The Jacobite Rebellion 1708-1746
 |
The signing of the Treaty of Union forced the Scots to accept a Hanoverian succession to the throne, but Jacobite loyalties still prevailed in the Highlands. James Edward Stuart, son of the deposed James VII/II, was regarded by many as Scotland's king. The Old Pretender, as he was called by Hanoverians, made three unsuccessful attempts to regain his throne. |
In 1715 he persuaded the Earl of Mar to rally an army of Highlanders. Mar raised the Scottish standard and proclaimed James king. The rising looked promising; a battle was fought at Sherriffmuir in which the result was inconclusive. The Old Pretender escaped to France, leaving the Highlanders to fend for themselves. In 1719, a final attempt was made, backed by the Spanish; but the supporting fleet was lost in a storm and the Highlanders dispersed.
Stringent measures were put into effect to quell the clans. General Wade built a series of military roads and forts, opening up the Highlands and linking strategic strong points, at Fort William, Fort Augustus and Fort George. He raised a regiment of clansmen, loyal to the Whig government, the Black Watch, whose duty it was to keep order among the resentful clans.
George I came to the throne in 1714, an unattractive German who disliked the British as much as they disliked him. When he died, his son, George II, was equally Germanic and unsuitable to rule over those Highlanders who still clung to their Jacobite dreams. This was excuse enough.
Exiled in Rome, the Old Pretender's son, Prince Charles Edward Stuart, was a brave young man with a great deal of charm and magnetism. He pawned his mother's rubies and set sail for Scotland, landing in Eriskay on 2 August 1745, with the intention of winning the crown for his father.
At first his reception was daunting: Macdonald of Boisdale told him to go home. 'I am come home', he retorted. MacLeod, and Macdonald of Sleat, refused to help, but Macdonald of Clanranald stood by him. Cameron of Lochiel was reluctant to encourage what he believed to be romantic folly, but he was won over and on 19 August the standard was raised in Glenfinnan and the Old Pretender proclaimed King James VIII and III, with Prince Charles as his regent.
Subsequent events are well known. Clansmen flocked to the prince as he marched on Edinburgh, capturing Perth on the way. He held glorious court, at Holyrood, defeated General Cope's soldiers at Prestonpans, and gathered more and more support. He led his motley army south, hoping to attract more Jacobites on the way, with the intention of taking London. Meeting little resistance, they got as far as Derby, only 120-odd miles from their target, but at this point the prince's prudent advisers insisted that to go any further was madness. Furious, the prince had to give in and on 6 December 1745, the weary Highlanders turned round to march back to Scotland. Pursued by Hanoverian troops, they struggled north until, in April 1746, they were slaughtered in battle, on Culloden Moor near Inverness. They were starving, exhausted, untrained and ill equipped. The prince escaped, with a price of £30,000 on his head, and spent the next five months in hiding in the Western Highlands and Islands. Aided by brave Flora Macdonald, he escaped eventually to Europe, where he lived in pathetic and squalid exile for the rest of his life, dying in Rome in 1788.
Back...
|
|
|
 |
 |
