This enterprising youth, having collected about five thousand men, resolved to make an irruption into England, which he accordingly entered by the west border on the sixth day of November. Carlisle was invested, and in less than three days surrendered; the keys were delivered to him at Brampton, by the mayor and aldermen on their knees. Here he found a considerable quantity of arms; his father was proclaimed king of Great Britain, and himself regent, by the magistrates in their formalities. General Wade being apprized of his progress, decamped from Newcastle, and advanced across the country as far as Hexham, though the fields were covered with snow, and the roads almost impassable. There he received intelligence that Carlisle was reduced, and forthwith returned to his former station, In the meantime, orders were issued for assembling another army in Staffordshire, under the command of sir John Ligonier. Prince Charles, notwithstanding this formidable opposition, determined to proceed. He had received assurances from France, that a considerable body of troops would be landed on the southern coast of Britain, to make a diversion in his favour; and he never doubted but that he should be joined by all the English malcontents, as soon as he could penetrate into the heart of the kingdom. Leaving a small garrison in the castle of Carlisle, he advanced to Penrith, marching on foot in the highland garb, at the head of his forces; and continued his route through Lancaster and Preston to Manchester, where on the twenty-ninth day of the month, he established his head quarters. There he was joined by about two hundred Englishmen, who were formed into a regiment under the command of colonel Townley. The inhabitants seemed to receive him with marks of affection; and his arrival was celebrated by illuminations and other public rejoicings. His supposed intention was to prosecute his march by the way of Chester into Wales, where he hoped to find a great number of adherents; but all the bridges over the river Mersey being broken down, he chose the route to Stockport, and forded the river at the head of his division, though the water rose to his middle. He passed through Macclesfield and Congleton; and on the fourth day of December entered the town of Derby, in which his army was quartered and his father proclaimed with great formality. He had now advanced within one hundred miles of the capital, which was filled with terror and confusion. Wade lingered in Yorkshire; the duke of Cumberland had assumed the command of the other army assembled in the neighbourhood of Lichfield. He had marched from Stafford to Stone; so that the rebels, in turning off from Ashbourne to Derby, had gained a march between him and London. Had Charles proceeded in his career with that expedition which he had hitherto used, he might have made himself master of the metropolis, where he would have been certainly joined by a considerable number of his well wishers, who waited impatiently for his approach; yet this exploit could not have been achieved without hazarding an engagement, and running the risk of being enclosed within three armies, each greatly superior to his own in number and artillery. Orders were given for forming a camp on Finchley-common, where the king resolved to take the field in person, accompanied by the earl of Stair, field-marshal and commander-in-chief of the forces in South-Britain. Some Romish priests were apprehended; the militia of London and Middlesex were kept in readiness to march; double watches were posted at the city-gates, and signals of alarm appointed. The volunteers of the city were incorporated into a regiment; the practitioners of the law, headed by the judges, weavers of Spitalfields, and other communities, engaged in associations; and even the managers of the theatres offered to raise a body of their dependents for the service of the government. Notwithstanding these precautions and appearances of unanimity, the trading part of the city, and those concerned in the money corporations, were overwhelmed with fear and dejection. They reposed very little confidence in the courage or discipline of their militia and volunteers; they had received intelligence that the French were employed in making preparations at Dunkirk and Calais for a descent upon England; they dreaded an insurrection of the Roman-catholics, and other friends of the house of Stuart; and they reflected that the highlanders, of whom by this time they had conceived a most terrible idea, were within four days’ march of the capital. Alarmed by these considerations, they prognosticated their own ruin in the approaching revolution; and their countenances exhibited the plainest marks of horror and despair. On the other hand, the Jacobites were elevated to an insolence of hope, which they were at no pains to conceal; while many people, who had no private property to lose, and thought no change would be for the worse, waited the issue of this crisis with the most calm indifference.
THE REBELS RETREAT INTO SCOTLAND.
This state of suspense was of short duration. The young pretender found himself miserably disappointed in his expectations. He had now advanced into the middle of the kingdom, and except a few that joined him at Manchester, not a soul appeared in his behalf; one would have imagined that all the Jacobites of England had been annihilated. The Welch took no step to excite an insurrection in his favour; the French made no attempt towards an invasion; his court was divided into factions; the highland chiefs began to murmur, and their clans to be unruly; he saw himself with a handful of men hemmed in between two considerable armies, in the middle of winter, and in a country disaffected to his cause. He knew he could not proceed to the metropolis without hazarding a battle, and that a defeat would be attended with the inevitable destruction of himself and all his adherents; and he had received information that his friends and officers had assembled a body of forces in the North, superior in number to those by whom he was attended. He called a council at Derby; and proposed to advance towards London: the proposal was supported by lord Nairn with great vehemence; but, after violent disputes, the majority determined that they should retreat to Scotland with all possible expedition. Accordingly, they abandoned Derby on the sixth day of December, early in the morning, and measured back the route by which they had advanced. On the ninth their vanguard arrived at Manchester; on the twelfth they entered Preston, and continued their march northwards. The duke of Cumberland, who was encamped at Meriden, when first apprized of their retreat, detached the horse and dragoons in pursuit of them; while general Wade began his march from Ferry-bridge in Lancashire, with a view of intercepting them in their route; but at Wakefield he understood that they had already reached Wigan; he therefore repaired to his old post at Newcastle, after having detached general Oglethorpe, with his horse and dragoons, to join those who had been sent off from the duke’s army. They pursued with such alacrity, that they overtook the rear of the rebels, with which they skirmished in Lancashire. The militia of Cumberland and Westmoreland were raised and armed by the duke’s order, to harass them in their march. The bridges were broken down, the roads damaged, and the beacons lighted to alarm the country. Nevertheless, they retreated regularly with their small train of artillery. They were overtaken at the village of Clifton, in the neighbourhood of Penrith, by two regiments of dragoons. These alighted, and lined the hedges, in order to harass part of the enemy’s rear-guard, commanded by lord John Murray; who, at the head of the Macphersons, attacked the dragoons sword in hand, and repulsed them with some loss. On the nineteenth day of the month, the highland army reached Carlisle, where the majority of the English in the service of the pretender were left, at their own desire. Charles, having reinforced the garrison of the place, crossed the rivers Eden and Solway into Scotland, having thus accomplished one of the most surprising retreats that ever was performed. But the most remarkable circumstance of this expedition, was the moderation and regularity with which those ferocious people conducted themselves in a country abounding with plunder. No violence was offered; no outrage committed; and they were effectually restrained from the exercise of rapine. Notwithstanding the excessive cold, the hunger, and fatigue to which they must have been exposed, they left behind no sick, and lost a very few stragglers; but retired with deliberation, and carried off their cannon in the face of their enemy. The duke of Cumberland invested Carlisle with his whole army on the twenty-first day of December, and on the thirtieth the garrison surrendered on a sort of capitulation made with the duke of Richmond. The prisoners, amounting to about four hundred, were imprisoned in different gaols in England, and the duke returned to London.
The pretender proceeded by the way of Dumfries to Glasgow, from which last city he exacted severe contributions, on account of its attachment to the government, for whose service it had raised a regiment of nine hundred men under the command of the earl of Home. Having continued several days at Glasgow, he advanced towards Stirling, and was joined by some forces which had been assembled in his absence by lords Lewis Gordon and John Drummond, brothers to the dukes of Gordon and Perth. This last nobleman had arrived from France in November, with a small reinforcement of French and Irish, and a commission as general of these auxiliaries, he fixed his head quarters at Perth, where he was reinforced by the earl of Cromartie and other clans, to the number of two thousand, and he was accommodated with a small train of artillery. They had found means to surprise a sloop of war at Montrose, with the guns of which they fortified that harbour. They had received a considerable sum of money from Spain. They took possession of Dundee, Dumblane, Downcastle, and laid Fife under contribution. The earl of Loudon remained at Inverness, with about two thousand highlanders in the service of his majesty. He convoyed provisions to Fort-Augustus and Fort-William; he secured the person of lord Lovat, who still temporized, and at length this cunning veteran accomplished his escape. The laird of Macleod, and Mr. Monro of Culcairn, being detached from Inverness towards Aberdeenshire, were surprised and routed by lord Lewis Gordon at Inverary; and that interest seemed to preponderate in the north of Scotland. Prince Charles being joined by lord John Drummond, invested the castle of Stirling, in which general Blakeney commanded; but his people were so little used to enterprises of this kind, that they made very little progress in their operations.
GEORGE II. 1727-1760
THE KING’S TROOPS UNDER HAWLEY ARE WORSTED AT FALKIEK.
By this time, a considerable body of forces was assembled at Edinburgh, under the conduct of general Hawley, who determined to relieve Stirling-castle, and advanced to Linlithgow on the thirteenth day of January; next day his whole army rendezvoused at Falkirk, while the rebels were cantoned about Bannockburn. On the seventeenth day of the month, they began then-march in two columns to attack the king’s forces, and had forded the water of Carron, within three miles of Hawley’s camp, before he discovered their intention. Such was his obstinacy, self-conceit, or contempt of the enemy, that he slighted the repeated intelligence he had received of their motions and design, firmly believing they durst not hazard an engagement. At length perceiving that they had occupied the rising ground to the southward of Falkirk, he ordered his cavalry to advance and drive them from the eminence; while his infantry formed, and were drawn up in order of battle. The highlanders kept up their fire, and took aim so well, that the assailants were broke by the first volley; they retreated with precipitation, and fell in amongst the infantry, which were likewise discomposed by the wind and rain beating with great violence in their faces, wetting their powder, and disturbing their eyesight. Some of the dragoons rallied, and advanced again to the charge, with part of the infantry which had not been engaged; then the pretender marched up at the head of his corps de reserve, consisting of the regiment of lord John Drummond, and the Irish piquets. These reinforcing the Camerons and the Stuarts in the front line, immediately obliged the dragoons to give way a second time, and they again disordered the foot in their retreat. They set fire to their camp, and abandoned Falkirk with their baggage and train, which last had never reached the field of battle. The rebels followed their first blow, and great part of the royal army, after one irregular discharge, turned their backs and fled in the utmost consternation. In all probability few or none of them would have escaped, had not general Huske, and brigadier Cholmondeley, rallied part of some regiments, and made a gallant stand, which favoured the retreat of the rest to Falkirk, from whence they retired in confusion to Edinburgh, leaving the field of battle, with part of their tents and artillery, to the rebels; but their loss of men did not exceed three hundred, including sir Robert Monro, colonel Whitney, and some other officers of distinction. It was at this period, that the officers who had been taken at the battle of Prestonpans, and conveyed to Angus and Fife, finding themselves unguarded, broke their parole, and returned to Edinburgh, on pretence of their having been forcibly released by the inhabitants of those parts.*
* Sir Peter Halket, captain Lucy Scott, lieutenants Farquharson and Cumming, with a few other gentlemen, adhered punctually to their parole, and their conduct was approved by his majesty.