Forty-Five, the

Jacobite rebellion of 1745, led by Prince Charles Edward Stuart. With his army of Highlanders ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’ occupied Edinburgh and advanced into England as far as Derby, but then turned back. The rising was crushed by the Duke of Cumberland at Culloden in 1746.

Events In 1740 the War of the Austrian Succession broke out between Austria (supported by England and Holland) and Prussia (supported by France and Spain). To remove English support for Austria, in 1744 France planned an invasion of 15,000 men to put the Stuarts back on the throne of England. The attack was repulsed by an English fleet in March 1744 and the plan was dropped. Nevertheless, English troops were defeated at Fontenoy (1745), so the time seemed ideal to mount a rebellion. Many Jacobites in England and Scotland hated the Hanoverians, particularly in the Highlands of Scotland, where Charles could rely on the support of the lairds and their loyal clansmen.

Charles landed at Moidart in Scotland with just seven supporters. When he declared his desire ‘to reclaim my rights or perish’, he gained enthusiastic support. He raised his standard at Glenfinnan on 19 August 1745 and on 21 September 1745 his army met General Cope at the Battle of Prestonpans. The fighting lasted just four minutes – the Highlanders charged, and Cope's men turned and ran away.

By the end of September, Charles had 5,000 men. He marched south, capturing Edinburgh, Carlisle and Manchester. At Derby, however, on 6 December 1745, the Scottish chiefs forced Charles to turn back. England had prospered under the Hanoverians so that only 200 men had joined Charles in England, and two large English armies were closing in. Charles retreated to Scotland, chased by a English army of 18,000 led by William, Duke of Cumberland. By April 1746 his army numbered only 2,000. Charles decided to fight, leading to the Battle of Culloden on 16 April 1746. An attempt to mount a surprise night attack was bungled, and merely exhausted the Scottish troops. The battle opened with artillery fire which destroyed the Scottish lines, and then a Scottish charge was halted by the disciplined fire of Cumberland's troops. Cumberland lost 300 men dead, the Scots at least 1,000. Charles took no part in the battle, and many Scots condemned him as ‘the Italian coward’.

After the battle, Cumberland's men committed many atrocities, and the clans were ruthlessly suppressed, so that Cumberland earned the nickname ‘Butcher Cumberland’. Between April and September Charles was on the run in the Highlands but, despite a reward of £30,000, no Scot betrayed him to the English. In the end, in a much-celebrated episode, Flora Macdonald helped him escape, dressed as a woman, ‘over the sea to Skye’, from where he escaped to France.