1719
I’m falling into the trap of writing about kings and empires when I started to explore trade and emigration but I’ll get back to it. The trouble is that, the Stuart’s attempts to recover the throne are so gorged with incident and potential stories, it’s easy to fall into the trap. For example, four years after the shambles of Sheriffmuir, who would have thought the Old Pretender would have an influence on the affairs of the Austrian Empire, France, The Netherlands,Sweden, Spain and be the trigger for raids on the Florida coast and Carolina. It all began with the Treaty of Utrecht and Sicily being taken from spain and given to the Austrians. The Spanish took it back but the Navy threw them out with a bit of Hornblower work. The Swedes wanted a bit of Hanover, which belonged to King George, but the Navy were watching there too. Between the two they decided to use King James Stuart to distract the Brits. They reasoned that in 1715, there had been risings in Northumbria and Scotland, so there must be plenty of support for old James. They arranged a grand plan involving 5000 Spanish troops from Cadiz, going via Corunna to pick up James and land on the South of England and a simultaneous landing in the West of Scotland which would marchup the Great Glen and take Inverness. The swedes would land at Inverness and all sorts of mayhem would result soaking up British (Hanoverian) troops. The Navy was waiting outside Cadiz but the troops got as far as Cape Finistere when a storm broke them up. James went on with 300 Spanish Marines and eventually set up a base at Eilean Donan castle. The Navy caught up with them there but, by now, the King of Sweden had died and they’d lost interest. The Great Glen worked from both ends and the Redcoats marched from Inverness to confront the Jacobites at Glen Shiel. There are two things I love about this incident, the Redcoat mortars set the heather on fire and the Highlanders escaped in the smoke leaving the Spanish to surrender and be sent home as prisoners of war. The Redcoat C-in-C told London it would be like trying to catch mist chasing Highlanders through the glens and left them to squabble among themselves. To add another dimension,the Spanish decided to attack Carolina but the French, for once friendly with the British, struck first at Pensacola in Florida.
Now, who would want to write about the Napoleonic War when this feast of incident is available. It reminds me of the 1914 South African rebellion, where the profusion of recorded incident bred King or Kaiser and Shadows in the Veldt, and I’ve glossed over a lot of the goings on in 1719.
Now or Never – the ’15