Throughout Scottish history, the chiefs had an air of superiority. A Clansmen gave his life to the chief, rather than the king, but there was also the case where a chief would coerce his men with the threat of violence. Disbanding the clan system was disbanding the Scottish Highland way of life, and the final straw was the Disarmament Act. Many men hoarded swords in the rooves of their croft, waiting for the day the Stuarts would return. To successfully conquer the Scots was to disarm them and take away their powerful chiefs, and then barbarically colonise them and treat them as subhuman. The highland cause was a lost cause because the highlanders were coming up against what would be the greatest empire the world has ever seen, The British Empire. But one thing is certain, My late grandfather told me, the further north you got, the stronger the alliance with the government was, so it is not the case that all the highlanders fought for the Stuarts, the Clan Gunn and Clan Sutherland were from the north and fought for the government with honour.
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