History Spotlight, 1/8

Yesterday, we were in the 16th Century with Henry VIII and company. Today, we’re going to jump forward roughly 200 years to 1746 with Bonnie Prince Charlie and his occupation of Stirling Castle.

What happened in between, briefly: Henry VIII begat two useless monarchs: Edward IV (who died young) and Bloody Mary (who probably should have). Then came Elizabeth I, who everybody knows. She had no children and the crown would have gone to her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots (Mary Stuart) if it weren’t for the fact that Elizabeth had Mary’s head cut off. The crown goes to James VI of Scotland (Mary’s son) and he also becomes James I of England. He dies, his son Charles I becomes king. After the English Civil Wars end, General Oliver Cromwell cut Charles's head off (“with the crown on it!”) Cromwell ruled as Lord Protector until he died. In the chaos that followed, General George Monck said, “Mister, we could use a man like Charles Stuart again,” and brought back Charles I’s son back from the Continent and made him Charles II.

Charles II was a lot of fun – when you think of “Merrye Olde Englande” you’re probably thinking of the reign of Charles II. Charles's son, James II was much less fun, and a closet Catholic to boot. His wife was much less closeted and when they started raising their son as a Catholic, all the ghosts of Bloody Mary's reign came back. A group of Parliamentarians known as "The Immortal Seven" invited William of Orange and his wife Mary across the Channel to run the place in The Glorius Revolution. OK, we're almost there. After William and Mary, the reign passes to Queen Anne, the last of the Stuarts. After Anne, the throne passes to the Georges (I, II, and III) of Hanover and that's where we stand in the 18th Century. That's 200 years in 200 words, try getting that at your fancy-pants East Coast Ivy League college, hippie.

But what about James II's kid, James Francis Edward Stuart? After all, he was next in line for the throne, and for all the beatings the Great Chain of Being took during Cromwell's reign and the Glorious Revolution, many people still believed in it and believed that the rightful king had been forced out. As a baby, James Francis escaped England during the Glorious Revolution to France. After his father's death in 1701, his cousin Louis XIV of France proclaimed him King of England, mostly because it would really annoy the English. He made a couple of half-hearted attempts to retake the throne, but none were ever successful and he finally retired in Rome on a tidy Papal pension.

From there, the broken sword of the Stuart line was taken up by his son Charles Edward Stuart, aka Bonnie Prince Charlie, and we're finally getting to the point of this essay. The Scots had never really gotten behind the Glorious Revolution. It took them months to even bother to acknowledge the rule of William and Mary, and that wasn't until some dirty dealing by the English in the Massacre at Glen Coe, where hundreds of old men, women and children were put on a forced march in their bed clothes in a driving blizzard. After the English made Scotland an offer they couldn't refuse and forced the Act of Union on them in 1707 (under Queen Anne) the bad blood got worse. The Scots had always loved the Stuarts (even when they were dethroning them). After all Mary, Queen of Scots was one of theirs and James was James VI of Scotland long before he was James I of England. It was a case of "Local Boy Makes Good."

In 1743, Bonnie Prince Charlie raise enough fund for a small (two ships) navy and a company of soldiers and landed on the Scottish coast where the Jacobites (Jacobus is the Latin form of James - don't get it mixed up with the Jacobins who were in the French Revolution) welcomed him with open arms. His Army grew rapidly and by 1746 he had liberated most of Scotland, including Stirling Castle one of the most important castles in Scotland, and was marching south. He made it almost to London (Scotland conquering England!) but, ignoring his commanders' advice to take the city, turned around and started marching back north. The English took the advantage and Field Marshal George Wade mostly destroyed the Scottish army as it retreated. Bonnie Prince Charlie never succeeded in capturing the throne and retreated to the Continent, where he lived in luxury and indolence until he died 1788.

This is where we get the little-used 6th verse of the national anthem of the United Kingdom:

God grant that Marshall Wade
May by Thy mighty aid
Victory bring
May he sedition hush
And like a torrent rush
Rebellious Scots to crush
God save the King!