Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Jacobite risings
When James VII (II) was deposed he fled to France, where he planned the reconquest
of his kingdom with the support of the French king. In 1702, James's successor,
William, died, and the hopes of the Stewarts passed to James, the “Old Pretender”
(Pretender in the sense of having pretensions to the throne; Old to distinguish him
from his son Charles, the “Young Pretender”). James's followers became known as
Jacobites , derived from Jacobus, the Latin equivalent of James. he accession to the
British throne of the Hanoverian George I, son of Sophia, Electress of Hanover,
sparked the Jacobite uprising of 1715 . Its timing appeared perfect. Scottish opinion was
moving against the Union, which had failed to bring Scotland any tangible economic
benefits. he English had also been accused of bad faith when, contrary to their
pledges, they attempted to impose their legal practices on the Scots. here were also
many in England who toasted the “king across the water” and showed no enthusiasm
for the new German ruler. In September 1715 the fiercely Jacobite John Erskine, Earl
of Mar, raised the Stewart standard at Braemar Castle. Eight days later, he captured
Perth, where he gathered an army of more than 10,000 men, drawn mostly from the
Episcopalians of northeast Scotland and from the Highlands. Mar's rebellion took the
government by surprise. hey had only four thousand soldiers in Scotland, under the
THE HIGHLANDS
The country that was united with England in 1707 contained three distinct cultures: in south
and east Scotland, they spoke Scots ; the local dialect in Shetland, Orkney and the far
northeast, though Scots-based, contained elements of Norn (Old Norse); while the language
of the rest of north and west Scotland, including the Hebrides, was Gaelic . These linguistic
differences were paralleled by different forms of social organization and customs. The people
of north and west Scotland were mostly pastoralists , moving their sheep and cattle to
Highland pastures in the summer and returning to the glens in the winter. They lived in
single-room dwellings, heated by a central peat fire and sometimes shared with livestock, and
in hard times they subsisted on cakes made from the blood of their live cattle mixed with
oatmeal. Highlanders supplemented their meagre income by raiding their clan neighbours
and the prosperous Lowlands, whose inhabitants regarded their northern compatriots with a
mixture of fear and contempt.
However, the institutions of this society had not existed from time immemorial. This is
especially true of the “ clan ”, a term that only appears in its modern usage in the sixteenth
century. In theory, the clan bound together blood relatives who shared a common ancestor, a
concept clearly derived from the ancient Gaelic notion of kinship. But in practice many of the
clans were of non-Gaelic origin - such as the Frasers, Sinclairs and Stewarts, all of Anglo-
Norman descent - and it was the mythology of a common ancestor, rather than the actuality,
that cemented the clans together. Furthermore, clans were often made up of people with a
variety of surnames, and there is evidence of individuals changing their names when they
swapped allegiances.
It was not until the late seventeenth century that certain tartans became associated with
particular clans. Previously, Highlanders wore a simple belted plaid wrapped around the body.
The detailed codification of the tartan was produced by the Victorians, whose romantic vision
of Highland life originated with George IV's visit to Scotland in 1822, when he appeared in an
elaborate version of Highland dress, complete with flesh-coloured tights.
1638
1650
1689
National Covenant
proclaimed by
Scottish Presbyterians.
The Scots Royalist army are
defeated at the Battle of Dunbar by
the English under Oliver Cromwell.
Unsuccessful Jacobite uprising
against William of Orange.
 
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