the proposed treaty was suddenly broken off. England wanted war with
France, and considered it could be best carried on by close alliance
with Austria, which was only too glad to continue the war, with the hope
of retaining its hold on Bavaria and rewinning Silesia. A treaty known
as the Treaty of Worms therefore took the place of the former pacific
arrangements. England, Holland, Austria, Saxony, and Sardinia, agreed to
assure the Pragmatic Sanction and the European balance, while Sardinia
undertook the armed defence of the Austrian dominions in Italy. It was
met by a counter treaty known as the League of Frankfort, the most
important members of which were France and Prussia; for the elevation of
Hanover implied the degradation of Prussia, and the promise of the King
of Sardinia set free Austrian troops which the Prussian King believed
would be used only for the purpose of reconquering Silesia. The European
contest was thus assuming a more general and intelligible form; England
and France, hitherto auxiliaries, appeared each at the head of a great
league, and it was their interests, and indirectly the supremacy of the
sea, which were now at issue.
[Sidenote: Threatened invasion of England.]
Even yet no declaration of war between England and France had been
issued, but it was natural that the French, aware of the real character
of the war, should use every means for distressing England. Early in the
year it set on foot an attempted invasion of England in favour of the
Stuarts. An army of 15,000 was collected at Dunkirk, and placed under
the command of the best French general, Marshal Saxe, while fleets were
collected at Toulon and Brest for the invasion of England and to support
a Jacobite rising. The Brest fleet came out of harbour and approached
the English coast. The English fleet was drawn into pursuit; and for
the moment the coast of Kent was unguarded. A considerable portion of
the French army was on board the transports and had sailed. Once again
England owed its safety to the weather. A violent storm blowing direct
upon Dunkirk, prevented the movement of the rest of the transports,
scattered those already at sea, and the loss was such that the French
ministry abandoned their design, and Marshal Saxe was appointed to
command the army in Flanders. The naval armaments and this open support
of the Pretender gave rise to warm complaints of breach of treaty on the
part of our envoy at Paris; as his complaints were listened to with
disdain, a formal declaration of war was at length made.
[Sidenote: Progress of the war.]
[Sidenote: Changes in the ministry. Nov. 1744.]
[Sidenote: German subsidies granted. 1745.]
On the Continent the selfish policy of the French, who could think of
nothing but the extension of their own boundaries, ruined the success of
the war. The Netherlands were invaded and rapidly overrun; Savoy and
Piedmont conquered; but these successes on the extremity of the scene of
action did not tend to the conclusion of the war. Frederick of Prussia
advanced through Bohemia and took Prague, and thus saved France from a
threatened invasion of Alsace; but, unsupported by his allies, he fell
back from the Austrian dominions, and upon the death of the Emperor
(Jan. 20, 1745) was unable to prevent the election of the Prince of
Tuscany, husband of Maria Theresa, who ascended the Imperial throne as
Francis I. Maximilian, the son of the late Emperor, had shown himself
willing to accept the views of Austria; by the Treaty of Fuessen (April
22, 1745) he renounced all claims to the Austrian succession, promising
to recall his troops from the French armies, and to give his vote to
Francis, husband of Maria Theresa, who on her side recognized the
election of his late father, and restored all her Bavarian conquests.
Again it appeared that general negotiations might have been possible.
But Carteret had been driven from office, and the Whigs under Pelham
were bent on carrying on their hostility with France. His unpopular
Hanoverian tendencies, and the offhand manner in which he had treated
the Pelhams, secured Carteret's fall. His place was taken by Walpole's
old colleague Harrington. With Carteret withdrew Lord Winchelsea and
several others, thus affording Mr. Pelham an opportunity for carrying
out that form of administration to which his timidity urged him. In
exact contrast to Walpole, he dreaded opposition, and sought to make
friends of all parties, and to establish his ministry on what was then
called a broad bottom. He persuaded Chesterfield and Pitt to give up
their opposition, and the former to accept the Lord Lieutenancy of
Ireland. To the Tory Lord Gower he gave the Privy Seal, and even Sir
John Hind Cotton, an undoubted Jacobite, was given a place about the
Court. This was not done without great opposition from the King, who
disliked Chesterfield and Pitt for their opposition to his Hanoverian
schemes, and had a natural mistrust of Tories and Jacobites. The effect
of these changes was almost to suppress opposition in the House. The
ministry, now including most of the leaders of the Opposition, satisfied
with a change of principles, made but little change in practice. The
reunited Whig party felt that, as they were engaged in an open war with
France, they were, even while subsidizing Germans, carrying out their
true policy. Pitt openly declared that he no longer opposed subsidies in
face of the present state of affairs abroad. He pointed out that the
object of the war was somewhat changed, that, the minister who rested
wholly on his foreign influence being removed, they were no longer
fighting solely in the interests of Austria, but to secure an equitable
peace for themselves and their allies. However this may have been, the
system of German subsidies went further and further. The Hanoverian
troops were for the present dismissed, but their pay was added to the
Austrian subsidy. Saxony was bought, the Elector of Cologne was bought,
and so was the Elector of Mayence; and next year (1746) 18,000
Hanoverians were again taken into English pay. Robert Walpole lived just
long enough to see the dangers he had kept aloof for twenty years
gathering round England. He died in March 1745, leaving England plunged
deep in a Continental war, with constantly increasing grants for
military service, and consequently increased financial difficulties, and
on the eve of the most determined and dangerous effort which the exiled
family ever made for the recovery of their crown.
[Sidenote: Campaign in Flanders.]
[Sidenote: Battle of Fontenoy. May 11, 1745.]
The war still continued under the mistaken conduct of the French. But
neither their successes against England at Fontenoy, nor the invasion of
the young Pretender which they supported, nor their victory over the
Sardinians at Basignano, were the least decisive. As Frederick, who felt
himself deserted, bitterly said, the victories might as well have been
won on the banks of the Scamander. What he could do singlehanded the
Prussian King did. He defeated the Austrians at Friedberg, and again
upon the Sohr. He conquered the Saxons at Kesseldorf and occupied
Dresden. But seeing clearly that his allies were bent upon their own
ends, he again listened to the anti-Bourbon diplomacy of England, made
a separate peace with Austria, and the Treaty of Dresden (Dec. 25, 1745)
closed the second Silesian war. But, in spite of the withdrawal of
Prussia, the general war continued. Early in the spring a French army
under Marshal Saxe invested Tournay. The Netherlands were occupied by an
allied army of English and Dutch. There should have been 28,000 English
and 50,000 Dutch, but, although it was their own country that was
threatened, the Dutch were so dilatory that the allied army numbered
little more than 50,000. These were under the Duke of Cumberland and the
Dutch general the Prince of Waldeck. The Duke, who was young, was
somewhat controlled by the Austrian Marshal Konigsegg, and had with him
as his military guide General Ligonier. With these troops the Duke
advanced to the relief of Tournay. Marshal Saxe, whose forces were much
superior in numbers, could afford to leave 15,000 men to continue the
siege, while, marching southward along the river, he occupied a very
strong position to cover his operations. The position was rendered
almost unassailable. The French faced southward; on their right was the
river Scheldt, with the fortified bridge securing their communication
and retreat, and the village Antoing. A narrow and difficult valley ran
along their front from Antoing to Fontenoy, and their left was covered
by the wood of Barré, on the right of which a redoubt had been
constructed. The whole of this position was fortified with field-works
and abattis, with the exception of a gap between Fontenoy and the wood
of Barré, where the difficulties of the approach were held to be of
themselves sufficient. It was resolved to assault this terribly strong
position. To the Dutch was intrusted the attack of the French right,
with the villages Antoing and Fontenoy; to the English the attack on
their left. The attack of the Dutch was without energy, and failed, and
the Prince of Waldeck, withdrawing his troops to a safe distance, kept
them unemployed the remainder of the day. A similar want of energy was
exhibited by General Ingoldsby, who had been instructed to assault a
redoubt on the left of the French and to clear the wood of Barré.
Finding more opposition than he expected, he withdrew when the enemy
were on the point of abandoning their redoubt, and demanded further
orders. The English and Hanoverians, on the other hand, energetically
assaulted the unfortified gap between Fontenoy and the wood. Regardless
of the flanking fire by which they were decimated, they pushed across
the ravine and up the opposite hill. The space was narrow, and they
advanced, without deploying, in a solid column 10,000 strong with a face
of about forty men. The ground was too rough for their cavalry, which
therefore advanced in their rear. In this solid formation, with
astonishing heroism and determination, they pushed on, crushing all
opposition, and unchecked by frequent cavalry charges. They won the
crown of the position, cut the enemy's centre, and were moving onwards
towards the bridge of Calonne, threatening thus to cut off all retreat
from the broken army. The victory seemed decided, and Voltaire allows
that, had the Dutch only moved, the French must have been inevitably
routed and destroyed. But the Prince of Waldeck never stirred. Fresh
troops could therefore be brought from Antoing and Fontenoy to repel the
victorious column. In this work it was the Irish Brigade which chiefly
distinguished itself, and at last when, by the advice of the Duc de
Richelieu, four cannon were placed right in front of the column so as to
fire down its whole length, finding itself wholly unsupported, the
heroic body began to give ground. It retired as it had come, slowly,
disputing every yard, and entirely without confusion. When it reached
ground where cavalry could act, that arm, hitherto useless, covered the
retreat, and the whole army fell back to Ath. Tournay was treacherously
surrendered, and the allies had to content themselves with covering
Brussels and Antwerp. This wonderful unsupported advance, though useless
for the battle, and purchased with immense loss of life, was for long a
just source of pride to the English soldier.
[Sidenote: Prince Charles Edward lands in Scotland.]
It was the necessity of withdrawing troops for the defence of England
which had rendered the campaign in Flanders after the partial defeat of
Fontenoy so disastrous. Prince Charles Edward, though bitterly
disappointed by the failure of the expedition in the preceding year, did
not leave France; and as the French ministry, occupied with their
continental affairs, refused him further assistance, he determined to go
alone and unsupported to Scotland, and throw himself on the loyalty of
his friends there, although in all his previous negotiations with them
they had refused to think of a rising unsupported by foreign troops and
arms. Scraping together what little money he could, and purchasing a
small supply of firearms, the Prince embarked at Nantes in a privateer.
He was escorted, without the knowledge of the Government, by a French
man-of-war, in which his stores were placed. On the passage to England
they encountered an English vessel, which, though unable to capture the
French man-of-war engaged it so vigorously that it had to withdraw to
France to refit, and it was in the little privateer, 'La Doutelle,' thus
stripped of his supplies and with only seven companions, that the Prince
reached the Hebrides. In this plight he met but a cold reception, and it
was not without considerable persuasion that Macdonald of Clanranald and
other gentlemen of that tribe joined him. Their chief, Sir Alexander
Macdonald, and the head of the Macleods, on whose assistance he had
relied, kept aloof. Of more importance even than the Macdonalds was the
adhesion of Cameron of Lochiel. This chief seems to have been won,
against his better judgment, by the persuasive power of Charles, who
undoubtedly had in an unusual degree the art of attracting adherents.
While still in the extreme west of the mainland Charles was joined by
Murray of Broughton, who had been his chief agent, and whom he appointed
his Secretary of State. The Prince had reached the mainland on the 25th
of July; it was not till the 30th that information was received by the
Government that he had left Nantes, and he had been three weeks in
Scotland before it was known in London. On the 19th of August the
insurrectionary standard was raised in the solitary valley of Glen
Finnan, where the aged Marquis of Tullibardine, the rightful heir to the
dukedom of Athol, read Prince Charles's Commission of Regency. This
ceremony was graced by the presence of a considerable number of English
prisoners, who had been captured a few days previously by Lochiel's
followers as they were marching to reinforce Fort William.
Scotland is cleft in sunder by a great valley running from the Beauley
Firth in the north-east in a south-westerly direction to the salt-water
lake Loch Eil. This valley, at present occupied by the Caledonian Canal,
forms the basin of a chain of lakes, by far the largest of which is Loch
Ness, occupying nearly half of the north-east end of the valley. Between
its northern extremity and the sea lies the town of Inverness; at its
southern end was Fort Augustus, one of the forts established to keep the
Highlands in check, while, where the valley reaches Loch Eil, there was
the still more lonely post of Fort William immediately under Ben Nevis.
It was in the close neighbourhood of this fort that Charles's followers
were first collected, and it was while trying to strengthen it that the
royal troops had first come into collision with the insurgents. The
tribes to the north of Inverness, as well as Sir Alexander Macdonald and
Macleod, were either well-affected or held in neutrality chiefly by the
influence of Duncan Forbes of Culloden, Lord President, who had also
contrived for the present to attach Lord Lovat, head of the Frasers, to
the Government interest, so that it was with the western clans only that
Charles began his expedition.
[Sidenote: Cope marches against him.]
[Sidenote: Charles avoids him, and gains Edinburgh.]
[Sidenote: Cope lands at Dunbar.]
[Sidenote: Is defeated at Prestonpans. Sept. 21.]
The English military commander in Scotland was Sir John Cope, who had
altogether about 3000 men under his command. All this time the King was
absent from England, and orders had to be issued by the Lords Justices.
They approved however of Cope's plan for immediately marching into the
Highlands and crushing the insurgents if possible among the mountains.
With this intention, leaving his dragoons behind him, Cope set out from
Stirling along the direct north road towards Inverness. At Dalwhinnie,
which is now a posting-station on the great north road, the military
road made by Marshal Wade branched off to Fort Augustus, which it was
Cope's object to reach and relieve; the main road passed onwards to
Inverness. The mountain which forms the south-east side of the great
valley in which Fort Augustus lies has to be crossed. It is called in
this place Corrie-Arrack, and to cross it the road winds in steep
zigzags. The Highlanders had got possession of this difficult pass, and
intended to destroy Cope's army while ascending the zigzags. Their
disappointment was great when they found that he had turned aside at
Dalwhinnie, and was in hasty march for Inverness. By this means he
probably hoped to strengthen the loyal clans of the north and to draw
the Prince's army in pursuit. He however left the road towards the
capital quite unguarded. Charles at once pushed on and crossed the
Badenoch mountains to Blair Athol, from whence the great road runs,
without any obstacle, through the Pass of Killiecrankie into the plains
of Perthshire. He rested a few days at Perth, where he was joined by
Drummond, Duke of Perth, and by Lord George Murray, the Duke of Athol's
brother, a man of considerable military experience and capacity. He then
crossed the Forth a little above Stirling, the dragoon regiments which
had been left there retiring before him, and advanced rapidly towards
Edinburgh. The Castle of Edinburgh was secure, but the town had no
adequate fortifications, and the inhabitants doubted long and painfully
as to whether they should open their gates or not. The news that Cope,
on learning his mistake, had taken ship and had already reached Dunbar,
encouraged them to think of resistance, but their determination vanished
away after a skirmish called "the canter of Colt-Brig," when two
regiments of dragoons ran away, and did not stop till they reached
Dunbar. Negotiations were set on foot, but were cut short by the
surprise of the town by the Highlanders. On the 17th of September
Charles took possession of Holyrood House, and it seemed as if the
inhabitants of Edinburgh were by no means sorry to receive him. He could
not rest long, however, as Cope was marching along the Firth from
Dunbar. He expected to meet his enemy between that town and Edinburgh,
but the Prince marched along the hills to the south of the Firth, and
Cope was surprised to find his enemy again beyond him. He was then near
Prestonpans. He changed his face at once, and lay with his back to the
Firth and his face to the hills, as he believed in an unassailable
position, separated from the Highlanders by a morass. But Charles was
bent on fighting, and a narrow pathway through the morass to the
eastward was pointed out to him. Down this he led his forces so as to
gain a position eastward of the English, who had again to change their
face, looking now directly eastward, with their backs to Edinburgh.
Their infantry were in the centre, their cavalry on either flank. The
battle is said to have been decided in six minutes. The rush of the
Highlanders renewed the panic among the dragoons, who all took to their
heels. The infantry stood with their flanks exposed, and as their fire
did not check the Highlanders, they were soon engaged at close quarters,
where the Highland target parried the bayonet thrust, while the right
hand was free to use the claymore. The line was soon broken, and it is
said that not more than 170 escaped death or capture. The cavalry,
taking Cope with them, did not draw bridle till they reached Berwick.
[Sidenote: Indifference of England.]
Some preparations had been made in England to withstand the advance of
the rebels. Marshal Wade was at Newcastle with such troops as he could
collect, the Dutch were called upon to supply, in accordance with their
treaty, 6000 men, and some regiments were recalled from Flanders. But
throughout the population of England there was now, and through the
whole campaign, a strange carelessness as to which side should prove
victorious. The Revolution had been, comparatively speaking, an
aristocratic movement. It had moved the power from the Crown only to put
it in the hands of the nobles. Parliament was so far from being an
adequate representative body, that the disputes carried on in it excited
no very warm interest in the nation at large. At times indeed it was
necessary for the Opposition to excite the people by some national cry;
but that Opposition had uniformly employed the most violent language
against the Hanoverian influence and the minister of the Hanoverian
King. Such partial views therefore as the people had been allowed of
what was going on among their governors had all tended rather to direct
the loyalty, which was then so inherent a characteristic of the English,
towards the exiled house. Except in the matter of religion, the people
at large were able to discover but little difference whether their king
was a Stuart or a Guelph; and on this occasion the assurance had been
carefully spread that the privileges of the Church of England would not
be touched; indeed one of Charles's difficulties arose from the jealousy
of his Protestant followers. The class who had gained by the Revolution
was that class which Walpole and Walpole's policy had chiefly
favoured--the middle class; but as usual the middle class was apathetic
and slow to risk anything unless for some personal object. At first
therefore it was the Government, unaided by the people, which had to
check the insurrection. It will be seen that afterwards the aristocracy
offered, though in a very selfish manner, to come forward, and that some
towns, especially in Scotland, awoke to their responsibilities, but on
the whole it was the Government alone which had to act by means of its
soldiers, and England had been stripped of soldiers for its foreign
wars. On the other hand, the Jacobites had seen the insurrection of 1715
so thoroughly futile, and had during Walpole's long administration so
settled down under the existing Government, that only a few of the more
enthusiastic took a real interest in the quarrel.
[Sidenote: Charles marches into England as far as Derby,]