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Dec. 2nd, 2022 11:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaThe '15: The Great Jacobite Rebellion by Daniel Szechi (2006)
Well, this was good--I like how all the chapter titles are lines from Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation. *g* But I do understand why the '45 gets all the attention, because it just has a much better dramatic arc as a story, even though measured in the amount of soldiers on the Jacobite side it was actually smaller than the '15. Still, there was some interesting stuff here. Putting this under a cut since this nerdery will probably not interest everyone (ahem).
I'm going to do a contrast/compare between the '15 and the '45.
Geopolitical situation
In the '45, Britain and France were at war, and in '44, France had actually tried to invade. So it was pretty favourable for the Jacobites. By contrast, in 1715 there was peace between Britain and France, and France was financially broke besides. Even worse, Louis XIV died and Orleans became regent, and he was wary of Philip of Spain invading in which case he would have been dependent on help from the British and their allies. So it really was a lousy situation for the Jacobites to get any help from France. Why then did they rebel?
Internal political situation
The '45 was basically prompted by the arrival of BPC in Scotland and there was little internal reason to rebel. By contrast, there was a lot of political disturbance in the years leading up to the '15. The 1707 Union had led to no economic improvement for Scotland, and the Hanoverians had succeeded to the throne. Many of the Scottish Whigs also didn't like the Union. The Tories had been ousted from office by George I, and when they failed in the elections (partly because the king threw his weight behind the Whigs) there was lots of Tory and Jacobite rioting in England and Scotland. The political climate was very polarized, and actually both Whigs and Jacobites in Scotland were stockpiling weapons and thinking that there might be civil war. The actual Jacobite rising was not centralized, it was lots of local risings where more and more lairds and nobles came out because they didn't want to seem like they were chickening out.
Military stuff
Sadly there was no outstanding competence to admire on either side, and a fair amount of incompetence. The government had pretty much abandoned the Duke of Argyll to defend Scotland on his own, because they thought protecting England was more important. A lot of the war was spent with the rebels coalescing in Perth and trying to build up their army, and the Duke of Argyll hanging out in Stirling guarding the way south. Then, when they finally meet, they have an encounter battle at Sheriffmuir where one side of the Jacobite army puts the Whig army to flight, and vice versa on the other side. The most experienced officer on the Jacobite side was a General Hamilton, but he had served in the Dutch army and had no idea how to best use the Highland troops.
Really the most charming military detail is the war in the north and west of the Highlands, which was fought entirely between Highland troops. These people were neighbors and did not want to incur blood feuds if they really didn't have to, so the war became a sort of shadow boxing. There were thousands of men in the field, and Inverness was taken and retaken several times, but only two men are recorded to have died! I find this charming. Although of course there was looting, but even that was restrained, with people from both sides being considerate of their neighbors.
Relations between the opponents
Famously in the ‘45, the government side refused to acknowledge the Jacobites as legitimate opponents, while the Jacobites scrupulously followed the rules of war. In the '15, both sides started out following the usual rules of war. Interestingly, this was apparently also the case during the English Civil War of the mid 17th century and during the Williamite war in Ireland in the 1690s—the two sides had cartel agreements, exchanged prisoners, etc. The Duke of Argyll used this approach, but the central government in London had a hard time making up its mind on the point, and finally decided that there was no negotiation with rebels. I really did not expect to come out of this book feeling so well inclined to the Duke of Argyll! (This is the second Duke, by the name of John Campbell, as if they aren't all named John Campbell, except the ones who are named Archibald. He died in 1743, and so wasn't around for the next rising.)
Anyway, after the battle of Sheriffmuir, the Jacobites wanted to negotiate for surrender, which the Duke of Argyll thought was a great idea; he wanted to offer them good terms. But the government in London said, again, no negotiation with rebels and we're going to treat them all as traitors, so the war went on. Argyll pestered the government, basically saying that if they had let him negotiate, the war would have been over now! Finally they got tired of him.
Aftermath
First I'm just going to note the delightful fact that habeas corpus (the law that says you can only imprison someone for a short period of time without putting them to a trial) was called in Scotland the Act Anent Wrongeous Imprisonment.
There were two reasons why the government treatment of the rebels was less harsh in 1715 than 1745. First, the Whigs still remembered how they had been treated after Monmouth's rebellion of 1685 and the Bloody Assizes, and shrank from doing the same (they had apparently forgotten this in 1745, when they decided to be bloodthirsty in turn). But still, they did not want to let the rebels off easily, and were determined to punish them. So: second, Scotland's elite really united and tried to prevent harsh punishment of rebels in general, and were largely successful. This I think is one of the most charming aspects of the ’15! The social elite in Scotland was in some ways bitterly divided (they were certainly much more prone to take up arms against each other than in England!) but in other ways they were very cohesive. Whigs and Jacobites were neighbors and had socially interwoven lives in ways that they didn't have in England. So when the government tried to have about 100 of the elite prisoners from Scotland tried in England, the whole Scottish legal establishment obstructed it completely--and not just the legal establishment, but also the Whig elite. They also obstructed the dispossession of the estates of the Scottish rebels. When the government came to take their estates, it suddenly was found that large debts were owed to their Whig neighbors, or maybe the estate actually legally belonged to someone else! Etcetera, it's really delightful to read about. Whig friends and neighbors also interceded for their Jacobite friends (which Jacobites also did for Whig friends in the areas which were under Jacobite rule during the rising). Of course, this did have a cost for them: that the Jacobites came under an obligation not to rebel again--but it also helped heal the social fabric of Scotland. This all happened to some extent after the '45 as well, but the central government was stronger and more bloodthirsty then. Also, in 1715, the Whigs had more understanding for the rebellion given the bad conditions after the Union.
At the end of the book there's also a section about the exiles, who mostly went to France. From this I will just quote a wonderful phrase from one of them, describing his dreary existence in a small provincial French town: one day being as like the other as two eggs and these eaten without either pepper or salt. Aww. : (
Well, this was good--I like how all the chapter titles are lines from Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation. *g* But I do understand why the '45 gets all the attention, because it just has a much better dramatic arc as a story, even though measured in the amount of soldiers on the Jacobite side it was actually smaller than the '15. Still, there was some interesting stuff here. Putting this under a cut since this nerdery will probably not interest everyone (ahem).
I'm going to do a contrast/compare between the '15 and the '45.
Geopolitical situation
In the '45, Britain and France were at war, and in '44, France had actually tried to invade. So it was pretty favourable for the Jacobites. By contrast, in 1715 there was peace between Britain and France, and France was financially broke besides. Even worse, Louis XIV died and Orleans became regent, and he was wary of Philip of Spain invading in which case he would have been dependent on help from the British and their allies. So it really was a lousy situation for the Jacobites to get any help from France. Why then did they rebel?
Internal political situation
The '45 was basically prompted by the arrival of BPC in Scotland and there was little internal reason to rebel. By contrast, there was a lot of political disturbance in the years leading up to the '15. The 1707 Union had led to no economic improvement for Scotland, and the Hanoverians had succeeded to the throne. Many of the Scottish Whigs also didn't like the Union. The Tories had been ousted from office by George I, and when they failed in the elections (partly because the king threw his weight behind the Whigs) there was lots of Tory and Jacobite rioting in England and Scotland. The political climate was very polarized, and actually both Whigs and Jacobites in Scotland were stockpiling weapons and thinking that there might be civil war. The actual Jacobite rising was not centralized, it was lots of local risings where more and more lairds and nobles came out because they didn't want to seem like they were chickening out.
Military stuff
Sadly there was no outstanding competence to admire on either side, and a fair amount of incompetence. The government had pretty much abandoned the Duke of Argyll to defend Scotland on his own, because they thought protecting England was more important. A lot of the war was spent with the rebels coalescing in Perth and trying to build up their army, and the Duke of Argyll hanging out in Stirling guarding the way south. Then, when they finally meet, they have an encounter battle at Sheriffmuir where one side of the Jacobite army puts the Whig army to flight, and vice versa on the other side. The most experienced officer on the Jacobite side was a General Hamilton, but he had served in the Dutch army and had no idea how to best use the Highland troops.
Really the most charming military detail is the war in the north and west of the Highlands, which was fought entirely between Highland troops. These people were neighbors and did not want to incur blood feuds if they really didn't have to, so the war became a sort of shadow boxing. There were thousands of men in the field, and Inverness was taken and retaken several times, but only two men are recorded to have died! I find this charming. Although of course there was looting, but even that was restrained, with people from both sides being considerate of their neighbors.
Relations between the opponents
Famously in the ‘45, the government side refused to acknowledge the Jacobites as legitimate opponents, while the Jacobites scrupulously followed the rules of war. In the '15, both sides started out following the usual rules of war. Interestingly, this was apparently also the case during the English Civil War of the mid 17th century and during the Williamite war in Ireland in the 1690s—the two sides had cartel agreements, exchanged prisoners, etc. The Duke of Argyll used this approach, but the central government in London had a hard time making up its mind on the point, and finally decided that there was no negotiation with rebels. I really did not expect to come out of this book feeling so well inclined to the Duke of Argyll! (This is the second Duke, by the name of John Campbell, as if they aren't all named John Campbell, except the ones who are named Archibald. He died in 1743, and so wasn't around for the next rising.)
Anyway, after the battle of Sheriffmuir, the Jacobites wanted to negotiate for surrender, which the Duke of Argyll thought was a great idea; he wanted to offer them good terms. But the government in London said, again, no negotiation with rebels and we're going to treat them all as traitors, so the war went on. Argyll pestered the government, basically saying that if they had let him negotiate, the war would have been over now! Finally they got tired of him.
Aftermath
First I'm just going to note the delightful fact that habeas corpus (the law that says you can only imprison someone for a short period of time without putting them to a trial) was called in Scotland the Act Anent Wrongeous Imprisonment.
There were two reasons why the government treatment of the rebels was less harsh in 1715 than 1745. First, the Whigs still remembered how they had been treated after Monmouth's rebellion of 1685 and the Bloody Assizes, and shrank from doing the same (they had apparently forgotten this in 1745, when they decided to be bloodthirsty in turn). But still, they did not want to let the rebels off easily, and were determined to punish them. So: second, Scotland's elite really united and tried to prevent harsh punishment of rebels in general, and were largely successful. This I think is one of the most charming aspects of the ’15! The social elite in Scotland was in some ways bitterly divided (they were certainly much more prone to take up arms against each other than in England!) but in other ways they were very cohesive. Whigs and Jacobites were neighbors and had socially interwoven lives in ways that they didn't have in England. So when the government tried to have about 100 of the elite prisoners from Scotland tried in England, the whole Scottish legal establishment obstructed it completely--and not just the legal establishment, but also the Whig elite. They also obstructed the dispossession of the estates of the Scottish rebels. When the government came to take their estates, it suddenly was found that large debts were owed to their Whig neighbors, or maybe the estate actually legally belonged to someone else! Etcetera, it's really delightful to read about. Whig friends and neighbors also interceded for their Jacobite friends (which Jacobites also did for Whig friends in the areas which were under Jacobite rule during the rising). Of course, this did have a cost for them: that the Jacobites came under an obligation not to rebel again--but it also helped heal the social fabric of Scotland. This all happened to some extent after the '45 as well, but the central government was stronger and more bloodthirsty then. Also, in 1715, the Whigs had more understanding for the rebellion given the bad conditions after the Union.
At the end of the book there's also a section about the exiles, who mostly went to France. From this I will just quote a wonderful phrase from one of them, describing his dreary existence in a small provincial French town: one day being as like the other as two eggs and these eaten without either pepper or salt. Aww. : (
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Date: 2022-12-03 05:53 pm (UTC)