49 Lockdown Lore - George "Bloody" Mackenzie

In this episode of Lockdown Lore we are joined by Todd and James Corstorphine of City of the Dead Tours, That’s right, the official tour guide of Greyfriars Kirkyard.

 

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On paper, the man was everything a gentlemen should be– well-rounded, intelligent and a man of words. Educated at the King’s College, University of Aberdeen, the University of St Andrews, and the University of Bourges in France, he was a member of the Scottish Parliament and a member of the Privy Council of Scotland. In 1677, Mackenzie became Lord Advocate and served Charles II of England where his primary responsibility was to punish anyone who rejected the Church of England or refused to swear loyalty to Charles. Anyone who refused to follow Charles II’s edicts was rounded up, this included members of Scotland’s Presbyterian Covenanters.

 

 

So George Mackenzie set out to do the king’s dirty work. In 1679, Mackenzie rounded up approximately 1,200 Presbyterian Covenanters and took them to Edinburgh. Since the number of prisoners outnumbered the prisons, a makeshift prison was assembled in Greyfriars Kirkyard, a graveyard to incarcerate the remaining 400. It became known as Covenanters Prison.

 

It is said that the prisoners were subjected to inhumane treatment-including starvation, exposure to the harsh elements, and torture during the winter. Some prisoners were deported while others were executed and buried in Greyfriars. This state-sanctioned reign of terror was the direct handiwork of Mackenzie, who eventually became known as Bloody MacKenzie. He was singlehandedly responsible for killing nearly 18,000 people during the eight-year period in Scottish history dubbed “The Killing Time.”

He died at Westminster in 1691 and was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, not far from the site of his atrocities. His tomb became known as the Black Mausoleum. And 300 years after his death, the legend of the Mackenzie Poltergeist was born.