When I first read about the defeat of the Earl Montrose in the pages of Max Hastings book ‘The King’s Champion’ and found therein reference to a Major General ‘Holbourn’, I assumed incorrectly, this to be a reference to Sir Robert, further study proved him to be with the King at Uxbridge in 1645, and having so painstakingly deliberated a change of sides already from Parliament to King.

Yet from Max Hastings account, Major General Holborne takes custody of the Royalist Earl Montrose. ; ‘Colonel Strachen had ridden south with the captured Royalist colours to receive the congratulations of the Coventers’. Montrose had been wounded, his army defeated and although he was again prevailed upon to escape, after days of aimless wandering across tracts of barren land he was finally captured on the 30th of April, and taken to the Castle Ardvreck on the banks of Loch Assynt. Here the Laird Neil Macleod delivered him up to the Covenanters.25

It was Major General Holborne who arrived at Ardvreck, on May 4th 1650. General David Leslie (later, Lord Newark), who was then at Tain, had sent him with a troop of horse to fetch James Grahame (Montrose) to meet his judges. On May 5th Montrose thus begun his long and humiliating captive journey, and on May 6th Major General Holborne took shelter at Castle ‘Skibo*’, the home of the dowager Lady Gray, (but was famously ill recived by the same.) The Lady Gray, being loyal to Montrose requested him (The Earl, James Grahame) to be seated next to her at dinner. Major General Holborne insisted on a strict military order to affairs and (yet) placed the Marquis between himself and another Officer. With this breach of Etiquette the Lady Gray flew into a violent rage, and seizing upon a leg of roasted mutton by the shank she confronted the Major General with “such a notable blow on his head, knocking him of his seat.” The Officers ‘took alarm’, expecting an attempt to rescue their prisoner! Lady Gray promptly reminded them that they were her guests and as such, as gentleman they should accommodate themselves to such an adjustment of place at her table, as she considered to be correct. Order having been restored, mutton replaced to the table, every possible civility was thereafter directed by all present toward the Marquis.

The King’s Champion, was led through the towns and villages thereafter, mounted on a highland pony, his feet fastened under it’s belly. Suffering from his wounds and fever, he was led by a herald proclaiming the Earl to be a traitor. This cruel treatment miscarried in its purpose, for it drew pity and admiration wherever the troop passed. On May the Seventh Montrose was ferried across Dornoch firth to Tain where General David Leslie took personal command of the procession. Montrose was led down the East Coast of Scotland on the long journey toward Edinburgh, where he was met at the town’s Watergate and the sentence of hanging, drawing and quartering was pronounced.

James Grahame ; the Marquis of Montrose.

 The downfall of the Marquis however came at the battle of Philiphauge, which had been fought on the plain facing the north side of the Ettrick on the 13th May, 1645. The Earl had taken up his quarters, with his cavalry in the town of Selkirk, whilst his infantry, amounting to around 12~15000 men, were billeted on the town of Philiphaugh. General Leslie arrived at nearby Melrose the evening before the decisive engagement, and taking full strategic advantage of the thick Scottish mist that had rolled in, was able to reach the Marquis’s encampment ‘without being described by a single scout’. The suprise was complete, and before the Earl, who had been alarmed by the unexpected sound of repeated gunshots was to reach the scene of battle it was already to late, for on arrival he beheld his army ‘dispersed in irretrievable Rout’. After a desperate but unavailing attempt to retrieve the flagging fortunes of his day he heroically cut his way through a body of Leslie’s troopers, but was compelled to retreat over Minchmore toward Peebles. This defeat conclusively sank the fruit of Montrose’s six former victories and effectively ruined the Royal cause in Scotland. Although he was to raise small armies and fight for another five years, the Earl of Montrose is buried in the parish church of Edinburgh, St Giles. 26

References to Major General Holborne are found in the Calendar of State Papers, 1644. For example Volume DII, for the 28th August mentions a letter dispatched from Farnham, the critical words being : ‘I sent yesterday Colonel Holborne’s letter to Mr. Solicitor’~ (In 1644 Sir Robert Holborne filled the position of Attorney/Solicitor General), another letter states ‘we have taken into consideration your letter of the relation of Colonel Holborne, and conceive the matter to be very weighty and shall speedily give you a return by him’ Sent from Derby House, on the 9th July, some weeks before the Farnham report, a correspondence between Colonel Holborne and Attorney Holborne would seem in all probability connected. Colonel Holborne’s ‘relation’ may well have been Sir Robert, who in all likelihood was one of his brothers.