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Bonnie Prince Charlie and the 1745 Rising
The 1745 Rising was the final attempt by the Jacobites to restore a Stuart monarch to the throne. James VII had been overthrown by William of Orange decades earlier, and the following civil war led to bloody battles, doomed attempts at a peaceful union, and ultimately King James fleeing to France.
Prince Charles Edward Stuart, better known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, was James VII’s grandson. Born in 1720 in Rome and raised in the Stuart court, he was energetic and optimistic. Reports from England and Scotland that the Jacobites were strong in numbers again convinced him that he could lead an army to win back the thrones of Britain for his father, James VIII of Scotland and III of England.
Against his father’s wishes and the advice of the court, Charles decided to head for Scotland and lead the Jacobites into battle. He hired two ships, setting sail aboard the Du Teillay on 22 June 1745 with a small ragtag band of companions, while the bigger Elisabeth carried arms, ammunition and a company of French marines.
Charles arrives in Scotland
After a battle with a British warship damaged the Elisabeth and forced her to return to France, the Du Teillay carried on alone. When Charles landed at Eriskay near Barra on 23 July, he was warned to return to France by the local clan chieftains. However, he vowed to continue, saying that ‘I am persuaded my faithful Highlanders will stand by me.’
Charles sailed on across the Minch and anchored in Loch nan Uamh near Arisaig, where he held court and sent letters to potential supporters. He informed clan leaders of his plans to raise his father’s Standard (flag) at Glenfinnan. Those that visited Charles expressed their doubts regarding his proposals, insisting that an invasion like this was impossible without support from France. The Prince was typically ambitious and refused to give up, trying to charm his doubters.
Ranald MacDonald of Kinlochmoidart had seen other members of his clan won over, and when Charles asked ‘Will you not join me?’, he replied: ‘I will! I will!’
Donald Cameron of Lochiel, head of a major clan in the area, also promised to bring his men to fight at Charles’s side. With this level of support, the Prince now had the beginnings of an army, and was ready to launch his Rising at Glenfinnan.
The journey to Glenfinnan
Charles and his supporters came ashore and bid farewell to the Du Teillay and their French friends. After a few days’ rest, they travelled to Dalilea to board boats that would take them up Loch Shiel. It was the ladies of Dalilea who sowed the Standard for Charles. It was a large banner of red silk with a white square in the middle.
On 19 August 1745, Charles and his men arrived at Glenfinnan at about 1 o’clock, expecting to see his army waiting for him. But no-one was there. With just 200 or so men of his own, Charles could not fight without the support he was promised.
By 3 o’clock there was still no sign of the clans, and it appeared the game was up. Despite Charles’s unshakeable belief in the cause, and that he would succeed, the Rising seemed to be over before it had even begun. Then came the sound of bagpipes from behind the high hills ...
The arrival of the clans
The first line of clansmen to appear over the hill and march down toward Glenfinnan were following Cameron of Lochiel, who had brought 600 or more men. Shortly after that, MacDonald of Keppoch arrived with around 350 of his own, then 150 more of the Prince’s Clanranald supporters arrived under MacDonald of Morar.
Others came too, including a group of Redcoats captured from a skirmish at Highbridge. Now Charles had the men to launch the Rising and head south, but first there was the important matter of raising his father’s Standard.
The raising of the Standard
In a dramatic and symbolic ceremony, the Standard, which was described as ‘about twice the size of an ordinary pair of colours’, was unfurled and held by the Marquis of Tullibardine (Duke William Murray), who had sailed with Charles from France and had fought for the Stuarts in previous battles (although he was now old and fairly frail).
Murray was helped by two other men to raise and hold the Standard as he read aloud the proclamation from 1743 that declared Charles’s father, James VIII, as King of England, Scotland and Ireland. Next, a commission was read in the name of his father that appointed Charles to be prince regent. Finally, Charles gave his own speech, laying out his manifesto and asserting his father’s right to the throne.
The optimistic and impassioned ceremony ended with cheers, toasts of brandy, and the Highlanders throwing their bonnets in the air as they cheered and shouted: ‘Long live King James VIII and Charles Prince of Wales, Prosperity to Scotland and No Union!’
Where the ceremony took place
There is a debate over the precise location where this famous moment occurred. There is a commemorative tablet at the monument that claims the site as the ‘spot where Prince Charles Edward Stuart first raised his Standard’.
But in 1988 a more likely site was revealed when a hill fire uncovered inscriptions carved into rock that suggested that the ceremony and the gathering of the clans took place on a hill 300 metres north of the monument. Along with the Latin text referencing the date and the ceremony, there is also evidence of footprints and of sockets where the pole for the standard would have been planted.
After the Glenfinnan Gathering
Following the gathering, Charles led his Jacobite army east. Shortly after departing, just down the road from Glenfinnan, he stopped for a night at Fassfern House on the shore of Loch Eil. This is where Charles picked a white rose from a bush and pinned it to his bonnet, creating a symbol of the Jacobite cause.
In the eight months that followed, Charles and the Jacobites achieved famous victories at Prestonpans and Falkirk, but they then retreated north for the winter before time and money began to run out. In April 1746, 1,500 Jacobites lost their lives at the Battle of Culloden, and the war was lost. Charles went into hiding and eventually returned to France.
The creation of the Glenfinnan Monument
The monument to the Jacobite campaign of 1745–46 was commissioned 70 years later by the local landowner Alexander Macdonald of Glenaladale. Glenaladale lived a life of excess and reckless consumption, and died in 1815 – the same year the monument was completed – at the age of 28.
Built mainly from rubble stone and standing at 18.3m high, the tower seems simple at first glance but it has some interesting architectural features. The statue on top of the tower was added during a second phase of work in the 1830s, and shows a figure in Highland dress, who it could be said is a representation of the ‘Bonnie Prince’.
Glenfinnan Monument pays tribute to the men who fought and died alongside Prince Charles in the 1745 Rising, but you can learn more about the other chapters in the Jacobite story at places like Culloden, Killiecrankie and Drum Castle.