Jacobitism

While military campaigns are covered in outline, for details see Jacobite Rising.

Charles Edward Stuart, Bonnie Prince Charlie, wearing the Jacobite blue bonnet

Jacobitism was a response to the deposition of James VII and II in 1688 when he was replaced by his daughter Mary II jointly with her husband William of Orange. The Stuarts lived on the European continent after that, occasionally attempting to regain the throne with the aid of France or Spain. Within the British Isles, the primary seats of Jacobitism were Ireland and (especially Highland) Scotland. There was also some support in England and Wales, particularly in the North of England. Royalists supported Jacobitism because they believed that Parliament had no authority to interfere with the Royal succession, and many Catholics looked to it for relief from Protestant oppression, but people became involved in the military campaigns for all sorts of allegiances and motives. In Scotland the Jacobite cause became entangled in the last throes of the warrior Clan system, and became a lasting romantic memory.

The emblem of the Jacobites is the white rose; white rose day is celebrated on June 10, the anniversary of the birth of James VIII and III in 1688.

Political background

The second half of the 17th century was a time of political and religious turmoil in the British Isles. The Protestant Commonwealth ended with the Restoration of Charles II who renewed attempts to impose Episcopalian Anglican worship on Scotland, provoking rebellions by Covenanters such as the Cameronians who were repressed in the "Killing Times" in attempts to stamp out Presbyterianism.

He was succeeded in 1685 by his Roman Catholic brother, James VII of Scotland & II of England, who continued the family disdain for democracy, their motto being a Deo rex, a rege lex (the king comes from God, the law comes from the king), which led to conflict with Parliament.

In Ireland James' viceroy, Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, was the first Catholic viceroy since the Reformation and acted to reduce Protestant ascendancy and to have strong points in Ireland controlled by garrisons loyal to the Catholic cause

In England and Scotland James attempted to impose religious toleration, which helped the Catholic minority but offended others. William of Orange, building alliances against France, lobbied Whigs to have James replaced by William's wife Mary who was James' daughter and next in line to the throne, but they were reluctant to rush a succession expected to happen in due course. Then in 1688 James' second wife had a boy, bringing the prospect of a Catholic dynasty, and the "Immortal Seven" invited William and Mary to depose James. In November William arrived in England and James fled to France: in February 1689 the Glorious Revolution formally changed England's monarch, but many Catholics, Episcopalians and Tory royalists convinced that Parliament had no right to define the succession still supported James.

Scotland was slow to accept William, who summoned a Convention of the Estates which met on March 14th 1689 in Edinburgh and considered a conciliatory letter from William and a haughty one from James. Forces of Cameronians as well as Clan Campbell highlanders led by the Earl of Argyll had come to bolster William's support. On James' side cavalry led by John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee attended at the start but withdrew four days later when support for William became evident. The convention set out its terms and William and Mary were proclaimed at Edinburgh on April 11th 1689, then had their coronation in London in May.

Military Campaigns

For details of the military campaigns including the so-called Jacobite Rebellions see Jacobite Rising.

Jacobite war in Ireland

Under James VII and II his viceroy Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell took action to ensure that all strong points in Ireland were held by garrisons loyal to the Catholic cause, but the Protestant garrison of Londonderry was not attacked until the Siege of Derry began on December 7th 1688.

When James was deposed and fled to France, King Louis XIV of France (already at war with William of Orange) gave him support. On March 12th 1689 James landed in Ireland with French soldiers, took Dublin, then with a Jacobite army of Catholics, Protestant Royalists and French marched north, joining the Siege of Londonderry on April 18th 1689. British warships relieved the siege on July 28th 1689 and soon afterwards most of Ulster was cleared of Jacobites.

After a stand-off over the winter, William took charge in person and on July 1st his army defeated the Jacobites in a skirmish at the Battle of the Boyne. The Jacobite army retreated, little damaged, but James fled to France.

The war continued until the Irish were defeated at the Battle of Aughrim and the siege of Limerick ended with the peace Treaty of Limerick signed on 3rd October 1691. As part of the treaty the Irish army left Ireland for France, the "Flight of the Wild Geese" which led to the Irish Brigade who were to provide forces assisting The 'Forty-Five Jacobite Rising in Scotland.

Bonnie Dundee

Morier's painting "Culloden" shows the highlanders still wearing the plaids which they normally set aside before battle, where they would fire a volley then run full tilt at the enemy with broadsword and targe in the Highland charge wearing only their shirts

On April 16th 1689, almost a month after he left the Convention in Edinburgh and five days after it had proclaimed William and Mary, Viscount Dundee, known as Bonnie Dundee, raised James' standard on the hilltop of Dundee Law with less than 50 men in support. James had already arrived in Ireland and his letter was on the way promising Irish troops to assist the rising in Scotland. At first Viscount Dundee had difficulty in raising many supporters, but that changed after the Williamite commander Major-General Hugh Mackay of Scourie had been ineffective in chasing after Dundee around the north and 200 Irish troops had landed at Kintyre. In the northern Scottish Highlands there was opposition to William from Catholic and Episcopalian Clans, though Dundee received little support from the Episcopal Bishops of the Scots nobility.

On July 27th 1689 the Jacobite Highlanders defeated a larger lowland Scots force at the Battle of Killiecrankie, but Bonnie Dundee was killed in the fighting. After a set-back to the Jacobite Highlanders at the Battle of Dunkeld much of the north remained hostile to the government and expeditions to subdue the highlands met with a series of skirmishes until Jacobite forces suffered a heavy defeat at the Haughs of Cromdale on May 1st 1690 and their hopes petered out in June when news arrived of William's victory over James at the Battle of the Boyne. A year later they were forced to agree to a truce while the Clan chieftains sent requests to the exiled James VII and II for permission to submit to William, and in January 1692 the Jacobite Clans formally surrendered to the government.

The Old Pretender's attempted invasion

William's main interest was in the War of the Grand Alliance in the Low Countries against the French and he paid little attention to Scotland, trying to bribe or coerce the lawless clans. His demands that each chief put in writing the submission authorised by James resulted in the Massacre of Glencoe on February 13th 1692. In 1701 King James VII and II died and the claimed succession passed to his son, James Francis Edward Stuart who claimed to be James VIII and III and became known as the Old Pretender

After a brief peace, the War of the Spanish Succession renewed French support for the Jacobites and in 1708 the Old Pretender set out with French troops, but the French fleet was pursued by the Royal Navy and forced to retreat round the north of Scotland back to France.

The 'Fifteen

William and Mary's daughter became Queen Anne, who left no immediate successor. By then the Act of Settlement 1701, confirmed by the Act of Union of 1707 required the monarch to be Protestant, excluding James Stuart, the Old Pretender, and bringing in from Hanover George I, great grandson of James VI of Scotland and I of England. He was opposed by the Royalist Tories, and his arrival in 1714 was greeted by riots in the south of England. In Scotland years of famine and hardship fed discontent with the Union, providing fertile ground for what is often referred to as the First Jacobite Rising (or Rebellion).

The Treaty of Utrecht (1713) had ended hostilities between France and Britain. From France, as part of widespread Jacobite plotting, James Stuart, the Old Pretender had been corresponding with the Earl of Mar and in the summer of 1715 he called on Mar to raise the Clans without further delay. Mar, nicknamed Bobbin' John, had signed the Act of Union as Secretary of State for Scotland and pleaded to continue in that office in the incoming Hanoverian government of King George I, but was rebuffed and turned his loyalty to James. He met James' call by travelling from London to Braemar and summoning clan leaders to "a grand hunting—match" on August 27th 1715 where he announced his change of allegiance. On September 6th he proclaimed James as "their lawful sovereign" and raised the old Scottish standard, whereupon (ominously) the gold ball fell off the top of the flagpole. Mar's proclamation called on men to fight "for the relief of our native country from oppression and a foreign yoke too heavy for us or our posterity to bear".

This brought in a strange alliance of clans united only in detesting the Union and recent Whig repression, who quickly overran many parts of the Highlands and captured Perth on September 14th, but a force under the Duke of Argyll held the Stirling plain for the government and Mar indecisively kept his forces in Perth. He waited for the Earl of Seaforth to arrive with a body of northern clans, but Seaforth was delayed by attacks from other clans loyal to the government. Planned risings in Wales and Devonshire were forestalled by the government arresting the local Jacobites.

Starting around October 6th a rising in the north of England grew to about 300 horsemen under Thomas Forster, a Northumberland squire, then joined forces with a rising in the south of Scotland under Lord Kenmure. Mar sent a Jacobite force under Brigadier Mackintosh of Borlum to join them in the Scottish Borders. The Highlanders then resisted marching into England and there were some mutinies. They pressed on, but instead of the expected welcome were met by hostile militia armed with pitchforks and very few recruits until they were besieged at the Battle of Preston (1715) and surrendered on November 14th.

In Scotland, at the Battle of Sheriffmuir on November 13th, Mar's forces were unable to defeat a smaller force led by the Duke of Argyll and Mar retreated to Perth while the government army built up. Belatedly, on December 22nd 1715 a ship from France brought the Old Pretender to Peterhead, but he was too consumed by melancholy and fits of fever to inspire his followers. He briefly set up court at Scone, Perthshire, visited his troops in Perth and ordered the burning of villages to hinder the advance of the Duke of Argyll through deep snow. The highlanders were cheered by the prospect of battle, but James' councillors decided to abandon the enterprise and ordered a retreat to the coast, giving the pretext of finding a stronger position. James boarded a ship at Montrose and fled to France on February 4th, 1716, leaving a message advising his Highland followers to shift for themselves.

Spanish supported Jacobite invasion

With France still at peace, the Jacobites found a new ally in Spain's Minister to the King, Cardinal Giulio Alberoni. An invasion force set sail in 1719 with two frigates to land in Scotland to raise the clans, and 27 ships carrying 5,000 soldiers to England, but the latter were dispersed by storms before they could land. When the two Spanish frigates successfully landed a party of Jacobites led by Lord Tullibardine and Earl Marischal with 300 Spanish soldiers at Loch Duich they held Eilean Donan castle, but met only lukewarm support from a few clans and at the Battle of Glen Shiel the Spanish soldiers were forced to surrender to government forces.

Aftermath of the 'Fifteen

In the aftermath of the 'Fifteen, the Disarming Act and the Clan Act made ineffectual attempts to subdue the Scottish Highlands, and efforts at "rooting out of the Irish language" (Gaelic) were renewed. Government garrisons were built or extended in the Great Glen at Fort William, Kiliwhimin (later renamed Fort Augustus) and Fort George, Inverness, as well as barracks at Ruthven, Bernera and Inversnaid, linked to the south by the Wade roads constructed for Major-General George Wade. Jacobitism lingered on amid resentment of economic hardship and the Whig government, and Catholic missionaries increased their influence with some clans, but political resistance to the Union lessened and Jacobitism became more of a secretive game with the glasses of claret being waved over water before the Loyal Toast so that it became a toast to "the King (over the water)".

In 1725 Wade raised the independent companies of the Black Watch as a militia to keep peace in the unruly Highlands, but in 1743 they were moved to fight the French in Flanders. Tellingly, their commander at the Battle of Fontenoy in May 1745 was the Duke of Cumberland, soon to command at Culloden.

The 'Forty-Five

During 1743 the War of the Austrian Succession drew Britain and France into open, though unofficial, hostilities against each other. Leading English Jacobites made a formal request to France for armed intervention and the French planned a large-scale invasion of southern England, together with an expeditionary force to Scotland to support a Jacobite rising. Charles Edward Stuart (later known as Bonnie Prince Charlie or the Young Pretender) who was in exile in Rome with his father (James Stuart, the Old Pretender) was invited to accompany the expedition and rushed to France. The fleet began embarking some 10,000 troops and got under way in March 1744, alerting British warships, but a violent storm scattered the French escort ships and wrecked many troop transports with the loss of all hands. The British lodged strong diplomatic objections to the presence of Charles, and France declared war but abandoned ideas of Jacobite risings and gave Charles no more encouragement.

Even against the warnings of his advisers from Scotland, Charles was determined not to turn back. He borrowed funds and pawned his mother's jewellery for funds to fit out a small frigate le Du Teillay and a ship of the line the Elisabeth and set out from Nantes for Scotland in July 1745. The Elisabeth, carrying weapons and supplies, encountered the British Navy and was forced back, but the Frigate successfully landed Charles with his seven men of Moidart on the island of Eriskay in the Outer Hebrides on August 2nd 1745.

The Scottish clans initially showed little enthusiasm, but Charles went on to Moidart and on August 19th 1745 raised the standard at Glenfinnan to lead the Second Jacobite Rising in his father's name, attracting about 1,200 men, mostly Clan Cameron. The Jacobite force marched from Glenfinnan, increasing to almost 3,000 men, and took Perth and Edinburgh almost unopposed.

The small British army in Scotland under Sir John Cope had marched north into the Highlands, but found little support because of the unpopularity of King George II's government and, believing the rebel force to be stronger than it really was, avoided engaging the Jacobites. They got supplies from Inverness then sailed from Aberdeen down to Dunbar to meet the Jacobite forces near Prestonpans to the east of Edinburgh.

On September 21 1745 at the Battle of Prestonpans a surprise attack planned by Lord George Murray routed the government forces, as celebrated in the Jacobite song "Hey, Johnny Cope, are you waking yet?". There was alarm in England, and in London a patriotic song was performed including the defiant verse:

This song was widely adopted and was to become the National Anthem (usually without that verse).

The Jacobites held the city of Edinburgh, though not the castle. Charles held court at Holyrood palace for five weeks, exciting great admiration and enthusiasm though failing to raise a regiment locally. Many of the highlanders went home with booty from the battle and recruiting resumed, though Whig clans supporting the government were also getting organised. The French now sent some weapons and funds, and assurances that they would carry out their invasion of England by the end of the year. Charles' Council of war was against leaving Scotland, but he was convinced that the English would rise to support him and insisted on marching south.

The Jacobite army set out on November 3rd and successfully manoeuvred past government armies to reach Derby on December 4th, only 125 miles (200 km) from a panicking London. Charles was advised of progress on the French invasion fleet which was then assembling at Dunkirk, but his Council and Lord George Murray insisted that both Wade and Cumberland were closing on them, a large militia was forming in London, the promised English support had not materialised and they should return to join their growing force in Scotland. After forcing Glasgow to re-provision their army they defeated a government force at the Battle of Falkirk, but on April 16th 1746 they were finally defeated near Inverness at the Battle of Culloden by Hanoverian forces made up of English and Scottish troops under the command of the Duke of Cumberland.

Charles fled to France making a dramatic if humiliating escape, helped by supporters like Flora Macdonald, that fed romantic legend. Cumberland's forces crushed the rebellion and effectively ended Jacobitism as a serious political force in Britain.

Decline of Jacobitism

Jacobitism entered permanent decline after the "Forty-Five" rebellion. Any realistic chance of a Stuart restoration was lost when France expelled Charles in accordance with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748).

In an effort to prevent further trouble, the government outlawed many Highland cultural practices in order to destroy the warrior clan system. The Act of Proscription incorporating the Disarming Act and the Dress Act required all swords to be surrendered to the government and prohibited wearing of tartans or kilts. The Tenures Abolition Act ended the feudal bond of military service and the Heritable Jurisdictions Act removed the virtually sovereign power the chiefs had over their clan. Laws tried to end use of the Gaelic language. The extent of enforcement of the prohibitions was variable and sometimes related to a clan's support of the government during the rebellion.

Government troops were stationed in the Highlands and built more roads and barracks to better control the region, with a new fortress at Fort George to the east of Inverness which still serves as a base for Highland Regiments of the British Army.

The last Stuart pretender to the throne was the self-styled Henry IX, younger brother of Charles Edward. After the collapse of the Stuart cause he became a Roman Catholic priest, and eventually a cardinal. After coming into financial difficulty during the French Revolution, he was granted a stipend by George III. However he never actually surrendered his claims to the throne. Following the death of Henry IX, the Jacobite claims passed to those excluded by the Act of Settlement: initially the House of Savoy, and then, through a daughter, to the House of Bavaria. Francis, Duke of Bavaria is the current Jacobite heir. Neither he nor any of his predecessors since Henry IX's death in 1807 have pursued their claim, although his father was known to wear the Stuart tartan on occasion.

Jacobitism became a remnant of hidden relics. It was remembered in folk songs and became the subject of romantic poetry and literature, notably the work of Robert Burns and Walter Scott. Walter Scott combined romantic Jacobitism with an appreciation of the practical benefits of the Hanoverian government, and in 1822 he arranged a pageantry of reinvented Scottish traditions when George IV visited Edinburgh dressed as a tubby kilted successor to his distant relative Bonnie Prince Charlie. The tartan pageantry was immensely popular and the kilt became Scotland's National Dress.

Jacobite Claimants to the Thrones of England, Scotland, (France), and Ireland

Since Henry's death, none of the Jacobite heirs has actually claimed the throne. They are as follows (given with their Jacobite regnal titles):