History of the Stewarts | Battles and Historic Events
If you are a Stewart Society Member please login above to view all of the items in this section. If you want general information on how to research your ancestors and some helpful links - please look in background information.
If you have a specific question you can contact our archivist.
The Battle of Philiphaugh
13 September 1645 - Montrose´s last battle
Montrose had raised the royal standard in Scotland in 1644, in an attempt to secure the country for the king by force of arms. He had won a string of six victories and had crippled the ability of the Covenanters (Scottish Presbyterians opposed to interference by the Stuart Kings in the affairs of the Church of Scotland) to counter him. However, by September his attempts to raise sufficient Lowland forces, or maintain the numbers of his existing troops to sustain his campaign, had failed.
After the success of the battle of Kilsyth the previous month, Montrose had intended to recruit for his army before attempting to complete his military control in Scotland. However, many of his Highland troops deserted after their plundering of Glasgow was heavily punished. James Gordon, 2nd Viscount of Aboyne also left with most of the cavalry when Montrose appointed the Earl of Crawford as commander of the horse, while some 800 were sent north to protect their lands, reducing the army to not much more than 500 Irish troops and a few hundred cavalry. Marching east through the Lowlands, he was unable to raise significant numbers of new recruits. Not only was much of the area strongly Covenanter and therefore unlikely to have Royalist sympathies at this time, the Highland and Irish troops were unwelcome in the region because of the plundering and disorder that they carried out in Scotland the preceding year.
Montrose therefore was outnumbered and as had happened frequently during his campaign had insufficient intelligence of the approach of the Government army. At Philiphaugh, Montrose´s army was at an even greater disadvantage in numbers than in the other battles of the campaign. With probably less than 2,000 troops, he was heavily outnumbered by the Covenanter army of at least 4,000, under the command of the experienced Leslie. Furthermore, he had little idea of the approaching threat. On the night before the battle, he had his officers billeted in Selkirk, while the body of the army was over a mile away camped in woodland. The alarm was only raised when Leslie was less than 2 miles from Selkirk.
However on the battlefield Montrose, made good use of the opportunities offered by the landscape. Although his army was unprepared for the Government attack and many of his troops seem not to have engaged with the opposition at all. Leslie´s cavalry came across the haugh, the flat ground beside the river, and assaulted the right wing of the Royalists. They were driven back twice before the Royalist infantry advanced from their defensive position, but they were quickly driven back in turn. The Royalist cavalry tried a counter-charge, but they were unable to reach the Government cavalry and instead broke through the rearguard and left the infantry to their fate. There are accounts of Montrose trying to break through to assist the beleaguered Irish regiment, but was unable to do so and made his escape. As the right flank was holding firm through the support of the remainder of the Royalist cavalry, Leslie led another cavalry charge on the left flank where there was no cavalry, and quickly broke through. This effectively ended the battle, although the Irish regiment stood and fought to the end. Eventually they surrendered having been offered quarter; however, as they were being marched away, they were all killed. Some of the routed Royalist forces were pursued for several miles, but the main focus was the baggage train which was looted, with the camp followers that were with it being slaughtered. While Montrose had escaped with some of his cavalry intact, his army had ceased to exist and he was never again able to rally any substantial support in Scotland.
Montrose´s defeat was enough to end the campaign. Montrose escaped the battlefield and carried on guerrilla actions during the winter, but he was unable to gather a new army to continue the campaign. The victory of the Covenanters was secured the following year with the surrender of King Charles to a Covenanter army in England.
