James Gordon , 2nd Viscount Aboyne James Gordon , 2nd Viscount Aboyne ( c . 1620 - Feb . 1649 ) was the second son of George Gordon , 2nd Marquess of Huntly , a Scottish royalist commander in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms . Early life . Aboyne was a member of the powerful Gordon family , who were notable for their Roman Catholic sympathies in a kingdom where supporters of the Protestant Reformation controlled the central government . Although there is little direct evidence for Aboyne ' s personal religious views , he was clearly opposed to extreme Protestantism , and he played a significant role in recruiting Catholics for the royalist cause . He was educated at King ' s College , Aberdeen , and earned youthful military experience in France , where his father commanded of the Garde Écossaise . Unusually for a younger son , James Gordon also inherited a peerage , becoming 2nd Viscount Aboyne in 1636 . The Bishops ' Wars . In 1639 , the First Bishops ' War broke out , in which the Protestant faction known as the Covenanters attempted to seize control of church and state . The Covenanter army dispatched the dashing young James Graham , Earl of Montrose to deal with the Gordons . Viscount Aboyne was just nineteen , but he seems to have been regarded throughout the campaign as the effective leader of the anti - Covenanter forces , even before his father and elder brother surrendered . Later , he continued the war in spite of a lack of effective support from King Charles ' s royal government . The teenage general suffered two reverses in June 1639 at Megray Hill and Brig o ' Dee , attributed to unsteady infantry and dissent between his officers , but his losses were light , and his cavalry performed credibly , remaining in the field until they learned that the king had made peace with the Covenanters . In this short campaign , the Gordon cavalry anticipated the tactics of the English Civil War : they often moved as a mounted column without infantry support , and they usually charged with the sword , discovering how ineffective a pistol caracole could be at Megray . Unusually , it seems that Aboyne ' s elite troop of one hundred " gentleman volunteer cuirassiers " were clad in full armour , in contrast to the buff coats and breastplate now favored by most cavalry regiments . This was still sought - after equipment , as it gave protection against bullet and sword - thrusts , and in the English Civil War it was worn by generals ' bodyguards and the famous London lobsters . Scottish Civil War . For the next few years , a tenuous peace held in Scotland . Viscount Aboyne seems to have kept a low profile , living partially in England , but in 1642 , the First English Civil War broke out , setting King Charles against his Parliament . Aboyne now worked hard to arrange a military alliance with Clan Donald and the Irish Confederates , and came to be associated politically with the Scottish earls of Nithsdale , Crawford and Airlie - all open or suspected Catholics . Not unreasonably , their enemies saw this as a war plan to restore the old religion . But Aboyne also found common cause with his former opponent Montrose , a loyal royalist as well as a committed Presbyterian ; both of them believed the Scottish Covenanters were now likely to enter the war on Parliament ' s side . Aboyne spent 1644 with royalist forces around Carlisle , while his brothers raised the faimily ' s forces in the north . The next spring , he returned to Scotland , fighting in Montrose ' s victories at Auldearn , Alford , and at Kilsyth ; in each battle , he led a flanking charge on the left wing that broke the Covenanters ' right . After Alford , there is some evidence that he was promoted in the peerage , under the title of Earl of Aboyne . Yet while the army was victorious on the field , Aboyne ' s personal position was increasingly difficult . His father , the Marquess of Huntly , believed the family ' s troops should be used to eliminate the Covenanters in the north - in contrast with Montrose , who intended to march south into England . At the same time , the relationship between Montrose and Aboyne was becoming strained , not least when the Earl of Crawford was appointed to command the army ' s cavalry , an awkward role when Aboyne commanded the only large mounted force . In September 1645 , Aboyne and the Gordon cavalry withdrew to the north , shortly before the Battle of Philiphaugh . With hindsight , Aboyne ' s action is sometimes said to have cost the royalists the battle and the war . In reality , the war was far from over at Philiphaugh . Montrose moved north , and in spite of Huntly ' s increasingly pathological inability to cooperate with him , the royalist armies proved largely successful in the field . Aboyne , caught between his father and his general , busied himself raising troops in the central Highlands . The cause was undermined not by the Scottish war , but by the weakening position of the king in England . At the end of April 1646 , King Charles decided that the best course was joining the Covenanters , and ordered his Scottish troops to lay down their arms . Outlaw and exile . Huntly and Aboyne doubted the Covenanters ' mercy , and with their cavalry , they withdrew into the Highlands to wage a guerilla war . They remained under arms until December 1647 , when the Marquess was captured in a Covenanter raid . Aboyne escaped , but he had only a few troops left . Excluded from the general pardons issued to Scots royalists , he is said to have fled to France and died in exile in Paris around February 1649 - of a fever according to some , while others say he died of grief at the news of King Charles ' s beheading . Viscount Aboyne had never married , and his title thus became extinct , although the title of Earl of Aboyne was later revived for his younger brother . Since his elder brother ' s death at Alford , he had also been heir to the Marquessate ( with the courtesy title Earl of Enzie , although this was rarely used ) ; these dignities now passed to his younger brother , Lord Lewis Gordon .