1745

The 1745 rebellion is one of the best-known and most romantic episodes in the history of Britain. It was the last desperate throw of the House of Stuart to regain the throne, and it was led by the handsome and charismatic Prince Charles, whose exploits quickly passed into legend. It has produced a vast number of historical novels, films and plays, and speculations about ‘what if’ Prince Charles had advanced from Derby. Tory/Stuart historians see his scratch army of Highlanders as a disciplined and efficient force, while the government forces were ill fed, badly disciplined and barely trained. Whereas the Highlanders advanced with enthusiasm, the local militia fled before them like cowards. The rebel commanders were masters of strategy, the government commanders ineffective, wandering about and offering no resistance to the rebels. The rebels were volunteers, full of ideological zeal, the government army were professionals fighting for money, with no idealistic aim. ¹ Notwithstanding the plaudits, the rebellion failed. It failed partly because the English Jacobites stayed resolutely at home, claiming that they were waiting for a French invasion that never came, and partly because it was too late. As far as England was concerned dynastic wars interfered with the process of modernisation, industrialisation and the accumulation of capital. The rebels came out of the mists into a modern country, and disappeared back into the past. The Stuarts’ day was over.