Argyll's 'A Short Answer'

Argyll returned 'A Short Answer' to the Indictment against him on 23 January 1661.

Here is Argyll's defence:

"Ardkinglas was colonel from Parliament and not from him and if he pursued Lamont it was doubtless as a rebel at that time to the kingdom; so what Ardkinglas of any other did to Lamont 'let them answer' for what they did unwarrantably; it cannot reflect on him but he hoped they would clear themselves."

Argyll claimed he was in England at the time and knew nothing of what had taken place at Ascog, Toward and Dunoon. He concluded 'let every man answer as he is concerned as he hopes they will clear so'.

Argyll said of himself -

'It cannot be said they murdered any of these men with their own hands neither did they judge any man to die by the hands of justice but such as were notoriously guilty'.

On 7 March 1661, Argyll presented his Defences against the Grand Indictment. He claimed:

'He was innocent of any charges relating to the events at Toward and Ascog and the capitualtion drawn and subscribed by Ardkinglas and others under his command that there was no Act of Parliament or common law that ordained men to be liable for deeds or crimes commited by those under his command unless he gave special directions; that every one is answerable for his own fault. He dined any liability for the acts of killings maintaining that he could not have stopped them and was not near them when what was libelled was done; that the act of slaughter upon trust referred only to the person slain being under the trust of the slayer which he was not but that Ardkinglas was the man under trust; that he had power to prosecute the Lamonts and the MacDonald with fire and sword under his Commission; and that what cruelty there was, was exercised by the Lamonts who were rebeles and had brought their fate upon theirselves.'

His conclusion was based on a plea of alibi.

Argyll wasted no time trying to shift all blame from his own shoulders to those of his subordinates, naming Ardkinglas in particular. But this is where a finer point must be made.

Note Argyll made no mention of the time Sir James Lamont spent imprisoned in Dunstaffnage, where it can easily be said Argyll was clearly endorsing the actions of his subordinates, those chiefs of various Campbell estates and lands. Only when the Indictment was served upon him, did Argyll start claiming no responsibility.

Apparently Parliament saw it the same way, as on 17 May 1661, Argyll was executed on the scaffold. There is a story that claims Argyll's words on his way to the scaffold were, 'I could die like a Roman but choose to die as a Christian'.

The sentence was carried out against him and his head was fixed upon the Tolbooth. His daughter, the Countess of Caithness, apparently asked for audience with Middleton, to ask for her father's head. Middleton refused her request and allegedly threatened to have the Countess dumped on the street.

Argyll's headless body was given over to friends and taken to Kilmun, where it was buried in the family burying grounds. After the head was publicly exposed for a period of some three years, it was taken down and delivered for burial, by warrant of Charles II.