If you want to find out more about the 1745-46 Jacobite Rebellion and Culloden, read on here.

The 1745 Jacobite Rebellion
The 1744 Invasion is cancelled
In 1744 Britain and France were fighting each other in the War of the Austrian Succession. Louis XV of France thought it might be useful to have a new British king who would be more friendly to him, and planned a massive invasion to land in southern England and take London. Charles, the Jacobite 'Young Pretender' was in France, waiting to join the expedition to claim the throne for his father. However British government intelligence found out. The French and British navies had lined up for battle in the Channel when a sudden storm blew up. In Dunkerque harbour it wrecked the ships ready to transport the French soldiers for the invasion.

Charles sets sail
Charles wanted to have another try. Louis could not spare him more ships and soldiers - at least not openly. The middle-men were Irish Jacobite merchants and privateers in the Normandy ports. Charles sold some of his dead mother's rubies to buy help. In 1745 he set off again, with unofficial French backing, but only 2 ships. On the way, the ship which had most of his men and weapons on board was attacked by the Royal Navy and had to go home. But Charles would not turn back. When he arrived in Scotland he had one ship and 7 close advisers with him: 3 Scots, 3 Irishmen and 1 Englishman. Two of them were elderly men. Not surprisingly the first chiefs he asked to join him told him to go home. He insisted that he had come home - although he had never been in Britain before.

Glenfinnan
Charles got some support from some of the Catholic MacDonalds. The Jacobites met at Glenfinnan. The standard was raised on 19 August 1745 and the Old Pretender was proclaimed King James VIII and III. There is a monument to mark the site. But the Jacobites were worried that for all his fine words, Charles had not brought a French army with him. Against his brother's advice, Donald Cameron of Lochiel went to meet Charles. He had been uncertain what to do, but Charles talked him into joining in. Lochiel then forced the rest of his clan to come along by threatening them. With support of the large Cameron clan it was easier for the Jacobites to attract other supporters. They began to march south to capture Edinburgh. They met little opposition on the way, because there were very few soldiers in the country - most were fighting the French abroad. The government did not at first think the rebellion was very serious. While Charles marched his troops down one side of the country, General John Cope marched his up the other.

Edinburgh and Prestonpans
The rebels captured Edinburgh in September. Charles said that he repealed (undid) the Act of Union, and held a party at Holyrood Palace. Edinburgh Castle remained in the hands of Government troops. General Cope at last caught up, and camped just outside Edinburgh. But early in the morning of 21 September, the Jacobites surprised his troops and defeated them in the battle at Prestonpans. One of the casualties was the pious and well-respected Scots dragoon officer Colonel James Gardiner (1688-1745) of nearby Bankton House, who suffered fatal bullet and Lochaber axe wounds.

The Invasion of England and Retreat from Derby
Charles and his army then marched south into the north west of England. Once again the government troops, under General Wade, were on the wrong side of the country. Charles was disappointed when very few of the English Jacobites came to join him, although a regiment was recruited in Manchester.
By 6 December 1745, the Jacobites had advanced as far as Derby. Charles Edward and his Irish friend John William O'Sullivan wanted to go on to capture London so that he could become Regent there for his father, James Francis. But about 1,000 men had already gone home and there was no sign of a French army coming to help. Lord George Murray and some of the other officers advised Charles to turn back to Scotland and wait for French help there. He was forced to agree, but decided not to take their advice again.
The Jacobites left a small force at Carlisle, mainly the men of the Manchester Regiment. A government army led by the king's younger son, Prince William, Duke of Cumberland, was following the rebels.

Falkirk
Back in Scotland, Charles had to be talked out of destroying Glasgow. The Jacobites tried and failed to capture Stirling Castle but defeated General Henry Hawley's army at Falkirk on 17 January 1746. They then withdrew further north and on 18 February captured Inverness. They stayed there for 2 months with few supplies and no money. Meanwhile Cumberland was catching up and brought his army to Nairn on 14 April.

The Battle of Culloden
Against the advice of George Murray and the chiefs, Charles lined up the Jacobite army on the flat, boggy ground of Culloden Moor on Tuesday15 April 1746. Murray wrote: 'There could never be a more improper ground for Highlanders' but O' Sullivan had approved of it and Charles was now taking his advice. He was also going to take command in the field himself. Never mind that the food had been left in Inverness, and his men were hungry...There was no sign of Cumberland who was celebrating his twenty-fifth birthday in Nairn with his troops.
Murray suggested attacking Cumberland's camp at night while everyone was sleeping off the royal birthday party. Charles reluctantly agreed but there were delays. When it became obvious the Jacobites would not reach the camp before dawn, they turned back. The Rebel army - still hungry and tired after marching around all night - lined up again on the moor on the morning of 16 April.
The front line was mostly Highlanders but also the Edinburgh volunteers. The second line included more Lowland units from the north east, Ogilvy's Angus Regiment and the Gordons and some professional soldiers from the French service: the Scots Royal and Stapleton's Irish. In the third line was Charles himself and the cavalry - but only Elcho's and Fitzjames's were actually mounted.
The government army was larger. In its front line were St Clair's, Cholmondley's, Prices, Campbells, Munros and Barrels Regiments with the cavalry on the flanks. It is a common mistake to refer to Culloden as a battle between the Scots and the English. But the Argyll militia was on the government side and the fact the regiments in those days were called after their Colonels hides their modern identities.

• St Clair's Regiment was the Royal Scots
  
• Campbell's became the Royal Scots Fusiliers/Royal Highland Fusiliers
  
• Sempill's Regiment became the King's Own Scottish Borderers
  
• Barrel's and Cholmondley's Regiments became the King's Own Royal Border Regiment
  

What happened next?
The rest of the Jacobite army - including a large body of men who had not taken part in the battle gathered at Ruthven Barracks. Many wanted to fight on, or to lie low and wait for French reinforcements, but Charles's message was that they should save themselves. They dispersed.
Lochiel wrote that he was offered favourable terms by Cumberland if he would persuade the Rebels to surrender, but refused them 'with disdain' since he still believe French support would arrive. In Edinburgh the captured Jacobite standards were burned by the public hangman and the General Assembly of the Kirk welcomed Cumberland as Scotland's deliverer. In London he also received a hero's welcome: Handel composed 'The Conquering Hero' in his honour. But later his military career was not impressive. Seriously overweight from his youth, he died in 1765 aged 44.

Charles went on the run with a reward of £30,000 on his head. On his travels a lady named Flora MacDonald smuggled him from South Uist to Skye dressed as a servant girl 'Betty Burke'. A French ship eventually picked him up on 20 September and took him away. Despite the sentimental songs written later about 'Bonnie Prince Charlie', few people were sorry to see the back of him. The Skye Boat Song was written by an Englishman 150 years later to an older tune which originally had no Jacobite connections.

Charles' adventure had left the country, especially the Highlands, in a worse state than before he came, although it recovered later. The Lord Advocate, Duncan Forbes of Culloden, warned nothing could be gained from attacking the rebel rank and file many of whom had been forced to take part by their chiefs. But the army commanders had little time for him: Cumberland called him an 'old woman'. The soldiers and sailors who enforced military rule on the Highlands did not always distinguish between people who had remained loyal and those who had rebelled. The Duke of Argyll, a loyal Highlander, complained about this.

120 rebels were publicly executed as traitors: the deserters from the government army in Edinburgh and the rest in London, Carlisle, Brampton and Penrith. The north west of England was where most of the English Jacobites lived, so the executions there were meant to be a warning to them. 936 prisoners were transported to the colonies and 222 banished. Most of the other prisoners were released or exchanged although many died of disease as eighteenth century prisons and prison ships were overcrowded and dirty. It must be remembered that in the eighteenth century rebels who fought against their own people were not thought to deserve to be treated as proper prisoners of war. Jacobites in the French army who were in uniform were better treated, being prisoners of war in the service of an enemy country, and were sent back to France.
4 noblemen (3 Scots, 1 English) were executed for treason: Arthur Elphinstone, Lord Balmerino, William Boyd, Lord Kilmarnock; Charles Radcliffe, Lord Derwentwater and in 1747 Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat. Their rank gave them the privilege of being beheaded instead of being hanged, drawn and quartered like commoners. The Manchester Regiment, English Catholics commanded by Francis Towneley, suffered the most executions of any single regiment.

The government passed Disarming Act against the wearing of Highland dress - because the Jacobites had made it a uniform for all their troops - and forbidding Highlanders to have weapons or bagpipes (regarded as instruments of war because Highlanders never went into battle without a piper) unless they were serving in Highland regiments in the regular army. Restrictions were also placed on non-jurant Episcopalians (those who refused to swear allegiance to or pray for King George).

Charles Edward did not give up. He tried to persuade Louis XV to go to war again. Lochiel urged for another invasion in 1747 a year before his death in Flanders. There were other Jacobite plots later but none succeeded. The last Jacobite to be executed was Dr Archibald Cameron, Lochiel's brother, after Alexander Murray's Elibank Plot to abduct or assassinate the whole royal family was exposed by young MacDonell of Glengarry (the spy code named 'Pickle') in 1753. When George III succeeded his grandfather as King in 1760 he was accepted in a way his predecessors had not been. Unlike them - and unlike Charles Edward - he had even been born in Britain. The Old Pretender, James Francis, died in 1766. Charles Edward started calling himself Charles III but this meant little. He died in 1788 a disappointed drunkard. His younger brother Henry became a Cardinal. As Henry IX he died in 1807, recognising George III and his descendants as the lawful kings.

Did you know?
The truth about the Tartan Army?
The Jacobite Army- including Lowlanders and Englishmen - was dressed in tartan on the orders of Charles Edward and Lord George Murray. There were no 'clan tartans' of the kind marketed today. David Morier's painting, for which survivors of both sides posed, shows the Jacobites wearing outfits made up of different tartans. The patterns and colours were a matter of choice and fashion, not of name or clan identity. However the dark 'government sett' was part of the uniform of Highland regiments in government service. It is now known as the Black Watch tartan - one of the few patterns which pre-dates the rebellion. After the rebellion, the Disarming Acts which banned Highland civilians from having weapons also banned tartan and Highland costume, because the Jacobites had made it into a uniform for all their troops no matter where they came from. The punishment was 6 months in prison for a first offence and 7 years transportation to the colonies if you did it again. But it was difficult to enforce, especially in remote areas, and began to be ignored. Long before the Acts were repealed in 1782, fashionable gentlemen, even in the Lowlands, had their portraits painted in full Highland dress.

Bayonets did not win the battle?
It has been claimed that Cumberland's secret weapon was the bayonet which he trained his infantry to use by thrusting to the right and getting under the sword arm of the enemy diagonally opposite him. This may have helped those soldiers whose opponents were using swords but most of the Jacobite infantry were using muskets, like the government troops. Of the weapons recovered from the battlefield, only 190 were swords but over 2,000 were muskets. It was the government army's artillery, firing across the open ground which won the day.

Charles and Flora - the 'love story' that never was?
When Flora MacDonald dressed Charles Edward as her maid 'Betty Burke' to help him escape she was not in love with him. She was helping a stranger in trouble, at risk to herself. She was arrested and spent some time in the Tower of London - but in good conditions where she received many famous visitors and became a celebrity. She married her cousin Allan MacDonald of Kingsburgh. In 1772 they and their family emigrated to North Carolina but suffered for fighting for George III when the American colonies rebelled, and later returned to Skye.
The real romance of 1745 is that of Margaret Johnstone who accompanied her Jacobite husband, David, Lord Ogilvy, on campaign. After Culloden, he fled abroad, but she was taken prisoner to Edinburgh Castle. Helped by her brother and sister, she escaped from the castle disguised as a man, and rejoined her husband.

• NTS at Culloden
  Culloden Moor
  Inverness
  IV2 5EU
  Tel: 01463 790607

  B9006, 5 miles east of Inverness
  National Cycle Routes 1 and 7
  Buses: Highland Omnibuses number 12 from P.O. , Queensgate, Inverness, tel: 01462 710555
  Guide Friday tour bus from Inverness - May to September, tel: 01463 224000
  Rail: Inverness station 6 miles - tel: 0345 484950
  Parking available

Open:
Site - all year, daily
Visitor centre: 1 Feb to 31 March and 1 November to 31 Dec (except 24-26 Dec), daily 10-4, 1 April to 31 Oct, daily 9-6
Exhibition and audio visual show, last admission 30 mins before closing
Restaurant closes 30 mins before the Visitor Centre
Cost: Adult £3.20, Child/Concession £2.20
Adult party: £2.60, Child/School party: £1.00, Family: £8.60

NTS Related sites:
Illustrated guides and/or information sheets are available on:

• Glenfinnan Monument - the tower at the head of Loch Shiel commemorates the site of the raising of the Jacobite standard in 1745. It was built by the architect James Gillespie Graham for local landowner Alexander MacDonald of Glenaladale in 1815. MacDonald was a Regency rake with Jacobite ancestors. He died in 1815, aged 28, owing vast amounts of money - including to the architect. The statue of a Highlander and cast iron inscription panels were added to it in the 1830s. There is now also a visitors centre at the site.
  NTS Visitor Centre
  Glenfinnan
  Highland PH37 4LT
  Tel: 01397 722250

• Brodie Castle - the Brodies were government supporters and in 1746 let the government army camp in the castle grounds before Culloden. The Castle's collection includes a piece of the sash of the Order of the Garter worn by Charles Edward Stuart.
  Brodie
  Forres
  Moray IV36 0TE
  Tel: 01309 641600

• Castle Fraser - Castle Fraser belonged to Charles Fraser of Inverallochy whose eldest son, also called Charles, had been one of the many wounded Jacobites killed on the battlefield after Culloden. Sauchen, Inverurie, Aberdeenshire AB51 7LD Tel: 01330 833463 - Drum Castle - Alexander, the seventeenth Laird survived Culloden and was hidden by his sister in a secret room here. The Castle has some of his belongings and a portrait of Charles Edward.
  Drumoak
  by Banchory
  Aberdeenshire AB31 5EY
  Tel: 01330 811962

• Fyvie Castle - In 1733 the second Earl of Aberdeen bought Fyvie for his third wife, Lady Anne Gordon. Anne's brother, Lord Lewis Gordon, was a leading rebel in 1745. One day in 1746 she and her son, William Gordon of Fyvie saw the Duke of Cumberland ride by. When he stopped to talk to her, she made a point of telling him she was Lewis Gordon's sister. The Duke gave the little boy and orange - the anti- Jacobite fruit, because William II and II had been of the Dutch Royal House of Orange - and said he hoped the child would prove as loyal to the Hanoverian cause as his uncle had to the Stuarts.
  Fyvie
  Turiff
  Aberdeenshire AB53 8JS
  Tel: 01651 891266

• Leith Hall - two uncles of John III Leith were Jacobites in 1745 - Patrick Leith and Andrew Hay of Rannes. Andrew who was about 218 cms tall was a Major in Lord Forbes of Pitsligo's Horse. He spent 6 years as a fugitive after Culloden, then 11 years abroad. He returned to Scotland in 1763, aged 50, after his nephew John's death, and helped his widow and her young children. He saved the family from debt, provided they took his name as Leith-Hay when he died in 1789. Leith Hall has Andrew's writing case, given to him by Charles Edward Stuart, and his official pardon (certificate from the government forgiving him for having been a rebel).
  Huntly
  Aberdeenshire AB54 4NQ
  Tel: 01464 831216