Bonnie Prince Charlie and the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion

PRINCE CHARLES EDWARD STUART AND THE 1745 JACOBITE REBELLION

In the late 1600’s catholic James VI was King of England and Scotland but was very unpopular. Eventually by popular demand he was deposed and replaced by William, a Dutch protestant. James went to live in France which as for most of the past thousand years was Britain’s bitter enemy. In 1715 James led a half-hearted attempt to regain his throne which quickly fizzled out with James returning to France. However in 1745 his son, Prince Charles Edward Stuart was determined to put his father back on the throne. He landed in the Highlands in the remote and desolate north-west of Scotland with only seven men and tried to persuade the local catholic clan chiefs to join his cause. At first they refused and told him to go home until he could guarantee French support but eventually he talked them round. They raised several thousand men and the Jacobite army marched on Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland which quickly fell. They then routed a government army at Prestonpans just outside Edinburgh and continued their march south. Many of the Highlanders were nervous about marching into England but Charles was convinced that if they did so the English Jacobite families would rally to his cause and/or the French would send troops in his support.

The Jacobite army crossed the border and took Carlisle, then Manchester and eventually reached Derby, less than a hundred miles north of London. At this point London was in complete panic and being evacuated. There were no government forces between the Jacobites and London and Charles was strongly in favour of pressing on. There is little doubt that had he done so London would have fallen. However, not a single English Jacobite family had joined him, there was no sign of French support, and some of Charles’ advisers believed a government double agent who told them that there was indeed a large government army to the south. They argued with Charles that they should return to Scotland and re-group for the winter. Charles reluctantly agreed and the army turned round and began the trudge north. Such are the fortunes of history. A few days more of walking south and the whole of British, European and probably world history could have been completely different.

They slipped between two government armies on the English/Scottish border, itself a significant military feat, then fought a successful rearguard action at Falkirk in the Scottish Lowlands. They continued north but eventually had to turn and face the enemy at Culloden Moor, just outside Inverness, Britain’s northernmost city.

Charles picked an utterly unsuitable site for the battle. The Jacobite battle tactic was the Highland charge, a full-blooded assault with broadsword and shield to break the enemy lines followed by murderous hand to hand fighting at which they excelled. Culloden Moor was boggy and uneven and completely the wrong terrain for such a charge. Also, the government troops had been trained in a new tactic to counter the charge. If you attack someone with a sword in your right hand and a shield in your left your right side is relatively unprotected. The government soldiers were therefore drilled not to attack the man in front of them but to bayonet the vulnerable side of the man to their right. (Of course, with a great hairy Highlander bearing down on you whose sole ambition was to smash your head in with his broadsword this would have taken incredible discipline and I’m not sure how many of the government troops could have actually maintained this during the battle.) Furthermore the Jacobites were short of food and many of them stood facing the enemy for two days in driving sleet and rain with only a single biscuit to sustain them. Furthermore, when the battle did eventually start Charles inexplicably made them stand for half an hour being torn apart by government artillery before giving the order to charge. It’s not clear whether the order was ever given or the Highlanders took the decision themselves but eventually the charge started though it was ragged and unco-ordinated. Unbeknown to the Jacobites the government had hidden snipers behind a wall at the side of the battlefield and as they charged the snipers opened up with withering fire. Against all the odds one large group of Highlanders did smash their way through the government’s first line but couldn’t get through the second. The first line then re-grouped and closed around them. The Highlanders were thus trapped between the government army’s first and second lines who poured their musket rounds into them. Seven hundred Highlanders were slaughtered in less than ten minutes. The battle was effectively over. It had lasted less than an hour with catastrophic Jacobite casualties and negligible government losses. The Prince’s bodyguard forced him from the field. About fifteen hundred stragglers re-grouped the next day at Ruthven to carry on the campaign but they received a message from Charles that it was all over and that it was every man for himself. The Jacobite cause was lost forever.

The consequences of the battle were devastating for the Highlands. The government forces had been led by the Duke of Cumberland who came to be known as “Butcher” Cumberland. After the battle many badly injured Highlanders were hiding in the heather in and around the battlefield. Cumberland faked an order from Charles saying that had the Jacobites won the battle they were to show no mercy to the government forces. He used this to support his own order that the battlefield be searched and all wounded Highlanders bayoneted to death. He then sent his forces throughout the Highlands burning the homes and taking prisoner all suspected Jacobite supporters. The speaking of Gaelic and the wearing of tartan were banned for decades. The prisoners were taken to London but there were far too many to execute them all so they had to draw lots to decide their fates. The unlucky one-in-four were hung, drawn and quartered. This means they were hung by the neck until almost dead, then disembowelled while still alive with the guts thrown on to a fire, then cut into quarters. The lucky ones were transported to the colonies, though to be honest this probably played a significant role in the building of the British Empire. Meanwhile “Butcher” Cumberland was considered the saviour of the nation. The flower “Sweet William” was named after him and the music “See The Conquering Hero Comes” composed in his honour. In John Prebles seminal book “Culloden” he generally writes with sympathy for the rebels though he also argues that the Highland clan system was archaic and had to be destroyed if ever Britain was to become a truly United Kingdom and modern world power.

After Culloden Charles spent several months hiding around the Highlands trying to get back to France. He narrowly escaped capture on many occasions, once walking past government troops dressed as a woman, but no-one ever gave him away. The French warship “L’Heureux” eventually managed to slip the British blockade and got him back to France where he was at first treated as a hero and became a major celebrity. However, shortly afterwards Britain and France made peace and he suddenly found himself persona non grata at the French court. He died several years later a bitter and bloated alcoholic. Culloden was the last battle ever fought on British soil.

I hope I’ve not been too boring and managed to convey some of the reason I’m so fascinated by Bonnie Prince Charlie and the ’45. On my recent visit to the Highlands I went to Glenfinnan where the Prince originally raised his standard and the battlefield at Culloden where I stood on the spot where the seven hundred were massacred. So I saw where the Great Adventure started and where it all finished. I also visited the West Highland Museum in Fort William (again named after the “Butcher”) where I saw locks of the Princes hair, articles of his clothing and weapons used at Culloden. Several songs from the period inspired by the Prince are still sung today. They include “Charlie is my Darling” and “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean”. The most famous is undoubtedly “The Skye Boat Song” about him evading his pursuers by taking a boat to the Isle of Skye, but my favourite has to be “Will Ye No Come Back Again”. Here’s the first verses, The words show that the Prince must have been highly charismatic and deeply loved by his followers at the time. (Gosh, I really am a silly old romantic aren’t I?) I hope you can understand the Scots dialect.

The Skye Boat Song:

“Speed bonny boat like a bird on the wing,
‘Onward’ the sailors cry,
Carry the lad who’s born to be King,
Over the Sea to Skye,
Loud the winds howl, loud the seas roar, thunderclaps rent the air,
Baffled your foes, stand on the shore, follow they would not dare.”

Will Ye No Come Back Again:

“Bonnie Charlie’s noo awa,
Safely o’er the friendly main,
Many a heart will break in twa,
Should he no come back again,
Will ye no come back again?
Will ye no come back again?
Better loved ye canna be,
Will ye no come back again?”

AJP 30th August 2008