The Battle of Glenlivet was a Scottish clan battle fought on 3 October 1594 near Glenlivet, Moray, Scotland. It was fought between Protestant forces loyal to King James VI of Scotland who were commanded by Archibald Campbell, 7th Earl of Argyll, against Catholic forces who were commanded by George Gordon, 6th Earl of Huntly, and Francis Hay, 9th Earl of Erroll. The Catholics won a decisive victory in the battle, but in the aftermath were subdued by King James.
Background
For two centuries from the mid-15th century the Clan Gordon and Clan Campbell controlled the north-east and west of Scotland respectively, as the magnates who straddled the divide between the Scottish Highlands and Scottish Lowlands. James VI of Scotland had been unsure whether to support Catholics or Protestants. This was because the Catholics were still numerous and in particular among the nobility of the north. In 1593 he had sent a secret mission to the Pope with the idea of returning Scotland to the allegiance of Rome. However, in 1594 he once again changed his mind and decided that laws against Catholics would be enforced. Between 1588 and 1595, the northern earls of Huntly, Errol, and Angus, who were all Catholics, made overtures to Philip II of Spain, in revolt against James VI of Scotland. When James discovered this potentially treasonable correspondence with Spain he marched north and sent an advance force under Archibald Campbell, 7th Earl of Argyll, who was still a teenager, to oppose the rebel army under George Gordon, then the 6th Earl of Huntly, and Francis Hay, 9th Earl of Errol. The King's army was sent to Gordon country which was the stronghold of the Catholic side.
The Earl of Argyll, aged just 19 years, had with him a force of about 12,000 men. He entered into Badenoch and laid siege to Ruthven Castle on 27 September 1594. In Argyll's army was the Earl of Atholl, Lachlan Mor Maclean, chief of Clan Maclean, the Chief of Clan Mackintosh, the Laird of Grant, the Clan Gregor, MacNeil of Barra, together with the whole of Clan Campbell. Ruthven Castle was well defended by the Clan Macpherson who were vassals of the Earl of Huntly and so the Earl of Argyll had to give up the siege. Following this Argyll marched through Strathspey and on 2 October encamped at Druminnor Castle. From there Argyll sent orders for Lord Forbes, Clan Fraser of Lovat, Clan Dunbar, Clan Mackenzie, Clan Irvine, Clan Ogilvy, and the Clan Leslie to join him.
The Earls on the opposing side knew that Argyll was a youth with no military experience, whose army was made up of raw and undisciplined militia and which also included a great number of Catholics.
As Argyll approached, the Earl of Errol with 100 selected horsemen joined the Earl of Huntly at Strathbogie. Huntly's force now amounted to nearly 1,500 men, mostly horsemen, and from there they advanced to Carnborrow where the two Earls and their followers made the vow to conquer or die. They then marched to Auchindoun arriving the same day. Huntly received intelligence that Argyll was about to descend from the mountains to the lowlands and sent Captain Thomas Carr and a party of horsemen to carry out reconnaissance. They accidentally met Argyll's scouts who they chased and some of whom they killed. Huntly then resolved to attack Argyll before he was joined by the Lord Forbes and the forces which were waiting for his appearance in the lowlands.
Argyll passed Glenlivet and reached the banks of a small stream named Alltacoileachan, but he had no idea that Huntly and Errol would attack him with such an inferior force and was therefore astonished to see them approach him. He was apprehensive that Huntly's cavalry would counterbalance his numerical superiority of foot soldiers and so held a council of war to decide if they should attack or retreat to the mountains which were inaccessible to Huntly's horse, and where he could wait until the lowland forces, which were mainly cavalry, would arrive to support him. The council advised Argyll to wait for the King to arrive with his forces to support him, or at least until the Frasers and Mackenizes had arrived from the north, or the Irvines, Forbeses, and Leslies from the south. However, Argyll disregarded this decision and was determined to wait for the attack from the enemy and encouraged his men by pointing out how small their enemy was.