THE JACOBITES
'The Jacobites' were so named after the last Stuart King, James from the Latin form is Jacobus. The Catholic James VII and II fled from England in December 1688 landing in Ireland in March 1689, with French troops, but left British soil when defeated at the infamous Battle of the Boyne in 1690. From this time onwards, various Stuarts tried to re-take the role that they and many of their supporters believed they were entitled to, that of British Monarch.
The first Jacobite uprising was in Scotland in 1689 led by Viscount Dundee and Lord Balcarres against the provisional Scots Government. A coalition of conservative Episcopalians and the smaller clans of the Central and Western Highlands joined the cause but large clans and great magnates were inactive, apart from the Campbells. Dundee died in victory at the battle of Killiecrankie in July 1689 but the Jacobite army was finally routed at the Haughs of Cromdale in May 1690.
Until the French lost control of the sea, James was more interested in returning with a French army than in promoting risings from within the British Isles. However, the exclusively Presbyterian Kirk of 1690 alienated so many Scots that a home-based army became more likely. Tyrannical misgovernment was used to try to hush unrest but, as with the massacre of Glencoe in 1692 it only added fuel to the Jacobite fire. Nevertheless, it was not until the passage of the Union of 1707 that outraged Scottish national sentiment made another rising thinkable. Louis XIV planned a Jacobite seizure of Scotland. In March 1708 James Francis Edward Stuart became, after his father's death in 1701, the Jacobite claimant. He waited off the coast of Fife with a French expedition, but the French fled at the sight of Royal Navy ships and the plan aborted.
Queen Anne's death in 1714 was followed by the smooth accession of the protestant Hanoverian dynasty. The outbreak of the 1715 rising surprised the exiled Stuarts. It was the only rising entirely explicable in domestic terms. The Whig coup at the accession of George I drove many Tories to despair, some to rebellion. After failing to get a job from George I, the Earl of Mar started a Scottish rebellion joined by a small English rising in Northumberland, supported by Catholic and High Anglican squires who were bankrupt. The Scottish rising failed due to the action of The Duke of Argyll who blocked the path south at Stirling. The rising was also hampered by Mar's incompetence. An attempt by an Anglo-Scottish Jacobite force to raise the Lancashire Catholics was foiled at on the same day at Preston (14 November) followed by Mar's failure to sweep Argyll aside at Sherriffmuir. The late arrival of James Stuart, and surreptitious Spanish aid, failed to avert the collapse of the rising in early 1716.
Forfeitures, plus measures such as the creation of the Riot Act, seemed to entrench Whig Power. The next Jacobite rebellion was a fiasco cynically sponsored by a Spanish government who were quarreling with the British over Mediterranean issues. The main invasion force was intended to strike at the West of England, but was scattered by storms. A purely diversionary force, including the exiled Scots Jacobite Lords Tullibardine and Seaforth, did invade the North-West Highlands, only to be crushed by General Wightman at Glensheil in June 1719.
The rise of an Anglo-French entente, the strength of Walpole's government, and the failure of previous Jacobite uprisings brought a lull in Stuart claims. However, by 1744, however, war had broken out between France and Britain. The French raised the possibility of using Prince Charles Stuart, elder son of James Stuart, to France to front an invasion. Then without much ceremony they dropped the idea.
The arrival of Charles by boat to Glenfinnan in the West Highlands in the late summer of 1745 was designed to reverse the French decision by seizing a poorly defended Scotland. Charles' plan was to then invade England to provoke the French into creating a second front. Despite the unrest between clan leaders who were concerned by a lack of continental help, Charles quickly made ground. With the help of Clan Cameron and a number of smaller septs, he occupied Edinburgh before shattering government forces under Cope at Prestonpans. The battlefield was boggy and cut off by a low finger of water. Charles lured his enemy's army into the mud at Prestonpans, a battle that ended with a complete rout. The invasion of England in late 1745 was agreed to reluctantly by many Jacobite Scots. Even the field commander, Lord George Murray regarded it simply as a reconnaissance to test English willingness to restore the Stuarts. By Derby, it was clear there was no English support. In addition, no French forces were mobilised. Murray's retreat in the face of superior armies was brilliantly executed. A final victory over the pursuing Hanoverian army under General Hawley at Falkirk in January 1746 merely postponed the day of reckoning which came on 16 April at Culloden, east of Inverness.
The Jacobites were malnourished, battle weary and disillusioned. Many of the rank and file had slipped away during the march north to return to their crofts in time for crop sowing. During this period, The duke of Cumberland, younger son of George II had been placed as supreme commander of the Hanovarian forces and ordered his officers to teach a new method of close combat fighting that would out-manouvre a Highland charge. On the night prior to the battle, the Jacobites has carried out a night march to attempt a surprise attack on the government forces camped at Nairn. Instead of taking the camp by storm, they found themselves discovered and were forced to retreat to Culloden.
Culloden Moor was, as is now, an unsuitable field for close combat fighting. The terrain rises from the north west, making an up-hill climb for the Jacobites. The soggy peat ground was seeded with rough heather. The only cover was from low turf walls of the nearby croft. April 16th dawned very chill with an east wind blowing sleet into the Jacobite's eyes. The Hanovarians were sheltered by a band of trees to their rear. At the start of the Highland charge, they simply waited for the Jacobites' approach.
The Hanovarian army had roughly three troops for every two Jacobites. They also held more field cannons and numbers of cavalry. Broken into two parallel lines, the Hanovarians met the first wave of Jacobites. Because of the nature of the wet ground, the Highlanders had been unable to hold a straight line and met the enemy at a near diagonal. Once the Jacobites had engaged with the first wave of government troops, the second line advanced to pin them down. Finally a section of Campbell cavalry was sent secretly along the turf wall to meet the Jacobites side on. The bulk of Charles Edward Stuart's troops were surrounded on three sides. The battle was over within twenty minutes. The pretender was led from the field to escape west.
The punishment meted out to all involved directly and indirectly with the uprising was made conspicuously harsh. Much time, effort and money was put towards punishing Clan Chiefs and for the capture of Charles Edward Stuart. Devastation, confiscation, and disillusionment with both Charles and France effectively destroyed all danger of another rising. The Young Pretender escaped from the West Coast of Scotland to France and settled in Italy. The Jacobite uprisings underlined the unpopularity of governments that were seen as corrupt and betraying their own principles, but also showed the unacceptability of the Stuart alternative. Their failures served to reinforced the Hanoverian regime.