the publication of Vestiarium Scoticum), decorated with 72 illustrations in which Makian tried, using his imagination, to show how to wear tartan. The fact that the book contained gratitude to the Sobieski-Stewart brothers “for their excellent work” indicated that Logan studied the brothers’ work, especially since he simply “borrowed” some of the tartan designs from Vestiarium Scoticum. It is also known that the company Wilson and Son, which “worked” with Sobieski-Stewart, “corrected” Logan while writing his book. Fortunately for Logan, the Sobieski-Stewart brothers were discredited, and his book remained the only published and undiscredited source of information about tartans in the public eye.

So, by the 1850s, ideas had developed about what the Scots should look like. In the 1850s, when the “Scottish theme” reached the royal court and gained a foothold there, works intended for the general reader began to be published - three works were published in 1850 alone. All of them were based on two sources - Logan’s book and Vestiarium Scoticum (which was used without mention, simply borrowing pictures and descriptions from there).

Today, tartans and kilts (as well as bagpipes and the Glengarry cap, the “tradition” of which we will not describe) are “ business card» Scots, perceived as the ancient traditional clothing of the Scottish people. Gift shops in Scotland are stocked with kilts and tartans, quite a few Scots continue to wear “ancestral clothing” and even more dress in “clan tartans” on holidays, and the number of tartans is constantly increasing with the emergence of new surnames, clans and groups. And, despite the fact that the history of these “clothing” traditions is not what they imagine it to be, people are happy, “and that’s the main thing.” The heirs of the Wilson & Son business, such as the Sikh Singh family, which runs 25 stores in Scotland selling traditional Scottish clothing, are especially happy.

With this, let me finish the story about the valiant Scots.

This series of notes is based on Sir Hugh Trevor Roper's article "The Invention of Tradition: The Highland Tradition of Scotland", in The Invention of Tradition, edited by Eric Hobsbawm, first published in 1989.

This version, however, has opponents (the Scots and their descendants in the USA, mainly) who argue that the kilt skirt appeared in the late 17th - early 18th centuries before Rawlinson's ideas. However, they provide no evidence for such assertions.

At the moment, the historical and cultural heritage in Scotland can be divided into two main subtypes, which in many ways do not overlap and are quite different from each other.

Who are the Highlanders of Scotland?

This is lowland Scotland, lowlands, villages, hills, where the emergence of the Scottish urban system began; Highland Scotland, where the main social life revolved around the clan system, it was in these highlands that the Highlanders of Scotland lived and fought.

Highlanders are all ethnic groups living in the mountainous regions of a particular country.

It is worth noting that thanks to the film of the same name, currently the Scottish highland clans are primarily associated with the Highlanders. In the local dialect they were called "Highlander".

In the highlands of Scotland, social life was built on a clan system (the Gaelic word “clann” means “family”), and each clan was based on a family, kinship connection. The head of each individual clan was at the same time the military leader of the clan, the main defender, and the arbiter of justice, and a peaceful ruler. Relations between the clans of the mountaineers often developed quite fiercely; local wars, bloody skirmishes, and blood feuds were common: on the borders of the territory one could find bones, as well as skulls of enemies and rivals of the clan.

The destruction of this system was associated with the defeat of the Scots in the war in 1746, after which, in order to avoid a repeat of the rebellion, the British banned the use of clan tartan colors, as well as the carrying of weapons and the playing of bagpipes. In the 18th and 19th centuries, a process took place in Scotland that received the name “cleansing of the Scottish Highlands” in historiography, during which national highland traditions suffered greatly, the clan system was largely destroyed, and a significant number of people moved to the lowland areas of the country.

Highlanders of Scotland: modern traditions

After so many years, the difference between the lowland and mountain inhabitants of Scotland has been largely erased, and the wild and warlike highlanders of Scotland remained mainly in ancient legends and various cultural traditions, among which the most interesting and educational for tourists is a game called “Highland Games” or “ Games of the Highlanders".

Bagpipe masters and athletes take part in this cultural entertainment - and they compete in rather non-standard categories, including stone throwing, log pushing, hammer throwing - which is a reflection of the ancient highland traditions, thus revived among the people of Scotland .

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Hugh Trevor-Roper

Hugh Trevor-Roper(1914–2003) – classic of British historiography, specialist in the history of Britain and Nazi Germany, peer and lifelong professor at Oxford.

Scots, when gathering these days for celebrations of their cultural identity, use things from the symbolic national range. First of all there is a tartan kilt, whose color and design indicates their "clan"; if they intend to play music, they will play the bagpipes. These attributes, which have been attributed to history for many years, are actually quite modern. They were developed after - and sometimes long after - the Union with England of 1707, which the Scots protested in one form or another. Before the Union, some of these special garments existed; however, most Scots considered them signs of barbarism, an attribute of rude, lazy, predatory highlanders who were more of a nuisance than a real threat to civilized historical Scotland. And even in the mountains ( Highlands) these items of clothing were relatively little known, they were not considered a distinctive feature of the highlander.

In fact, the very concept of a special mountain culture and tradition is a retrospective invention. Until the end of the 17th century, the Scottish Highlanders did not form a separate people. They were simply descendants of the Irish who moved here. On this broken and inhospitable coastline, the nearby archipelago, the sea unites rather than divides, and from the late 5th century, when the Scots from Ulster landed in Argyll, until the mid-18th century, when the land was "discovered" after the Jacobite uprisings, the west Scotland, cut off from the east by mountains, has always been closer to Ireland than to the plains ( Lowlands) Saxons. In origin and culture it was an Irish colony. [...]

In the 18th century, the islands of western Scotland continued to be Irish to some extent, and the Gaelic language spoken there was described as Irish. Living in a sort of “overseas Ireland” but under the control of a “foreign” and somewhat ineffective Scottish crown, the inhabitants of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland experienced cultural humiliation. Their literature was a crude echo of the Irish. Bards at the courts of Scottish chiefs came from Ireland or went there to study their craft. One writer of the early 18th century, an Irishman, says that Scottish bards are the trash of Ireland, periodically swept into this wilderness for the sake of cleansing the country. Even under the yoke of England in the 17th and 18th centuries, Celtic Ireland remained an independent cultural and historical nation, and Celtic Scotland was, at best, its poor sister. And she did not have her own independent tradition.

The creation of an independent "highland tradition" and the transfer of this new tradition, with its identifying marks to all Scots, was the work of the late 18th - early 19th centuries. This happened in three stages. First there was a cultural revolt against Ireland: the appropriation of Irish culture and the rewriting of early Scots history, culminating in the immodest claim that Scotland, Celtic Scotland, was the “mother nation” and Ireland its cultural colony. Secondly, new “mountain traditions” were artificially created, presented as ancient, original and special. Third, a process was set in motion whereby new traditions were proposed and adopted by the historical lowland region, eastern Scotland of the Picts, Saxons and Normans.

The first of these stages was completed in the 18th century. The claim that Irish-speaking Celtic people are "highlanders" ( Highlanders) Scotland were not just immigrants from Ireland in the 5th century, but representatives of an ancient culture - Caledonians, who resisted the Roman army, of course, was ancient legend, which has served well in the past. In 1729 it was rejected by the first and greatest of Scottish antiquaries, the priest and Jacobite emigrant Thomas Innes. But it was again confirmed in 1738 by David Malcolm, and more convincingly in the 1760s by two men of letters with the same surname: James Macpherson, the “translator” of Ossian, and the Rev. John Macpherson, a priest of Sleat on the Isle of Skye.

The two Macphersons, although not related, knew each other: James Macpherson stayed with the clergyman during his trip to Skye in search of "Ossian" in 1760, and the clergyman's son, later Sir John Macpherson, Governor-General of India, was later a close friend of the poet - and they even worked together. So, together, with the help of two outright forgeries, they created the “local” literature of Celtic Scotland, and, as a necessary support, its history. Both this literature and this history - where they had any relation to reality at all - were stolen from the Irish.

The unalloyed impudence of the MacPhersons evokes sincere admiration. James Macpherson collected several Irish ballads in Scotland, composed them into an "epic", the action of which was transferred entirely from Ireland to Scotland, and then rejected the real ballads, discrediting them as corrupt modern inventions, and the real Irish literature in which they were reflected - like a low imitation. Then the priest of Sleat wrote a "Critical Dissertation" , which provided the necessary context for the "Celtic Homer" "discovered" by his namesake: he placed the Irish-speaking Celts in Scotland four centuries before their historical appearance there he declared that genuine Irish literature had been stolen by some immoral Irish from innocent Scots in the “Dark Ages.” To top it all off, James Macpherson himself, using the priest's research, wrote an "independent" Introduction to the History of Great Britain and Ireland. Great Britain and Ireland" , 1771), where he repeated his statements. Nothing shows the great success of the Macphersons more than that they succeeded in misleading the cautious and critical Edward Gibbon, who called these "two learned Highlanders" his "guides", thus perpetuating what was later rightly called "the chain of Scottish errors." stories".

It took a century to cleanse Scottish history (if it can be said to be truly cleansed) of the distortions and fabrications produced by the two Macphersons. Meanwhile, these two impudent people were enjoying their victory: they had managed to put the Scottish Highlanders on the map of the country. Hitherto equally despised by the Lowland Scots as violent savages, and by the Irish as illiterate poor relatives, they were now accepted throughout Europe as Kulturvolk, a people who, at the very time when England and Ireland were plunged into primitive barbarism, had already produced from their ranks an epic poet of exquisite refinement, equal to or even superior to Homer. But the highlanders attracted the attention of Europe not only with their literature. Once their connections with Ireland were severed, and the Scottish highlands acquired - albeit through forgery - an independent ancient culture, a way arose to announce this independence with the help of special traditions. And the tradition that was established then concerned the features of the wardrobe.

In 1805, Sir Walter Scott wrote an essay about Macpherson's Ossian in the Edinburgh Review. There he showed his characteristic learning and common sense. He decisively rejected the authenticity of the epic, which continued to be defended by both the Scottish literary establishment and the Highlanders themselves. But in the same essay he noted (in parentheses) that the ancient Caledonians undoubtedly wore a "tartan kilt" as early as the 3rd century ( a tartan philibeg). In such a rational and critical essay, such a confident statement is surprising. Never before has anyone made such a claim. Even Macpherson did not imagine this: his Ossian was always presented in a flowing cloak ( robe), and his instrument, by the way, was always not the bagpipes, but the harp. But Macpherson was himself a Highlander and a generation older than Scott. In this kind of business it means a lot.

When did the modern kilt tartan philibeg, became a highlander costume? The facts make this clear, especially since the publication of Telfer Dunbar's brilliant work. If "tartan", that is, a fabric woven from colored threads with a geometric pattern, was known in Scotland in the 16th century (it probably originated in Flanders, spreading first to the Scottish plains and then to the mountains), then the "kilt" ( philibeg) – both the name and the thing itself – remained unknown until the 18th century. Far from being a traditional highlander outfit, it was invented by the British after the Union of 1707; and “clan tartans” differing in pattern and color - even later. They became part of a ceremony designed by Sir Walter Scott in honor of the visit to Edinburgh of the English king from the Hanoverian dynasty. So clan tartans owe their shape and colors to two Englishmen.

Since the Scottish Highlanders were Irish in origin, simply moving from one island to another, it is natural to assume that their original attire was the same as that of the Irish. And indeed, that is exactly what we find. Authors generally notice the outfits of the Highlanders only in the 16th century, but at that time they all unanimously show that the usual clothing of the Highlanders consisted of a long “Irish” shirt ( leine in Gaelic), which the upper classes - as in Ireland - dyed with saffron; tunics, or failuin; and a cloak, or plaid, which among the upper classes was multi-colored or striped, and among the commoners brown and reddish-brown, a protective color suitable for life near the swamps. [...]

On the battlefield, the leaders wore chain mail, and the lower classes wore a quilted linen shirt covered with resin and deer skins. In addition to this usual attire, leaders and nobles who came into contact with the more refined inhabitants of the plains could wear a "truz" ( trews): a combination of breeches and stockings. These “trusses” could only be worn in the mountains in the open air and only by people who had servants to carry the “truss” for the owner: therefore, they were a sign of social distinction. Both the "plaid" and the "truz" were probably made from tartan. [...]

In the 17th century, the armies of the highlanders took part in civil wars in Britain, and always, judging by the descriptions, we see that officers wear a "truz", and ordinary soldiers leave their legs and thighs bare. Both officers and soldiers wore a “plaid,” but the former as outer clothing, and the latter completely covered their body with it, belting it at the waist, so that the lower part under the belt formed the appearance of a skirt. In this form it was known as breakacan, or “belted blanket”. It is important here that there was not a single mention of the “kilt” as we know it. The choice was exclusively between the gentleman’s “truss” and the “folk” “belted plaid”.

The name “kilt” first appears twenty years after the Union. Edward Burt, an English officer sent to General Wade in Scotland as chief surveyor, wrote several letters from Inverness about the character and customs of the country. In them he gave a thorough description quelt, which, as he explained, is not a separate outfit, but simply a special way of wearing “a plaid, folded and belted at the waist to form a short skirt that covers half the hips; the rest is thrown over the shoulders and fastened there... so that it turns out very similar to the poor women of London when they lift the hem of their dress over their heads, wanting to hide from the rain.” [...]

After the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715, the British Parliament considered a proposal to legislate the dress, just as the Irish dress had been banned under Henry VIII: it was thought that this would help break down the distinctive Highland way of life and integrate the Highlanders into modern society. However, the law did not pass. It was recognized that mountain clothing was convenient and necessary in a country where the traveler is forced to “ride over mountains and swamps and spend the night on the hills.” […] It is particularly ironic that if Highland dress had been banned after 1715 rather than 1745, the kilt, which is now considered one of Scotland's ancient traditions, probably would never have appeared. And it arose a few years after Burt’s letters and very close to the place from which he sent them. Unknown in 1726, the kilt soon appeared unexpectedly and by 1746 was so established as to be clearly named in the Act of Parliament that eventually banned the Highland outfit. The inventor of the kilt was an English Quaker from Lancashire, Thomas Rawlinson.

The Rawlinson family had a long history of iron making in Furness. [...] However, over time, the volumes of supplied coal began to decline, and the Rawlinsons needed timber as fuel. Fortunately, after the suppression of the rebellion of 1715, the mountains were opened to entrepreneurs, and the industry of the south was able to exploit the forests in the north. Therefore, in 1727, Thomas Rawlinson entered into an agreement with Ian MacDonell, chief of the Clan MacDonell of Glengarry near Inverness, for a 31-year lease of a wooded area in Invergarry. He installed a furnace there and smelted iron ore, which he brought specially from Lancashire. The enterprise turned out to be economically unprofitable: it was closed down seven years later; but during these seven years Rawlinson got to know the country well, and established regular relations with the MacDonells of Glengarry, and of course hired "a crowd of Highlanders" to fell trees and work at the furnace.

During his stay in Glengarry, Rawlinson became interested in the Highland costume and became aware of its inconvenience. A belted blanket was suitable for an idle life: spending the night on the hills or wandering through the swamps. It was cheap and everyone agreed that the lower classes couldn't afford pants. But for people who cut wood or look after a furnace, it was “a constricting and uncomfortable garment.” [...] Rawlinson sent for a tailor from the regiment stationed in Inverness, and together he came up with a way to “shorten the dress and make it convenient for the workers.” The result was the felie beg, or a “small kilt”, which turned out like this: the skirt was separated from the “plaid”, and it turned into a separate outfit with folds already hemmed. Rawlinson wore the new attire himself, and his partner Ian McDonell from Glengarry followed suit. After this, the clansmen followed their chief as usual, and the innovation, it is stated, "was found so convenient that in a short time it was adopted throughout all the mountain lands, as well as in many of the northern plains."

This story of the origins of the kilt was first told in 1768 by a Highland gentleman who knew Rawlinson personally. In 1785, the story was published without causing any objections. It was confirmed by two of the then greatest authorities on Scottish customs - and, separately, by witnesses from the Glengarry family. No one began to refute this story for another forty years. It has never been refuted at all. All the evidence that has accumulated since then is completely consistent with it. [...] Thus, we can conclude that the kilt was a costume of the New Age, first invented by the English Quaker industrialist, and that he put it on the Highlanders not in order to preserve their traditional way of life, but in order to transform: pull the mountaineers out of the swamp and drag them into the factory.

But if this is the origin of the kilt, then the following questions immediately arise: what tartan was the Quaker kilt made of [...], were there special “sets” of colors in the 18th century ( setsts) and when did the differentiation of clans by patterns begin?

The authors of the 16th century, who were the first to notice mountain clothing, clearly did not know such distinctions. They described the "plaids" of the chiefs as colored, and those of their fellow tribesmen as brown, so that any distinction of color was then social, not clan. [...] Portraits of one MacDonald family of Armadale show at least six different "sets" of tartan, and evidence contemporary with the 1745 rebellion - whether pictorial, sartorial or literary - does not show clans being distinguished by patterns or any of their repeatability. [...] The choice of tartan was a matter of private taste or necessity.

Thus, when the great rebellion of 1745 broke out, the kilt as we know it was a recent English invention, and "clan" tartans did not yet exist. However, the rebellion marks a change in the sartorial, as well as the social and economic, history of Scotland. After the rebellion was crushed, the British government decided to finally carry out what it had planned in 1715 (and even earlier) and finally destroy the independent way of life of the Highlanders. According to various Acts of Parliament following the victory at Culloden, not only were the Highlanders disarmed and deprived of their chieftains' hereditary jurisdiction, but the wearing of Highland garb - "a plaid, a philibeg, a truz, a shoulder harness... of tartan or part-dyed plaid or cloth" - was prohibited throughout Scotland on penalty of imprisonment for 6 months without bail, and for repeated offenses on penalty of deportation for 7 years. This draconian law remained in force for 35 years, during which the entire mountain way of life was destroyed. [...] By 1780, the mountain outfit seemed completely extinct, and no man of sense I didn't think about reviving it.

However, history is not rational, or at least only partially rational. The mountain costume really disappeared for those who were used to wearing it. After living in trousers for a generation, the simple peasants of the Scottish Highlands saw no reason to return to the belted plaid or tartan they had once found so cheap and practical. They didn't even address the "comfortable" new kilt. But the upper and middle classes, who previously despised the “servile” attributes, now enthusiastically turned to the attire discarded by its traditional wearers. In those years when it was banned, some highland nobles wore it with pleasure and even posed for portraits in it at home. Then, when the ban was lifted, the fashion for this attire blossomed. The anglicized Scottish peers, the growing gentry, the educated Edinburgh lawyers and the prudent Aberdeen merchants - people not constrained by poverty, never forced to ride over mountains and moors, or sleep on the hills - paraded themselves not in historical "trusses", the traditional costume of their class, not in a clumsy belted plaid, but in an expensive and fancy version of this recent innovation - the "philibeg" or small kilt.

There were two reasons for this remarkable change. One is pan-European: the movement of romanticism, the cult of the noble savage, whom civilization threatens to destroy. Until 1745, the highlanders were despised as idle and predatory barbarians. In 1745 they were feared as dangerous rebels. But later, when their unique community was so easily destroyed, the mountaineers embodied a combination of the romanticism of a primitive tribe with the charm of an endangered species. It was in a society where such sentiments prevailed that Ossian’s triumph awaited him. The second reason was special and deserves detailed consideration. This was the formation, by order of the British government, of the Highland Regiments ( Highlanders).

The formation of mountain regiments began before 1745. The very first, "Black Watch" ( Black Watch), later simply the 43rd, and then the 42nd line regiment, fought at Fontenoy in 1745. But it was in 1757–1760 that the elder Pitt began to systematically divert the morale of the Highlanders from Jacobite adventures, directing them to the imperial wars. [...]

The mountain regiments soon covered themselves with glory in India and America. They also established a new costume tradition. According to the “Disarmament Act” of 1746, the Highland regiments were not subject to the ban on wearing their attire, and therefore for those 35 years that the Celtic peasants got used to Saxon trousers, and the Celtic Homer was depicted in a bard’s cloak, it was the Highland regiments that single-handedly kept the industry afloat tartan production and ensured the longevity of the most recent of all innovations - the Lancashire kilt.

Initially, the mountain regiments wore a belted “plaid” as their uniform; but as soon as the kilt was invented—and its convenience was recognized and made popular—it was adopted. Moreover, it was probably thanks to these divisions that the idea of ​​distinguishing tartan by clans was born; after all, the number of Highland regiments was growing, and their tartan uniform had to contain differences. When the right to wear tartan returned to civilians and the Romantic movement supported the cult of the clan, the same principles of distinction were easily transferred from regiment to clan. But all this will happen in the future. For now we are only interested in the kilt, which, having been invented by an English Quaker industrialist, was then saved from extinction by an English imperialist statesman. The next stage was the invention of a Scottish ancestry for him.

It all started with an important step taken in 1778 - with the founding of the Highland Society in London ( Highland Society), whose main function was to encourage ancient mountain virtues and preserve ancient mountain traditions. Its members consisted of representatives of the noble families of the Highlands of Scotland and officers, but its secretary, “to whose zeal the Society especially owes its success,” was John Mackenzie, a lawyer from the Temple of London, and also “his closest and most trusted friend,” accomplice, business partner and subsequently executor of James McPherson. Both James Macpherson and Sir John Macpherson were among the early members of the Society, one of whose greatest achievements, according to its historian Sir John Sinclair, was the publication in 1807 of the "original" text of Ossian in Gaelic. This text was taken by Mackenzie from Macpherson's papers and published with a dissertation authenticating it, written by Sinclair himself. In view of Mackenzie's dual function and the Society's preoccupation with Gaelic literature (almost all of which was either produced or inspired by Macpherson), the whole enterprise can be seen as one of the operations of the Macpherson mafia in London.

The second and no less important purpose of the Society was to secure the repeal of the law prohibiting the wearing of highland dress in Scotland. In order to achieve this goal, the members of the Society resolved to meet themselves (which they could legally do in London) “in that much celebrated costume worn by their Celtic ancestors, and on such occasions to speak expressive language, listen to sweet music, read ancient poetry and observe original customs your land."

It is worth noting that even then the Highland outfit did not include a kilt: the rules of the Society defined it as a “truz” and a belted “plaid” (“plaid and philibeg in one”). The main goal was achieved in 1782, when the Marquess of Graham, at the request of the Highland Society committee, moved the withdrawal of the act in the House of Commons. The repeal caused rejoicing in Scotland, with Gaelic poets immortalizing the victory of the Celtic belted plaid over the Saxon breeches. From that moment on, the triumph of the newly redefined highlander outfit began.

By that time, the Highland regiments had already switched to the philibeg, and their officers easily convinced themselves that this short kilt had been the national dress of Scotland since time immemorial. When the War Office considered replacing the kilt with a trouser in 1804, officers responded accordingly. Colonel Cameron of the 79th was furious. Does the high command, he asked, really want to stop the “free circulation of clean and healthy air” under the kilt, “so amazingly adapted by the highlanders for physical exercise?” [...] Under such inspired onslaught the ministry withdrew, and it was the kilt-clad soldiers of the British Highlanders after the final victory over Napoleon in 1815 that captured the imagination and aroused the curiosity of Paris. [...]

Meanwhile, the myth about the antiquity of this outfit was actively spread by other military personnel. He was Colonel David Stewart from Garth, who joined the 42nd Regiment at the age of sixteen and spent his entire adult life in the army, mostly overseas. As a part-time officer from 1815, he devoted himself to studying the history of the early Highland regiments, and then also the life and traditions of the "Highland": traditions which he probably discovered more often in the officers' messes than in the glens and dales of Scotland. . These traditions now included both the kilt and clan tartans, which the Colonel accepted without question. [...] He stated that tartans were always woven with "a particular pattern (or 'set' as they called them) by different clans, tribes, families and districts." He did not support any of these statements with evidence. They appeared in 1822 in his book Sketches of the Character, Manners and Present State of the Highlanders of Scotland. This book is believed to have become the basis for all subsequent works on clans.

Stuart promoted the "highland cause" not only with the help of the printing press. In January 1820 he founded the Celtic ( Celtic) society of Edinburgh: society of "young civilians', whose first purpose was 'to encourage the general use of ancient Highland dress in the Highlands' - and to do this by wearing it in Edinburgh. The President of the Society was Sir Walter Scott, a native of the lowlands of Scotland. Members of the Society met regularly for dinner, "clad in kilts and berets in the ancient fashion, and armed to the teeth." Scott himself wore a "truz" at such meetings, but announced that he was "very pleased with the extraordinary enthusiasm of the Gaels ( the Gael) when they are freed from the slavery of pants." “You have never seen such jumping, jumping and screaming,” he wrote after one such dinner. Such were the consequences, even in prim Edinburgh, of the free circulation of pure and wholesome air under the Highland kilt.

Thus, by 1822, largely through the efforts of Sir Walter Scott and Colonel Stewart, the “mountain coup” had already begun to take place. It acquired a special scope this year, thanks to the official visit of the King of Great Britain, George IV, to Edinburgh. It was the first time that a Hanoverian monarch was visiting the Scottish capital, and careful preparations were made to ensure the success of the visit. What interests us here is the identity of the person who was responsible for these preparations. After all, the master of ceremonies, who took upon himself the decision of all practical issues, was Sir Walter Scott; he appointed Colonel Stewart of Garth as his assistant; the guard of honour, which Scott and Stuart entrusted with the protection of the royal personage, public officials and regalia of Scotland, consisted of "philybeg enthusiasts", members of the Celtic Club, "dressed in appropriate attire". The result is a bizarre caricature of Scottish history and reality. Taken in by his fanatical Celtic friends, Scott seems determined to forget both historic Scotland and his native plains. The royal visit, he announced, would be “a gathering of the Gaels.” And therefore he began to demand from the mountain leaders that they come with “a retinue of their fellow tribesmen to pay tribute to the king.” The mountaineers showed up duly. But what tartans did they need to wear?

The idea of ​​clan-specific tartans, so publicized by Stuart, apparently came from resourceful manufacturers who for 45 years had no customers except the Highland regiments, but since 1782 - the year of the repeal of the Act - hoped to expand the market. The largest company was William Wilson and Son of Bannockburn. Messrs. Wilson and Son saw the benefit of creating a whole line of tartans, distinguished by clans, in order to stimulate competition between them, for which they entered into an alliance with the Highland Society of London, which offered a historically respectable cloak or “plaid” for their commercial project. In 1819, when the idea of ​​a royal visit first arose, the firm prepared a “Key Pattern Book” and sent various tartans to London, where the Society duly “certified” them as belonging to a particular clan. However, when the date of the visit was already confirmed, there was no time left for such pedantry. The influx of orders was such that “any piece of tartan was sold as soon as it came off the loom.” In such circumstances, the first responsibility of the firm was to maintain a continuous supply of goods and ensure a wide selection for the mountain chiefs. Therefore, Cluny Macpherson, heir to the discoverer Ossian, received the first tartan he came across. In his honor this tartan was named "MacPherson", but shortly before this a large batch of the same "Filibegs" were sold to Mr. Kidd to dress his West Indian slaves, and then it was called "Kidd", and even before - simply "No. 155 "

Thus, the capital of Scotland "tartanized" to meet its king, who arrived in the same costume, playing his part in the Celtic procession, and at the climax of the visit he solemnly invited the assembled nobles to drink, not to the real or historical elite, but to the "chiefs clans of Scotland." Even Scott's devoted son-in-law and biographer, J.J. Lockhart was taken aback by this collective “hallucination” in which, as he put it, the Celtic tribes, “always forming a small and almost always unimportant part of the Scottish population,” were recognized as “marking and crowning Scotland with glory.” [...]

The farce of 1822 gave new impetus to the tartan industry and inspired new imagination. Thus we come to the last stage of the creation of the Highland myth: the reconstruction and propagation in ghostly and sartorial form of the clan system, whose reality was destroyed after 1745. The main characters in this episode were two of the most devious and seductive characters who ever sat on a Celtic horse or a witch's broom - the Allen brothers.

The Allen brothers came from a well-connected family of naval officers. [...] Both were talented in many types of arts. [...] Whatever they undertook, they did carefully and with taste. The circumstances of their first appearance in Scotland are not known, but they were apparently there with their father during the royal visit of 1822, and perhaps earlier - say, in 1819. The years from 1819 to 1822 were devoted to preparations for the visit. It was then that Wilson and Son of Bannockburn were contemplating a nomenclature for Highland clan tartans, and the Highland Society of London was considering the idea of ​​publishing a lavishly illustrated book on Scottish skirt patterns. There is reason to believe that the Allen family was in contact with Wilson and Son at this time.

In subsequent years, the brothers "Scottishized" their surname, first turning it into Allan ( Allan), then through Hay Allan ( Hay Allan) - just in Hey. The brothers encouraged rumors that they were descended from the last bearer of this surname, Earl Errol. [...] The brothers spent most of their time in the far north, where the Earl of Moray gave them Darnaway Forest for their use, becoming experts in deer hunting. They never had a shortage of aristocratic patrons. Practical, ambitious people from the plains also fell for their bait. Such was Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, to whom in 1829 they revealed that they were in possession of an important historical document. It was a manuscript which (they said) had once belonged to John Leslie, Bishop of Ross, confidant of Mary, Queen of Scots, and which had been given to their father by none other than the “young pretender,” “Prince Charlie.” The manuscript was called "Vestiarium Scoticum", or "Wardrobe of Scotland", contained descriptions of the clan tartans of Scottish families and was supposedly the creation of a knight, Sir Richard Urquhart. Bishop Leslie marked it with the date "1571", but the manuscript could be older. The brothers explained that the original document was with their father in London, but showed Dick Lauder a “rough copy” that they had received from the Urquhart family of Cromatree. Sir Thomas was very excited about this discovery. Not only was the document important in its own right, but it also provided an authentic and ancient authority on the various clan tartans, and certified that tartans were used by the people of the plains as well as the mountains. [...] Sir Thomas transcribed the text, which the younger brother respectfully adorned with illustrations. He then wrote to Sir Walter Scott, whose voice was to him the voice of an oracle in such matters. [...] Scott's royal reputation did not waver under such pressure, he did not succumb; the story itself, the contents of the manuscript, and the character of the brothers - everything seemed suspicious to him. [...]

Disgraced by Scott's authority, the brothers retreated back north, where they gradually improved their image, their knowledge, and their manuscript. They found a new patron, Lord Lovat, the Catholic head of the Fraser family, whose ancestor had died on the scaffold in 1747. They also chose a new religion, Catholicism, and a new, much grander origin. They dropped the Hay surname and adopted the royal one, Stuart. The older brother called himself John Sobieski Stuart (Jan Sobieski, heroic Polish king, was the great-great-grandfather of the “young applicant” on the maternal side); the eldest became, like Prince Charlie himself, Charles Edward Stuart. From Lord Lovat they received the gift of Eileen Egas ( Eilean Aigas), a romantic mansion on an island in the middle of the Boley River in Inverness, and they built a miniature courtyard there. They became known as "princes", sat on thrones, adhered to strict etiquette and received royal gifts from visitors, who were shown Stuart heirlooms and hinted at mysterious documents lying in a locked chest. The royal coat of arms was hung above the doors of the house; when the brothers swam upstream in Catholic Church at Eskdale, the royal standard fluttered above their boat; on their seal was a crown. It was at Eilean Egas in 1842 that the brothers finally published their famous manuscript, Vestiarium Scoticum. . It appeared in a deluxe edition of 50 copies. For the first time, a series of color illustrations of tartans was published, which in itself was a triumph of technological progress. [...] The manuscript itself, as stated, was “carefully connected” with a second, recently discovered, certain Irish monk in a Spanish monastery, alas, now closed. [...]

Printed in such a small edition, Vestiarium Scoticum went almost unnoticed. [...] However, as it soon became clear, it was only preliminary documentary basis much more work. Two years later, the brothers published an even more luxurious volume, the result of many years of study. This stunning tome, lavishly illustrated by the authors themselves, was dedicated to Ludwig I, King of Bavaria, “the restorer of Catholic art in Europe,” and contained an address in Gaelic and English languages, to the "highlanders". According to the title page, it was printed in Edinburgh, London, Paris and Prague. It was called “The Costume of the Clans.” .

“Attire of the Clans” is an amazing work. From the point of view of erudition alone, it makes all previous works on the same topic look pathetic. It quotes secret sources, Scottish and European, written and oral, manuscript and printed. He refers to artifacts and archeology as well as literature. Half a century later, a meticulous and learned Scottish antiquarian described it as “a perfect miracle of industry and talent.” [...] This is work - smart and critical. The authors acknowledge the modern invention of the kilt (they did, after all, stay with the MacDonells of Glengarry). Nothing they say can be refuted without preparation. But you can’t trust anything there either. The book is made up of pure fantasy and outright fakery. Literary ghosts are seriously called upon as authoritative witnesses. Ossian's poems are used as sources, obscure manuscripts are extensively quoted... and, of course, the Vestiarium Scoticum itself is now firmly dated "on internal evidence" to the late 15th century. Hand-drawn illustrations depict monumental sculptures and ancient portraits. [...]

Now the British armed forces have only one Scottish regiment, although until recently there were six. Glorious story these formations began in the 17th century. The Scottish regiments faithfully served the British Empire for centuries, thanks to which the people of Scotland themselves were able to feel like British.

Start

On March 26, 1633, several thousand Scots under the command of Colonel John Hepburn, who fought on the fronts of the Thirty Years' War for the monarchs of Sweden and France, received a patent from King Charles I of England and Scotland and became the Royal Regiment of Foot. The regiment continued to participate in battles in France, uniting Scottish mercenaries in its ranks.

The regiment first arrived in the British Isles only after the Stuart Restoration in the spring of 1661. It became the model for the formation of infantry regiments of the new royal army. In the mid-18th century, when British infantry regiments switched from being named after their colonel to being numbered, the regiment was given the honorary number 1. The unofficial designation "Royal Scots" was only included in the regiment's name in 1812.

The Royal Scots from 1633 to 1881.
theroyalscots.co.uk

The Royal Scots Fusiliers (later numbered 21) were formed on the southern border of Scotland to hunt various religious dissidents. For more than a century and a half it was known as the "North British Fusiliers", and received its new name only in 1871.

Two more Scottish regiments were raised in and around Edinburgh during the first Jacobite rebellion in 1689. Residents of Edinburgh staffed the regiment, which already in the 19th century received the name of His Majesty's Own Scottish Border Guards (at number 25). And from the Cameronians, Protestant fundamentalist sectarians who hated the “papists,” a regiment was created, later called the 26th (Cameronian).

All of these units were regular infantry units of the British Army and, unlike the Highlanders, did not wear kilts.

Highlanders in service

Scotland is historically divided into two regions: the northern Highlands and the southern Lowlands. Since ancient times, there have been a lot of differences between these areas, including linguistic ones: if the population of Lowland spoke Anglo-Scottish (Scots), akin to English, then the inhabitants of the Highlands spoke Celtic Scottish (Gaelic).

Highland and Lowland on a map of Scotland

Until the end of the 18th century, the North Scottish Highlanders were perceived by ordinary Britons as warlike savages and rebels who supported the Jacobite claimants to the throne of the United Kingdom after the Glorious Revolution of 1688.

In 1725, at the initiative of Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, King George I ordered the formation of separate companies from the Scottish Highlanders. They were charged with maintaining order in the Highlands instead of regular army units, which was supposed to help reduce discontent among the highlanders.

A total of ten companies were formed, soon becoming known as the "Black Watch". The name came from the black clothing that distinguished these soldiers from the usual English "redcoats".

Black Watch officers with their American allies during the Seven Years' War, 1759. Painting by a modern artist

In 1739, individual companies became a regular infantry regiment, later officially called the 42nd (Royal Highlanders), but unofficially retaining the name "Black Watch". With the outbreak of the Seven Years' War, the Black Watch and two other regiments formed from Scottish Highlanders (Montgomery's 77th and Fraser's 78th) went to fight in North America, where they became famous for their courage, tenacity and reliability. The valor of the Scottish Highlanders in the battles for the Empire contributed to a change in attitudes towards the Highlanders in British society.

Grenadiers of the 78th Fraser Highlanders at the Battle of Quebec, 1760. Painting by a modern artist

In total, in the following decades, 21 regiments were formed from highlanders who fought in North America against rebel colonists and in various wars in India. Most of these regiments were disbanded after the completion of military campaigns.

TO early XIX century, 8 highland infantry regiments survived, whose soldiers wore kilts: 42nd, 72nd (Syfurt), 73rd (Perthshire), 74th, 75th (Stirlingshire), 91st (Argyll), 92- th (Gordonsky) and 93rd (Sutherland).

Officer of the 77th Macdonald Highlanders, 1771

According to a number of modern British historians, it was through the highland regiments that they Active participation In the wars of empire in the 18th century, the Highlands accepted the idea of ​​a United Kingdom, with the result that the Scottish Highlanders successfully became British.

Decline and rebirth

The decline in the population of the Highlands due to migration to the cities and the heavy losses suffered by the Highland regiments in battles with Napoleonic armies in Portugal and Spain meant that by the beginning of 1809 it was impossible to ensure the replacement of the Highland regiments with natives of the Highlands. In this regard, in April 1809, the recruitment of the British and Irish into five Highland regiments was authorized, which changed into standard English uniforms. Only three regiments retained their mountain character: the 42nd, 92nd and 93rd.

After finishing Napoleonic Wars The mountain units of the British army were experiencing a period of decline. Many regiments abandoned their specific Scottish characteristics - in particular, the pipers.

Officers of the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders before being sent to the Crimean War, 1854

The situation changed by the middle of the 19th century, with the gradual spread of the romantic image of the Scottish Highlanders in British society. This was facilitated by the exploits of the Scots in the fields Crimean War. The attack of Major General Colin Campbell's Highlander Brigade on the battlefield of Alma and the "thin red line" of the Sutherland Highlanders on the field at Balaklava were vividly described in journalistic reports.

The "Thin Red Line" of the Sutherland Highlanders near Balaklava, 1855. Painting from 1881

Everything Scottish began to come into fashion. For generations, the descendants of the highlanders living in the cities remembered kilts. Queen Victoria also became interested in the Highlands.

This fashion also affected the Scottish regiments, many of which returned to their roots. Bagpipers appeared again, and traditional Glengarry caps or Balmoral berets were introduced as uniform headdress. Members of Scottish regiments began wearing trousers with clan tartan patterns.

Reorganization

The revival of the Scottish regiments is associated with the reforms of the war ministers Edward Cardwell and Hugh Childers in the Liberal cabinets of Gladstone in the 70s and 80s of the 19th century. Part of this, in addition to the abolition of the sale of officers' patents and the prohibition of corporal punishment, was a move to a territorial regimental structure in the British infantry.

Map of regimental districts in Scotland after the Cardwell-Childers reforms

10 regimental districts were formed in Scotland. In Lowland, 4 regiments were recruited: His Majesty's Own Scottish Border Guards, the Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment), the Cameronians (Scottish Fusiliers), and the Royal Scots Fusiliers. A regiment of Highland Light Infantry was recruited in Glasgow and its environs.

Cameronian officer, 1910

The remaining regiments were recruited in the Highlands: the Black Watch (Royal Highlanders), Princess Louise's Regiment (Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders), Gordon Highlanders, Her Majesty's Own Cameron Highlanders, Syfurt Highlanders.

Each infantry regiment had two regular and two militia battalions. While one regular battalion was serving abroad, the second was training at home.

Argyll Highlanders Sergeant, 1914

The uniform of all Scottish regiments was unified. Highland units wore kilts with their own regimental tartan, lowland units wore trousers with tartan, and Glengarry or Balmorals as headdress.

On the fronts of world wars

Cape Town Highlanders, today

Currently, mountain regiments with their specific uniforms have been preserved as reserve units of the army in Canada and South Africa.

Post-war service and reorganizations

After the end of the war, all British Army infantry regiments were reduced to single battalion strength.

Scottish regiments continued to participate in all conflicts throughout the disintegrating British Empire: in Palestine, Malaya, Kenya, Oman, Borneo. The Argylls became the first British battalion to arrive as part of the United Nations forces in Korea in September 1950.

Argyllians in Aden, summer 1967

The collapse of the British Empire and the return of British units to their homeland was accompanied by new cuts. In 1959, the Scottish Fusiliers and Highland Light Infantry were amalgamated into the Royal Highland Fusiliers (Princess Margaret's Own Glasgow and Ayrshire Regiment). The Cameronians were disbanded in 1968.

Her Majesty walks the line of Cameronians for the last time, 1968

The Seafurst and Cameron Highlanders were united in 1961 into the regiment of Her Majesty's Own Highlanders, and in 1994 the Gordon Highlanders were added to it.

Creation of the Royal Regiment of Scotland

By the beginning of the 21st century, there were six Scottish regiments left in the British army (all single-battalion): the Royal Scots, His Majesty's Own Scottish Borderers, the Royal Highland Fusiliers (Princess Margaret of Glasgow's Own and the Ayrshire Regiment), the Black Watch (Royal Highlanders), Highlanders (Seaforth, Gordon and Cameron), Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.

As part of the army reform plan unveiled at the end of 2004, it was envisaged to abandon the single-battalion "historic regiments" and move to "large regiments". All Scottish infantry units, despite a noisy campaign organized by the Scottish National Party under the slogan “Save our regiments!”, were merged into the Royal Regiment of Scotland in March 2006.

Recruitment regions of various battalions of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, 2010

The Royal Scots merged with the Borderers to form the Royal Scots Borderers, which became the 1st Battalion of the new regiment. The 2nd battalion was the Fusiliers, the 3rd the Black Watch, the 4th the Highlanders and the 5th the Argylls.

"Black Watch" in field uniform, 2010

For the personnel of the regiment, a single uniform with kilts and glengarries was introduced; the battalions differed among themselves in the color of the plumes on their berets and the ribbons on their glengarries. At the same time, the battalions of the regiment continued to operate operationally as part of various brigades of the British army.

Her Majesty walks the line of the 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland, 2008

The abundance of clearly atypical Scots in the ranks of the soldiers in the photograph is striking. Due to the growth of nationalist sentiment in Scotland, the situation with recruitment into the regiment became disastrous. As the famous war journalist Max Hastings wrote, “The young Scots only want to fight the English”. So the shortage has to be made up by recruiting natives of the former colonies, primarily Fijians.

As part of the latest cuts to the British Army under Army 2020, the 5th Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland, was reduced to a separate company with ceremonial duties in 2014.

Argyll Highlanders in field uniform, 2013

No one in Britain doubted what name the company of former Argylls would bear - Balaklava. After all, the “thin red line” is their story.

Literature:

• Griffin P.D. Encyclopedia of Modern British Army Regiments. - Sutton Publishing, 2006.
• Delaforce P. Monty's Highlanders: The Story of the 51st Highland Division. - Pen & Sword, 2007.
• Kelly I. S. Echoes of Success: Identity and the Highland Regiments. - Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, 2015.
• Macpherson McCulloch I. Highlander in the French-Indian War. - Osprey Publishing, 2008.
• Smitherman P. H. Uniforms of Scottish Regiments. - Hugh Evelyn, 2012.
• Watt P. Steel and Tartan: The 4th Cameron Highlanders in the Great War. - The History Press, 2012.

Scottish Highlanders

Wars of Scotland that went from the sword to the musket. They first served in the Scottish army and later began to fight on the side of Britain.

Because of their clothes and strength, they were nicknamed “ladies from hell”, “Amazons”, and it’s true that the highlanders were always very strong and courageous, for example, in one of the battles the highlanders were tired and exhausted, but they were very inspired and they took off their kilts and went into battle with all his anger and pride for the country.

But let's stop in the 18-19th century, then the Scottish regiments were created in the British Army. The Highlanders were somewhat different from the rest of the line infantry, in that only a colorful bagpiper was worth it and performed the tasks of a drummer. The uniforms of the Highlanders were shorter than those of the English soldiers, but in general they were not very different, but the main attribute of the Scottish regiment was the kilt, I think there is no need to explain what a kilt is)

In matters of armament, the Scottish Highlanders again did not differ much from the English. In Scottish regiments, senior officers were armed with infantry sabers. The remaining officers, sergeants and pipers carried traditional Scottish broadswords with a large hemispherical guard.