With all the niceties settled at the coronation, it was time for King Charles II to reveal his true nature. One of the few nobles to oppose the king’s decree and stand faithfully for the Covenants was Archibald Campbell, the first Marquis of Argyll. He travelled from Scotland to London to congratulate Charles II, arriving there on 8 July 1660. He never got to see the king however, for he was straightaway arrested and thrown into the Tower of London on a charge of treason and false accusation that he was one of Cromwell’s conspirators behind the execution of Charles I. After languishing there for five months, he was sent to Edinburgh castle and was sentenced to death. The marquis was beheaded at the Mercat cross next to St Giles on 27 May 1661, being the first of many of the Covenanters who followed him as martyrs.
Before he was executed, he is cited as saying, ‘I had the honour to set the crown on the King’s head, and now he hastens me to a better Crown than his own.’ Back in 1651 he had crowned Charles II as King of Scotland at Scone after this prince had lied to God and man, swearing under oath that he would support and defend the Presbyterian Church and the Covenants. The marquis is also said to have stooped and kissed the guillotine called the Maiden, and quipped, ‘That is the sweetest maiden I have ever kissed!’ He welcomed the thought of leaving this corrupt world and joining his Saviour in heaven. Black humour seemed to have run in the family, for his covenanting son, also named Archibald Campbell, but the 9th Earl of Argyll, was led to the Maiden in 1685 at the same spot where his father had been executed 24 years before. He gave a short speech, then noticed the guillotine block was crooked. He brought out a little ruler from his pocket and measured it, complaining that it was uneven. A carpenter was called for who rectified the problem, after which the earl joined his father with Christ.
The marquis’ head was impaled on a spike on the West side of the Tolbooth, which used to be next to St Giles, for about three years, as a warning to others. The headless body was then carried to Magdalene Chapel in the Cowgate, where the first Assembly of the Church of Scotland with John Knox as the first moderator, had taken place in 1560. A few days later, his friend and fellow Covenanter, the Earl of Lothian, made arrangements for the body to be temporarily laid in his own private vault at Newbattle, outside Edinburgh, until the family could receive it at their tomb at Kilmun, the burial place of the chief of the Clan Campbell. An original copy of the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643 used to be shown to visitors in Newbattle House, the home of the earls of Lothian, but now a college, until it was transferred to the National Museum, where it can now be viewed. Alongside the signature of the minister of Newbattle Church, who was the Revd Robert Leighton, can be seen the signatures of both the Marquis of Argyll, and his friend, the Earl of Lothian.
‘Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints’ (Psalm 116:15, NKJV). Archibald Campbell, Marquis of Argyll, David Scougall, public domain, via Wikimed