Jacobites: Under Bonnie Prince Charlie (the Young Pretender)

After the failure of the 1719 invasion of Scotland, hope lay dormant until the Old Pretender's son Charles Edward Stuart (the Young Pretender or Bonnie Prince Charlie) reached manhood. Acting on the assumption that renewed French hostility toward England would bring support for a Jacobite invasion, the prince rashly sailed for Scotland, raised the clans in what was called “the '45,” and won an initial victory at Prestonpans in Sept., 1745. An advance into England stalled at Derby for lack of support from English Jacobites and French allies.

Despite Charles's objections, his council of war voted to retreat, an action skillfully managed by Lord George Murray. Disaster followed for the Jacobites at the battle of Culloden Moor (1746). Charles escaped to France, and Stuart hopes were extinguished, although a claimant to the throne lived on until 1807, in the person of Henry Stuart, Cardinal York. Jacobite sympathies lingered, particularly in Scotland and Ireland, where Jacobitism had been practically synonymous with national discontent, but the movement ceased to be a serious political force.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• Under Bonnie Prince Charlie (the Young Pretender)
• Under the Old Pretender
• After James II's Ouster
• Bibliography

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