Jacobites: A New History of the '45 Rebellion

by Jacqueline Riding

Overview

The dramatic story of Bonnie Prince Charlie and his quixotic attempt to regain the throne of England.

The Jacobite Rebellion of 1745-46 is one of the most important turning points in British history--in terms of national crisis every bit the equal of 1066 and 1940. The tale of Charles Edward Stuart, "Bonnie Prince Charlie," and his heroic attempt to regain his grandfather's (James II) crown--remains the stuff of legend: the hunted fugitive, Flora MacDonald, and the dramatic escape over the sea to the Isle of Skye. But the full story--the real history--is even more dramatic, captivating, and revelatory.

Much more than a single rebellion, the events of 1745 were part of an ongoing civil war that threatened to destabilize the British nation and its empire. The Bonnie Prince and his army alone, which included a large contingent of Scottish highlanders, could not have posed a great threat. But with the involvement of Britain's perennial enemy, Catholic France, it was a far more dangerous and potentially catastrophic situation for the British crown. With encouragement and support from Louis XV, Charles's triumphant Jacobite army advanced all the way to Derby, a mere 120 miles from London, before a series of missteps ultimately doomed the rebellion to crushing defeat and annihilation at Culloden in April 1746--the last battle ever fought on British soil.

Jacqueline Riding conveys the full weight of these monumental years of English and Scottish history as the future course of Great Britain as a united nation was irreversibly altered.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781608198047
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	07/05/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	608
File size:	9 MB

About the Author

Dr. Jacqueline Riding specializes in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century British history and art. She read History and Art History at the universities of Leicester, London and York, and has over twenty-five years' experience working as a curator and consultant within a broad range of museums, galleries and historic buildings, including the Guards Museum, Tate Britain and Historic Royal Palaces. From 1993-1999 she was Assistant Curator at the Palace of Westminster and later founding Director of the Handel House Museum, London. Her publications include Houses of Parliament: History, Art, Architecture (2000). She was the consultant historian and art historian on Mike Leigh's award-winning Mr. Turner (2014) and is the consultant historian on his next feature film, Peterloo. Jacqueline Riding is an Associate Research Fellow in the School of Arts, Birkbeck College, University of London and lives in South London.
Dr Jacqueline Riding specialises in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century British history and art. She read History and Art History at the universities of Leicester, London and York, and has over twenty-five years' experience working as a curator and consultant within a broad range of museums, galleries and historic buildings, including the Guards Museum, Tate Britain and Historic Royal Palaces. From 1993-1999 she was Assistant Curator at the Palace of Westminster and later founding Director of the Handel House Museum, London. Her publications include Houses of Parliament: History, Art, Architecture (2000). She was the consultant historian and art historian on Mike Leigh's award-winning Mr. Turner (2014) and is the consultant historian on his next feature film, Peterloo. Jacqueline Riding is an Associate Research Fellow in the School of Arts, Birkbeck College, University of London and lives in South London.

Jacqueline Riding is the author of Jacobites: A New History of the '45 Rebellion. Former curator of the Palace of Westminster and Director of the Handel House Museum, she is a historical adviser on feature films, including Mike Leigh's Mr Turner and Peterloo.




Jacqueline Riding is the author of Jacobites: A New History of the '45 Rebellion. Former curator of the Palace of Westminster and Director of the Handel House Museum, she is a historical adviser on feature films, including Mike Leigh's Mr Turner and Peterloo.

Table of Contents

A Note on Dates xi

Prologue xiii

1 Rome 1

2 Versailles 15

3 Paris 31

4 Fontenoy 43

5 Brittany 55

6 Flanders 67

7 Edinburgh 71

8 Eriskay 77

9 Culloden House 91

10 Glenfinnan 97

11 Auld Reekie 103

12 Perth 119

13 Gray's Mill 129

14 Netherbow Port 133

15 Canongate 137

16 The Mercat Cross 145

17 Prestonpans 151

18 Holyroodhouse 163

19 The Abbey: Part 1 171

20 The Abbey: Part 2 183

21 Vilvoorde 191

22 South 197

23 Fontainebleau 203

24 England 209

25 Newcastle upon Tyne 223

26 Lancashire 227

27 Manchester 239

28 Lichfield 255

29 Montrose 259

30 Derbyshire 263

31 Derby 269

32 Stafford 277

33 London 283

34 Exeter House 295

35 Packington 309

36 Clifton Moor 321

37 Carlisle 325

38 Scotland 331

39 Falkirk 341

40 Stirling 353

41 Perth 363

42 Moy Hall 371

43 Aberdeen 377

44 Inverness 383

45 The Spey 389

46 Culloden 393

47 Nairn 401

48 Culloden to Nairn 405

49 Drummossie Muir 413

50 Ruthven 429

51 Church Street, Inverness 441

52 Albano 451

53 Coradale 453

54 Fort Augustus 459

55 Skye 465

56 Kennington Common 471

57 Glenmoriston 479

58 The Tower 481

59 Cluny's Cage 491

60 United Kingdom 495

Epilogue 501

Notes 503

Bibliography 557

Acknowledgements 567

Index 569

Editorial Reviews

05/16/2016
Riding, a specialist in 18th-century British history, relates how Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Young Pretender, tried and failed in 1745 to replicate Charles II’s restoration of the Stuart monarchy. She maintains objectivity regarding the struggle for power between the Stuarts and the Hanovers, making this work unusual among the many passionate and patriotism-tinged treatments of the oft-romanticized prince. Riding’s Charles, naive yet determined, relentlessly pushes toward London, gathering a mix of informally trained Highlanders and Lowlanders as well as a promise of French support. Throughout, Riding seamlessly incorporates journal entries, letters, and other primary sources from both major figures and the local people affected by long-hidden hopes, media-stoked fears, and ravenous armies on both sides. This incorporation of ordinary Scots reveals the mixed attitudes toward Charles’s cause. Illustrations accompanying each chapter also bolster the textual descriptions of Charles’s use of various dress styles (Highland kilts, Lowlander breeches, French trends) to show familiarity with the various groups whose support he desperately needed. Riding effectively shows why Bonnie Prince Charlie’s once-great hopes during a tumultuous and adventure-packed year in Scotland led to a crushing defeat at Culloden—and continue to inspire the romanticization of his legend centuries later. Illus. Agency: A.M. Heath & Co. Ltd. (U.K.). (July)

Publishers Weekly

"[Riding] unflinchingly describes the consequences for those who supported the rebellion. The use of contemporary accounts, especially from women, offers a different and compelling perspective to events, resulting in a persuasive work geared toward 21st-century readers. Even-handed, refreshingly free of jargon, and organized into short, succinct chapters focused on geographic location that make the book read like a thoroughly researched adventure story, this work will appeal to the lay reader while also being an ideal resource for a Scottish history course." - starred review, Library Journal

"A comprehensive history . . . Riding provides an exciting account of a doomed rebellion and ably explores the psyche of the fierce, devoted Highlanders." - Kirkus

"Substantial, deeply researched and fast-moving, [it] mingles the thrill of revolt with a careful analysis of international contexts and motives." - Literary Review

"[Riding] maintains objectivity . . . making this work unusual among the many passionate and patriotism-tinged treatments of the oft-romanticized prince . . . Throughout, Riding seamlessly incorporates journal entries, letters, and other primary sources [and] effectively shows why Bonnie Prince Charlie’s once-great hopes . . . continue to inspire the romanticization of his legend centuries later." - Publishers Weekly

"Given the popular sentimentality of her subject Jacqueline Riding achieves a remarkable feat in producing a history which is both compulsively readable and factually packed. Having brilliantly toured the political situation of mid eighteenth-century Western Europe, she takes us along on the political (and then military) campaign trail with the Young Pretender. But the triumph of Riding’s new account of the 1745 rebellion is that, as we move from Rome, through Paris, to Scotland and England, we are taken grippingly from romance to comedy, and even high farce, before the eventual tragedy." - Catholic Herald

"[Jacobites] has an unusually acute sense of person and place . . . It is both scholarly and readable, with 60 bite-sized chapters each presenting a detailed, vivid part of a complex rebellion." - BBC History Magazine

"A fresh and historically convincing perspective . . . An enthralling narrative [and] and a work of penetrating insight and dispassionate balance, which is captivating from start to finish." - Guardian

"Jacqueline Riding’s Jacobites brilliantly captures the extraordinary daring of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s ’45, and takes us step-by-step to the final disaster at Culloden. This is the definitive modern account of the Jacobite Rising." - George Goodwin, author of BENJAMIN FRANKLIN IN LONDON

"[A]n engrossing account . . . Riding allows those involved to tell the story; the narrative consists in large part of excerpts from the writings of participants and witnesses, including the Duke of Cumberland, which lends a sense of immediacy." - Choice

From the Publisher

★ 06/01/2016
Many believe that we know the full story of the Scottish 1745 Jacobite rebellion: the defeated Charles Edward Stuart (1720–88), also referred to as Bonnie Prince Charlie, fleeing to France; the brutal retribution by the English victors; and the subsequent devastation of Highland culture. These events are well documented but often surrounded by romantic myth, depending upon one's political sympathies. Yet the rebellion was a turning point in British history, and behind the legend lays an intricate tale of faith, foolhardiness, and failure. Historian Riding places the Jacobite rebellion in the context of complex European politics and examines its significance for the Scots, many of whom were equivocal about the Jacobite cause. She also unflinchingly describes the consequences for those who supported the rebellion. The use of contemporary accounts, especially from women, offers a different and compelling perspective to events, resulting in a persuasive work geared toward 21st-century readers. VERDICT Even-handed, refreshingly free of jargon, and organized into short, succinct chapters focused on geographic location that make the book read like a thoroughly researched adventure story, this work will appeal to the lay reader while also being an ideal resource for a Scottish history course.—Penelope J.M. Klein, Fayetteville, NY

Library Journal

2016-03-30
Riding (Mid-Georgian Britain: 1740-69, 2010, etc.), a specialist in 18th-century British history and culture, delivers a comprehensive history of the events of the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745.During that year, Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Pretender, got tired of waiting in Rome and decided to take back the crown lost in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Depending on help from France, with no assurance whatever that it was forthcoming, Charles landed in Scotland to gather the clans he was sure would support him. The young Charles was willful, sullen, and generally uninspiring. He was naïve and had no political acumen or anything even approaching military ability. In fact, he had never set foot in Scotland or England. What is most interesting about the attempt to regain the throne is how few battles were actually fought. Poor defenses, fear of the ferocious Highlanders, and a British army busy fighting in Flanders caused first Edinburgh, then Carlisle, Chester, Preston, and finally Derby to capitulate without a fight. Charles' unregimented army was made up of clans, none of whom would serve under another. The Highlanders' army moved swiftly, with little in the way of baggage or armaments—so quickly that Sir John Cope's troops couldn't catch up with them, if they could ever figure out their destination. Readers may have similar difficulties with the book's miniscule map, which proves largely useless. The return of King George II's son, the Duke of Cumberland, was the death knell for the uprising. Even with help from France trickling in, Charles' insistence on pushing on to London was doomed. They had no backup and nowhere near the support they had imagined. Most of us only know the '45 for its desperate end at Culloden, but as close as they came to success, the author definitively demonstrates that it was always unsustainable. Riding provides an exciting account of a doomed rebellion and ably explores the psyche of the fierce, devoted Highlanders.

Kirkus Reviews