Archibald matriculated at St. Andrews University, St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland, on 15 January 1622. He held the office of Hereditary Justice General between 1625 and 1628. He was invested as a Privy Counsellor (P.C.) on 12 June 1628. He held the office of an Extraordinary Lord of Session on 14 January 1634. He succeeded to the title of 8th Earl of Argyll in 1638. He succeeded to the title of 8th Lord Lorne in 1638. He succeeded to the title of 9th Lord Campbell in 1638. In 1639 he sent 500 Highlanders to swell the Covenanters at Aberdeen, and the following year swept through Atholl, Badenoch and Angus with 'fire and sword.' In 1641 he made peace with King Charles I when he came to Scotland. He was created 1st Marquess of Argyll on 15 November 1641. He again joined the Covenanters. He fought in the Battle of Inverlochy on 2 February 1645, where he was defeated. He fought in the Battle of Kilsyth on 15 August 1645, where he was defeated by Montrose. He succeeded to the title of 2nd Lord of Kintyre in September 1645. In October 1648 he conducted Cromwell to Edinburgh, where the Covenant was renewed. In June 1650 he assisted in bringing King Charles II to Scotland. He held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for Aberdeenshire from 1658 to 1659. He was present at the proclamation of Cromwell as Lord Protector, and signed a promise to live peacably under that government. In July 1660 he went to London to wait on the newly arrived King Charles II, but he was ordered to the Tower, and then taken back to Edinburgh Castle. On 25 May 1661 he was tried for high treason, and was attainted, with all of his honours forfeit.
His lordship, who was so deeply engaged in the Scottish affairs of his time, acted a prominent part during the Civil War, was the first Commissioner from Scotland to the parliament of England, and Commander-in-Chief of the Covenators, when defeated by Montrose at Inverlochie and Kilsyth in 1645; but after the King's murder, when Scotland as with one voice, demanded the acknowledgment of Charles II, Argyll asserted His Majesty's cause, and at the King's coronation at Scone, 1 Jan. 1651, had the honor of placing the Crown upon His Majesty's head. Subsequently, however, he assisted in the ceremony of proclaiming Cromwell, Protector, and signed an engagement to support his Government. On the restoration of the monarchy, the Marquess immediately went back to London, for the purpose of congratulating the King; but His Majesty, refusing to see him, ordered his committal to the Tower, where he remained until the following December, when he was sent back to Scotland by sea, and narrowly escaped shipwreck. He was soon afterwards tried for High Treason, and condemned to death, 25 May, 1661. In two days subsequently, he wrote a long letter to the King, vindicating his memory, and imploring protection for his poor wife and family, dined at noon with his friends with great cheerfulness, and was accompanied by several of the nobility to the scaffold, where, after an interval of devotion, his head was struck off by the 'maiden' at the market-cross of Edinburgh. According to Gibbs, he was "a small, wiry, squinting, blue eyed, red haired man, with a high forehead and hooked nose."
http://www.thepeerage.com/p10955.htm
