Betrayal of Bonnie Prince Charlie
Having worked my way through the Old Pretender’s struggles, let me turn to Bonnie Prince Charlie and the rebellion of 1745. The background, as so often when Scots started a face-off with the English, was a war in which France wanted the ‘English’ distracted, the war of the Austrian succession. The general situation of the landing and the calling of the clans is well known but it needs to be remembered that only a smattering of the clans answered the call and that many of the Redcoats who finally faced and routed them at Culloden were Scottish. Charlie was an Italian, born in the Vatican lands, brought up in privilege and where the Pope’s word was law and obeyed without question. The peasants were mere numbers; there to provide a gracious living at no great effort, other than being charming, from their betters. The long 1745 march into England is given a kind of heroic colouring but, if the attitude of the Highlanders is taken into account, the picture is one of a gang of bandits surging through the land. Scottish towns were not large and 5000 soldiers, with the autocratic Charlie at their head, arriving in one and demanding and grabbing what food was available was not welcomed. By the time they reached Derby they were so loaded with plunder it had to be sent back to the glens under guard. It is said the Highlanders were well behaved, then why did they burn the village of Douglas on their retreat? The American Civil War equivalent is the abhorred Quantrill Raiders. When it came to Culloden, unlike his father, who fought with his men, Chaa’lie ran off and left them to the retribution he had created. Then comes the ‘romantic’ episode of Flora McDonald and Chaa’lie cowering behind a woman. I can find no thrilling story lines in all this, only betrayal and tragedy.
The aftermath, the making of maps and building of roads is another matter. Gaelic speaking Highlanders misleading English speaking lowlanders trying to make maps and transport pay to workmen, the railroad men of the Old West in America.
But hey, what was happening elsewhere? Instead of Briton fighting Briton on France’s behalf, the Royal Navy was supporting British colonists in the capture of Cape Breton, the Gibraltar of the St Laurence, from the French – much more to my liking.
Shadows in the heather