A History of England, Period III. Constitutional Monarchy

by J. Franck Bright

The Duke of Cumberland, who had been detained in the south of England in expectation of a French invasion, was indignant at this defeat, and declaring that he would himself willingly lead the broken remains of Hawley's army against the Highlanders, got himself appointed commander. He was a young man of great energy, with the hereditary bravery of his family, and an active if not a very able general; he had, moreover, won the confidence of the army at Fontenoy. He was a man however of violent passions, and at present roused almost to ferocity by the success of the Highlanders, which touched his pride both as a military man and a prince of the Hanoverian house. The Pretender did not follow up his success, but persisted, from a false sense of honour, in the siege of Stirling, and allowed the broken English army to be reconstituted. He was however obliged to desist from this project by a memorial signed by all his chiefs, and presented by Lord George Murray. Some coldness had arisen between the Prince and his followers ever since the retreat from Derby, and the present prudent counsel tended still further to widen the breach. The army was divided into two bodies, and marched rapidly towards Inverness, where they were to unite. Cumberland hastened in pursuit. Inverness was easily mastered, and the neighbouring clan, the Mackintoshes, joined the Prince. But the English, now fully on the alert, prevented the arrival of any supplies from France, and the army was suffering from want of provisions and money. Cumberland's army was meanwhile well supplied from the sea, and marched towards Inverness along the coast from Aberdeen. The passages of the rivers, Spey, Findhorn, and Nairn, were but weakly disputed, and on the 14th of April the royal army entered the town of Nairn. That night Charles slept at Culloden House, the seat of President Forbes, who had fled on his approach. Want of provisions, and the habit of the Highlanders of returning at times to their homes, had reduced his army to about 5000, and of these many were absent from the standards in Inverness and He defeats Charles at Culloden, April 16, elsewhere searching for food. It was determined, at the suggestion of Charles and Lord George Murray, to attempt a night surprise, but the darkness of the night and the weariness of the men prevented its success, and the hour proposed for the attack still found them four miles from the English posts. They fell back to Culloden Moor. Murray and some others wanted to retire, but Charles and some of his more reckless followers from France, in overweening trust in the dash of the Highlanders, insisted upon fighting. The men of Athol, the Camerons and the Stuarts, had the right of the line under Lord George Murray, while the Macdonalds, who claimed that position ever since the battle of Bannockburn, sulkily received orders to occupy the left. Taught by former experience, the Duke of Cumberland ranged his army in three lines, with cannon between every two regiments, the second line being drawn up three deep, and arranged as men now are when forming square to receive cavalry. The opening cannonade was wholly in favour of the English, and observing the loss of his followers, Murray advanced with the right. Wearied and harassed as they were, the Highlanders broke through the first line, and captured two cannon, but the firm formation and scathing fire of the second line threw them into hopeless confusion. On the left of the Highland line the Macdonalds, aggrieved at their position, remained immoveable, in spite of the urgent entreaties of their commander, in spite even of the touching words of Macdonald of Keppoch, who cried as he fell, "My God, have the children of my tribe forsaken me!" They afterwards fell back and joined the second line. They were however now outflanked, and their retreat threatened, and though there were some thoughts of trying to retrieve the fortunes of the day with the unbroken left, the more prudent officers regarded the battle as lost, and compelled Charles to fly. He went first of all to Lord Lovat's residence, but, finding but a cold reception from that scheming villain, who was trying to keep well with the Government, while he had sent his son and clan to join the Prince, he fled onwards till he reached the Castle of Glengarry, beyond Fort Augustus. The broken fragments of his army were collected, about 1200 in number, by the skill of Lord George Murray at Ruthven in Badenoch. But Charles gave up the struggle, and sent orders that they should look to their own safety. The insurrection was over: vengeance began. The cruelty with which that vengeance was executed gained Cumberland and cruelly suppresses the rebellion. the nickname of "The Butcher." In the pursuit after Culloden but little quarter was given, and acts of brutal ferocity stained the glory of the day. Some wounded Highlanders who had crawled to a farm building were deliberately burnt to death in it. The prisoners were kept in want of the necessaries of life, and many of the wounded put to death in cold blood. Cumberland fixed his headquarters at Fort Augustus, and harried the neighbouring country with every species of military execution. Acts of cruelty and of wild license were done chiefly at the instigation of General Hawley, but not without Cumberland's knowledge. The Duke was however, and rightly, hailed as the saviour of England.

Charles escapes to France.

For five months Charles was a solitary fugitive in the Highlands and Hebrides. He frequently had to trust his secret to the poorest Highlanders, but the high price set on his head never induced them for a moment to break their faith. His best known escape took place in South Uist, whither he had been tracked very shortly after the battle of Culloden, and where he was surrounded by upwards of 2000 men. Flora Macdonald, a young lady visiting Clanranald's family, succeeded in bringing him safely through this difficulty by procuring from her stepfather, who was an officer in the King's army, a passport for herself and a female servant. In this disguise she took Charles with her into Skye, where, making his secret known to the wife of Sir Alexander Macdonald, who was in the King's interest, she by her means got him put under the charge of Macdonald of Kingsburgh, who brought him to a place of safety. We are told that his height and want of grace in the management of his petticoats, especially in passing the watercourses, very nearly betrayed him. Flora Macdonald afterwards married the son of Macdonald of Kingsburgh. At last, on the 20th September, attended by Lochiel and a considerable number of other fugitives, he set sail for France from Loch-na-Nuagh, the very spot where he had landed fourteen months before.

Thus terminated a most romantic piece of military history, astonishing both in the success which the small body of Highlanders were able to gain and the rapidity with which their successes were brought to an end. Had Lord George Murray been a worse general, and had the Scotch chiefs had less at heart the separation of Scotland from England, the success of the enterprise might have been different.

At the two critical periods of the war, at Derby and after the battle of Falkirk, Charles was probably right in disliking any retrograde movements. No doubt, on purely military grounds, his opinion was wrong; but a body of half-trained enthusiastic Highlanders are nothing unless victorious. The marked change visible in their retreat both from Derby and from Stirling, on both of which occasions great disorder and want of discipline arose, shows that the moral side of the movement was not sufficiently considered by the generals. On the other hand, Lord George Murray showed great skill in hoodwinking and passing the armies both of Wade and Cumberland, and much good judgment in refusing to introduce regular drill or arms among the Highland regiments. The Lords Balmerino and Kilmarnock were beheaded for their share in the conspiracy, and Lord Lovat, wily though he had been, was convicted on the evidence of the Prince's Secretary of State, Murray of Broughton, who turned King's evidence, and executed. Many stringent measures against the Highlanders were at once passed, such as the Disarming Act, the Act to forbid the wearing of the Highland dress, and more important, an Act for the abolition of heritable jurisdictions, by which the arbitrary power of the chiefs of the clans was destroyed, and regular tribunals under responsible judges established.

Ministerial crisis. Feb. 1746.

At the very time that the Highlanders were still in the country England had passed through a ministerial crisis. The Pelhams had found themselves thwarted and in danger of being supplanted by Granville (Carteret); for although they had succeeded in driving him from the ministry, he was still the King's favourite—a position which he had earned by constantly seconding the royal wishes with regard to foreign politics. The chief opponents of these views were Pitt and Chesterfield, and the Pelhams now determined upon bringing matters to a crisis by demanding the admission of Pitt into the ministry. The King, influenced by Lord Granville and Lord Bath, refused to admit him, and the Pelhams, their friend Lord Harrington (Stanhope), and their whole party resigned. The King at once instructed Lord Granville to form a new Government. He undertook the task, but three days sufficed to show that the King's favour was no match for the Parliamentary influence of the great Whig party, of which Newcastle was the acknowledged leader. Much against his will, the King had to receive back his old ministry upon any terms they chose to propose, and Pitt became first Vice-Treasurer of Ireland, and shortly afterwards Paymaster of the Forces. In this position he was enabled much to increase his popularity, by rejecting the vast profits which it had been the habit hitherto for the Paymaster to make. That officer had been in the habit of receiving a large percentage upon all foreign subsidies, and of using as his own the interest accruing from the large balance of public money he had constantly in hand. These profits Pitt rejected, and at once established a reputation for disinterestedness.

Effect of the rebellion on the continental war.

The insurrection in Scotland had had considerable effect upon the continental war. The campaign in Flanders, where the Austrians had been deprived of English succour, had been very unfavourable, and after the battle of Raucoux, the French, under Marshal Saxe, had mastered nearly the whole of the Austrian Netherlands. But, deprived of their Bavarian allies by the Treaty of Fuessen, of the Prussians by the Treaty of Dresden, and all hearty support from Spain by the death of Philip V., they began to think of peace, and negotiations were opened at Breda. Lord Harrington, having fallen under the King's displeasure for his conduct in the ministerial crisis, had resigned, and Chesterfield was called from the Lord Lieutenancy of Ireland to become Secretary of State. He at once began to use his influence, which was very great, both from his social gifts and from his eloquence, in favour of peace, so that there seemed some hopes of a cessation of the war. It was pursued however without check during the whole of the next year. In Holland the appearance of 20,000 French within the frontier roused the national spirit, and the people, disgusted with the dilatory conduct of their republican chiefs, rose in revolution; they again looked for safety to the house of Nassau, and the young Prince of Orange, a son-in-law of George II., was made hereditary Stadtholder. In conjunction with the Duke of Cumberland he took command of the army in Flanders, but was defeated with much loss to the English at the battle of Laufeldt. The great fortress of Bergen-op-Zoom was taken, and at length Maestricht, on the safety of which Holland depended, was itself besieged. To balance these disasters, the course of the war in Italy had been constantly disastrous to France. The Austrians, freed from the pressure of Frederick on the north, were able to act with vigour. They were so successful that Genoa was taken, and Provence itself invaded; and though in the following year the Austrians were driven from France and Genoa regained, the war in that direction closed with a complete victory over the French at Exiles, and the French troops withdrew to their own country, not to appear in Italy again till the renewed vigour of the Revolution plunged them afresh into a career of conquest. Meanwhile, however, in spite of these disasters upon land, England had been steadily gaining its real object. Holland, whose political importance had almost disappeared, and which had become a faithful follower of England, was still more closely joined to that country by its late revolution. Upon the sea disaster everywhere met the French. Their colonial empire was attacked, Cape Breton Island was captured, and the St. Lawrence and Canada thus laid open to the English. Their navy gradually dwindled away, till it was represented by three or four ships only. They were wearied of the war, and alarmed at the immense addition to their debt. The Dutch were disappointed at the want of success which had attended their revolution; and the English were satisfied with the destruction of the French marine. All parties were thus at length ready to listen to a reasonable peace.

It was therefore determined to hold a congress at Aix-la-Chapelle. Moreover, the Pelhams had now resumed in some degree the pacific policy of Walpole, and the apparent certainty of the fall of Maestricht brought matters to a crisis. On the 30th of April the preliminaries were signed between France, England and Holland, Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Oct. 1748. without waiting for the agreement of Austria and Spain. The terms of those preliminaries befitted the causeless war which they terminated. The chief condition was the complete mutual restoration of all conquests, and the return of each party to its position before the war. There were, however, some slight changes; Parma was to be given to the Infant Don Philip; the cessions of Austria to both Prussia and Sardinia were to be secured, and Spain was to restore the Assiento Treaty and the right of a periodical vessel in the South Seas to the English, while the fortifications of Dunkirk towards the sea were to be destroyed; in exchange for its losses Austria received the complete guarantee of the Pragmatic Sanction and the acknowledgment of the Emperor. The restoration of conquests Results of the war. touched even India, where the conquest of Madras and the resistance of Pondicherry to the English arms had raised in the minds of the French well-grounded hopes of founding a colonial empire. Taking the war as a whole its results were these: Holland had disappeared from the rank of great nations; it was evident that it could not defend itself against France. Austria, though it had lost Silesia, had learnt the strength to be derived from the military resources of its eastern provinces. Prussia had proved itself a predominant power in Europe. England had secured its maritime supremacy. France had exhibited its growing weakness, had lost its best opportunity of re-establishing itself upon the sea, and under a show of magnanimous generosity had made plain to the world its total absence of good government, of good administration, or good diplomacy.