How do I see the Highlander of the 17th century? He's poor in terms of money and goods, and because of that, he's avaricious. He eats well enough with deer from the hill, rabbits, fowl and what oats he manages to grow on the flatter parts of the glen near the river. Those who are efficient hunters, are big and strong, but there are many who are skinny and not so strong. When they raid, the strong ones fight and take the booty, the thin ones drive the stolen cattle and carry anything, pots and pans or iron utensils. When the Chief calls for fighters or raiders, the strong go but take someone to carry food for the estimated time of the campaign. In general the fighting rations are a handful of oats and if that's all there is for two weeks it's easy to imagine how many boxes of porridge oats the carrier needs to have with him. I'd think, at least, one a day.
When they are called out, they are unpaid, so they plunder whatever the can. Please note this is how the Stuart royalist army and navy in England are also paid.
He takes a wife of thirteen and she bears ten children, most of whom die and then dies herself. He takes another because it is normally the women who work the field and cook and she lasts for another ten years of child bearing. By now he is in his thirties and will die himself. This familiarity with death makes him disdainful of it and put a light value on life, even his own, and makes him a dangerous opponent. It is what bred the Highland Charge, so successful against all but the most disciplined of troops.
He makes a heroic if vicious figure; a hero and villain in one. As he's on both sides of all the struggles of the Stuart era, how do I use him? He'll die for his friends, so he's the ideal companion for a more sober Lowlander. He gets them into trouble and the Lowlander thinks his way out.
I hope I have not given the impression I am a republican. I am a convinced royalist, not wanting for Britain ever again to see a Cromwellian regime, or a Napoleon, or a Stalin, nor a Donald Trump either.
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