The Jacobite Risings
The Jacobite cause began with a king's flight to France, was backed by France and Spain, and was fought by Scots on both sides. Its most famous battle lasted barely an hour.
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Quick Facts
- What it was
- A series of attempts, from 1688 to 1746, to restore the exiled Stuart kings to the thrones of Britain
- Name
- From Jacobus, Latin for James, after James VII and II
- Main risings
- 1689, 1715, 1719 and 1745–46, plus a failed French-backed invasion attempt in 1708
- The Forty-Five
- Charles Edward Stuart landed in the Hebrides in July 1745 and raised his standard at Glenfinnan on 19 August
- Furthest south
- Derby, reached on 4 December 1745, about 125 miles from London
- Final defeat
- Culloden, near Inverness, 16 April 1746
- Aftermath
- Disarming of the Highlands, the Dress Act banning Highland dress for men and boys (passed 1746, in force from 1 August 1747, repealed 1782) and the end of hereditary clan jurisdictions
- Prince's end
- Charles died in Rome in 1788, never having regained a throne
The king who lost his crown by being a Catholic
The Jacobite Risings were a run of armed attempts between 1689 and 1746 to put the exiled Stuart dynasty back on the British throne after James VII and II was pushed out in 1688. James was a Catholic king ruling Protestant kingdoms. After his son was born in June 1688, seven prominent English figures invited William of Orange to intervene. James fled in December, and in February 1689 the Convention Parliament offered the crown jointly to William and Mary, James's daughter. His supporters became known as Jacobites, from the Latin form of his name. James's exiled court was first based at Saint-Germain-en-Laye in France. His son's court settled in Rome in 1719. The first rising came almost at once. In 1689 John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee, won a stunning victory at Killiecrankie, then was killed in the moment of triumph. The rising fizzled out soon after.
The one that nearly worked, and the one that fell apart
In 1715, after the death of Queen Anne and the arrival of George I from Hanover, John Erskine, Earl of Mar, raised the Stuart standard in Scotland. He had the numbers but not the nerve. The battle of Sheriffmuir was a muddle that settled little, and a Jacobite force that marched into England was beaten at Preston. In 1719 a small Spanish-backed force was defeated at Glenshiel in the Highlands. Spain was not exactly a neighbour with a reputation for sentiment. It simply saw an opportunity to make trouble for Britain. That was always the pattern: the Stuarts' European backers were interested in the British crown as a weapon, rather than in the Stuarts.
Bonnie Prince Charlie and the audacious Forty-Five
Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Pretender, arrived in July 1745 with a handful of companions and very little money. He landed on Eriskay and raised his standard at Glenfinnan on 19 August. Within weeks he held Edinburgh, and at Prestonpans on 21 September his army routed government troops in about fifteen minutes. Then came the gamble. The Jacobites crossed into England, took Carlisle and reached Derby on 4 December. London reportedly panicked. But the promised English and French support had not appeared, and the prince's commanders insisted on retreating. Charles was furious. The retreat ended on Culloden Moor on 16 April 1746. The tired, hungry Jacobite army met the Duke of Cumberland's well-drilled force on open ground that suited the government's artillery. It was over in around an hour. The prince spent five months as a fugitive, helped on the way by Flora MacDonald, before sailing for France.
The myth that it was Scotland against England
It's a tidy story, and it's wrong. Plenty of Scots fought for the government, including many Lowlanders and much of Clan Campbell, and Cumberland's army at Culloden included Scottish regiments. The Jacobite army had Episcopalians and Catholics, but also Protestants, and some English recruits in the Manchester Regiment. It was as much a civil war as a national one, and it was also a religious and dynastic quarrel with a good deal of local rivalry mixed in. Another myth: Culloden was the last battle on British soil. It's often called the last pitched battle, which is closer. Skirmishing carried on, and the Jacobites' rearguard fought at Clifton Moor in December 1745, usually described as the last battle on English soil.
Why the aftermath mattered more than the battle
The government's response reshaped the Highlands. Weapons were seized and the legal powers of clan chiefs were stripped away. The Dress Act, passed in 1746, took effect on 1 August 1747 and banned Highland dress for men and boys, apart from those in the armed forces, until its repeal in 1782. It did not ban all tartan or touch women's clothing. Roads and forts, such as Fort George near Inverness, tightened control. Lord Lovat, executed in 1747, was the last man to be beheaded in Britain. Once the threat was gone, the story was reborn as romance. Songs, novels and tartan pageantry turned a lost cause into a national legend, including the Skye Boat Song, written in the 1880s. Real Highland life was changing for reasons that had little to do with the prince.
Notable people
- James VII and II
- Charles Edward Stuart
- John Graham of Claverhouse
- Earl of Mar
- Duke of Cumberland
- Flora MacDonald
- Lord George Murray
- Lord Lovat
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