The History

This is the history of Duncun MacCleoud of the Clan MacCleoud (From Highlander the series)

"You see a lot in 5,000 years" - Methos

This page presents the history of Duncan MacLeod, as shown in the flashback sequences that are a feature of most episodes. Travel through the last four centuries
with the Highlander as he matures from an uneducated clansman to the worldly wise and irritatingly moralistic hero that we know today. Where an Immortal appears
in more than one episode, only the first appearance has the episode title given.

This timeline is drawn from all of the episodes of the five Seasons of Highlander As time goes on, further screen shots will be added as each episode is featured in
Episode of The Week.



A Foundling Child

1593-1621
Born in Glenfinnan, Scotland, and raised as the son of the Chieftain of the Clan MacLeod. At the age of 13, he is lost in the woods overnight, where
he meets the witch, Cassandra, ("Prophecy")



The Young Immortal

1622-1630
Fatally wounded in battle, but revives after he dies. Exiled from Glenfinnan by his father, ("Family Tree"), he spends the next two years
wandering Scotland, a feared man, returning to Glenfinnan to avenge his father's death at the hands of Kanwulf, the Viking in 1624,
("Homeland"). Still not knowing what he is, he wanders the Highlands, meeting a hermit the following year, who tells him of his destiny to fight an
evil that returns every thousand years, ("Archangel"). The hermit is an Immortal and forces Duncan to behead him, thereby giving the young
Immortal his first Quickening. Shortly afterwards, he meets Connor MacLeod, who teaches him about his immortality. After an encounter with
Martin Hyde, ("Prodigal Son"), he leaves Connor.
1631-1640
Travelling to France and then on to Italy, he encounters a number of Immortals with whom he finds friendship, firstly Ursa, ("The Beast
Below") and then, in complete contrast, Amanda, together with her teacher, Rebecca Horne, ("Legacy"). In Italy, he befriends the
irrepressible Hugh Fitzcairn, ("Star Crossed"), with whom he travels for a while, ("The Hunters"). The dynamic duo encounter Mako during this
time, ("Under Colour Of Authority").
1640-1659
Always the wanderer, his travels lead him back to France, where he meets Grace Chantelle, ("Saving Grace"), but by 1653, he is in Algiers,
travelling with Hamza el-Kahir, who is beheaded by Xavier St Cloud, ("Finale"). In search of a teacher, he travels to Italy, where he finds Graham
Ashe, but is stunned when Haresh Clay kills Ashe in 1657 and taunts MacLeod, who hides on holy ground, ("The End Of Innocence"). Shaken by
his experience with Clay, he seeks refuge the following year in the sanctuary offered to all Immortals by Paul, ("Song Of The Executioner"). Even
here, he discovers there is no safety and, before he leaves, he makes an enemy of Kalas, when he causes Paul to exile his oldest student. When he
leaves, he travels towards England, but is delayed in Normandy at the end of the decade, when he becomes the lover of Kristin Gilles,
("Chivalry").
1660-1695
Leaving Kristin after she murders Louise Barton, he returns to England, where he becomes a wandering actor with Walter Bellman's company,
("Timeless") and befriends sculptor John Garrick, ("Shadows"), who he unwittingly abandons to be burnt at the stake. He returns to his
native Scotland by 1670, where he is challenged by Michel Bourgoyne, ("Unholy Alliance"). Little is recorded of his travels for the next 25
years, but it is believed that he again encountered Mako during this period.



The 18th Century

1696-1719
By 1696, he was reunited with High Fitzcairn in Paris, where they unwittingly introduce Gina and Robert de Valicourt, ("Till Death"). During his
time in Paris, he also encounters Martin Hyde again, when Hyde challenges Duncan's friend Segur. He returns to England, where he encounters
Walter Reinhardt for the first time, ("Revenge Is Sweet"). By 1712, he is serving as an emissary for Scotland at the court of the English Queen, who
makes him promise not to kill Paul Kinman in her lifetime, ("Reluctant Heroes"). Leaving England, he encounters Amanda in Constantinople, ("The
Lady & The Tiger"), that same year.
1720-1746
He returns to England, encountering Hugh Fitzcairn under Westminster Abbey in 1720 when he is trying to steal The Stone of Scone. Fitz
tricks Duncan into trying to blow up the Abbey instead. After this debacle Duncan wander around England, being saved from being beheaded
for poaching by Charles Browning, who later tries to kill him, ("Counterfeit"). The storm clouds are gathering and he returns to Scotland in 1745 to
fight for the Jacobite pretender, Charles Stuart, alongside Warren Cochrane, ("Through A Glass, Darkly"). Defeated at Culloden, the rebels
flee and with the help of Ceirdwyn, ("Take Back The Night"), he helps the Bonnie Prince to escape the English, before riding against
the plundering English troops. Eventually, his anger leads him to the estate of the Earl of Rosemount, who ordered the massacres, where he
shoots Stephen Keane, ("Forgive Us Our Trespasses"), the Earl's Immortal friend, to stop him from interfering as MacLeod cuts down the English
aristocrat. As his anger burns out and sickened by war, he returns to Ceirdwyn, who nurses him back to health and sanity. He leaves Britain, in
search of adventure, and is not recorded as returning for nearly forty years.
1746-1780
He travels East and meets the Cossack, Kristov, in 1750, ("Testimony"). A career as a military strategist in Turkey is cut short when he rescues
Amanda from prison in 1753, ("Finale"), but they don't stay together long and he is alone when he meets Kassim in North Africa in 1755,
("Promises"). He travels to India, by 1764 working for the English army as a scout, ("The Wrath Of Kali"), where he meets Kamir for the first
time. In 1778, he prevents Terrence Kincaid from being beheaded by his own crew when they mutiny, ("Reunion"), but the mutiny is short lived, as
the ship is wrecked in a storm and MacLeod is washed ashore in Japan, ("The Samurai"). After the death of his friend, Hideo Koto, who
gives him the sword he will carry thereafter, MacLeod leaves Japan and makes his way back to Europe, meeting Kiem Sun in China, who
sends him to May Ling Chen, with whom he stays in 1780, as first her student, then her lover, ("They Also Serve").
1781-1805
By 1785, he is back in England, where he makes an enemy of Peter Canis, ("Leader Of The Pack"), and a new friend in Terrence Coventry,
("Dramatic License"), but Scotland still calls, or more accurately Warren Cochrane, with whom he goes to see a besotted Bonnie Prince
Charlie in Normandy the following year. By 1795, he has his first Immortal student, the improbably named Jean Phillippe de Lafaye III, who is
killed by Damon Case, ("The Immortal Cimoli"). He returns to France the next year to celebrate Robert and Gina de Valicourt's 100th
wedding anniversary, along with High Fitzcairn and Sean Burns. Staying in France for the last years of the century, he meets the assassin Kuyler, who
kills MacLeod's employer, ("For Evil's Sake"). Later, he befriends Gabriel Pitone, ("Eye Of The Beholder"). As relations between France and
England deteriorate, he returns to England, where he allows himself to be hanged to save a mortal friend framed by Peter Matlin and Lyland Curlow,
("Blackmail").



The Call Of The New World

1806-1816
War breaks out across Europe and MacLeod fights for the British against Napoleon. He unexpectedly meets Xavier St Cloud, along with his
student, Morgan d'Estaing, as the British advance on Paris, ("Double Jeopardy"). Between the wars, he spends time in Switzerland with
Brian Cullen, ("Courage"), before living with Amanda in Bavaria, until she betrays him, ("The Lady & The Tiger"). War breaks out again and,
during the last battles of the Napoleonic Wars, he meets his greatest teacher, Darius, on a battlefield, ("Band Of Brothers"). Tired of war, but
unable to live with Darius' teachings, he decides to leave Europe, but this time heads west, for the New World.
1817-1860
Travelling as far west as Montana, he sees John Durgan kill a priest for a gold crucifix, ("The Cross Of St Antoine"), but is unable to catch him. He
spends sometime in Philadelphia around 1825, befriending David Keogh, ("Obsession"), before returning to Europe. After a visit to Peru in 1830,
where he meets Gavriel Larca, ("Little Tin God"), he is reunited with Connor in London around 1832 and then moves to Paris, where his attempts
to set up a long term invesment are frustrated by Nicholas Ward, ("The Vampire") and he renews his friendship with Grace Chantelle, who
introduces him to Carlos Sindaro. He sets aside "European civilization" for a while during these years, travelling with gypsies during 1847, initially in
the company of Jacob and Irena Galati, ("One Minute To Midnight"), but is cast out when the gypsies become convinced that he will never
marry, ("The Darkness"). He travels to Spain, studying flamenco dancing and Spanish swordfighting with Otavio Consone during 1851,
("Duende"). Friends become enemies when they fall in love with the same woman and Consone defeats MacLeod in a duel. He spares Mac's
life when the girl agress to never speak to Duncan again. Two years later, Duncan returns to Madrid, to find the girl dead and Consone gone. He
leaves Europe for America and, by 1854, has returned to the boom town of San Francisco, where he meets a very different Brian Cullen.
1861-1870
The American Civil War finds MacLeod fighting for the Union. He encounter both a child Immortal, ("The Lamb") and a new friend, Lucas
Desiree, who rescues him from a grave after he is hung, ("Innocent Man"). His luck does not hold, and he finishes the war a prisoner in
Andersonville Prison in Georgia, run by Colonel William Everett Culbraith, ("The Messenger"). He moves to Maryland after the war, but after his
lover is killed by her jealous boyfriend, ("Epitaph For Tommy"), he travels to Mexico in 1867 to fight with Paul Karras, ("The Revolutionary").
He returns to the United States and helps a posse hunt down Melvin Koren in South Texas, ("Comes A Horseman"), but Koren escapes from his
grave before MacLeod can take his head. Unclear anymore as to why he is fighting, the last straw comes for him the next year in Dakota, when he
sees an Indian boy being abused and then killed, ("The Innocent").
1870-1885
He turns his back on the white man's ways and goes to live with the Lacota Sioux, taking care of the wife and son of a friend who dies,
("Line Of Fire"). He intends to marry the woman, but the gypsies' belief that he will never marry comes back to haunt him when the
tribe is massacred by the US Cavalry in 1872, guided by a scout called Kern. Whilst Connor helps him grieve, he is determined to take Kern's head
and sets out to hunt him down, becoming as murderous as Kern in the process. He is saved when he encounters the Hayoka, Kol T'ek, who
takes his pain from him, ("Something Wicked"). He travels to the Pacific North West for the first time, where he learns the ways of the wild
from Carl The Hermit, ("Mountain Men") and builds himself a retreat from the Game on holy ground, despite Connor's disapproval. After a
visit to Kiem Sun in China, ("Road Not Taken"), he establishes himself as a newspaper proprietor in the Pacific North West, where he
again meets Mako. In 1882, he is killed by the husband of a woman he has fallen in love with and has to leave, ("Obsession"). He
works with Gregor Powers during a cholera outbreak, until Gregor is shot by a grieving father, ("Studies In Light").
1886-1914
He moves back to San Francisco, where he spends time with Alec Hill, until Hill's wife is killed, ("Haunted"). In 1888, he stays with Kit O'Brady
and, subsequently, Amanda, ("Double Eagle"), still trying to bring Alec Hill back out of his grief. A short career as a prize fighter, at the behest of
Tommy Sullivan, ("The Fighter"), is unsucessful and he leaves, arriving in Boston by 1896, where he encounters Axel Whittaker, apparently not for
the first time, and the young Immortal Sharon, who Axel is using as bait, ("Rite Of Passage"). By 1905, he is established in New York, ("Revenge
Of The Sword"), but he returns to Europe when war breaks out.



War &, For A Time, Peace

1914-1920
His participation in the First World War is as a medic, rather than as a soldier, helping Sean Burns, who is by now a doctor treating the
wounded, ("Deliverance"). He is caught in a gas attack launched by Xavier St.Cloud, ("For Tomorrow We Die"), but they are
disturbed before Xavier can take his head. On the last day of the war, he sees Simon Killian order an attack after the war is over and subsequently
testifies at Killian's court martial, ("The Colonel"). He begins to travel, but is followed by revolution, first to Ireland, where he turns down Annie
Devlin's plea to help the Republican movement, ("Eye For An Eye") then to Russia, where he persuades Artur Drakov to spare his
employer's life, ("Warmonger"), by agreeing never to challenge Drakov. He returns to Paris, where he meets an old enemy. He fights Kalas,
but the fight ends when Kalas' throat is slit, destroying his voice, ("Methos"). As the year closes, he returns to America, where he is witness to a
strike at a Pennsylvania mining company, which leads to the shooting of the miners by company guards, ("The Zone").
1921-1939
From now on, MacLeod's life becomes increasingly fragmented, as he begins to abandon his journalist identity in favour of a life as an antiques
dealer, (perhaps influenced by Connor). He couples this with an involvement with British Intelligence, which increasingly takes him against the
Nazis. He spends the 20s in America, mostly in the Pacific North West, with Michael Moore in 1921, ("Turnabout"), and in 1925 when he takes
Marcus Korolus' head, ("See No Evil"), but he does visit New York, ("Bless The Child") at least once, in late 1924, and he spends an extended
period in 1926 in the South, where he meets Carl Robinson, ("Run For Your Life") and Amanda, ("Money No Object"), during her Bonnie and
Clyde series of bank raids with Cory Raines. In the later years of the decade, he meets and falls in love with a mortal, Linda Plager, ("Studies
In Light"), but when she leaves him, there is nothing to keep him in Seacouver. After telling new Immortal Johnny K what he is and being
rejected as his teacher, ("Glory Days"), he returns to Europe. In Paris, he meets Tarsis and his student, Lucas Kagan, and takes Tarsis' head,
("Reasonable Doubt"). In Berlin in 1935, on behalf of British Intelligence, he works with Ingrid Henning to recruit anti-Nazi Germans, ("The
Valkyrie"), but the next year he again bumps into Amanda, ("The Return Of Amanda", curiously enough), after which he makes his way to
Spain, covering the Spanish Civil War as a journalist. Here, he first encounters John Kage, ("Blind Faith"). After a trip back to Seacouver, as an
antiques dealer, where he meets Benny Carbassa and is killed by gangster Sid Lankofski, ("Vendetta"), he tries to help refugees to escape Stalinist
Russia with the aid of Alexei Voshin, ("The Sea Witch"), but Voshin betrays them and the refugees are killed.
1939-1945
It is unclear what MacLeod did in the early days of the war, although he was in London during "The Blitz" of 1940. By 1943, he was in Paris,
working undercover with the French Resistance, where he encountered Ernest Daimler, ("Mortal Sins"), but left for Marseille before they could
face each other. In 1944, he helps Ingrid Henning in the unsuccessful plot to assassinate Hitler in his Bavarian stronghold.
1946-1960
His activities in the immediate post war years are unknown, but by 1954 he had returned to the US, where he met up with Carl Robinson in
the still segregated South, ("Run For Your Life"). In 1958, hunting Bryce Korland in Greenwich Village, he met Kol T'ek again, by now
known as Jim Coltec.
1960-1992
The sixties are unchronicled at present, but MacLeod was in Cambodia in 1975, helping refugees escape, when he met Kage again. He returns to
France, living the playboy lifestyle at the Casino Montecour in 1978, ("The Ransom Of Richard Redstone"). In 1980, he was hunting Kuyler in
Paris, when he was forced to flee from the police, who were also hunting the assassin. Fleeing their pursuit, he jumped onto a tourist boat on the
Seine and straight into an argument with the guide, a young art student called Tessa Noel. In 1983, he told Tessa what he was, ("Counterfeit") and,
after she accepted what that meant, they set up an antiques store in Seacouver. This was a period of calm for MacLeod, away from wars and
The Game, although he nearly settled his feud with Walter Reinhardt on New Year's Eve 1988. His peace was largely undisturbed until 1992,
when Slan Quince challenged him, ("The Gathering").

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