Between 1689 and 1746, the British state was challenged by a series of uprisings. Seeking to take control of the kingdom were the Jacobites. They were supporters of the exiled James II of England – also James VII of Scotland – who had been toppled in the so-called Glorious Revolution, and his heirs James Edward and Charles Edward Stuart.
Religious differences lay at the heart of this long-running struggle for power. Believing that James intended to introduce a French-style system of Catholic absolute monarchy, members of Britain’s staunchly Protestant landed elite first rose against him in November 1688. In his place, they installed his daughter Mary and her Dutch husband William of Orange – a safe pair of hands to ensure a Protestant succession. Problems arose after they died childless, and their successor, Mary’s sister Anne, also failed to provide an heir. In August 1714, Parliament turned to a distant connection, George, Elector of Hanover, in a final bid to exclude the Catholic Stuart line. Jacobitism emerged in opposition to this London-based regime. It drew its strength primarily from Scotland.
Jacobitism – the term derives from the Latin word ‘Jacobus’ for James – was for generations wrapped in a romantic aura that impeded objective analysis. It was the ultimate doomed cause, pitting heroic, wild Highlanders against the superior resources of the British government’s military machine. This image was reinforced by a plethora of fiction inspired by the period – from Sir Walter Scott’s 1814 novel Waverley to D K Broster’s The Flight of the Heron a century later, and the Outlander books and TV series in our own time.
