The islands were the rendezvous of the Marquess of Montrose's expedition in 1650 which culminated in his imprisonment and death. Cromwell was last attacked by a foreign conquering force prior to the union of Scotland and England in 1650. During the Protectorate they were visited by a detachment of Oliver Cromwell's troops, who attacked various locations with his English Navy and the Roundhead Army. It is claimed by sympathetic writers that he initiated the inhabitants into various industrial arts and new methods of agriculture.