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The Jacobites, and 'Bonnie Prince Charlie'
in particular, are often seen in a romantic light. Here I attempt a more
objective view.
After the death of Charles II (he of the
'Restoration', Nell Gwynne etc.) his brother, James VII of Scotland and
II of England managed to make himself so unpopular by his absolutist behaviour
and his open support for Roman Catholicism that the English parliament
invited James's son-in-law, William of Orange (aka 'King Billy'), to become
King of England. Catholicism was the religion of England's traditional
enemies, France and Spain, and therefore regarded as unpatriotic in England.
England had its own religion which had as its head the English monarch.
To subscribe to any other religion
was therefore suspect. James VII, as a Roman Catholic, was therefore in
a contradictory position. In Scotland, which had had close links with
France in the past, the abhorrence of Catholicism was, at least in theory,
of a more spiritual nature. The head of the Roman church (the Pope) was
regarded as a servant of Satan by protestant zealots. This may all seem
a rather odd way for Christians to look at things but it was about par
for the course then. Sadly there are residual echoes of it all to be heard
to this day.
In any case, when William of Orange accepted
the invitation from the English parliament and set foot on English soil
(November 1688), James did not attempt to fight for his crown. He fled
the country instead. William became William III of England, ruling jointly
with his wife, Mary, who as James's daughter, conferred a somewhat dubious
legitimacy to their supplanting of the English king. In Scotland it took
until April 1689 for a Convention of the Estates to decide that James
had forfeited the Scottish crown and recognize William as William II of
Scotland. The Convention had received letters from both James and William
stating their positions. William's showed a political understanding completely
absent from James's enraged and threatening letter. As mentioned above,
the fact that Scotland and England were separate countries with a common
monarch created political tensions which were not resolved until decades
after the political union of the two countries in 1707.
- 1689....The term 'Jacobite' became the name for those
who supported James VII after his deposition. The most famous Jacobite
rebellion took place in 1745 when Charles Edward Stewart (Stuart) still
pronounced the same way whatever the spelling!,(aka 'Bonnie Prince
Charlie' and the 'Young Pretender'), James VII's grandson, led his Jacobite
army to ultimate disaster at the Battle of Culloden (near Inverness,
in the North of Scotland) in 1746. After that Jacobite hopes of another
'Restoration' were effectively dead but the campaign had lasted on and
off from 1689 to 1746, nearly sixty years.
The first Jacobite rebellion in Scotland occured
in 1689, after the Scottish Convention had accepted William III as
king. John Graham, Viscount Dundee (aka 'Bonnie Dundee') withdrew
from the convention in protest and raised a small army based on the
cavalry group of which he was commander. His spectacular victory against
the Williamite army at Killiecrankie was won at the cost of his own
life. He was killed at the moment of victory. Thereafter the rebellion
was fought to a standstill at Dunkeld by a regiment of the religously
fanatical Cameronians. Ironically, Colonel Cleland, their commander,
died at the moment of their
victory.
When James died in 1701 (before the
union of the Scottish and English parliaments), his son James Francis
Stewart (Stuart) !(aka the 'Old Pretender'), became the legitimate
king of Scotland (James VIII) in the eyes of the Jacobites. In 1707
that union took place and in the following year the Old Pretender
attempted to assert his claim as king of both Scotland and England.
The important prize was the throne of England since England was a
much richer and more powerful country than Scotland but the Jacobites
hoped to attain that goal by gaining Scottish support first. Given
the unpopularity of the Union in Scotland it allowed the Jacobites
to portray themselves as nationalists whatever the reality. In practice,
although the Union was unpopular, most lowland Scots were unwilling
to resist it by force. This meant the Jacobites mainly having to use
the highland clans as an army against the forces of the now British
government. The willingness of the Jacobites to use force to destroy
the Union was simply because, over most of the period discussed, that
held out the only real hope the Jacobites had of succeeding. It became
an increasingly desperate hope.
- 1708....Seeking to capitalize on popular Scots' discontent
at the recent Union of the Parliaments, the Old Pretender set out from
France in 1708, his expedition sponsored by Louis XIV. The French king
involved himself for the usual reason which led France to involve itself
in Scottish affairs, namely to distract the English (now the British)
from their fighting with the French. The Duke of Marlborough had been
giving the French a bad time in Flanders and a Jacobite rising in Scotland
might have taken some of the heat off. In the event the expedition was
a fiasco. James did not even land in Scotland. Having anchored off the
Fife coast, the French naval commander of the expedition refused to
put James ashore when a superior English naval force appeared, and the
Jacobite expedition returned, after a detour round Ireland(!), to France.
English politicians of the time, who naturally dominated the now British
parliament, had scant interest in Scotland, and it was virtually defenceless.
If James had landed with his
force of 5,000 infantry it is just possible that he might have regained
his Scottish kingdom. It was in the aftermath of this abortive rebellion
that the barbaric 'Act for Improving the Union of the Two Kingdoms'
(commonly referred to as the 'Treason Act') was passed. This brought
Scotland's previously comparitively humane law of treason into line
with the severe English one.
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- 1715....The next Jacobite military attempt to regain the
British throne was in 1715. It was perhaps the best chance the Jacobites
ever had of restoring the exiled Stewart dynasty to the British throne.
The Union with England was more unpopular than ever in Scotland and
in England too there was deep discontent with the non-English-speaking
King George and the authoritarian Whig party which had taken over political
power since the king's accession. The rebellion was bungled, however.
Queen Anne had died in August 1714. She was the daughter of James VII,
and the last Stewart monarch to rule in Britain (as it turned out).
In 1701 the English had passed the Act of Settlement which decreed that
on Anne's death the English throne would pass to Sophia, Electress of
Hanover, and her heirs since Queen Anne had no surviving issue. Sophia
was grand-daughter of James VI but there was little enthusiasm for the
House of Hanover. With the Union of the Parliaments the English had
ensured that the House of Hanover would succeed in Scotland too and
the Jacobite rebellion in 1715 was an attempt, originated by the Earl
of Mar, to capitalize on discontent at the Union in general and the
accession of George I (Sophia's son) in particular. What actually provoked
the rebellion was the eclipse of Mar's political career on George 1's
accession. The Whig party had convinced the king that Mar had Jacobite
sympathies and the king had conspicuously snubbed Mar when he had appeared
at court. In reality Mar was only interested in being in government,
any government, with the power that gave him. He was prepared to change
allegiance if that was necessary to maintain his power. He had been
a supporter of the Treaty of Union and had helped ensure the easy transition
of the monarchy to the House of Hanover in the person of George I. Rejected
by George, his only hope of a political future was by switching his
support to the exiled House of Stewart, the Jacobites. (His reputation
for changing sides when it suited him earned him the sobriquet 'Bobbing
John'.)
In fact the Earl of Mar started the
rebellion without the knowledge of the exiled Stewart court. The Jacobite
standard was raised on 6 September 1715 in the north-east Highlands.
There was wide support for the rebellion and the Jacobite forces initially
vastly outnumbered the British government forces. If swift and vigorous
action had been taken by the Earl of Mar then success would have been
virtually certain. Unfortunately for the Jacobite cause, Mar was an
administrator, not a soldier, and not given to taking advice from
others. The corrupt and odious British political system, run by Whig
extremists, was ready to be overthrown but Mar was not the man to
do it. He moved south to capture Perth on 14 September but did not
capitalize on this success. The Duke of Argyll, commander of the government
forces in Scotland, had a much smaller number of men than Mar alone.
Another Jacobite army in the south also wasted time and instead of
attacking Argyll, marched into England with the intention of raising
Lancashire. Their hopes dashed, they surrendered to government forces
at Preston on 14 November 1715. The day before, at Sheriffmuir, Mar
had finally taken on Argyll. The Duke, unlike Mar, was an experienced
soldier and, though his troops were outnumbered four to one, the Battle
of Sheriffmuir was inconclusive. It was a strategic disaster for Mar,
however. He had failed to seize the moment. He was not the only one.
The exiled Stewart 'king', James VIII, did not land in Scotland until
22 December by which time the government had regained the initiative.
The Duke of Argyll had received reinforcements of battle-hardened
Dutch troops. On 4 February 1716 James admitted defeat and returned
to France.
- 1719....Jacobite plans for regaining the British throne
continued. By 1719 they had managed to enlist the help of the Spanish
for another military expedition. The precise reasons for the Spanish
support were born out of complex European power politics. Surprisingly
England's old enemy, France, and Britain (which in the main pursued
the old English policies) had come to a peace settlement in 1713, which
ended the 'War of the Spanish Succession'. Amongst other things the
treaty required the 'Old Pretender' to move his exiled court from France.
The Jacobites had therefore to cast about for support elsewhere. Spain
had also signed a peace treaty with Britain but did not respect the
provisions which excluded Spanish influence in Italy. By 1718 Spain
had seized the Italian islands of Sicily and Sardinia and planned to
invade the mainland in the south. This was a direct challenge to Austria
which had inherited Spain's Italian lands but it was also a challenge
to Britain which was a guarantor of the Peace of Utrecht. The Royal
Navy promptly smashed the Spanish navy near Messina. The Spanish knew
that Britain's George I was involved in an expensive naval campaign
in the Baltic (financed by Britain although it was in pursuance of aims
associated with his Hanoverian territories) so they declared war on
Britain. For Spain, as previously for France, the Jacobites were useful
pawns in a war against Britain. Consequently the Jacobite Duke of Ormonde
was invited to Madrid for talks about an invasion of England. This invasion
was undoubtedly regarded by the Spanish as a merely a diversionary tactic
to distract the British from the Mediterranean theatre of operations.
This possibly made it easier for Ormonde to persuade the Spanish that
there should be a two-pronged invasion of Britain, taking in Scotland
as well as England.
There were delays in mounting the expedition,
giving the British ample time to prepare militarily, so that when
the expedition set sail from Cadiz in March 1719 with a mere 5,000
soldiers it had virtually no chance of success. In the event, before
the fleet of twenty-nine ships reached Corunna, where the Duke of
Ormonde was to join it, it was substantially destroyed in a storm.
The British heaved a sigh of relief believing an attempted invasion
in 1719 now impossible. They were wrong. The Spanish still wanted
a distraction for the British. They recognized that there was no chance
of success before the start, but the main force was defeated by the
weather again and did not reach England. A tiny diversionary force
of two frigates and just over three hundred Spanish infantrymen which
was to have distracted British forces from the target of the main
expedition, England, reached Scotland. This force was joined by a
group of Jacobite exiles from France. Squabbling soon broke out among
the leadership. When they received the news that the main force would
not reach England there was argument for and against returning to
Spain, the logical thing to do given that their small force was now
meaningless. The faction which was for fighting anyway won the day.
There was little support from the clans, though the famous Rob Roy
Macgregor appeared with a handful of men. In all about a thousand
or so men made up the Jacobite army which faced a British government
force of about the same size, which had marched down from Inverness
to meet them. On June 10th they fought in Glenshiel, where the Jacobites
had erected rough defences. In a forewarning of what was to happen
27 years later at Culloden the government force brought artillery
to bear on the enemy before routing them. The Jacobite clansmen disappeared
into the Highlands; the Spaniards surrendered. The farcical 1719 'invasion'
was over.
In the years following, the exiled
Jacobite court engaged in plotting and planning which became increasingly
divorced from reality. The court had been comprehensively infiltrated
by British spies but Jacobite security arrangements were so laughably
amateurish that the spies were scarcely needed. Correspondence between
Jacobite sympathisers in England and on the mainland of Europe was
often sent through the ordinary postal service. The British government
was known to open letters and even had a deciphering department to
break such rudimentary codes as were used by conspirators. Scare stories
of possible Jacobite invasions were not so much real as Whig propaganda
to divert public attention from their own corrupt regime. It is a
common enough ploy for governments to exaggerate the threat from a
supposed enemy for domestic consumption. Support for the Jacobite
cause in England went into terminal decline, its only real expression
being verbal protest against the corrupt and repressive government.
More support remained for the cause in Scotland but more as a philosophy
than as a hope for a restoration of the Stewart monarchy. Even here
the Jacobites failed to capitalise on the great unpopularity of the
London based Whig government.
The British knew that there was no
possibility of an effective Jacobite invasion without substantial
financial backing from a foreign power, which in practice meant France
or Spain, and while Britain was at peace with these two countries
this would not be forthcoming.
- 1745....While, as far as foreign powers were concerned,
in time of war the Jacobite cause was a useful stick with which to irritate
and distract Britain, this cut both ways. If Britain was not at war
she was able to maintain a large standing army at home, well able to
resist a few thousand troops which was as many as the Jacobites could
be expected to muster. If the Jacobites were to hope for a successful
invasion of Britain they therefore required Britain to be at war, since
she traditionally denuded her home forces in order to wage war abroad,
trusting to the navy to repel invaders. Years passed and it wasn't until
the late 1730s that war began to rear its ugly head. For reasons of
European politics Britain and France were gradually sliding into open
conflict until in 1743, with a change in the French government, there
came a radical change in policy towards Britain. France was well aware
of the benefits which came from being at peace with Britain, after all
they had experienced these since 1716. The problem was that the king
of Britain was also Elector of Hanover and he conducted Britain's European
policy more with Hanover in mind than Britain, often at the expense
of France. The solution to the French was a restoration of the Stewart
dynasty to the British throne. Not only would Britain's European policy
no longer be driven by anti-French Hanoverian considerations but the
suitably grateful Stewarts would adopt a pro-French stance. An invasion
of Britain was planned to restore the Stewarts early in 1744 and it
was a serious force which was assembled: 10,000 French troops of the
regular army. Prince Charles Edward Stewart,'Bonnie Prince Charlie',
the Jacobite 'Prince of Wales', was secretly summoned to France to embark
with the invasion fleet and act as Regent for his father. With a cunning
political plan, amongst other things reassuring the British that the
French invasion was a short-term mission merely to restore the Stewarts,
the French would probably have achieved their objective if they could
have got their seasoned troops across the English Channel. After all,
the British Whig government was unpopular and the king was from a foreign
dynasty. Not for the first time in the history of the Jacobites, though,
delays in invasion plans allowed British spies in Europe to discover
details of what the French intended. Not for the first time either did
the weather play a hand. As the invasion fleet was about to sail in
February 1744 a gale blew up which dispersed the warships which were
to protect the ships transporting the troops. The transports were themselves
damaged in Dunkirk harbour. The initiative had been lost and the British
had the chance to bring reinforcements over from Holland.
The French King, Louis XV, got cold feet. He had
never been confident of the success of the invasion plan. It is at
this point that the 23 year old Prince Charles Edward Stewart,'Bonnie
Prince Charlie', comes into his own. There are two main schools of
thought about Prince Charlie, one pro, the other con. To some he was
a noble and romantic hero who initiated a glorious, if unsuccessful,
adventure. To others he was an egotistical personality, rash, vain
and irresponsible. Both views have elements of truth about them but
real life is too complex to be summed up so superficially. His brief
period of glory was followed by a long period of embittered and drink-sodden
exile. Let us examine only the brief period of glory.
It used to be thought that Prince Charlie
was entirely responsible for instigating the 1745 Jacobite rebellion.
It certainly would not have happened without him but the French government
played a significant part which they were very successful in covering
up later. In late 1744 Charles was introduced to a group of Franco-Irish
privateers who operated out of northern French ports. They had Jacobite
connections e.g. Antoine Walsh was the son of Philip Walsh whose ship
had taken James II to France after his defeat at the Battle of the
Boyne. Philip became rich through building naval ships and in the
slave trade. Antoine also engaged in the slave trade and added privateering
to his accomplishments. Privateering was the practice of privately
owned and operated ships sanctioned by their government attacking
the ships of hostile nations. Great fortunes were made this way. In
addition to their Jacobite sympathies a landing in Scotland was appealling
to the group of privateers since it would distract the British navy
into decreasing their ability to protect British merchant shipping.
In other words, commercial advantage encouraged political loyalty.
The French government's involvement was even more cynical: the sacrifice
of Scots for French advantage in Europe. After the failure of the
rebellion they naturally did not wish to broadcast this and Charles
was happy to be portrayed as solitary hero.
The 1745 rebellion did not start well.
Charles had only been able to put together a small expedition with
only two ships, one a light frigate, the "Du Teillay", the
other a much larger French naval vessel of 64 guns, the "Elisabeth",
chartered from the government. These two ships set sail from the Loire
on 22 June 1745. On 9 July they encountered the British 54 gun HMS
'Lion' which damaged Charles' larger ship so badly it had to return
to France. Since it was carrying most of the arms and ammunition for
the Prince's force this was a severe blow. Nevertheless he continued
on to Scotland, landing on the island of Eriskay on 23 July 1745 at
what is still known as Cladach a'Phrionnsa (the Prince's beach). Charles'
first meeting, with Alexander Macdonald of Boisdale, in South Uist
was a shock. He told the Prince that he could expect no support for
his rebellion and advised him to go home. Charles supposedly replied
"I am come home, sir." It was almost the shortest of visits
since his entourage were soon quarrelling. They had heard of the arrest
by the government of the chief of the Macleans of Mull as a Jacobite
plotter. Only Antoine Walsh and Charles argued that the rebellion
should continue. Growing paranoia led to the "Du Teillay"
sailing for the safety of the sea lochs of the mainland. Charles set
foot on the mainland at Loch nan Uamh on 25 July. Meetings with other
important clansmen were as discouraging as that with Alexander Macdonald
had been. They were Jacobite supporters but also realists. They knew
the likelihood of success was negligible and that failure would spell
disaster for their clans. Charles refused to listen to any advice
and gradually assembled a few local supporters. He secured the support
of Cameron of Lochiel, who had also been pessimistic about the outcome
of the rebellion, by sneering that Lochiel could stay at home and
learn of the Prince's fate in a news sheet. Lochiel's support and
the men he could put in the field were vital if the rebellion was
to proceed. Charles sent letters and messengers from his HQ at Borrodale
summoning support and he decided on Glenfinnan as the place where
he would first assemble his army. On Monday 19 August the Jacobite
standard was raised there. Of the approximately 1200 men who gathered
at Glenfinnan about 700 were Lochiel's Camerons. All the same, Lochiel's
faith in the rebellion can perhaps be judged by the fact that he sought
and received a promise from Charles that he would not suffer financially
if the rising did not succeed.
If the rebellion had not started well
the fact that it began to flourish was largely the fault of the British
government. With their customary disregard for Scotland they had left
the country inadequately defended. Even the locally raised troops
in the Highlands, the Black Watch, told originally that they would
only serve in their own land, had been marched down to England in
1743. This was in spite of (perhaps because of) the known plans for
a French invasion in 1744 In addition, Clan Campbell, traditionally
militarily strong and allied to the government, had been very much
weakened as a military force because of structural changes the Clan
chief had made. As a result Charles was able to march from Glenfinnan
to Edinburgh, taking Perth on the way, virtually unopposed. A government
force under General Cope had marched north but avoided engagement
believing the Jacobite force to be larger than was the case. He had
received very little support in Scotland because of the London-based
government's great unpopularity. After marching to Inverness to get
supplies, he marched to Aberdeen from where his force sailed down
the coast to land ahead of the Jacobites, who were at Edinburgh, at
Dunbar. On 21 September 1745 General Cope's force was routed by the
Jacobites at the so-called Battle of Prestonpans. This engagement
lasted no more than 15 minutes before the government forces lost their
nerve and ran away. Incidentally, the small forces on either side
at the battle (approx.2,500 men) indicate what a small-scale uprising,
despite its great fame, the '45 really was. Be that as it may, Charles
was now, however temporarily, master of Scotland. The government in
London had expected the rising to fizzle out at the first show of
force. Now they began to take it more seriously.
Despite the reluctance of major figures
to support him and despite the lack of willing volunteers (attempts
to raise a regiment in Edinburgh had failed), Charles managed to muster
a force of about 5,000 for his invasion of England. His officers,
including his most experienced general, Lord George Murray, advised
against it but Charles was adamant that he would receive massive support
in England. In the event he was wrong. His force got all the way to
Derby without any more than about 200 Englishmen joining his cause.
By that time the cause was lost. The Prince was keen to continue the
march to London where there was some panic but the British military
held firm and, with the return from Europe of troops, vastly outnumbered
Charles' force. Three government forces, two bigger than his own,
now faced him. He reluctantly agreed to retreat to Scotland. The march
back began on 6 December 1745. At Charles' insistence a garrison of
about 400 were left behind when the Jacobites passed through Carlisle.
They subsequently received harsh treatment at the hands of King George
II's 25 year old third son, William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland ('Butcher'
Cumberland): the officers were hanged and the men transported to the
West Indies.
On Christmas Day the Jacobite army
entered Glasgow and stayed for 10 days while the strongly pro-government
city was reluctantly forced to refit it. Though time was running out
the Jacobites had still not been defeated and they won another battle
at Falkirk on 17 January against a government force led by the brutal
General Henry Hawley. Hawley blamed his men for the defeat and executed
about 60 men for cowardice. The Jacobites continued north pursued
by a force led by the Duke of Cumberland who was a seasoned soldier,
having had experience in the War of the Austrian Succession. As Scotland
became increasingly lost to Charles he needed funds from elsewhere
to keep his troops in the field. France, which had given little help,
sent a ship with £12,000 in gold. Crucially it was captured by (Scottish)
forces loyal to the government.
The end came for the Jacobite cause
on Wednesday 16 April 1746 at Drummossie Moor near Inverness. The
Prince mistrusted his most able general, Lord George Murray, and rejected
his advice as to where to establish the Jacobite base. Instead he
was persuaded to choose an open moor which was military insanity.
For the first time Charles took personal charge of his force. In less
than an hour the fresh, well-fed government force, which outnumbered
the tired half-starved Jacobites two to one, defeated them for the
first and last time. The key to their success was the effectiveness
of their artillery, which they had in abundance, and used to pulverize
the Jacobites who were not ordered to charge by their commanders until
many had been killed or wounded. Jacobite artillery was virtually
non-existent and ineffective. Charles fled the field before the battle
was over and spent months in hiding in the Highlands before escaping
to France.
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