GRAHAM, JOHN, Viscount DUNDEE, was the eldest son of sir William Graham of Claverhouse, head of a branch of the noble family of MontroSe, in Forfarshire. Ile was b. in 1643, entered St. Andrews university in'1665, served in the French army from 1668 till 1672, next entered the Dutch service as cornet in the prince of Orange's horse guards, and is reported (hut on no good authority) to have saved the life of the prince at the battle of In 1674. Returning to Scotland, he obtained (Feb. 1678) an appointment as lieut. in a troop of horse commanded by his cousin, the third marquis of Montrose. At this time, the government of Charles 11. was engaged in its insane attempt to force episcopacy upon the people of Scotland. A system of lines and mili tary coercion had been carried on for years against all nonconformists; conventtcles and field-preachings were prohibited, penalties were inflicted on all who even harbored the recusants, and the nation lay at the mercy of informers. Maddened by oppression, and fired by a fierce zeal for the covenant, the people flew to arms; but their efforts were irregular and detached, and each successive failure only aggravated their sufferings. Many were executed, the jails were filled with captives, and those who fled were out lawed, and their property seized. In this miserable service Graham now engaged. He encountered an armed body of covenanters at Drumclog, June 1, 1679, hut was defeated, about forty of his troopers being slain, and himself forced to flee from the field. Three weeks afterwards (June 22), he commanded the cavalry at Bothwell bridge, where the royal forces, under the duke of Monmouth, achieved an easy victory over the cove nanters. In this battle, three or four were killed while defending the bridge, but in the pursuit, 400 were cut down (chiefly by Graham's dragoons), and 1200 surrendered unconditionally, to be afterwards treated with atrocious inhumanity. These affairs at Drumclog and Bothwell are the only contests that can even by courtesy be called bat tles in which Graham was engaged in Scotland previous to the abdication of James 11. They gave no scope for valor, and displayed no generalship. In his other dnties—pur. suing, detecting nil hunting down the utmost zeal. He rose to the rank of tnaj.gen., was sworn a privy councilor, had a gift from the crown of the estate of Dudhope, and was made constable of Dundee. In 1688, on the eveof the revolution, he was raised to the peerage by James II. as viscount Dundee and lord Graham of Claverhouse. When the bigotry of James had driven him from the throne, Dundee remained faithful to the interests of the fallen monarch. Ile was
joined, by the Jacobite highland clans and by auxilaries from Ireland, and raised the standard of rebellion against the government of William and Mary. After various movements in the north, he advanced upon Blair in Athol, and gen. Mackay, com manding the government forces, hastened to meet him. The two armies confronted each other at the pass of Kiflieerankie, July 27, 1689. Mackay's fo?ce was about 4,000 men; Dundee's, 2,500 foot, With one troop of horse. A few minutes decided the con • test. After both armies had exchanged fire, the highlanders rushed on with their swords, and the enemy instantly scattered and gave way. Mackay lost by death and capture 2,000 men; the victors, 900. Dundee fell by a musket-shot while waving on one of his battalions to advance. He was carried off the field to Urrard house, or Blair castle, and there expired. In the Bodleian library, Oxford, is preserved the letter-bo6k to Nairne, private secretary to James II., and in this book is a copy of a letter purporting of be written by Dundee after he had received his death-wound, James a short account of the victory. The letter was first published in Macpherson'sOriginal Papers, 1775, and has been treated as a forgery; but Nairne could have had no conceivable motive for forging such a document, which remained unpainted above 80 years.
The character and services of Dundee have been greatly exaggerated and blackened by party spirit. With the Jacobites, he was the brave and handsome cavalier, the last of the great Scots and gallant Grahams. With the covenanters, he was "bloody Claverse," the most cruel and rapacious of all the mercenary soldiers of that age. He was neither the best nor the worst of his class. As a military commander, he had no opportunities for display. He was the hero of only one important battle, and in that his skill was shown chiefly in his choice of position. As a persecutor, he did not, like Dalyell, introduce the thumb-screw, nor, like Grierson of Lagg, drown helpless women at stakes on the sea-sands. " In any service I have been in," 'he said, " I never inquired further in the laws than the orders of my superior officers;" and in Scotland he had very bad superior officers—low-minded, cruel, relentless taskmasters. It was fortunate for his reputation that he died after a great victory, fighting for an exiled and deserted monarch. See Memorials and Letters illustrative of the Life and Thnes of John Graham of Claverhouse; by Mark Napier (1862).