Rob Roy a Traitor??

I hope this doesn't sound too cynical, but there were very few political luminaries in any part of Britain who didn't work both sides of the political schism in the late 17th and early 18th century. John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, was in correspondence with the Stuart court at St. Germain in Paris, even when he was kicking around the French Army. He fed them inconsequential intelligence, lies, and perhaps even the occasional tidbit of good intelligence. Why? Was this all brilliant spycraft? Probably...but he was also, perhaps, keeping his options open. After all, he had been one of James II's most trusted subordinates, his sister had been James' mistress, and thus James' illegitimate son the Duke of Berwick was his nephew.

Likewise James Oglethorpe, founder of Georgia, was always suspected of being a secret Jacobite. He had made his obeisance at the Jacobite court in Italy in 1717. When he failed to catch up with Bonnie Prince Charlie's army in the '45, it was widely suspected that it was not a consequence of bad weather. Oglethorpe was never given a command in the British Army after that, though he remained its senior officer until his death forty years later.

So Rob Roy was working both sides of the fence? He was a Highlander! Of course he was! It's like expressing surprise that a mafioso sometimes informs on his rival gangs. I am shocked-- shocked!-- to find that sort of behavior going on in the Highlands.

It's what I like about the Highlands--they're a bunch of paesan who wear tartan and substitute oats for pasta.