In the darkness some 800 men stood in silence. Their wait was soon rewarded when Edinburgh’s Netherbow Port gate was opened to allow a coach to pass. With bloodcurdling yells, they ran as one man through the gate and into the High Street, taking the city by surprise. What a shock it must have been for the inhabitants as they peered out of their windows and saw hundreds of fierce Highlanders swarming on the main street below. It was 16th September, 1745. The ’45 Rebellion had begun.
Whilst in exile in France, James Francis Edward Stuart nursed his grievances. He was a baby when his father, King James VII, had been forced to flee to the continent during the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He had attempted unsuccessfully to invade Scotland with French soldiers to take back the throne in 1708. His followers, known as Jacobites, had started uprisings in England and Scotland in 1715 to prepare the way for his second attempt at retaking the throne the following year. Again, he was thwarted, and he returned to France. Despite support from his papal allies, he was twice more frustrated in 1719 and 1722. Losing his papal support he languished in France, dejected and depressed.
His son, ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’, was insistent that God had given his father divine right to rule. For Charles Edward Stuart, exile was a time in which to plan a rebellion, to place his father back on the throne, and to remove the ‘usurper’, King George II. With great secrecy the Young Pretender hatched his plan and he prevailed at its first hurdle in 1745, for without even a shot being fired he had taken Scotland’s capital. The remainder of his army had hidden themselves near the western approach to the city, so they were let in to join their comrades.
At midday the next day the army and locals gathered near St Giles’ to hear the proclamation that Prince Charles had come as the regent for his father, the ‘rightful king’. His manifesto was read out by officials, stating that his father’s throne would be restored, but that he would act with clemency, granting a general pardon to his opponents, and would allow people to practice their faith and parliamentary rights with freedom. Despite the misgivings and understandable suspicions of many, great celebrations surrounded the personal entry of Prince Charles later. When he stood in the King’s Park dressed as a Highlander, he was greeted with admiration; his entry into Holyrood House, the palace of the Scottish royalty, was a symbolic victory.
It is one thing to start a rebellion, but an entirely different matter to complete it. The backlash came swiftly from the British army, but again Prince Charles prevailed when his Highlander forces used the tactic of surprise attack at Prestonpans outside Edinburgh, slaughtering Sir John Cope’s men. Alarm ran through Britain. Since 1707, leaders in Edinburgh had worked hard to forge the Union Treaty, which meant that for the first time England and Scotland would be ruled by Parliament from Westminster. Although Scotland’s disastrous financial crisis in the Darien scheme in Panama (1698-1700), had speeded up the process of unification, the Union itself had also been built on the 1689 agreements, which also limited the crown and banned Roman Catholics from taking positions of power. Suddenly the Union and all it stood for was threatened. Again, the words ‘papacy’ and ‘tyranny’ were on the lips of many. When Prince Charles’ army met the British at Culloden near Inverness in 1746, all of his hopes were shattered to pieces in utter defeat. He returned to France, a broken man, never to rise again. Essentially the vision of a restored monarchy linked to Rome died at Culloden.
‘I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts’ (Psalm 119:45, NKJV).
Image: Bonnie Prince Charlie (1720-1788), Circle of Louis Tocqué, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons