failure, it had certain glimmerings of success through foreign
complications. King George never became in heart, in habits, or in
policy, an Englishman. In his Hanoverian policy he embroiled Britain
with Sweden and Spain. He purchased from the King of Denmark the duchies
of Bremen and Verden, which duchies the King of Sweden—the redoubtable
Charles XII.—claimed as his own. Charles now proposed to place himself
at the head of a confederacy, to dethrone King George, and put the
Pretender in his place. His idea was, to land with 10,000 men in the
north of Scotland, to call upon the highland clans to again rally round
a Jacobite standard, and, with the co-operation of a Spanish fleet, to
march into England. It is one of the might-have-beens with which history
abounds. But a cannon shot at the siege of Frederickshall, in 1718,
ended the erratic course of Charles.
Next year the Pretender was received with royal honours at Madrid, and
an expedition of ten ships of war, with 6,000 troops and much warlike
stores on board, was placed under the command of the Duke of Ormond, and
sailed for Scotland. A violent storm off Cape Finisterre scattered the
expedition. Two frigates landed 300 men at Lewis; these surrendered to
the royal troops sent against them. This same year the Pretender married
a Polish princess; by her he had two sons,—Charles Edward, and Henry
Benedict.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Rebellion of 1745.
In 1724, the government sent Marshal Wade into the Highlands to take
measures to enforce law and order, and to facilitate military
communication. Wade was a man of good common sense, and he did his work
with tact and judgment. The clansmen were disarmed; but commissions were
given to loyal chieftains to raise militia companies, to be disciplined
and trained in the use of arms. Some of these companies, as the
celebrated _Black Watch_, which became the 42nd regiment, were composed
of men in good social positions, as farmers, tacksmen, and sons of
highland gentlemen. And Wade employed his soldiers to construct, under
skilful supervision, well-formed roads, connected together, and more
direct. A memorable distich was posted up near Fort-William:—
“Had you seen those roads before they were made,
You would hold up your hands and bless General Wade.”
On the surface the Highlands were quiet, and were being brought more and
more within the pale of British citizenship. Sheriffs held their courts
in all the northern shires; schools were established in every parish;
farmers and breeders had better access to fairs and markets, and
hillside cottars to their Kirks. But the embers of Jacobitism still
smouldered; the chiefs had no liking for these German Georges, and the
clansmen would still follow their chieftain’s leadership.
But there was no special agitation or disquietude in the Highlands when,
on the 25th of July, 1745, Prince Charles Edward landed on the south-
west coast of Inverness-shire, and asked the neighbouring chiefs to join
him in a new rebellion. He came, personally a stranger in the land, with
a suite of seven gentlemen, to conquer a throne from which, fifty-seven
years previously, his grandfather had been driven with ignominy and
disgrace. There must have been a charm of person and manners in the
prince—now in his twenty-fifth year—by which he won the hearts, and,
even against their judgments, the enthusiastic support of the chiefs,
who met him with the intention of persuading him to return to France. He
lives in Scottish song and story as “Bonnie Prince Charlie”—the idol of
the clansmen.
[Illustration: CHARLES EDWARD, THE YOUNG PRETENDER.]
Some leading chiefs as MacDonald of Sleat and MacLeod of MacLeod,
declined to join the enterprise; but one man of foremost note—Cameron of
Lochiel—declared for the prince, and sent out a gathering summons to
arms. About two thousand men saluted the standard when, on August 19th,
it was set up at Glenfinnan. On the 3rd of September, the prince entered
Perth; a fortnight later he was in Edinburgh. The magistrates had tried
to organize a volunteer defence of the city; but when the words passed
round, “the Highlanders are in sight,” the gates were opened. But the
castle held out for King George.
Sir John Cope, the Commander of the royal forces in Scotland had, at the
news of the rebellion, gone with 1500 men into the Highlands; but,
evading the prince’s forces, he took shipping at Aberdeen, landed at
Dunbar, and with reinforcements, marched on Edinburgh. The prince met
him at Prestonpans, eight miles east of Edinburgh, and a battle was
there fought on the morning of 21st September. The rush of the
highlanders, with broadsword and target, here, as at Killiecrankie,
carried the day. The royal troops were completely routed, and their
artillery, baggage, and military chest fell to the victors.
The prince returned to Edinburgh amidst popular acclamations. His
adventure had now assumed a more serious aspect. For a time it seemed as
if the whole of Scotland,—except the castles of Edinburgh and Stirling,
and the highland garrisons—was at his feet. Dundee and Perth were held
by highland contingents; Glasgow was subjected to a payment of £5,000.
But it was six weeks before, from other highland clans coming in, and
from lowland enlistments, his army mustered 5,500 men. At Holyrood balls
and festivities, he courteously enacted the royal host. On October 31st,
he began his march southwards, entering England by the western border.
He took Carlisle, passed through Preston, Wigan, and Manchester,
arriving at Derby on 4th December. The march was in two divisions; the
front division was commanded by Lord George Murray, a thorough soldier
in courage and ability. The rear division was led by the prince
himself,—generally in highland garb, his target on his shoulder.
At Derby the prince might have said with Henry of Lancaster:—
“Thus far into the bowels of the land,
Have we marched on without impediment.”
But what next—and next? A larger and better appointed army than his own,
commanded by the Duke of Cumberland, was at Lichfield, only twenty-five
miles to the south-west; another army, equal in numbers to his own,
under Marshal Wade, was marching down on his rear through Yorkshire. The
general opinion of a Council of War was for retreat. The prince at first
refused his assent; he sulked over it for a day, and then gave in with a
bad grace, saying he would call no more Councils of War, but act
entirely on his own judgment. Early next morning—the 6th of December—the
cheerless retreat began.
The very audacity of the irruption into England fostered an idea in the
minds of both friends and enemies that the prince had some secret but
well-founded assurance of powerful support, which in due time would
reveal itself. But the idea was seen to be baseless when the highland
brogues began to retrace the northern roads. In passing through
Manchester on the march, there had been bonfires, acclamations, hand-
kissing, and a display of white cockades. Ten days later, in the
retreat, there was in Manchester a mob-demonstration against the
highlanders; when they left the town, their rear guard was hooted and
fired upon.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
LORD LOVAT.
_From a drawing made by Hogarth the morning before his Lordship’s
execution._
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
When the Duke of Cumberland learned of the retreat of the rebels, he
hastened against them with all his cavalry; but their rear-guard, under
Lord George Murray, gallantly repelled all attacks; and on 20th
December, the prince’s army was again on Scottish ground. After levying
contributions on Glasgow and Dumfries, he proceeded towards Stirling,
making the historical village of Bannockburn his headquarters. Here he
was joined by considerable reinforcements, including the clans Frazer,
Farquharson, MacKenzie, and Macintosh. Simon, Lord Lovat, the aged chief
of the Frazers, had been playing fast and loose, negotiating with the
Prince for a dukedom as the price of his support; at the same time
assuring the government of his loyalty, and asking for arms to enable
his clan to act against the rebels. In the end, he sent his son with 750
Frazers to join the princes standard; the crafty old fox himself
remaining at home in pretended neutrality. By the middle of January the
prince’s muster-roll reached its maximum—about 8,500 men.
The prince had opened trenches for a regular siege of Stirling Castle,
when he learned that General Hawley with 8,000 men, most of them
veterans from the French wars, was marching against him. Lord George
Murray—knowing that with such an army as that of the rebels, the chances
of success lay more in attack than defence—made a rapid march on Hawley.
On the afternoon of January 17th, a battle was fought on Falkirk Moor.
It was a wild fight, in a blinding storm of wind and rain. The darkening
mists prevented combined operations on both sides. Divisions of each
army drove back their immediate opponents, but themselves got into
disorder in pursuit. Hawley in belief of defeat, fired his tents, fell
back on Linlithgow, and next morning took his army to Edinburgh.
After the battle of Falkirk, the prince was for continuing the siege,
but such plodding work did not suit the Highlanders, and the chiefs
addressed a memorandum to him, advising retreat. He fumed and protested,
but had again to yield. On February 4th, the Forth was forded, and the
retreat began; it was a leisurely one, no royalist force of any
magnitude being in the Highlands. Inverness was occupied by the prince
on February 18th. Forts George and Augustus surrendered; Lord Loudon
took what royalist troops he could collect into Ross-shire, where they
were joined by the Whig MacDonalds.
The Duke of Cumberland came to Edinburgh, and organized an army. In
addition to his British troops, 6,000 Hessians were landed at Leith. The
army marched by Perth to Aberdeen. On the 8th of April, the Duke left
Aberdeen; on the 14th, he was at Nairn, 16 miles north of Inverness. His
troops numbered 9,000 men,—a compact, well-fed, well-disciplined army,
with full confidence in their leader, as a man of courage and large
military experience.
The prince had not expected that the duke would leave Aberdeen before
May, and his troops were scattered about. They had been for weeks in a
state of semi-starvation, and had to roam the country to find food for a
bare subsistence. The men were discontented for lack of pay; the leaders
were jealous and suspicious of each other; some of the clans claimed
special rights and precedences. It was a divided, a disheartened, almost
a demoralized army of 7,000 men which, on April 15th, stood, with barely
one ration for each man in the commissariat, upon Culloden Moor, about
four miles north-east of Inverness.
Unequally matched as the two armies would have been if they had met on
the 15th, they were much more so on the next day, when the battle
joined. For in the intervening night, a strategical misadventure
prostrated the spirit and weakened the efficiency of the prince’s army.
There was an abortive attempt at a night attack on the royalist camp.
After a long weary march, the rebel army failed to concentrate in time
for a night surprise; and, disheartened and fatigued, it marched back to
Culloden Moor. Here, many at once lay down to sleep, others scattered in
search of food. At noon of the 16th, the two armies confronted each
other.
Lord George Murray was watching for the proper moment to attack, but,
without waiting for orders, the clans in the centre and right wings
rushed down with their broadswords, and in spite of a galling fire broke
through the front line of the enemy. But the second line had been
trained to resist a Highland onset; they reserved their fire until the
clansmen had almost reached the points of the bayonets, and then it told
with deadly effect. The broadswords could not penetrate the steady line
of bayonets; for the assailants it was either flight or death.
The three MacDonald regiments had been placed in the left wing of the
rebel army. They claimed the right wing, and even in the supreme moment
of battle, Highland pride predominated over military duty. They did not
respond to the order to advance, and retired upon the second line. And
now, a boundary wall on the prince’s right had been thrown down by the
Argyleshire Campbells, and a way made for the duke’s cavalry to operate
on the flank and rear. His main army advanced in compact order, and it
became a panic, and “save himself who can,” with the clansmen. The
MacDonalds and a portion of the second line retired in fair order; but
the duke’s cavalry cut off all stragglers; and all the wounded rebels on
the battlefield, even those who were next morning found alive, were—by
the duke’s orders it is said—savagely put to death.
And not with the fever-madness of battle did the savageries terminate.
Cumberland had at Carlisle, where the prince had unwisely left a small
garrison, begun a course of atrocity; and he now went over the
Highlands, a very demon of cruelty and destruction. This prince of the
blood-royal of England gave his soldiery licence to shoot in cold blood
the male inhabitants, to plunder the houses of the chieftains, to drive
off the cattle and burn the huts of the peasants; to outrage the women.
His ducal title ought to have died with him; for what man of honour or
common humanity but would feel it a disgrace to bear an appellation made
for ever infamous by the _Butcher of Culloden_?
[Illustration: THE BLOCK, ETC., TOWER OF LONDON.]
And the penalties of law supplemented the work of the sword. Lords
Kilmarnock, Balmerino and Lovat, were beheaded on Tower Hill,—the last
deaths by decapitation in Britain. About a hundred persons were hanged
in Scotland, and fifty in England; hundreds were sent to the
plantations. Of course it had been rebellion, but so far as the rebels
were concerned, it had been a fair, stand-up fight; they had lost all
but honour. They had not been robbers, or guilty of violence towards
civilians; they had not maltreated their prisoners, but set them free on
parole, which was often broken. Humanity and sound policy might well
have spoken for mercy.
When the prince saw the enemy closing in upon his broken host, he may
have hesitated whether he should not stand and meet death, sword in
hand; but his friends took hold of his horse’s bridle and turned it from
the field. With few attendants he rode to Castle Downie, the residence
of Lord Lovat. On seeing the prince a fugitive, the crafty old man felt
the ground trembling under his own feet; so the prince had only a hasty
meal, and again rode on. He passed by Invergarry into the West
Highlands; there, and in the Western Isles, he was for over five months
a hunted outlaw. Government offered a reward of £30,000 for his capture;
yet, although one time and another hundreds knew of his whereabouts, not
one of these grasped at this, to them, fabulous amount, through
treachery. But the soldiery and unfriendly clansmen were vigilantly on
the outlook.
The prince had, in his wanderings, gone to the outer Hebrides, and was
lodged in a forester’s hut, in a cleft of the hills. General Campbell
landed at South Uist to make a minute search of the islands. The
MacDonalds of Skye were also there, engaged in the same task,—a hunt-
party of two thousand men. We can imagine the avidity of the search—the
warrant for a huge fortune might be found under any bracken bush on the
hillside,—within any clump of trees, or beneath any overhanging cliff.
When escape seemed impossible, a woman’s compassion and a woman’s wit
came to the rescue.
[Illustration:
FLORA MACDONALD.
_From a painting by Ramsay._
]
No feminine name is in Scotland more honoured or awakens higher thoughts
of courage and devotion than that of Flora MacDonald. She belonged to
the MacDonalds who were inimical to the prince, and was—when she came to
know of his straits—on a visit to the house of Sir Alexander MacDonald.
But she boldly asked the chief for a passport for herself, a man-
servant, and a maid-servant, to enable her to visit relatives in a
neighbouring island. The prince, dressed up as maid “Bridget,” shewed
awkward enough, but without detection the party reached the house of
MacDonald of Kingsburgh, to whom Flora was afterwards married. From
there the prince again reached the mainland.
Here he had, in a closely-watched district, several hair-breadth
escapes, and found that misery _does_ acquaint a man with strange
bedfellows! One refuge was a robber’s cave, the other occupants being
outlawed cattle-stealers. They knew the prince, and treated him with the
same loyal respect as, ten months previously, had been shewn him in the
halls of Holyrood. He was at length able to join Lochiel and other
outlawed adherents. Friends along the coast were watching for a French
vessel. One appearing on September 20th, nearly a hundred persons were
safely embarked. The prince is described as looking like the spectre of
his former self,—pale, haggard, and ragged. But his companions received
him with bonnets doffed and loyal salutations. Although chased by an
English cruiser, the vessel got safely to Marlaix, in Brittany.
[Illustration: _Ye Ende_]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Index.
Aberdeen, Old, 152;
Candlemas procession in, 153;
reception of James IV. in, 153;
church utensils, public sale of, 156;
English players in, 157;
early closing of taverns at, 158;
fines for non-attendance at church, 158;
trials for witchcraft in, 164
_Act of Security_, The, 272
Administration of effects, Provisions for the, 149
Agricola in Britain, 4
Alaric takes Rome, 10
Alexander III., King, 41
Alfred, King, Danish conflicts of, 39
Angles give their name to South Britain, 19
Anglican Church, Origin of the, 88
Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, The, 21
Anne, Queen, reign of, 272;
her domestic history, 279;
favours the Pretender, 280;
her death, 281
Argyle, Earl of, sentenced to death, 231;
his insurrection, 240;
execution of, 241
Argyle, Marquis of, his execution, 212
Arminius defeats the Romans, 10
Assembly, General, in Glasgow, 182
Assembly of Divines in Westminster, 192
Athelstane, King, 41
Augustine, Mission of, 22
Baliol nominated King by Edward I., 65
Barons’ sons, The education of, 114
Battle of Bannockburn, 71
” Brunanberg, 41
” Culloden, 299
” Drumclog, 223
” Dunbar, 200
” Falkirk, 297
” Hastings, 53
” Killiecrankie, 261
” Prestonpans, 292
” Sedgemoor, 237
” Sheriff-muir, 283
” Stamford Bridge, 53
” The Standard, 58
” Worcester, 203
Beaton, Cardinal, Murder of, 90
Berwick, The Duke of, 282
Bishops, Seven, Arrest and Trial of, 250
Bishops, _Tulchan_, in Scotland, 179
“Black Watch,” Composition of the, 289
“Bloody Assize,” The, 238
Boadicea, Queen, defeated by the Romans, 4
Boot, Torture of the, 218
Borders, The, long disorderly, 77
Bothwell Bridge, Battle of, 225;
cruel treatment of prisoners taken at, 227
_Bretwalda_, an Anglo-Saxon dignity, 21
Britain, Invasion of, by Julius Cæsar, 1;
the second invasion and conquest, 3;
as a Roman province, 12;
the Roman evacuation, 16;
barbarian raids on, 17;
the Anglo-Saxons in, 19;
Danish invasions of, 38
British Churches, Ancient, differences between, 24
Brown, John, Cruel murder of, 228
Bruce, Robert, his contest for the crown, 68;
his army before Stirling, 69;
his victory at Bannockburn, 72
Burgh Court of Dundee, old records of, 134;
justice done in the, 135;
assumed powers of life and death, 141
Cæsar, Julius, Invasion of Britain by, 2
Caledonians, The, 5
Candlemas procession in Aberdeen, 153
Canongate, The, its old memories, 124
Canute, The Danish King, 46
Caractacus defeated by the Romans, 4
Catholic church utensils, Sale of, 156
Catholic conversions under James II., 245
Catholic worship, Stringent laws against, 116
Celtic Language, The, 9
Celts, Origin of the, 27
Channel, Revolution expedition in the, 254
Charles I., Scotland under, 178;
endeavours to subvert Presbyterianism, 179;
his game of _Thorough_, 184;
at war with Parliament, 191;
joins the Scottish army, 195;
given up to Parliamentary army, 196;
at Carisbrook Castle, 197
Charles II. signs the Covenant, 199;
is crowned at Scone, 201;
defeated at Worcester, 203;
the Restoration, 211;
Scotland under, 213;
establishes Episcopacy, 214;
his death, 235
Charles Edward, Prince, lands in Scotland, 290;
in Edinburgh, 291;
in Derby, 293;
at Culloden, 298;
wanderings and escape, 302
Charles XII. of Sweden designs invading Britain, 287
Churches, Ancient British, 24
Civilization, Modern turning point in, 85
Civil War, The, 191
Claverhouse, Graham of, 223;
defeated at Drumclog, 224;
his cruel revenge, 226;
raises Highland clans in Jacobite cause, 260;
his death at Killiecrankie, 262
Columba settles in Iona, 32
Commission to discuss terms of Union, 273
Constantius, The Emperor, 7
Constantine, The Emperor, 8
Conversion of the Anglo-Saxons, 22
Conversion of the Picts, 33
Cope, Sir John, defeated at Prestonpans, 292
“Covenant,” Origin of the, 91
Covenanters at Rullion Green, 217;
at Drumclog, 223;
at Bothwell Bridge, 225;
persecutions of, 227;
martyrs’ monument in Greyfriars’ churchyard, 247
Cromwell in Scotland, 199;
wins battle of Dunbar, 200;
Scotland under, 206;
his latter days, 207;
his character, 207
Culdees, The, 33
Culloden, The Rebel army at, 298;
the battle, 299;
atrocities after the battle, 300
Cumberland, Duke of, follows retreat of Rebel army from Derby, 294;
marches against the Rebels, 297;
wins battle of Culloden, 299;
his savagery, 300
Cures from holy wells, 167
Dalrida, Scoto, Kingdom of, 31
Dalziel persecutes the Covenanters, 216
Danish invasions of Britain, The, 38
Darien Scheme, The, 270;
ends in disaster, 271
Darnley, Lord, marries Queen Mary, 107;
his murder, 108
David I., King, 58
Declaration of Indulgence, The, 248
Declaration of Rights, The, 258
“Defender of the Faith,” Title of, 87
Derby, March of Rebels to, 293;
retreat from, 294
Derwentwater, Earl of, raises a rebellion, 283
Dress regulations in Sixteenth Century, 150
Druidism in Britain, 13
Drumclog, Battle of, 223
Drummond, Sir William, 83;
his welcome of Charles I. to Edinburgh, 178
Drunkenness, Punishments for, 145
Dunbar, Battle of, 200
Dunbar’s description of pageant in Aberdeen, 153
Duncan, King, 55
Dundee, History of Old, 134;
Burgh Court records, 135;
offences and punishments, 136;
stormed by General Monk, 204
Dunottar Castle, Siege of, 128
Edgar the Peaceable, 42
Edinburgh, Old, 111;
a picturesque city, 112;
early history of, 112;
provisions against fire, 113;
early schools, 114;
after Flodden, 114;
Mary’s entrance into, 117;
quarrel of James VI. with, 120;
James revisits, 122;
resistance to episcopacy in, 182;
occupied by Prince Charles Edward, 292
Edinburgh Castle, 126;
an ancient royal residence, 127;
the regalia in, 127
Edward, King, the elder, 40
Edward the Confessor, 48
Edward I., arbitrator on claims to Scottish crown, 64;
decides for Baliol, 65;
conquers Scotland, 66;
his death, 68
Edward II. invades Scotland, 69;
is defeated at Bannockburn, 71
Effects, Administration of, 149
Elizabeth becomes Queen of England, 105;
her hatred of Mary, 106;
causes Mary’s execution, 109;
comparison of the two queens, 109
Ella, Landing of, 19
Emma, Queen, 46
England and Scotland, Strained relations between, 273;
Union of, 276
English, Preparation against attacks by the, 155
English Reformation, Causes of the, 86
English and Scottish Churches, Difference between, 90
English and Scottish Parliaments, Different constitution of, 74
Episcopacy introduced into Scotland by Charles I., 179
Ethelbert, Conversion of, 22
Ethelred the Unready, 44
Falkirk, Battle of, 299
Feudalism in Britain, 73
Field-preaching in Scotland, 214
Folk-speech, Scottish, 84
Foster, Mr., heads a Jacobite rising, 283
Gaelic language, The, 29
Geddes, Jenny, throws her stool, 180
George I., Accession of, 281
Glasgow, General assembly in, 182;
fined by Prince Charles Edward, 296
Glencoe, Massacre of, 264;
resolution on by the Scottish estates, 269
Godwin, Earl, 48;
his banishment, 49;
his return, 50