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Issue 28 - A golden opportunity missed

History & Heritage

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Scotland Magazine Issue 28

Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 28 on 20/09/2006.

 

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A golden opportunity missed

James Irvine Robertson The Jacobite Rising of 1715

A golden opportunity missed (Issue 28)
Everyone has heard of the 1745 Jacobite Rising and Bonnie Prince Charlie, but the 1715 Jacobite Rising is much less understood. And it even seemed to baffle people at the time, because it should have succeeded, in Scotland at least. The historical sources are far less forthcoming than might be expected.

The year 1707 was the date of the Act of Union between England and Scotland. It slithered through the Edinburgh Parliament, its progress lubricated with English gold for the dominating aristocracy, but it largely went against the popular will.

Alas, Scotland was bankrupt, the consequence of the ill-advised Darian Scheme for Scottish Colony in Panama, so the outcome was inevitable.

In 1708, the Chevalier James, son of the last Stuart king to sit on the throne of Britain, sailed into the River Forth aboard a French fleet to recapture his exiled father’s lost domain. But it was too windy to land and the ships returned to France.

In 1714 Queen Anne, James’s half-sister, and the last of the direct line of Stuart monarchs, died. In terms of the Act of Settlement of 1701, its purpose to ensure a Protestant succession, their cousin Prince George of Hanover was offered the British Crown.

The 11th Earl of Mar had been one of the architects of the Union and profited from it.

He had earned the nickname of ‘Bobbing John,’ being remarkable for switching sides when it suited him. By 1713, he had risen to become one of the three British Secretaries of State and sent a fulsome letter of support to the new monarch.

But George I wished a clean sweep of the old Tory administration and appointed Whig ministers in their places.

His ambitions thwarted, Mar returned to Scotland, declared himself for the Chevalier and, on Aug 27, 1715, raised the flag of rebellion in the Highlands.

The moment was appropriate. Discontent was rife throughout Britain; a rising was planned in the south west of England. For the Scots, the Union with England had meant rising taxes, a loss of their religious independence, and an altogether alien regime on the throne.

Mar rapidly rallied support in the north and he and his army moved slowly south. Pausing along the way to collect reinforcements, they arrived in Perth with about 5,000 men on September 14.

The Government, meantime, had hurriedly re-enforced its Scots garrisons and sent north the 2nd Duke of Argyll, who had proved himself on the European Continent as one of Britain’s most able soldiers.

Mar’s army was north of the River Forth; the only route south through its boggy hinterland was at Stirling. Had Mar resolved to cross the river at this time, there would have been insufficient government troops to prevent him and he could have taken the whole of Scotland.

But he hung around in Perth for a month, by which time he had 8,000 troops. Argyll, who reckoned that nine per cent of Scots supported the Rising, had only 1,600 soldiers.

However, Mar was still unwilling to march south and instead broke a fundamental rule of military strategy by splitting his army – and for no good reason that can be discerned.

Most of the Highlanders were sent west under General Gordon, where they failed to capture the Duke of Argyll’s stronghold, Inveraray Castle.

Another 2,000 men were ordered into Fife and across the Firth of Forth to land east of Edinburgh.

The purpose of this hazardous enterprise was to join up with Jacobite supporters in the Scottish Borders and attack Argyll from the rear. This army linked up the paltry number of southern rebels on October 24. After some squabbling they entered England and ended up at Preston.

Meantime Mar left Perth with 10,000 men and marched to Dunblane. There he heard that Argyll was on his way from Edinburgh to Stirling, so he retreated back to Perth and waited for more reinforcements. Finally, on November 10, under threat from the Highlanders to return home unless something happened, Mar decided the time was right for action and moved his army slowly south.

Argyll now had some 2,200 foot and 1,000 cavalry. He crossed the Forth and took up his position on Sheriffmuir, a couple of miles north of Dunblane. His men spent the night of November 12 in their ranks.

The following morning the Jacobites marched up to the moor. The Highlanders could travel across rough terrain at the speed of a horse and they came within striking distance of Argyll’s army before its left wing was prepared to receive them. With the cavalry, they attacked immediately and routed their opponents who scarcely paused until they had crossed the River Forth and were back in Stirling.

On the other side of the field, however, Argyll was in direct command and his troops withstood the shock of the Highlanders’ charge. He then astutely ordered his cavalry to attack the flank of the Jacobite foot, forcing it to retire and regroup.

This process was repeated a dozen times until the rebels were driven off.

Mar rallied his men, who still outnumbered the Redcoats four to one, but he dithered until darkness overtook the field and once again retreated to Perth. That same day, November 13, the Jacobites surrendered at Preston.

The Chevalier himself eventually landed in Peterhead on the Aberdeenshire Coast on December 22 and made his way south to Perth.

Alas, his presence did not have the electrifying impact on his supporters that his son, Bonnie Prince Charlie, was to achieve a generation later.

John, the Master of Sinclair, wrote: “We saw nothing in him that looked like spirit. He never appeared with cheerfulness and vigour to animate us. Our men began to despise him; some asked if he could speak. His countenance looked extremely heavy. He cared not to come abroad amongst us soldiers, or to see us handle our arms or do our exercise. Some said the circumstances he found us in dejected him. I am sure the figure he made dejected us.” Nonetheless, when news came on January 29 that Argyll had marched from Stirling towards Perth, there was rejoicing in the Jacobite army that now they could at least have another battle and possible victory. But Mar and the Chevalier ordered a retreat up the east coast. The rebels reached Aberdeen and found, to their dismay, that James and his general had embarked for France at Montrose. The Jacobites dispersed, and the Jacobite Rising of 1715 was over.

“There’s some say that we wan,
Some say that they wan,
Some say that nane wan at a’, man;
But one thing I’m sure,
That at Sheriffmuir
A battle there was, which I saw, man;
And we ran, and they ran, and they ran,
and we ran,
And we ran and they ran awa’, man.”
- Anon