Culloden Moor
Jacobitism did not end with the death of James II. By the mid-18th Century, James’s grandson, Charles Edward Stuart, better known as ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’ or ‘The Young Pretender’, was the candidate to oust the House of Orange from the throne of England and Scotland. He arrived in Scotland in July 1745, and in the following September defeated the sole government army in Scotland at the Battle of Prestonpans. He then marched South to invade England, getting as far as Derbyshire in the East Midlands before he was forced to retreat to Scotland due to a lack of support.
King George II of England sent his son, the Duke of Cumberland, in pursuit of Bonnie Prince Charlie and his Jacobite Army, and the rebel army was harried by the English and terribly fatigued by the time that the two sides met at Culloden, near Inverness, in April 1746. 7, 000 weary Jacobites met 8, 000 well-rested Englishmen with superior fire power. The Jacobite line was severely stretched, and for one reason or another the MacDonald regiment did not follow orders, leaving it skewed. Cannon, muskets, and guns cut through the beleaguered Jacobite line for the first half an hour.
At last, Charlie ordered his men to charge the English. Running through marshy ground, the Jacobite soldiers were sitting ducks for the English firearms. Those that did reach the English frontline were bayoneted en masse, and finally the decision was made to flee. Only 300 of the Duke of Cumberland’s men were slain, with around 2, 000 Jacobites dying on the battlefield. Culloden marked the end of the Jacobite Uprising, with those who escaped hunted down and killed in the period that followed, and Bonnie Prince Charlie making good his escape to France, where he enjoyed numerous love affairs.
