Although the Jacobite cause had supporters in all parts of Britain and Ireland, it has become particularly associated with the Highlands. Because the Stuarts were a Scottish dynasty there was always more support for Jacobitism in Scotland than in England. This was especially true after the Act of Union abolished the Scottish parliament in 1707, when Jacobitism became a convenient vehicle for anti-English sentiment. However, Jacobitism was indelibly tainted with Catholicism and this ensured that it had little appeal for most Lowland Scots. Even the Highlands were by no means united in the Jacobite cause. The Jacobites could count on the MacDonalds, MacLeans, MacGregors, Stewarts, Gordons, Farquharsons and others, but some clans, like the Campbells and the Rosses, always supported the government, while others, like the Mackintoshes, tried to remain neutral. The real importance of the Highlands to the Jacobite cause was not so much the strength of feeling there, but that, because of the clan system, it was the only region of Britain where its supporters could raise large bands of fighting men easily. Some 70 per cent of the earl of Mar’s army in the 1715 Jacobite rising was made up of clan levies, as was 90 per cent of Charles Edward Stuart’s army in 1745.
The Scottish parliament quickly confirmed England’s deposition of James VII and II and reinstated Presbyterianism, but once again there was a Highland intervention. An army of Highland Jacobites defeated a larger but inexperienced Williamite force at the Pass of Killiecrankie, near Pitlochry, in July 1689, but its leader, the Viscount of Dundee, was fatally wounded in the fighting. The death of their leader took the wind out of the Jacobites and they advanced no further than Dunkeld on the edge of the Highlands. The Jacobites were finally defeated at the battle of Cromdale on Speyside in May 1690. A little over a month later King William routed James’s army of Irish Jacobites on the river Boyne, effectively ending his hopes of regaining his throne. The fall of Limerick to Williamite forces in 1691 finished Jacobitism as a political force in Ireland, but in Britain the plotting continued. As part of the pacification of the Highlands, clan chiefs were ordered to swear loyalty to William and Mary before 1 January 1692. The chief of the Jacobite MacDonalds of Glencoe turned up late, so in February the Scottish government sent a force to obtain their submission. The officers of the government troops were Campbells, whose lands the MacDonalds had recently raided and who were out for revenge. After being treated to traditional Highland hospitality, the troops turned on the unsuspecting MacDonalds and massacred around 40 of them. Many others of the clan who escaped later died of exposure during the cold winter night. Neither the government in Edinburgh nor King William had intended the massacre, but no one was punished for it either. It was a propaganda gift for the Jacobites and the resentment lingers on: the appointment in March 2002 of a Campbell to run a new visitor centre in Glencoe drew protests from some of the more atavistic MacDonalds.
Though other risings were planned, the next Jacobite rising to get off the ground took place in 1715, the year after George I of the German Hanoverian dynasty was brought to the throne of Great Britain to ensure a Protestant succession after the death of the last, childless, Stuart monarch. Queen Anne. The Jacobites received considerable help from France, which was at war with Great Britain. The Jacobites ambitiously planned three simultaneous risings: in south-west England, in the north of England and the Scottish borders, and in the Highlands. In the event the rising in the south-west was pre-empted by the government. The earl of Mar rallied the Jacobite clans at Braemar in September and quickly won control of the Highlands and Perth. Mar’s advance on the Lowlands was, however, blocked by a smaller government force at the battle of Sherrifmuir, near Stirling, on 13 November. The next day another government force defeated the northern English and Border Jacobites at Preston in Lancashire. A spate of public executions to all intents and purposes finished off English Jacobitism. When news of this defeat spread north. Mar’s forces began to disperse and the rebellion collapsed. Another rising was attempted in the Highlands in 1719, this time with the support of Spanish troops, but this was defeated at Glenshiel. The final Jacobite rising in 1745-6 took place against the background of the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-8), which once again pitted Britain and France against one another. By now the great white hope of the Jacobites was James VII and II’s grandson Charles Edward Stuart, known variously as ‘the young pretender’ or ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’. Charles had confidence, good looks and charm but he had neither military nor political acumen. Despite his lack of ability, his ultimate failure was not inevitable. The best government troops were fighting abroad and neither the Scots nor the English felt much love for the dour Hanoverians. Apart from a few hundred Irish ‘Wild Geese’, supplied by his French backers, Charles was almost entirely dependent on clan levies for his army. He optimistically hoped volunteers would rally to his cause as he marched south. The small Jacobite army (it was never more than about 6,000 strong) performed surprisingly well against the more numerous and better-equipped Hanoverian forces. Using the favoured tactic of Celtic armies since ancient times, the reckless, terrifying headlong charge, the Highlanders routed nervous and inexperienced government armies at Prestonpans (1745) and Falkirk (1746). But though Charles marched as far south as Derby, there was no popular rising in either the Lowlands or England. Dissatisfaction with the Hanoverians did not translate into enthusiasm for a Stuart restoration. A dash on London, where panic reigned, might have persuaded the French to invade England and so have won the day for Charles, but he was unable to persuade his followers to continue. He retreated to the Highlands and to crushing defeat by the Duke of Cumberland’s army at Culloden on 16 April 1746. The Highlanders relied on their tried and tested charge but this time they were facing well-drilled opponents, who had also the advantage of a strong position on rising ground. As Caesar’s legionaries had done long before, Cumberland’s redcoats confidently stood their ground and drove the Highlanders off with heavy losses. Many woundedjacobites who could not flee were bayoneted or clubbed to death where they lay. Hanoverian dragoons roamed the countryside hanging anyone caught in Highland dress, including many innocent people who had taken no part in the battle. Charles became a hunted fugitive but he was not betrayed, despite the offer of a considerable reward, and he escaped the retribution that the government now meted out to his loyal followers. Like their leader, most of the Jacobite clan chiefs escaped abroad and were forfeited of their lands in their absence; three only were caught and, as befitted their rank, sent to the block. Some 3,400 Jacobite rank-and-file prisoners were taken to England for trial and imprisonment, transportation to the colonies or the gallows. The ’45 has come to be popularly regarded as the last Anglo-Scottish war but this is a long way from the truth. Charles had the support of only about half the clans, while the Hanoverian army at Culloden included more Scots in its ranks than did the prince’s. The absolute subjugation of the Highlands that followed was an end long desired by Lowlanders and they supported it fully. The Jacobite Highlanders who lay wounded in the heather at Culloden were as likely to be dispatched by their fellow countrymen as by an English redcoat.
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