The
Jacobite Rebellions Jacobitism
A Political Force since 1688
Every clan needs a collective tribal vision and mythos, adding to the Clan members identity, and feelings of belonging, and rooting them in history while giving them a future. After the Great Leap Backwards, the Ministry of CLAN PLANNING will help construct such Clans.
Partly fact, partly fiction, the following is Clan McGillicuddies Tribal Myth.
The Fall of the Stewarts
The Royal House of Stewart ruled Scotland for over three hundred years, until James VII (II of England) was illegally ousted by the “Whigs” - the liberal faction within the English parliament in 1688. They placed William III (known as William of Orange) and his wife Mary II (James’ daughter by his first marriage) on the throne. They and their successor, Mary’s sister Anne, were chosen for their Protestantism, whereas James and His son (by His second marriage), James VIII, were Catholic. It was following James’ birth and the threat of a Catholic succession that caused the crisis that saw the rightful King flee to France.
There arose in Scotland and indeed in England (the two countries were, unfortunately, being jointly ruled even then) a lot of supporters for the exiled James. This was made worse by the Throne passing out of the Stewart family on Ann’s death in 1715. George, the “Elector of Hanover” became King, through a dodgy piece of Parliamentary legislation that rewrote the Royal Family’s genealogy.
The
Jacobite Rebellions
James’ supporters became known as the Jacobites (the Latin word for James is Jacobus). They stuck to the belief that James VII was their rightful Monarch, and should be returned to the throne. On his death their allegiance transferred to His son James VIII, and then to his grandson Charles III Stewart (the famous popular hero Bonnie Prince Charlie). On four separate occasions, during this period of great anguish, their supporters endeavoured to stage patriotic uprisings to reinstall the rightful Monarch. Sadly all of these failed, the most spectacular and consequently the most disastrous of which was the last.
In 1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie landed in Scot land and rallied the Clans, many of whom threw caution to the wind and heeded His call to overthrow the second Hanoverian King, George II. After a series of minor victories, they were utterly destroyed by the Hanoverian troops (who were lowlanders, English, Irish and German) on a moor at Culloden near Inverness. So ended the violent upnsings, and with the later death of Charles’ brother, Henry IX, so did the hopes of the Stewarts regaining Scotland’s Throne
The defeat of Culloden was devastating enough for the Highland Clans, many of whom lost huge numbers of their finest men, but that was nothing compared to the horror that was to follow.