Montrose (book)

{{Short description|1928 biography by John Buchan}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}} {{Use British English|date=April 2020}} {{infobox book |  | name = Montrose | image = Montrose by John Buchan, 1st edn 1928.jpg | caption = First edition 1928

| author = John Buchan | genre = Biography; history | publisher = Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd<ref name="BLcat">{{Cite web |url=http://primocat.bl.uk/F?func=direct&local_base=ITEMV&doc_number=000512725&con_lng=eng |title=British Library Item details |website=primocat.bl.uk |access-date=3 April 2020}}</ref> | release_date = 1928 | media_type = Print | pages = 419<ref name="BLcat"/> }}

'''''Montrose''''' ('''''Montrose: a history''''' in the US) is a 1928 biography of James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose by the Scottish author John Buchan. It won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography in 1928.

==Background== From his undergraduate days at Oxford, Buchan had always had a fascination with Montrose, and came to feel that earlier historians had not done him justice.<ref name="Memory">{{Cite book |last=Buchan |first=John |title=Memory Hold-the-Door |publisher=Hodder and Stoughton |year=1940 |location=London |page=207}}</ref> In 1913, Buchan’s publishers T Nelson released his first attempt at a biography, ''The Marquis of Montrose,''<ref name="BLcat2">{{Cite web |url=http://primocat.bl.uk/F?func=direct&local_base=ITEMV&doc_number=000512715&con_lng=eng |title=British Library Item details |website=primocat.bl.uk |access-date=3 April 2020}}</ref> which was dedicated to his brother Willie who had died a year earlier.<ref name="JBuchan">{{Cite book|title=John Buchan: A Memoir |last= Buchan |first=William |publisher=Harrap |year=1985 |page=247 |location=London|isbn=0 245-54257-4}}</ref> The earlier book did not receive universal acclaim, and his old antagonist D. Hay Fleming took the opportunity to attack the author for giving insufficient credit to Argyll.<ref name="Daniell179">{{Cite book |title=The Interpreter's House |last= Daniell |first=David |publisher=Nelson |page=179 |year=1975 |location=London|isbn=0-17-146051-0}}</ref> Buchan’s enthusiasm for his subject had laid him open to the charge of romancing,<ref name="JBSoc">{{Cite web |url=http://www.johnbuchansociety.co.uk/books/142.htm |title=Montrose - Non-Fiction |last=Greig |first=JCG |website=The John Buchan Society |access-date=4 April 2020}}</ref> and Buchan later admitted that many of the judgements that he had made in the work were “exaggerated and hasty”.<ref name="Montrose">{{Cite book |last=Buchan |first=John |title=Montrose |publisher=Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd |year=1928 |location=Edinburgh |chapter=Preface, page vii}}</ref>

Over the next fifteen years he collected material for a more historically-expansive work, adding to previous scholarship with a study of the pamphlet literature of the time,<ref name="Montrose" /> and in 1928 T Nelson published the scholarly ''Montrose''. A US printing by Houghton Mifflin also appeared, under the title ''Montrose: A History''.<ref name="LOCcat">{{Cite web |url=https://lccn.loc.gov/28024618 |title=Online Catalog |website= catalog.loc.gov | publisher =Library of Congress |access-date=4 April 2020}}</ref>

The historical research that Buchan had been doing for ''Montrose'' underpinned further works.<ref name="Daniell180">{{Cite book |title=The Interpreter's House |last= Daniell |first=David |publisher=Nelson |page=180 |year=1975 |location=London|isbn=0-17-146051-0}}</ref> In 1930 he gave a lecture at St Andrews on ''Montrose and Leadership'', which was published separately.<ref name="Daniell180"/> But most important to Buchan was its influence on his historical novel ''Witch Wood'' (1927),<ref name="Daniell180"/> within which Montrose appears as a minor character.

==Content== ''Montrose'' is a detailed account of the life of James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose who sought to combine adherence to Scotland's 1638 National Covenant with loyalty to Charles I. As Charles's lieutenant-general in Scotland, Montrose was, argues Buchan, a skilful general during a series of Highland and Lowland battles in 1645-46, but who was ultimately thwarted later in 1646 by the disaster of Philiphaugh. Buchan then goes on to consider the aftermath, Montrose’s new campaign in the North for Charles II after his father’s execution in 1649, and his own defeat, betrayal, trial, and execution.<ref name="JBSoc"/>

==Critical reception==

As a scholarly edition, ''Montrose'' was widely praised.<ref name="JBSoc"/> The biography is, said one later critic, presented with a reverent, dignified but not exaggerated dramatic power;<ref name="JBSoc"/> while another praised Buchan’s research while expressing some regret at the loss of “good sharp phrases” from his earlier work.<ref name="Daniell179"/>

A. L. Rowse considered the book to be a masterly historical biography, Buchan’s chief contribution to historical research, written wholly from original sources.<ref name="Lownie">{{Cite book|title=John Buchan: The Presbyterian Cavalier |last= Lownie |first=Andrew |publisher=Thistle Publishing |year=2013 |page=215|location=London|isbn=978-1-909609-99-0}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * {{FadedPage|id=20120402|name=Montrose}}

Category:1928 non-fiction books Category:Works by John Buchan Category:Thomas Nelson (publisher) books Category:Cultural depictions of James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose Category:Scottish biographies