[Review] Murdo Fraser, The Rivals: Montrose and Argyll and the Struggle for Scotland (Edinburgh, 2015)

THE RIVALS, by Murdo Fraser, traces the fates of Archibald Campbell, eighth Earl and first Marquis of Argyll, and James Graham, fifth Earl and first Marquis of Montrose, through the political manoeuvring, religious upheaval, and brutal warfare of the British Civil Wars (1638-51), and up to the Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in 1660. Fraser, a Conservative MSP, uses the figures of Argyll and Montrose to follow the general narrative of the period, providing a foot in both camps of the Civil Wars, with Argyll becoming a leader of the Covenanting Movement, and Montrose taking on the mantle of commander
of Royalist forces in Scotland.

Fraser makes his objective clear in the book’s introduction. He intends to ‘stimulate interest in a neglected period of our history’. A noble cause which every scholar of the period would welcome. The book itself is very readable.....