British history was periodically pockmarked between 1689 and 1759 by ‘Jacobite’ rebellions. Named after the Latin Jacobus for James, the term referred to the deposed King James II (and VII). The Jacobites aimed to restore the Stuart dynasty. Their rebellions started in Ireland and Scotland in the 17th Century, spread to England, and then in the 18th Century continued, strongly, in Scotland. In every case these involved France. The story finally ended in Rome.
Jacobite origins and aims
But who were the Jacobites and what did they want? How
was the idea and its movement sustained on and off for 70 years? While they
seemed disruptive, did they ever get really close to overturning the British
government? What and who made the Jacobites the subject of such a plethora of
romantic stories, with toasts to ‘the king over the water’. And why are so many
of the attendant myths still alive today?
When James II was deposed in 1688 many in Catholic Ireland fought to restore him to the throne. The theme was picked up in 1689 in Scotland by John Graham, Lord ('Bonnie') Dundee (or from his title to the Claverhouse estate, 'Bluidy Clavers'), depending on religious and political preference. He was killed at the battle of Killiekrankie. Things then seemed to settle down a bit until the end of the War of the Spanish Succession and its Treaty of Utrecht. One of the peace terms was that France would accept the British royal line. But in 1714 on the death of Queen Anne, under the Act of Settlement this went to the Hanoverian, George I.
England and Scotland had been formally joined together in
1707 via the Act of Union. While Scotland’s dire financial and trading position
at the time made this largely inevitable, many Scots opposed it. Scottish
Jacobites saw a return of the Stuarts as a way of leaving the Union and replacing
it by a looser confederate state with an Episcopalian church. Irish Jacobites mainly
wanted Catholic institutions and a Catholic monarchy, with few if any links to
England.
English Jacobites, if low in number, tended to believe
in a more simplistic version of monarchical rights, and felt challenging the Stuart
succession might set a precedent for other heritable issues of property and
title. Some also simply disliked foreigners, especially the Dutch and Germans
of whom they had had recent experience. In short everyone wanted different
things.
The 'Fifteen'
The Jacobite cause's first main eruption in Scotland was soon after George I succeeded, in 1715.
A force under the Earl of Mar confronted a government army under the Duke of
Argyll. An inconclusive battle was fought at Sheriffmuir, but with indecisive
leadership the rebellion fizzled out. This was really peak Jacobitism - a
sizeable 22,000 were ‘out’. It was largely a Catholic affair, though, limiting
its appeal to Scottish Presbyterians and Anglican Tory supporters in
England. A rising in 1719 failed even more dismally, so backers felt it might
be curtains for a Stuart revival.
After 1719 new laws imposed penalties on non-juring
clergy ie. those refusing to swear allegiance to the Hanoverian regime. But
retribution was generally muted. Bolingbroke and other backers were pardoned
and came home, or moved elsewhere. France was not looking for trouble from
Britain. Cardinal Fleury, French Chief Minister from 1723, viewed the Jacobites
as ‘unreliable fantasists’ a view shared by most of his colleagues.
But by the 1730s, France was worried about British
trade ascendancy and in 1743, during the War of the Austrian Succession, when
most of Britain’s army was fighting on the continent, France and Spain agreed
on a plan to restore the Stuarts. The aim was to make trouble at home for
Britain and weaken its ability to fight on the other side of the Channel. The French would supply and fund a rising led by Charles Edward, grandson of James II, to
reclaim for his father, James, the ‘three crowns’ of England, Ireland and
Scotland.
The 'Forty five'
In August 1745 the ‘Young Pretender’ sailed to western
Scotland with half a dozen friends and raised his standard at Glenfinnan, where the picturesque railway viaduct now stands. There, instead of being
acclaimed, he faced a cool reception with few of the locals offering support. Indeed, he was strongly
advised to go home. Gradually however, with Charles promising substantial French
backing, sections of some Highland clans joined up. The Jacobites soon took Edinburgh
without a fight, which helped generate momentum. They followed the time honoured populist script - tell them in distortedly simple terms what they want to hear. So separatist appetites were fed. The first declarations? To dissolve the ‘pretended Union’ and
reject the Act of Settlement’.
The rest is well understood history. Gathering recruits
in Scotland they marched all the way to Derby, where in December they turned back. The Jacobite
Army Council of 18 voted overwhelmingly for this. They had picked up little English
support, despite marching through areas of some erstwhile Jacobite sentiment, like
Manchester. And French help had simply not arrived.
Some still say that being only 120 miles from London, they should
have carried on to victory. But in fact 12,000 trained government troops had been
recalled from Holland, and another well supplied force was chasing them from
the north. It was remarked on how forlorn Charles’ 5000 recruits looked. Most of them were more concerned with feudal clan rivalries in Scotland than who was king in London. Only two of
the Jacobite officers wanted to carry on. No-one thought the Hanoverian regime
would collapse, even had the rebels reached London. It’s quite inconceivable that they could have been successful.
Indeed, there’s a wider issue. A bare majority of their Army Council wished to invade England at all. Irish Jacobite officers Sheridan and O’Sullivan did need a full Stuart restoration to secure their aims, and Charles wanted especially to reclaim the English crown. But the Scots officers felt it was a bridge too far. Army chief Lord George Murray, an experienced soldier, thought it folly to go into England. They would lose, he said. Far better to consolidate and defend Scotland, then wait for the Dutch war to tire the Hanoverians, before coming to terms.
Culloden and the aftermath
The Jacobites fought their last battle on April 16th at Culloden, outside Inverness. They’d picked up support on the way back north, but fewer than 5000 actually took the field. Some units missed it by hours, and others were asleep after a tiring forced march the night before. It’s a myth that they carried just swords. Most had French muskets. And it’s not true they were annihilated. While 1000 or so were killed some units withdrew in good order, joining others at Ruthven barracks.
Another myth is that this was a Scotland v England fight. Many Scots, including several Campbell units, fought for the government. There were also Irish and French Catholic units on the Jacobite side. And while most of the rebels were non-Catholic Highlanders there were Lowland units, too. Most fought in regiments, but the system was complicated by clan allegiance and the pressed participation of some clan tenants.
The aftermath saw 120 people, mainly deserters, executed,
with 1000 transported. Others were freed. The treatment of prisoners and their families attracted wide sympathy, and turned the Scottish public mood against the government. Tartan and other cultural symbols were proscribed for years, with a determined attempt to stamp out rebellious roots. Road improvements resulted and the recruitment
of Scots to the British army was accelerated. The Heritable Jurisdictions Act ended
the residual feudal powers of chiefs over their clansmen, though in truth this
system had long been losing its coherence.
Charles Edward
So what of ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’ the charmer? Brought up in Italy with a Polish mother, he spoke English after a fashion, as well as French and Italian. But he was a poor leader with no real interest in Scotland. Charles was also rather a showoff, who enjoyed acting and dressing up. French point man D’Eguilles took a dim view of him, as in fact did the Scots officers who disliked his haughty style. Despite his lack of military experience, after Derby Charles disdained their advice. They viewed him in turn with suspicion and hostility.
Charles had different priorities and wanted a
different outcome from most of his officers and men. He’d not wholly shed the royal rights and entitlement baggage from 100 years back. ‘Unwelcome and unwanted’ said one
writer. But with so many songs and poems
romanticising him it’s easy to get a false idea. The change was perhaps due to wholesale Victorian re-imagining of Scottish history and culture - Burns suppers, highland
games, tartans etc. The rather sentimental song ‘Over the Sea to Skye’, for instance, was not
written until 1884.
Folk memory?
Memory of the event is often seen through a
nationalist lens. And the Jacobites did use this in their recruitment. But it’s
simplistic to the point of distortion to view Jacobitism as an early independence
movement. Nationalism was one of its many features, including culture, power,
religion, as well as the dynastic issue (the Stuart succession perhaps the
least important). Social and religious factors, including clan structures and loyalties, also
played a part. Indeed there’s no proper understanding of the subject unless the endless myths can be shed.
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