Highland Host

Force of highlanders brought into southwest Scotland in 1678 to suppress Scottish Covenanters by the Earl of Lauderdale. For two months the host engaged in pillage and confiscation of lands until their brutality and their local unpopularity led to their being withdrawn. In some ways, they increased public sympathy for the Covenanters as many regarded them as Lowland Protestants being persecuted by Highlanders, even though up to a third of the Host were themselves Lowlanders. Lauderdale himself was a staunch supporter of Charles II, though he had himself been a Covenanter and had signed the Engagement with Charles I.