• 1689, led by Viscount Dundee. The Jacobites won the battle of KILLIECRANKIE, but lost at DUNKELD and Cromdale.

• 1715, led by the Earl of Mar. Neither side really won or lost at the battle of Sheriffmuir, but by the time James Francis arrived, everyone was going home!

• 1745-6, led by Charles Edward, James Francis's son. This went well enough at first for the Jacobites, but after getting as far as Derby in England, the returned to Scotland instead of attacking London. The government army beat the Jacobites in battle at CULLODEN and Charles escaped back to Italy.

If you want to find out more about what happened and where you can see places and objects in the Jacobite story, take a look here.

The Jacobite Story
The First Rebellion
In 1688 King James VII of Scotland and II of England and Ireland had been King for only three years - but already a lot of people disliked him. Most Protestants did not like being ruled by a Catholic King who did not get on well with his Parliaments. When his new Italian wife had a baby son, Prince James Francis, it seemed there was going to be a long line of Catholic kings just like James. Some English leaders asked James's grown up daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange (who was also her cousin!) to come over from the Netherlands to be King and Queen instead, because they were Protestants. They arrived with Dutch soldiers, but King James escaped to France.

In Scotland a special Convention Parliament met in Edinburgh in March 1689. King James and King William had sent letters to the convention so the members could choose who they wanted to be king. They chose William. Already King William III of England, he became William II of Scots. But not everyone was happy with this. James had supporters who called themselves JACOBITES, from Jacobus, which is Latin for James. One Jacobite, General John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee, rode out of Edinburgh in protest, with 50 followers, and began a rebellion. He raised King James' banner on Dundee Law and gathered an army in the Highlands. He beat a government army led by a Highlander, General Hugh Mackay of Scourie, in the battle of KILLIECRANKIE on 27 July 1689, but was fatally wounded. Less than a month later the Jacobite army was turned back at DUNKELD by only 800 government troops in a fierce battle. King James, with French help, had invaded Ireland, but King William defeated him there too so he retired to France where he died in 1701.

King William died in 1702. He had fallen off his horse when it tripped over a molehill. The Jacobites drank toasts to 'the little gentleman in black velvet' meaning the mole, which had killed their enemy. Queen Mary had already died without having any children, so the next Queen was Anne, Mary's sister. Anne had 17 children, but all of them had died very young. Most people wanted a Protestant to succeed here so that ruled out her Catholic half brother, James Francis, who lived in France, but that did not stop him and his supporters calling him James VIII and III.

The Union of Parliaments
In 1707, because of trade problems, and with bribes from London, the Scottish Parliament had voted to do away with itself and join a Union of Parliaments with the English Parliament at Westminster. Most people in Scotland did not want this Act of Union, but only rich people could vote in those days so all everyone else could do to show how angry they were was to riot in the streets. James Francis hoped to use this discontent in Scotland as a way of claiming the throne. Louis XIV of France provided him with 30 ships and 6,000 men to invade in 1708. The fleet anchored off the Fife coast, but retreated when the Royal Navy arrived. Many of the French ships were lost in bad weather on their way home.

1715
James Francis' next chance came when his half sister Queen Anne, the last reigning Stuart, died in 1714. The Protestant heir to the throne had been Princess Sophia, old King James's cousin, who had married a German prince. But Sophia, an old lady, had died just a few weeks before Anne. Her son, George Ludwig, Elector (Prince) of Hanover, who did not speak English and was unknown in Britain was crowned George I, the first of the Hanoverian Kings. This marked the beginning of the Georgian period. In 1715 the Jacobites rebelled again in England and Scotland. The English rebellion was quite small and was led by Catholic nobles in Northumberland, Cumberland and Lancashire. The Scottish one was bigger, and with a different leader might have succeeded because many people were still so angry about the Act of Union they were willing to support James as a protest. It was led by John Erskine, Earl of Mar. He was known as 'Bobbing John' because he had changed sides. He had supported the Treaty of Union and King George, but because George did not reward him with a good job and ignored him, he decided to support the Jacobite 'Pretender' (claimant) James Francis instead. Mar won support by promising to get rid of the Treaty of Union but he was not a good general. His Jacobite army fought a government army under the Duke of Argyll at Sheriffmuir but withdrew, despite outnumbering Argyll'' men 4 to 1. By the time the Pretender arrived in Peterhead, 6 weeks late, the Scottish rebellion was almost over, the English one crushed. James Francis soon went back to France with Mar and some of their friends.

1719
The exiled Jacobites tried again in 1719, this time with Spanish help, but the invasion was badly planned and they were defeated at Glen Shiel. The captured Spanish soldiers could not pay for their own food and travel, so the Government asked for them to be sent back to Spain with an IOU for their fare. The Spaniards refused to sign the IOU so their commander was held hostages until their debts were paid. There was little serious Jacobite trouble for the next 25 years. When George I died in 17127, James Francis was unable to get backing for another invasion, and George II succeeded as King. General George Wade, and Irishman, built roads and forts across the Highlands to help the army move around to keep the peace. The first special Highland regiment was recruited to help in this: because it was uniformed in kilts of dark-coloured tartan (the 'Government sett') it was called The Black Watch. James Francis settled in Rome, married a Polish princess, and had 2 sons, Charles Edward and Henry Benedict.

1745-6
In 1744, when Britain and France were at war again, Louis XV planned a massive invasion to land in southern England. Charles, the 'Young Pretender' went to join the expedition to claim the throne for his father, but a storm wrecked the ships. Besides, a French spy had already warned the British government. In 1745 Charles set off again, with unofficial French backing, but only two 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. When Charles arrived in Scotland he had one ship and seven close advisers with him. Not surprisingly, the first chiefs he met told him to go home. He insisted that he had come home - although he had never been in Britain before!

With support from some of the Catholic MacDonalds, Charles was able to gather his men at Glenfinnan. There the standard was raised on 19 August 1745, and his father was proclaimed King James III and VIII. A monument marks the site. But many Jacobites worried that Charles had not brought a French army with him. He talked the reluctant Donald Cameron of Lochiel into joining in. Lochiel then forced his clan to come along. With Cameron support it was easier for the Jacobites to attract more followers. They marched south, to Edinburgh.

In September, the rebels captured Edinburgh - except the castle, which remained in the hands of the Government troops. Charles said that he repealed (undid) the Act of Union, to try to win support. General John Cope and his government army at last caught up and camped outside Edinburgh. But in the morning of 21 September, the Jacobites surprised and defeated his troops in battle at Prestonpans. Among the government troops killed was Colonel Gardiner, a well-liked and pious Scots officer.

Charles and his army then marched into the north-west of England. Some English Jacobites came to join him - but not many. At Derby Lord George Murray and the other chiefs advised Charles to return to Scotland and wait for French help, instead of going on to London. He was forced to agree. A government army, led by the king's younger son, Prince William, Duke of Cumberland, was following them.

Back in Scotland 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. Meanwhile Cumberland was catching up.

Against the advice of George Murray and the chiefs, Charles lined up the Jacobite army - badly fed and tired- on the flat moor of Culloden on 16 April 1746. It was the last major battle on Scottish or British soil. In less than an hour Cumberland's cannon destroyed the military threat of Jacobitism.

Afterwards, government troops killed many of the wounded and some innocent bystanders. Charles fled with a reward of £30,000 on his head. After many adventures, a French ship eventually picked him up and took him away.

The End of Jacobitism
Charles's adventure was very damaging for the Highlands in particular. Although Lowlanders had made up a large part of his army, they were less easy to discriminate against afterwards. The government passed laws against the wearing of Highland dress and forbidding Highlanders outside the British army to have weapons or bagpipes (regarded as instruments of war because Highlanders never went into battle without a piper). The soldiers and sailors who enforced military rule on the Highlands did not distinguish between the Highlanders who had remained loyal and those who had rebelled.

There were other Jacobite plots later, but Government intelligence managed to foil them. The last Jacobite to be executed was Dr Archibald Cameron, Lochiel's brother, after the failure of the Elibank Plot in 1753. When George III succeeded his grandfather as king in 1760, most former Jacobites accepted him, although some continued to raise their glasses over finger-bowls, to drink to 'the king over the water'. The Old Pretender, James Francis, died in 1766. Charles Edward started calling himself 'Charles III' but few people took him seriously. He died in 1788, a disappointed drunkard who blamed everyone but himself for his failures. His younger brother, 'Henry IX' who became a Cardinal died in 1807, recognising George III and his descendants as his lawful heirs.

What is Jacobitism about?
Is it a war between Scotland and England?
NO. The last war between Scotland and England was Cromwell's invasion in 1650. It is wrong to call the Jacobite armies 'the Scots' and the British government army 'the English' although some books do so. More Scots were serving in the government army than followed the Pretenders in open rebellion.

Particularly in 1708 and 1715, many Scots were willing to support rebellion simply as a way of showing they were angry at the Act of Union. Also there were English and Irish Jacobites. Most of the English Jacobites stayed at home, but those who did join in the rebellions were severely punished.

The Jacobite pretenders did not want Scotland to be completely independent, because they also wanted to be kings of England and Ireland. They were willing to do deals about ending the Union of Parliaments to buy Scottish support, but they wanted the power and prestige of the court of St James and Westminster too. Unfortunately, after 1745, the government in London viewed all Scots as if they might be secret Jacobites. This was because most of the Jacobites they knew about were Scots and because they could not explain, without admitting how badly defended they had left Scotland, just how easily the rebels had been able to travel from Glenfinnan, capture Edinburgh and invade England.

Many Scots complained in 1757 when the government refused to extend the Militia Act, which set up local armed units (an eighteenth century TA) to defend the country in case of invasion, to Scotland. Even then it seemed that the government did not trust Scottish civilians with weapons, although Scottish regiments continued to play a large role in the British army.

Is it Protestants against Catholics?
Only partly. Some Scottish Jacobites were Catholics but most were non-jurant Episcopalians. 'Non-jurant' means they refused to swear loyalty to King William and his successors because they did not think a king should be sacked from his job as James VII and II had been. They did not mind having a Catholic king so long as he let them worship how they wanted. The Old Pretender James Francis was happy to agree to his, although his wife did not like him having Protestant friends. Charles Edward even joined the Church of England - but only after the '45 when it was too late to win him support in England, and he later changed back to being a Catholic.

Most English Jacobites - who tended to live in the northern counties - were Catholics, as were the Irish. But the Catholic Church did not always support the Jacobites. In 1689 the Pope had backed the Protestant William of Orange because he did not get on with Louis XIV of France who was helping James VII and II.

Is it a war between 2 cultures - Highland against Lowland?
No. Gaelic speaking Highland society was already changing for economic reasons. Most of the Highland chiefs had already given up their traditional clan role, and behaved like powerful landowners anywhere else. Cameron of Lochiel had investments in the colonies and ran a forestry business. Some chiefs even sold shiploads of their own tenants as slaves to the West Indies and the America plantations. There were large numbers of Lowland Jacobites in all the rebellions, especially from the north-east - Aberdeenshire and Banffshire - and the lowland parts of Angus. Many of the Lowland Jacobite nobles were related to each other. The main difference between the Highland Jacobite chiefs and the lowland Jacobite nobles was that sometimes it was easier for the chiefs to bring their tenants out to fight for them - sometimes by threats of force. Many nobles, Highland and Lowland, still had heritable jurisdictions - which meant that they had the right to try and execute people with their own lands.

The Presbyterian Highland clans were firmly on the government side. The commander of the government forces in 1689 was Hugh Mackay of Scourie, from Sutherland. The government's strongest supporters included one of the largest Highland clans, the Campbells, led by the Duke of Argyll, MacChailean Mor . Two previous Campbell chiefs had had their heads cut off by Charles II and James VII and II, so their descendants had no love for the Stuarts.

The trouble was, after the 1745 rebellion, the government in Westminster - too far away to know or care what the real situation was - brought in laws against all Highlanders, whether or not they had been Jacobites. The Duke of Argyll complained. Lord Chesterfield had said that he would 'starve the loyal with the disloyal'. Military rule was harsh and the Navy raided the Western Isles. The Lord Advocate, Duncan Forbes of Culloden, a wise man who had persuaded many chiefs not to join in the Rebellion, warned that 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'. Laws banned Highlanders from wearing their traditional dress and owning weapons or bagpipes unless they were in the British army - but it was difficult to enforce these laws completely. Even before the laws were repealed in the 1780s it became fashionable even for Lowland gentleman to have their portraits painted while wearing a kilt, which was becoming regarded as a Scottish, rather than just a Highland, costume. The most important law passed after the rebellion ended the heritable jurisdictions, so chiefs and nobles no longer had the power of life and death over their people.

Is Jacobitism related to the wars in Europe?
YES. The Jacobites could not do much unless Britain was already at war with a powerful European country - France in 1689 and the 1740s, and Spain in 1719. These countries wanted Britain to be ruled by a king who would be in their debt, while the Jacobites needed outside help. The idea was that Jacobite unrest would keep British troops busy at home, while France or Spain could attack British shipping and the colonies. The Jacobites always counted on the fact that the British government was not very popular and hoped that people would turn out to support them in large numbers. But in the end people all over Britain decided that they liked the Jacobites even less than they liked the government or the threat of civil war.

NTS and the Jacobites
The National Trust for Scotland looks after some significant sites and buildings where you can see Jacobite related objects. The castles of North East region - where a number of Jacobite families lived - are home to many interesting collections.

• Killiecrankie - battlefield and visitor's centre - Dunkeld - scene of the 4 hour siege in 1689 in which a tiny government force, led by the new Cameronian Regiment, destroyed a much bigger Jacobite army. Unfortunately, much of Dunkeld was destroyed with it, and the burgh centre had to be rebuilt.

• 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 Gilliespie Graham for local landowner Alexander MacDonald of Glenaladale in 1815. The statue of a Highlander and the cast iron inscription panels were added to it in the 1830s. There is a visitors centre at the site.

• Culloden - battlefield and visitors' centre.

• Alloa Tower - the home of the Earl of Mar and Kellie has pictures and objects from the time of 'Bobbing John', leader of the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion.

• Brodie Castle - the Brodies were government supporters and in 1746 they let the army camp in the grounds before Culloden. The Castle has a piece of the sash of the Order of the Garter worn by Charles Edward Stuart.

• Castle Fraser - Charles, fourth Lord Fraser, had sided with 'Bobbing John' of Mar in supporting the Act of Union and then in the rebellion of 1715. Afterwards he went on the run and in 1716 was killed falling off a cliff at Pennan, Banffshire. Castle Fraser later belonged to Charles Fraser of Inverallochy, whose eldest son, also called Charles, had been killed on the battlefield after Culloden.

• Drum Castle - Alexander Irvine, the fourteenth Laird of Drum was wounded in the battle of Sheriffmuir in 1715 and escaped abroad. Another 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.

• Fyvie Castle - Fyvie's owner, James Seton, fourth Earl of Dunfermline, was in the first Jacobite Rebellion and fled abroad in 1689. His lands were confiscated. In 1733 the second Earl of Aberdeen bought Fyvie for his 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, she made a point of telling him she was Lewis Gordon's sister. The Duke gave the little boy an orange and said he hoped the child would prove as loyal to the Hanoverian cause as his uncle had to the Stuarts!

• Glencoe - Alisdair MacIain MacDonald, the Chief of Glencoe, fought as a Jacobite at Killiecrankie. In punishment for his failure to take the loyalty oath by the official deadline, he and about 37 other MacDonalds were killed by government troops in 1692.

• Haddo House - this was the home of William Gordon, second Earl of Aberdeen. He was a friend of the Earl of Mar but was not an active rebel in 1715. Mar destroyed letters from him to protect him from trouble. The house has portraits of the second Earl and of Maria of Modena, James VII and II's Italian wife, the Old Pretender's mother.

• Leith Hall - two uncles of John III Leith were Jacobites in 1745: Patrick Leith and Andrew Hay of Rannes. Andrew was a Major in Lord Forbes of Pitsligo's Horse. He spent 6 years as a fugitive after Culloden and then 11 years abroad. When he returned, he helped John's family. Leith Hall has Andrew's writing case, given to him by Charles Edward Stuart, and his official pardon (certificate forgiving him for having been a rebel).

For further information please contact:
National Trust for Scotland
28 Charlotte Square
Edinburgh
EH2 4ET
Information - info@nts.org.uk
Education and interpretation department - education@nts.org.uk