PIPES AT WAR
As a musical instrument of war the PIOB MHOR is without
equal. The shrill and penetrating notes
worked well in the roar and din of battle.
Pipes have reportedly been heard at distances over six miles, and under
favorable conditions at ten miles. (I
know for a fact that my pipes have been heard at a distance over two miles
away.)
There is nothing improbable in the statement that the
pipes were played at Bannockburn, in 1314, though historical
evidence is not available to support the fact.
Clan Menzies states that there pipers and bards urged the clans to
victory at this battle.
At
the great clan fight on the North Inch of Perth in 1396, “Clans stalked into
the barriers to the sound of their great warpipes.” Clan Chatten maintains that
their piper was wounded during the fight and after dispatching his foe gathered
his pipes and played the clan to victory before succumbing to his wounds. The chanter he used became known as the
“Black Chanter.”
It is said that at the Battle of Harlow in 1411 the Highland army charged to the sound
of the pipes and in 1431, at the Battle of Inverlochy, the pipes were again in
evidence.
It is on record that the piper of Jedburgh played his
pipes in support of the Scottish Army at the battle of Flodden in 1513.
In
1549, a French military officer described a skirmish near Edinburgh in which the wild Scots
“encouraged themselves to arms by the sounds of their bagpipes.”
In George Buchanan’s “Description of
Scotland,” published in 1582, it speaks of the Highlanders using bagpipes
instead of trumpets on the field of battle.
Lord
Lothian, in 1641, writes: “we are well provided of pipers. I have one for every company in my regiment,
and I think they are as good as drummers.”
In 1651 at Stirling, a pageant was held in honor of Charles
II. Acknowledged by his peers as the
“Prince of Pipers”, Patrick Mor MacCrimmon was introduced to the King. MacCrimmon immediately composed and played
for his monarch the Piobaireachd “Fhuair mi pog do laimh an Righ” (I got a kiss
of the King’s hand). In September of the
same year Patrick was taken prisoner at the Battle of Worchester, a misfortune
he deplored in another piobaireachd.
It is interesting to note that the English did not
appreciate the piper in the same way as the Scots. During the English Civil War, Cromwell issued
a proclamation that anyone found playing the bagpipes would be banished to Barbados.
During Bonnie Prince Charlie’s rebellion of 1745, it was
the practice of the Highland Army to impress and carry along with them every
man whom they discovered to be a piper.
The music of their favorite instrument solaced the highlanders on many a
weary march through Scotland and England. Prince Charlie had thirty-two pipers of his
own, besides those belonging to the clans and he is reportedly to have entered Edinburgh at the head of a 100
pipers. It is beyond question that the
music of the pipes cheered on the troops, but the most popular melody; “The
King shall enjoy his own again” was composed by an Englishmen.
The
admiration that pipers held for the MacCrimmons is displayed by an incident
that happened on the 23rd and 24th of December 1746. Loyalist forces marched into Aberdeenshire
and skirmished near Inverarie with troops supporting Prince Charles. The Jacobite forces defeated the loyalists
and took as a prisoner Malcom MacCrimmon.
On the following morning a silence fell over the camp as none of the
Jacobite pipers would play. When asked
what was wrong, they responded that “while MacCrimmon was a captive their
instruments would not sound.” Malcom was
released to return to Skye and the pipers resumed their normal duties.
The Highlanders on both sides during the Rebellion used
the pipes. It is told that the Duke of
Cumberland on leaving Nairn to meet the Prince’s Army at Culloden had with him
regiments from the Clans of Munro, Campbell and Sutherland. Observing the pipers carrying pipes the Duke
said, “What are these men going to do with such bundles of sticks? I can supply them with better implements of
war.” His officer replied “Your Royal
Highness cannot do so. These are the
bagpipers, the Highlanders’ music in peace and war. Wanting these, all others implements are of
no avail, and the Highlanders need not advance another step for they will be of
no service.”
On
the fateful day at Culloden Moor, above the shouts of battle, the clash of weapons
and the howling of the blast, the shrill of the PIOB MHOR could be heard
calling the children of the gael to the slaughter: “ THIGIBH AN SO! THIGIBH AN
SO! CLANNAIBH NAN CON’S GHEIBH SIBH
FEOIL!” (Come-hither! Come Hither!
Children of the dogs, and you’ll get flesh).
Owing to the importance of the bagpipes to any Highland
Army, they were classified as an instrument of war by the Loyalist government. Those who carried the pipes were punished
just the same as those who bore arms for Bonnie Prince Charlie. JAMES RIED, a piper who said he bore no arms
against the English King, was tried at York for high treason. The court observed that “no Highland regiment ever marched
without a piper and therefore his bagpipe, in the eyes of the law, was an
instrument of warfare.” James suffered
death at York, on November 6th
1746.
Surprisingly,
there is no mention of the bagpipes in the “Act of Proscription 1747” that
banned all small arms by name and banned the wearing of highland dress, though
it could be argued that the clause that refers to “other warlike weapon” was
intended for the bagpipes.
CONCLUSION
This last reflection on the bagpipes
and the Highlanders attitude is by an Englishmen in 1679. He wrote “Music they have, but not the
harmony of the spheres, but load taurean noises, like the bellowing of the
beasts; the loud bagpipe is their delight; stringed instruments are too soft to
penetrate the organs of their ears, that are only pleased by sound of
substance.”
What is heard in this sound of substance is a call
to battle, a lament or the awakening of memories that recall a time lost and a
land that will call to the heart of anyone with Highland blood.
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