James Stuart: The man who arrived too late and left too early

James Stuart, The Old Pretender

When it comes to writing scenes for novels and films authors are often advised to get their characters to behave like good party guests that is: they should arrive late, and leave early. If James Stuart were a party guest he would indeed be a perfect one for this is exactly what he did in 1715.

With Queen Anne barely cold in her grave the Whigs in Parliament grabbed their opportunity to thwart any plans the catholic Stuarts had for their return and invited George Elector of Hanover to take the throne of Great Britain and Ireland while James Stuart was left politely sitting the in the independent Duchy of Lorraine waiting for his invitation to a coronation that of course would never came.


There was no great clamour for another Stuart King in 1715. Instead the rebellion attracted a coalition of support drawn from the politically and religiously driven, those dissatisfied with the 1707 Act of Union and those wanting to settle deep-rooted family or political antipathies like John Erskine the Earl of Mar.

John Erskine, 22nd Earl of Mar

The Treaty of Union had been pushed through the Scottish Parliament and although many Scots were patriotic unionists there were many other Scots who refused to accept the combination of political fixing, selfish economic deals and threats that got the union bill through the Scottish Parliament and saw its as an unforgiveable betrayal of the nation.

James Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater

The 'Whig coup' did not go without reaction in England. Their political opponents the Tories were outraged and there were riots in some places but nothing to cause too much trouble to those in power.


A number of prominent English Tories led by James Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater and his son Charles, and William Widdrington, 4th Baron Widdrington, Edward Howard son of the Duke of  Norfolk, and Robert Cotton a gentleman from Huntingdonshire were drawn into a pro-Stuart conspiracy.

In Scotland opposition to English Whigs and their king George I coalesced around the issue of dissatisfaction with the Union and the disgruntled and ambitious Tory, John Erskine the Earl of Mar a man who had risen to high office under the Tories and who, since the 'coup', was persona non grata in Westminster and the English Palace.

Treaty of Union between England and Scotland 1707

Despite receiving no commission from James to start the rising. On 27 August 1714 he held his first council of war at his seat in Braemar. On 6 September. Mar raised the standard of "James the 8th and 3rd" accompanied by 600 supporters determined to be the 'King Maker' and retrieve his position.



In London, Parliament responded by passing an Act giving tenants who refused to support the Jacobites the land of their landlords and some of Mar's tenants travelled to Edinburgh to prove their loyalty and acquire title to their land almost as soon as the proclamation was made.

Meanwhile Mar and his English allies, despite much petitioning of the French, found themselves thrown on their own resources which were at the beginning of the rebellion pretty evenly matched with those of the British Crown. Feeling confident of victory Mar marched south gathering men and resources until by the end of October he was more or less in control of whole of Scotland.

Duke of Argyll

With Mar appearing to be making progress the exiled James finally made his move and made Mar head of his army on 22nd October.

Mar however was not a brilliant general. He halted his advance and lost the initiative giving the Hanoverian forces under the command of the Duke of Argyll time to increase their strength.

18th century print showing
James Stuart's arrival at Peterhead

Finally, on 22 December James Stuart landed in Scotland at Peterhead but both the initiative and and the war had been lost by then.  Argyll could not be stopped and on 4 February James wrote a farewell letter to Scotland and sailed for France the following day.

As is usually the case, justice and retribution was meted out deferentially.

After the Battle of Preston 1,468 Jacobites were taken prisoner, 463 of them English including several aristocrats: the Earl of Winton, Viscount of Kenmure, the Earl of Nithsdale, Lord Nairne, and Derwentwater's son all of whom were later sentenced to be executed for treason under an Act of Attainder.

However while these aristocrats were languishing in prison awaiting their grisly and humiliating fate the British Parliament passed the Indemnity Act in July 1717. This Act effectively pardoned the surviving rebels with a few exceptions which included the notorious Rob Roy MacGregor. Some two hundred men captured at the Battle of Preston were released at Chester, as were those held at Edinburgh and Stirling. The Act did not undo the effect of the attainders, and confiscated estates worth £48,000 a year in England and £30,000 a year in Scotland were surrendered to the crown.

Mar fled to France, where he would spend the remainder of his life his Writ of Attainder remained in place until 1824. He died in 1732. It is said that his wife Lady Frances went mad in 1728 due to the stress of their exile. She outlived him by 35 years.

Of the ordinary Highland clansmen defeated at the Battle of Preston, many were transported to the Americas prior to the passing of the 1717 Act.This was a fate considered a living death by their families who would never see them again even if they survived their sentence. As prisoners, they were placed in a system of indentured servitude, in effect they became slaves for 7-8 years. Merchants would transport the convicts then auction them off to plantation owners and such like. These Highland rebels would have been part of the estimated 50,000 British convicts to colonial America in the 18th century.

There were fifty-six executions in all: thirty-four in Lancashire in January and February 1716, five in the autumn of that year, a dozen in London between 1715 and 1716, and four military executions but this was less than half the number of people executed after the Forty-five rebellion and a fraction of the number hanged after Monmouth's Rebellion of 1685.

Highlanders retreat after defeat at Perth

Although the 1715 rebellion is one of history's damp squibs for over 70 years, the ruling government in the British Isles was threatened by conspiracies, uprisings and threats of foreign invasion lead by the exiled Scots wandering through the courts of Catholic Europe plotting to turn back the clock.


Sources: 
Sheriffmuir 1715: Stuart Reid
1715: The Great Jacobite Rebellion: Daniel Szechi
http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=13861
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Preston_(1715)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobite_rising_of_1715
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Radclyffe,_3rd_Earl_of_Derwentwater
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_colony