Jacobite rising of 1745

The "Forty-Five" was the last serious attempt to restore the exiled House of Stuart to the throne of Great Britain. Launched by Charles Edward Stuart, later remembered as Bonnie Prince Charlie, in the Scottish Highlands in August 1745, it took Edinburgh, invaded England as far as Derby, and then fell back to defeat at Culloden in April 1746. Its failure ended Jacobitism as a real force in British politics.

The Glorious Revolution of 1688 had deposed the Catholic James II and VII, and later laws barred Catholics from the throne, which passed in 1714 to the Protestant George I of Hanover. James's son, James Francis Edward Stuart, kept up a claim from exile, but earlier risings in 1715 and 1719 failed, and after the death of Louis XIV in 1715 France was less willing to help. Support for the Stuarts in 1745 came from varied and often conflicting motives. In Scotland the strongest was resentment of the 1707 Union with England; many of Charles's closest advisers, by contrast, were Irish and English Catholic exiles.

War between Britain and France revived Stuart hopes. A French invasion planned for early 1744 was wrecked by storms and called off. Charles decided to go to Scotland anyway, gambling that France would then have to back him. Of the two ships that sailed in July 1745, one, carrying most of his weapons and French volunteers, was forced back after a fight with a Royal Navy ship; the other landed Charles on Eriskay in the Outer Hebrides on 23 July. Many Highland chiefs urged him to go home, but enough were persuaded, and on 19 August he raised the Stuart standard at Glenfinnan.

The small army grew as it moved south, joined by Lord George Murray, who became its most effective commander. Charles entered Edinburgh on 17 September, though the castle held out, and on 21 September the Jacobites routed the government army of Sir John Cope at Prestonpans in a matter of minutes. Charles declared the Union dissolved. His council, however, was divided: most Scots wanted to secure Scotland, while Charles and his Irish advisers pressed for an invasion of England, promising English risings and a French landing.

The army crossed into England in November, took Carlisle and marched through Lancashire to Manchester, which provided the only significant body of English recruits. At Derby, reached on 4 December, there was still no sign of English support or a French landing, and government armies were closing in from the north and south. The council voted to retreat. The choice has remained controversial, but many historians consider it wise. It also broke trust between Charles and the Scottish commanders.

Back in Scotland the Jacobites won a narrow victory at Falkirk Muir in January 1746, but failed to take Stirling Castle and withdrew north to Inverness. On 16 April the Duke of Cumberland's army destroyed them at the Battle of Culloden. Charles hid for months, helped notably by Flora MacDonald, before a French ship took him off in September. Some 3,500 Jacobites were charged with treason; about 120 were executed and many were transported to the colonies.

The government built forts and roads across the Highlands, abolished the chiefs' hereditary legal powers and banned Highland dress for civilians until 1782. Charles never returned to Scotland and died in Rome in 1788. In the following century, writers such as Walter Scott recast the rising as romantic legend, and tartan, once a symbol of rebellion, became an emblem of Scottish identity.

Our 1715 and 1783 maps show Great Britain, united since 1707, either side of the rising; the nearest earlier view of an independent Kingdom of Scotland is on our 1700 map.