The 7th February 1603 is memorable as the date of an event of great importance in the history of the West Highlands, and especially in the history of the Clan MacGregor. It is known as The Slaughter in the Lennox, from the district in which it occurred, or, with greater topographical precision, as The Conflict of Glenfruin, the scene having been in the glen of that name between the Gare Loch and Loch Lomond.

Calderwood's summary account of it (vi. 204) is as follows:- "Upon the 7th February a great company of sorners and broken Hieland men of the Clan Mackgregore, to the number of foure hundred men, came doun to Lennox, to reave and spoyle. The people of the countrie convened to make impediment. There were slaine of the countrie people, specialize of the surname of Cahowns (Colquhouns), to the number of fourscore persons or thereby, of which number twentie-foure or threttie were landed men of good ranks. The Laird of Luce himself, cheefe of the Cahowns, escaped narrowlie.''

The following, extracted from the indictment afterwards preferred against MacGregor of Glenstrae, the chief of the offending clan, and his associates in the business (Pitcairn's Criminal Trials ii. 432), tells the story in great details;- "Haifing concluded the distructione of Alexander Colquhoune of Luse, his kyn, freindis, and alya, and the haill surname of the Balquhannanis, and to herrie thair landis, they convenit to thameselffis the Clanhamroune (Clan Cameron), the Clananverich (MacDonalds of Glencoe?) and diverse utheris broken men and soirneris, to the number of 400 ment or thereby, all bodin in fair of weir, with hagbuttis, pistolettis, murrionis, mailzie-coittis, pow-aixes, twa-handit swoirdis, bowie, darloches, and utheris wappones invasive, in contraire the tenuour of the Actis of Parliament; And, for the performance of thair wicked conclusioune, upon the seventday of Februare last bypast, come fordward in arrayit battell to the lanis of Glenfrune, pertening to the Laird of Luse, - quhair the said Laird of Luse accumpaneit with certaine of his friends, war convenit, be vertew of our soverane Lordis commissionoun, to resist the saidis persones crewall interpryses;- And their set upone him, his kyn and freindis, and crewallie invaidit thame for thair slaughteris; schamefullie, crewallie and barbaruslie murdreist and slew Peter Naper of Kilmahew, Johnne Buchannane of Buchlyvie, Tobias Smallet, bailzie of Dumbarten, David Fallesdaillis, his sons, Walter Colquhoun of Barnehill, Johnne Colquhoun, fear thairof, Adame and Johnne Colquhones, sones to the Laird of Captstradden, Johnne Colquhoun of Dalmure, and dyverss utheris persones, our soverane lordis leigis, to the number of sevin scoir personis or thairby, - the maist pairt of thame being tane captives be the saidis McGregouris befoir thai pat violent handis on shame and crewallie slew thame: And tressonabillie tuik Williame Sempill and diverse utheris, our soverane lordis fri legis, and convoyit thame away captive with thame; And, be way of maisterfull strouthreif, straw, reft, and away-tuik sax hundreth ky and oxen, aught hundreds scheip and gait, fourteen scoir of horse and meires, with the haill plenissing, guides and geir, aff the fourscoir pundland of Luse; And at the samyn tyme tressonabillie raisit ffyre in the houssis and barne-yairdis thairof, brunt, waisted, and distroyit the samyn, with the cornis being thairin.''

The glen where the conflict took place is now very solitary and peaceful, but retains its name of Glenfruin or "The Glen of Sorrow'' and the memory of the sad slaughter. There are indeed legends of special atrocities committed by the MacGregors in and after the fight. For some of these see Sir Walter Scott's introduction to his Rob Roy. Some of the legends seem to have been inventions of the local imagination after the fact; but the fact was fearful enough. The MacGregors, under the pretext of following out their feud with the Colquhouns of Loch Lomond, had done a deed of armed violence the like of which had not been heard of in those parts for many a day, and which the Scottish Government could not let pass without severe notice.

There were questions at the time whether the MacGregors were really the principals in the affair, or whether they had not been made tools of by the Earl of Argyll on the one hand and the Duke of Lennox on the other, between whom there was a competition of jurisdictions in the Loch Lomond district, and both of whom had ends to serve by formenting feuds among the Clans under their control. The Earl of Argyll, in particular, by virtue of his commission of lieutenancy in the West Highlands, including as it did a special charge of the lawless Clan Gregor, had for several years been all but absolute master of that clan, with MacGregor of Glenstrae, the chief of the clan, wholly at his bidding. Whatever, the Conflict of Gflenfruin had completed the tale of the misdeeds standing to the account of this specially reckless or specially ill-fated clan.

On Sunday 3rd April 1603 the famous Act of Council proscribing the Clan MacGregor came into effect and even abolished their very name. A preamble to an Act of Parliament relating to the MacGregors in 1617 reads:- "Oure Soverane Lord and Estaittis of this present parliament remembering how that his sacred Majestye being verie justlie moved with a haterent and detestatioun of the barbarous murtheris and insolences committed be the Clangregoure upoun his Majesties peciable and goode subjectis of the Lennox at Glenfrone in the moneth of Februare 1603, and how that the bair and simple name of McGregoure maid that haill Clane to presume of thair power, force and strenthe, and did encourage thame, without reverence of the law or fear of punischement, to go fordward in thair iniquities: Upon the consideratioune quhairof his Majestie, with advise of the Lordis of his Secreit Counsell, maid dyvers actis and ordinances agains thame, - especiallie one Act upoun the third day of Apryill 1603, whereby it wes ordaint that the name of McGregoure sulde be altogidder abolisched, and that the haill persounes of that Clan suld rununce thair name and tak thame sum uther name, and that they nor nane of thair posteritie suld call thameselffis Gregor or McGregoure thairefter, under the payne of deade," &c. (Acts of Parliament of Scotland iv. 550).

In January 1604 the Privy Council was still occupied with severe measures against the MacGregors in consequence of the conflict or slaughter in Glenfruin. On the 20th January 1604, Alexander MacGregor of Glenstrae, the chief of the Clan, with eleven of his chief retainers, were hanged and quartered at the market-cross of Edinburgh. The unfortunate chief of the doomed Clan, it appears, had been in sore straits since the affair of Glenfruin, skulking about in his Highland region, and chased by all the authorities there, but especially by the Earl of Argyll, as the responsible lieutenant for the King in those parts, and charged with the rule of the MacGregors in particular.
In October 1603 MacGregor had been actually taken by Campbell of Ardkinglas, as deputy for the Earl; but having then escaped (in a romantic fashion, very like that in which Scott makes his descendant, Rob Roy, escape from his captors in the novel), he had remained at large till the beginning of the present month, when he had been induced to surrender to the Earl of Argyll himself. He had been induced to this, the contemporary accounts say, by various promises of indemnity for the past, one of them being that the Earl would see to his being set safely on English ground. This 'Hielandman's promise", the accounts go on to say, was kept to the letter, but not in spirit; for MacGregor, having been brought to Edinburgh by Argyll on the 10th January, was immediately, by order of the Council, sent off, under the convoy of the new armed Guard of the Council, to Berwick, so that he might touch English ground, but was immediately brought back again.

He and four of his clansmen were tried by an Azzize at Edinburgh on the 20th January, and were hanged the same day, with seven other MacGregors already in pledge, - Glenstrae himself being hanged his own height above the rest. His pathetic declaration before his death, throwing the whole blame of his own misdeeds and of the miseries of his clan upon the Earl of Argyll, may be seen in Pitcairn, mentioned above. Within the next six weeks a number more of the MacGregors were hanged in Edniburgh also.

Notes from The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland (edited by David Masson, Edinburgh, 1884, vol. VI, 1599-1604), selected and extracted by Gregory Lauder-Frost, F.S.A. (Scot).