Jacobites
and the Union
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The
Union of 1707 between Scotland and England was highly unpopular
with the vast majority of the population in Scotland. Several
articles of the Act of Union agreement were economically favourable
to landowners in Scotland, but failed to deliver any economic
advantages to the majority of the population for over thirty years.
Discontent was widespread and food riots occurred in the east
coast burghs as the effects of famine were compounded by union
taxes. Although the situation induced resistance to union-economics,
it didn’t translate as universal support for the Jacobite
cause of keeping the Stuarts on the throne in London. Many in
Scotland now associated the Stuarts with Catholicism and suppression
of the Protestant Kirk. The Union was designed to put an end to
Jacobite hopes of a Stuart restoration by ensuring the German
Hanoverian dynasty succeeded Queen Anne upon her death. However,
the Stuarts did still command a lot of loyalty in Scotland, France
and England - the British Union did inevitably re-ignite the Jacobite
cause.
In 1708 the
Jacobite claimant to the throne, the putative James VIII, and
his French allies had attempted land in Scotland to incite a rising,
but were foiled by adverse weather and outmanoeuvred by the Royal
Navy. Six years later a motion in the House of Lords to dismantle
the Union only just failed by four votes. Then, in the same year,
Queen Anne died and was succeeded by George I of Hanover. The
controversial question of succession intensified and the following
year many nobles and Tories, disaffected with their lot within
the union, rose in favour of a Stuart monarchy.
The 1715 Jacobite Rising
The ’15 rising was led by John Erskine, Earl of Mar - a man
who had voted for the Union originally and had been Secretary
of State until 1714. He drew most of his support from north of
the River Tay, in the north-east and Highlands of Scotland - areas
where landowners had not benefited much from the Union and where
Episcopalianism (which viewed the Stuarts as head of their church)
was dominant.
However, the
Earl of Mar proved to be no great military leader. He fought a
badly commanded battle at Sherriffmuir, where the Jacobites outnumbered
the Hanoverian forces under the Duke of Argyll by two to one,
but failed to win a decisive victory. Not even the arrival and
coronation of James Stuart as King James VIII could reverse Jacobite
fortunes. Eventually the rising fizzled out when 6000 Dutch troops
landed in support of the Hanoverian government and the forces
of King James scattered under the pressure of bad leadership and
lack of foreign aid.
Fortress Scotland: The Military Solution
The
‘15 led to the dismissal of the Duke of Argyll, the Government’s
commander north of the border, after he complained that he had
lost control of Scotland north of the River Forth and trusted
few south of it. Argyll along with many other Scots viewed Jacobitism
as a political problem which could be resolved through political
means by persuading the Jacobite nobles of the benefits of a regime
in London. The Government in London saw things differently, viewing
Jacobitism as a military problem which required a military solution.
Like
Cromwell before them, they opted to garrison the Highlands, building
barracks like Ruthven to quash further rebellion and constructing
a system of roads and bridges, under the command of General Wade,
in order to supply the new system of forts and allow the rapid
deployment of troops. Wade oversaw the construction of over 250
miles of road and numerous bridges which are in use to this day.
It was a hugely expensive operation which was scaled down by the
early 1740’s when the Jacobite threat appeared to have receded,
but it showed how seriously the House of Hanover took the Jacobite
threat.
The 1745
Jacobite Rising
The final threat to the Union came with the 1745 Jacobite Rising
when Charles Edward Stuart, or Bonnie Prince Charlie as he was
known, disappointed at French unwillingness to invade in 1744,
decided to finance his own rising. Initially it was a startling
success, once again drawing most of its support from the north-east and the Highland clans. The Jacobite army rapidly broke out
of the Highlands, capturing Edinburgh, courtesy of Wade’s
roads, and advancing as far south as Derby in England. However,
with no sign of French support, the army retreated back to their
stronghold in the Highlands and was finally defeated at Culloden
Moor near Inverness in 1746.
After the
‘45
In
the aftermath of the ’45 uprising the government decided
to end the Jacobite military threat once and for all. Determined
to bring the Highlands to heel, the army showed little mercy.
Jacobites were rounded up, imprisoned or executed. Estates were
forfeited, the clan system dismantled and weaponry, plaid and
pipes were outlawed. For Highland culture it was a disaster.
However, it
was not an unmitigated disaster for the whole of Scotland. For
the Lowland Presbyterians the defeat of the Jacobites was a cause
for celebration. The Union and the Presbyterian system of church
government were safe. In the south economic progress was increasingly
viewed as the way forward, and if that future wasn’t to be
Scottish then it was to be through the British Union and access
to the trade routes of its empire. The failure of the ’45
rising was nothing less than the passing of a way of life which
is now romanticised and celebrated all over the world as the spirit
of Scottish culture, yet what few people recognise today is that
there were many people living in Scotland at the time who, for
religious or economic reasons, wanted this passing.
