📚 Jacobite Rising (1745–1746),
Recommended Reading

Selected works on the Jacobite Rising

Overview of the Jacobite Rising, 1745-46

The Jacobite Rising of 1745 was the final attempt to restore the exiled Stuart dynasty to the British throne. Launched during the War of the Austrian Succession, it reflected both dynastic ambition and lingering Highland loyalty to the House of Stuart. Prince Charles Edward Stuart — “Bonnie Prince Charlie” — landed in the Hebrides in July 1745 with a handful of supporters and quickly gathered a Highland army under Lord George Murray.

The Jacobites seized Edinburgh and defeated Sir John Cope’s government forces at Prestonpans, securing control of much of Scotland. In November, the army advanced south into England, reaching as far as Derby, but the lack of widespread English support and the threat of converging Hanoverian forces forced a withdrawal. Pursued north, the Jacobites fought a series of rearguard actions before their final stand at Culloden on 16 April 1746. The government army under the Duke of Cumberland, disciplined and heavily supported by artillery, destroyed the Jacobite force in less than an hour.

Culloden marked the end of two centuries of dynastic conflict in Britain. The aftermath brought harsh repression, the abolition of the clan system, and the disarmament of the Highlands. Militarily, the rising demonstrated the contrast between irregular clan warfare and the professional army of the Enlightenment era — a clash between tradition and modernity that marked the close of the Stuart cause.