THE JACOBITE CAMPAIGNS:
THE BRITISH STATE AT WAR
WARFARE, SOCIETY AND CULTURE
Series Editors:Paul E. J. Hammer
Louis Sicking
Frank Tallett
David J. B. Trim
TITLES IN THIS SERIES
1 Military Economics, Culture and Logistics in the Burma Campaign,
19421945
Graham Dunlop
2 Orde Wingate and the British Army, 19221944
Simon Anglim
FORTHCOMING TITLES
Arming the Royal Navy, 17931815: The Office of Ordnance and the State
Gareth Cole
Militant Protestantism and British Identity, 16031642
Jason White
The 1641 Depositions and the Irish Rebellion
Eamon Darcy, Annaleigh Margey and Elaine Murphy (eds)
Citizen Soldiers and the British Empire, 18371902
Ian Beckett (ed.)
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Kaushik Roy
THE JACOBITE CAMPAIGNS:
THE BRITISH STATE AT WAR
BY
Jonathan D. Oates
First published 2011 by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited
Published 2016 by Routledge
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Taylor & Francis 2011
Jonathan D. Oates 2011
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BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION DATA
Oates, Jonathan (Jonathan D.)
The Jacobite campaigns: the British state at war. (Warfare, society and culture) 1. Great Britain History George I, 17141727. 2. Great Britain History George II, 17271760. 3. Jacobite Rebellion, 1715 Campaigns. 4. Jacobite Rebellion, 1719 Campaigns. 5. Jacobite Rebellion, 17451746 Campaigns. 6. Great Britain History, Military 18th century.
I. Title II. Series
941.071-dc22
ISBN-13: 978-1-84893-093-3 (hbk)
Typeset by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited
CONTENTS
There are several people to whom I would like to offer my thanks to in the creation of this book. Firstly to Professor Speck, whose work I have known since my schooldays, who has read through the draft and offered invaluable comments. Jamie Boulton kindly gave the author transcripts of correspondence relating to Staffordshire in 1745. Professor Taylor assisted with access to material at Cambridge University Library. More anonymously, I would also like to thank all those archive and library staff, especially at the National Archives and the British Library, who have assisted with research inquiries and in the production of archives and books, without which this book could not have been produced. I also acknowledge the permission of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to reproduce extracts from the Royal Archives (Cumberland Papers). WWM (Wentworth Woodworth) is reproduced with permission from the Milton (Peterborough) Estate CO and the Director of Culture, Sheffield City Council.
This book is dedicated to my father whose love of military history was passed onto me at an early age.
Much has been written about the Jacobite campaigns of 1715 and 1745, especially the latter, for both the popular and academic markets. Bruce Lenman, one of the foremost historians of Jacobitism, wrote, 31 years ago, I have always respected the view that it is one of the misfortunes of Scottish history that far too much attention is focused on a limited number of personalities and episodes, such as Mary Queen of Scots and Jacobitism.
The battles of the Forty-Five have been well covered, on the whole. There are seven books devoted to Culloden,
Moving slightly away from the Jacobite campaigns, there have also been a number of books about the British state in the eighteenth century.miserable failure against American Indians or patriotic rebels, as shown in films such as The Last of the Mohicans and The Patriot.
Coverage of the Jacobite campaigns has certainly been uneven, as Duffy has noted, far more has been written about the wanderings of the Prince after Culloden than about the perspectives of the London government and its forces during the whole episode of the 45.
This book concentrates on a military analysis of the states responses to the three Jacobite campaigns in the eighteenth century which took place on British soil (171516, 1719 and 17456), rather than as a narrative. It does not consider the strategy or tactics of the Jacobite army, except in passing, and where these had a direct effect on that of the British state. No apology is made for such an omission and anyone wanting more on the Jacobite perspective should consult the works of Duffy and Reid. Instead this study allows greater analysis of the difficulties facing the regulars and how successfully these were overcome. Comparison will be made with other conflicts of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries prior to 1789.
Throughout this book I will refer to the states professional forces as regulars, which was the term most commonly used by contemporaries who were not Jacobites. This will not please some purists, who will rightly state that there were regular French troops in Jacobite employ from November 1745 to April 1746 and Spanish in 1719. When these are referred to their nationality will be made explicit. Yet the term regular seems least bad. To use the term English would be incorrect, for many of the men were Scottish or Irish; to use the term beloved of Jacobite historians, namely Hanoverian, is also misleading as the Hanoverian forces proper were on the Continent in 17456. British is also misleading for there were both Scots and English in the Jacobite army, too. However, as will be shown, there were other forces at the back of the state as well as the regulars.
Although the Jacobites ultimately failed, we should remember that this was not preordained, as Black notes, Military history is the most obvious field in which it is dangerous to adopt the perspective of hindsight War is not always won by the big battalions.and the difficulties faced by those in support of the Hanoverian dynasty. As we shall see, the latter did have to overcome numerous problems, and not merely those caused by the Jacobites. Stating that their triumph was inevitable serves to undermine their achievement in overcoming the obstacles they faced.
Rebellion was an occasional fact of life for the early modern British state, with rebellions under the Tudors, the Great Rebellion of the 1640s, the Covenanters rebellion of 1679, the two rebellions of 1685, the 1688 invasion, the rebellions of 168991, 1715, 1719 and 1745, and then the American War of 177581. Only three of these were successful in overturning the status quo, and of these, only one was so without major intervention from abroad. Generally speaking, the longer a conflict lasted, the greater possibility there was of success for the rebels, as they gained allies and their forces became increasingly well armed, professional and experienced.
