Inglorious Revolutions: Explaining the Jacobite Cause | FULL DOCUMENTARY

[Music] we've casually used the descriptor jacobite many times during our historical forays among the monroes but we've never actually taken the time to explain its meaning to those unfamiliar with scottish history as we enter glencoe the scene of an ostensibly anti-jacobite military operation of considerable historical significance it's time to find out just what jacobitism was and grabbed the popcorn to uncover the almost unbelievable political contrivances that led to its emergence this era saw a polarized and highly charged political atmosphere not entirely dissimilar to the so-called culture wars and toxic disagreements around british sovereignty that we see today the main difference being this culture war wasn't fought by keyboard on the battlegrounds of twitter or reddit but with deadly force on the streets and fields of britain instead of caps lock rage or sarcastic emoji usage here debates were settled with guns knives or blunt objects and with considerably less nuance than even the average youtube comments section this is the period in which thomas hobbs famously described the life of man as quote nasty brutish and short the age of civil war instead of brexit or so-called cancel culture the political hot potato here was the political union of england scotland and ireland and precisely what form this government should take it's hardly a spoiler to say that these questions have yet to be resolved to this day but here they were further complicated by bitter religious sectarianism that obfuscated the key issues and prevented any meaningful progress in public debate the jacobite cause is often referred to as a rebellion but like all history it didn't occur in a vacuum in fact the jacobites were counter-revolutionaries they sought to reverse the seismic political changes that they saw as having been forced upon britain that is the so-called glorious revolution of 1688 in which william of orange had quote swept to power on a protestant wind or in english by means of a conservative coup engineered by the english establishment of course any historical event referred to in terms such as glorious should immediately arouse suspicion and indeed for the general populace there is precious little glory in this so-called revolution for scotland and ireland it represented a new level of bloody oppression and the imposition of an even more alien authority than that of westminster one that had at best an extremely tenuous basis in law simply put the jacobites sought to reverse these changes by restoring the previous order in their king james the second and seventh or in latin jacobus thus jacobite while ireland and scotland may have seen the jacobite risings there were indeed jacobites all over the soon-to-be united kingdom but how did britain find itself in this mess how bad must things have been for the establishment to invite a european ruler to invade the country well it turns out pretty bad england was on the brink of another civil war ireland was an open revolt and in scotland the age of the forays meant the central highlands was in chaos while alolans had descended into better sectarianism there are many long and complex reasons why the glorious revolution occurred but essentially it boils down to a the protestant establishment's fear of catholic france and b the disastrous mistakes of the final stuart kings [Music] stewart comes from steward a position that the dynasty occupied in its early years the stuart kings had ruled scotland from the 14th century and by the dawn of the 17th the family were powerful and influential within the british and european aristocracies this continental influence saw the spelling of the family name change to the french-style s-t-u-a-r-t unfortunately in order to understand events herein we need to talk about religion in the mid 16th century a paradigm shift known as the protestant reformation occurred in europe in which the christian church divided into catholic tradition and the newly established protestant faith to cut a long story short the reformation occurred because of a the invention of the printing press and b men like martin luther challenging the catholic tradition of indulgence that is the idea that financial gifts would not only bring you closer to god but could actually get you into heaven protestant belief held instead that piety austerity and above all hard work brought you into god's favor no golden thrones or private art collections for these guys life was suffering and if you didn't suffer enough in life well you went to hell now i'm no theologist but i think there's a happier medium in there somewhere as we'll see whether one was protestant or catholic wasn't just about religion but politics specifically the roles of the church state and monarch in christian society in scotland these questions created divisions even among the highland clans which provided the establishment with yet more opportunities for coercion and manipulation the illustrious scottish royal family the stewards soon to be kings of britain attempted to navigate the treacherous waters of 17th century political opinion with decidedly mixed results the question of sovereignty would embroil the british isles in a century of seemingly endless wars sectarian paranoia and political contrivance that ultimately left the constituent nations clumsily welded together under parliamentary rule and a monarchy james vi of scotland later james the first of england and ireland wrote two sizable treatises on the role and status of the king modestly claiming that the monarch was bestowed with holy authority and thus answerable only to god himself james declared it only natural that legislature that is the law parliament and the greater population were subordinate to the crown because they were mere mortals whereas the king yeah you get the idea this principle he termed the divine right of kings and let's just say that it was not without its critics james vi oversaw the binding of scotland england and ireland together under a single throne via the union of the crowns in 1603 a so-called regal union whereby each nation kept its own parliament for all that that was worth james really wanted the title of king of great britain but was told by his advisors that there was no legal basis for this as such a country did not exist yet if you've ever wondered why ireland has such a bloody recent history well a good place to start is with james the first and his establishment of the irish plantations james had the bright idea of annexing ulster in the northeast of ireland as essentially a giant english protestant allotment forcing many catholic gales from their lands and giving these to english and scottish protestant landowners who came to be known as settlers this was similar to the anti-gallic assault being waged in scotland but here in ireland it was infused with an additional helping of rabid anti-catholic sentiment the term plantation carries grim colonialist connotations today and here the ulster plantations were the result of the same misguided concept of british racial and religious supremacy instead of having to ship in slaves to work the fields however the remaining local inhabitants were forced into indentured servitude and in case you haven't worked out by now where this is going these locals were poor catholic families with little choice but to comply to say that this was inflammatory and a direct incitement to irish catholics to rebel would still be an understatement james had thrown fuel onto a fire that would cause centuries of violence hatred and suffering not least to his own family when said rebellions duly occurred in ireland the brutal and long-remembered english campaigns of all over cromwell decimated gaelic catholics and imbued the irish population with a deep-rooted hatred of english authority it was in this cauldron of resentment that the irish jacobite cause would brew when cromwell let his parliamentarian army back to london in 1648 however his quarrel was with the king of england himself the incumbent king of england here was charles the first james's son who was to put it mildly not great at the whole monarchy thing indoctrinated by his father's divine right of king's shtick his ineptitude was catastrophic his paranoid insecurity drove him to call in catholic french and irish troops against his own people in a battle over the primacy of king or legislature a battle he would not win charles was imprisoned by the new model army then tried and executed for treason in a very public manner the first known regicide of a sitting english monarch caused far more problems in the long run than it attempted to solve charles sun also called charles was then made king of scotland in february 1649 but after his forces were defeated at the battle of worcester it quickly became apparent that this was wishful thinking he was soon forced to join his brother in exile in france the whole point of cromwell's crew saved across britain was to reforge england and by extension scotland and ireland as a republic with no king and rule by the people themselves sounds great right well not so much unless you like really strict puritanical regimes where supposedly sinful indulgences such as sex alcohol or even tobacco were so repressed as to make the victorian era seem hedonistic in comparison after the aforementioned period of costly experimentation with an english republic based on joyless religious extremism it was decided that perhaps the whole monarchy thing wasn't such a bad idea after all the aforementioned thomas hobbes didn't just moan about things he was one of the first western political theorists he brought a lighthouse of reason to the maelstrom of prejudice and violence in his landmark work leviathan hubs put forward the theory that civilized society is based upon a transactional exchange between those with power and those without a concept hobbs called the social contract this was massively influential because it not only made sense of why the anarchy was happening but it did so in a very accessible and persuasive way hobbes noted the disparity between civil society and man's court state of nature that is how people treat each other when there is no functional government to enforce the law this he termed war of all against all which was pretty much what britain was experiencing at the time it wasn't that hobbes took a dim view of human nature well maybe a bit but the broader idea that people tended to be individualistic whereas civilized society required them to be collectivist thus there needed to be some kind of incentive for people to act as citizens rather than lone wolves or tribes a society could only be civil if the majority bought into the social contract the idea that those without power submit to the laws of the state in return for the state's protection and the benefits of said civilized society for example not having to live with the threat of murder every turn as you've probably sussed by now james the first and charles the first would not have been the biggest fans of hobb's ideas to the stuart monarchs there were no natural rights of man only the god-given divine right of kings which made the idea of a social contract utterly irrelevant for those who read leviathan the realization began to dawn that leaving things to play out according to god's plan wasn't actually a great political strategy and that actually humans could construct their own theories of power and government that didn't require supernatural causation in order to be just or fair the republican government of this british commonwealth wouldn't survive long beyond cromwell's death in 1658 within a couple of years it had collapsed leaving a golden opportunity for the cavaliers dream the return of the king said king was to be charles heir charles edward steward who had been stunning himself um enduring painful exile in france while the anarchy of the english interregnum took place it was therefore indeed a cause to celebrate when charles edward stewart was invited to take the throne as charles ii this would come to be known to historians as the restoration it led to an outpouring of art and literature as the three kingdoms basked in their newfound freedom of expression under a popular king who let's just say wasn't averse to having a good time himself on the face of it charles ii had many options the wave of popularity on which he swept in meant that he had a mandate to enact whatever laws he saw fit but in reality the chasm of sectarianism stood in the way of any sort of meaningful discussion on political sovereignty or progression beyond a system of government that was clearly no longer fit for purpose in extremely broad terms catholicism represented a belief in a divinely ordained authoritarian regime while protestantism represented what we would now term a more democratic system that dared to credit the lay folk with agency and intelligence of their own needless to say the majority of the general population in britain had long chosen the latter but it was not certain that protestantism would endure in the face of its mighty catholic nemesis rome and the military superpower of france public opinion trended towards fear of a return to catholic rule and this quickly developed into open prejudice and rampant paranoia anti-catholic hatred consumed british society at all levels tearing families apart and accelerating the social cleansing of ireland and the scottish highlands as such charles only real option was to attempt to maintain his power by reading the political winds enacted the declaration of indulgence which sounds more fun than it actually entailed by which the population could choose their faith without persecution or fear of the authorities unfortunately in the cold light of public opinion this wasn't worth the parchment on which it was inscribed catholicism was the other the alien menace at which many scapegoat hunters could easily take aim the widespread political undercurrent was not unlike modern-day islamophobia in its insidious and pervasive nature upon charles death in 1685 he was succeeded by his brother james ii of england and seventh of scotland there was a big problem however james had converted to catholicism this created the exclusion crisis where in the latter years of charles ii reign the establishment tried desperately to prevent james succession a compromise was reached but the argument that it created birthed the first modern political parties in the whigs who vehemently opposed james and the tories who didn't like him either but at least acknowledged his legal claim to the throne james had wangled his way in but no one was particularly happy about it it was during his short reign that public opinion of the stuarts would reach its catastrophic nadir and force them from power forever [Applause] there are many reasons a hereditary monarchy doesn't work as a long-term system of government among the most pertinent being that if a king is really bad at politics the country is in big trouble the reign of james ii and seventh was defined by his utter ineptitude and tone-deaf approach to his subject but as his great-grandfather had declared the king possessed divine infallibility there could be no vote of no confidence if there had the result would have been almost unanimous in calling for his replacement as mentioned james had converted to catholicism yet ruled a protestant kingdom which you don't need to be a historian to realize was probably not going to work indeed the establishment only accepted his coronation because his protestant daughter mary was next in line for the throne put up with this guy and will get a protestant next time however james had other ideas well-meaning but hopelessly out of his depth james had inherited both his father's arcane views on government and his blinkered bull headed bullheaded intransigence on the subject james was tactless indecisive and had little grasp of legal argument his lack of righteous protestant zeal his wishy-washy equivocating and hopelessly naive rhetoric about catholics being afforded equal status in society alienated the vast majority of his public a minority of non-conformists supported him most likely because they thought his inability to compromise was deliberate james openly favored catholics in his government and saw no reason to explain himself to him that old divine right of kings meant only god could sway him so great was his belief in his divine right that he rejected prudent compromise even when the pope's counsel strongly advised it now this wasn't informed fortitude or resilience james simply didn't appear to understand or recognize the importance of public perception in politics naively blundering his way into deeper crises and unpopularity in 1685 james issued a declaration of indulgence in scotland which basically allowed the practice of catholicism in england he attempted an even more ambitious some would say foolhardy attempt to unite almost the entire religious spectrum with his declaration of the liberty of conscience believing that such freedom of choice would lead to mass conversion to catholicism it didn't and seven prominent protestant bishops were put on trial for refusing the declaration further enraging the populace it's important to note that it wasn't just protestants who found james repulsive many catholics were just as enraged by james lack of intolerance towards protestantism [Music] this state of affairs was bad enough but it was about to become completely untenable with the birth of james's son james francis edward stewart who replaced mary as heir to the throne and had been baptized a catholic to the public and establishment alike the young heir seemingly represented confirmation of their worst fears his father james was trying to make britain catholic again and subjugate england to its nemesis france things had gone far enough the question was how to remove a sitting monarch without igniting another civil war simply chopping off james's head as evidenced earlier in the century would all but guarantee such an outcome it seemed that this required a political solution one that would not involve violence and bloodshed or at least would not primarily rely on such means to work james british army properly marshaled remained a match for any foreign invader and besides simply waiting for a rival to invade would be completely suicidal given that said rival would almost certainly be france the other great power in europe at this time was the dutch-led union of protestant and catholic nations opposed to france and its despotic monarch louis xiv it was to the leader of this alliance the dutch state holder and prince of orange that the english establishment turned to sort out their problems this man's name was william henrique but he would come to be known to history as william of orange to give you a glimpse into the soap opera-like nature of the european aristocracy william of orange was not only part steward but james the second and seventh son-in-law having married the king's aforementioned protestant daughter mary oh no you didn't it was on this very detail in fact that the entire scheme was predicated a queen mary provided the legitimacy of a stuart monarch to offset the rather troublesome optics of a dutchman sharing the throne to his credit william was an accomplished war leader with a deeply strategic mind and high political intelligence much admired as an exemplar of military success he was also crucially a protestant a group of noblemen who despite the fact that they're now deceased came to be known as the immortal seven conceived of a proposal whereby william would be invited to quote invade unquote and the british army would essentially pretend not to notice offering minimal if any resistance this slightly ridiculous scenario would protect the immortal seven and the rest of those responsible for the invitation from accusations of treason put simply international relations of the time generally dictated that if there was a battle involved a regime change was legitimate without consultation with ireland and scotland for reasons that by now should be apparent the invitation to william was sent the die had been cast william like most european leaders of the time was primarily concerned with establishing a viable defense against the totalitarian might of catholic france a political and religious conservative his wars were driven not by a desire for conquest and glory but with the aims of security and consolidation keeping france at bay would require enormous armies and these would need to be replenished as necessary the prospect of having british troops to call upon in his campaigns was extremely persuasive as indeed was having the formidable power of the royal navy at his command william accepted the invitation and clearly aware of the importance of putting on a good show assembled an enormous invasion fleet the largest ever seen to invade england landing at torbay in devon his landing was postponed due to the fleet becoming became at sea but eventually the so-called protestant wind brought them to the english coast on november the 11th 1688 william faced essentially no resistance forming a quote popular uprising it seemed that despite james orders the king's army had been dispersed widely around the country so as to offer little threat apparently many officers in said army also had no problem with letting a foreign usurper take the throne if it read them of their despised catholic monarch james wasn't a complete fool he had contingency plans in case of military attack and promptly left london with the intent of leading his forces to meet the invading army to the north east this was not to be some of james key officers including some of his own kin abandoned him and defected to william in addition to this humiliating setback james was an increasingly poor health he decided to retreat back to london on november the 23rd 1688. he soon announced that he was willing to agree to a free parliament an uncharacteristic and some might say utterly spineless capitulation that he hoped would undo all his pro-catholic policy in order to save his own neck even james could read the writing on this wall however and in secret he made plans to leave the country scotland was too far too dangerous and perhaps too obvious and he reasoned that only his cousin louis xiv france now offered safe harbor not to mention a nice chateau for a deposed catholic monarch before he could attempt to escape however he was captured and placed under house arrest compared to his father he had a pretty easy time of it indeed he was essentially allowed to escape captivity not once but twice in a manner that strongly suggests william wanted him to leave the country of his own free will it's also likely that given what happened last time there was little to no public appetite for his persecution or captivity this was the opposite of his father's situation there would be no public trial or execution because the government simply didn't want public attention to focus on the details of what had just transpired [Music] in december 1688 james made his first attempt to escape but was captured by a group of overzealous fishermen and returned to london presumably much to the annoyance of the new regime later that month he was afforded another attempt and this time successfully fled to france where he would now hold court in exile william reached london without encountering any serious resistance and was crowned king william iii reigning despite his best efforts to rule alone alongside his wife mary ii this new double-bottomed protestant monarchy was a cause of great celebration with many elites expressing hyperbolic relief at finally having put an end to the centuries of religious and political turmoil [Laughter] now if you're wondering why there wasn't more widespread resistance among the population to this ugly do-over the attitude among the general public to the fairly obvious change of regime was basically better the protestant dutch than the catholic french and to be fair the economic future for britain was now fairly bright the faceless wielders of the political dark arts had beaten the trap britain had been invaded for a second time and this conquest would be permanent from now on a foreign dynasty would hold the british thrones leaving the scottish royal family in exile all of this had been achieved in relative historical terms at least with the general public barely batting an eyelid in the rest of britain the new order was less warmly received of course but in general was again seen by the vast majority as preferable to calamity james and his catholic offspring the covenanters puritanical extremists intent on removing any catholic influence on scottish society and the centrist whigs the main british political party at the time allied themselves with william because their aims broadly aligned with his that is ostensibly the reinforcement of protestant values across the british nations the whig's main allies in the scottish highlands were the campbells with many of the clan now occupying key positions in the british government as a result of their speedy acquiescence to the new king to historians these enablers of the glorious revolution are termed williamites as opposed to those who wanted king billy gone and james restored the jacobites ranged against william were some tories again this term has a rather different meaning now than it did at this time and the episcopalian often gallic speaking populations of ireland and the scottish highlands yep that's right by now the sectarianism had become even more complicated by subdividing into presbyterian and episcopalian worship these are basically diet versions of protestantism and catholicism respectively that diverge on whether the church should be quasi-democratic or ruled top down by bishops presbyterianism manifested in movements like the puritans and the covenanters while episcopalianism enjoyed the backing of the powerful catholic church this was a very serious topic at the time and everyone from the establishment to the working class had an opinion on it famously when an episcopalian minister had attempted to give a sermon in edinburgh that seemed to lean too far towards catholic ideas he was greeted by a spirited parishioner throwing her prayer book at him and shouting dost thou say mass at my log remember that there was no internet back then and people had nothing better to do than argue in public about accused trivia that had little to no bearing on their lives oh hang on well at least they did so in person the dust may have settled in london under williams new protestant regime but far from the corridors of power a formidable highland host was preparing for war bye [Music] in march 1689 james the second and seventh landed on the south coast of ireland with 2 500 french troops to take command of the 35 000 strong irish jacobite army forcing the siege of derry and eventually taking dublin with the intent to fight his way up to the north coast and from there invade scotland however the convention of the estate a temporary scottish government of establishment figures ruling in james stead and crucially of william's own engineering julie gave its approval to william and mary declaring that james had abdicated the throne leaving britain in peril which is certainly a unique take on events importantly though this wasn't a unanimous decision one particular member of the convention stormed out in disgust at the result taking 50 dragoons and riding north to dundee while it's certainly true that by 1688 events in london were still seen by most highlanders as having little to no bearing on their affairs many clans or their individual members perceived william as godless illegitimate and dangerous nevertheless no military leader emerged behind which these so-called jacobite rebels could rally and we know that these guys had plenty of inter nissan conflicts to overcome if they were to form any kind of meaningful resistance in a few months however this would change with the arrival in the highlands of john graham lord of claver house known formally among other wordy titles as first vikon dundee an experienced military strategist fluent in the logistics of warfare dundee was the greatest military leader that the jacobite cause would ever have a decorated and respected figure he had previously fought for the dutch and the french during which time he had supposedly saved the life of none other than william of orange himself on the battlefield which is a cool story but it's also highly unlikely that this ever happened before hunting down covenanters in scotland for james the second and seventh earning the nickname among wigs as bloody clavers a staunch supporter of the stewards and everything they stood for he earned his titles from james for his outstanding service but just two weeks later james had fled and dundee knew that he wasn't exactly going to be welcome under the new regime he relocated to dundee and on a visit to edinburgh was seen conversing with a known jacobite in a coffee house fueling much gossip among the political class coffee houses were this time considered hotbeds of rebellion by the establishment mainly because intelligent people met in them to have meaningful conversations about politics this was enough for the convention of estates fearing a coup to declare dundee a fugitive and rebel despite his considerable service to the scots throne dundee was certainly not the only public servant to find himself cast aside by the new regime but he was one of the most influential the scottish establishment feared his arrival because graham was a man who many disgruntled highlanders would listen to and take inspiration from and given how said establishment treated him he really wasn't going to be in the mood to parley atop dundee law graham and around 50 prominent jacobites unfurled the stuart standard and declared themselves in solidarity with the jacobite cause the first public demonstration of resistance to william so began the 89 the first jacobite rising the scottish jacobites intent was to prepare scotland for james invasion from ireland by weakening the government forces graham then covered a great deal of ground in the highlands to assemble a fighting force from many different highland clans allied with graham with the mcdonald's under mckeon of glenn cole carl o'donnell of kepoc as well as mclean's cameron's clan reynolds glenn gary mcdonald's and also thanks to james a contingent of irish troops on the way while it's certainly true that many of these clansmen may well have been more interested in retribution against the campbells and their government cronies than the politics of regime change it ultimately mattered little they were all highly motivated and under the right leader posed a significant threat to the new order [Music] while graham's highland recruitment drive had amassed only 1 700 men in total the government did not know this in response they sent troops to quell this rebellion and after some cat-and-mouse maneuvers the two sides met at the much storied battle of kylie cranky on the 27th of july 1689. the government troops were mostly lowlanders commanded by general hugh makai and while they had greater numbers the jacobites held home advantage and the element of surprise rumors among the whigs claimed that graham had gone into hiding dispirited having failed to gain any support for his cause anyone who believed this was about to be given a violent reality check at kylie cranky graham's military prowess proved instrumental highland warfare had traditionally incorporated guile and guerilla tactics and graham's men laying weight in the hills above the narrow pass of kylie cranky for makai's men to file through it and enter their trap [Music] said pass was far too small for an army to retreat in a hurry and graham aimed to set up a kill zone in which the highland charge would be inescapable the mcleans the irish regiment and the clan reynold and glengarry mcdonald's comprise the left flank of the jacobite line with the camerons and glenn cool sleet and kept mcdonald's on the right with graham and his dragoons leading from the centre as makai passed below the hill however he noticed the jacobites lying in weight on the higher ground he quickly marshaled his men into a long continuous line only three men deep this was to take advantage of his superior firepower the idea being to decimate the highlanders charge before they got close enough to use their claymores graham's men faced off against the government army below them for the rest of the afternoon and into the evening with neither side apparently willing to initiate all-out combat the reason for this was that graham was waiting for the sun to lower behind the hills so that it was no longer shining into the eyes of its troops around 8 pm with a last rays disappearing below the horizon the jacobite army charged while sassanix had encountered the highland charge before its deployment at kelly cranky demonstrated its psychological power to devastating effect makai knew the futility of meeting a downhill charge like this head-on and ordered his men to fire their muskets at the oncoming highlanders guns at this time were still highly unreliable weapons of war and misfire or straight-up explosion were on average as likely as a successful firing with their barrage seemingly having little effect on the highland charge the government troops were forced to quickly fix bayonets for close quarters combat unfortunately for them their muskets required them to screw the bayonet onto the end before use a design feature so idiotic it's almost without parallel in history but not quite the right flank of the jacobite charge was devastating with the mcdonald's eviscerating the shallow government line with relative ease the charge quickly overran the government's defensive line and though makai's men managed to take out almost a third of the jacobite forces it soon became apparent that they had lost the battle makai himself had met this charge and fought onwards through it only to find himself alone on the hillside to turn back round for a grandstand view of his army in disarray as the jacobites overran them a route ensued in which makai's army was forced to beat a humiliate in retreat as best they could over the hills or through the pass the first battle for the jacobite cause had been won if the goal was for the jacobites to be taken seriously dundee and his men had stuck it in the top corner and burst the net however this resounding victory had come at a great cost during the valiant charge john graham dundee himself had been mortally wounded dundee's death while deeply lamented was a far greater blow than anyone would realise at the time never again would the jacobite cause have a leader capable of defeating greater numbers and superior firepower in such a decisive way in the cold light of history kelly cranky would prove to be a fairly pointless battle and the loss of their leader completely unnecessary graham was worth exponentially more to the jacobites as a living functioning general than as a dead martyr had dundee survived the ensuing history would have been very different and it's hard to imagine how the circumstances that resulted in the glenn cool massacre would have been allowed to occur the jacobites held another council of war blair castle to take stock a man named canon took over but given he didn't speak gaelic was generally a bit of a damp squibbing comparison he led a pointless and costly raid on dunkeld and after a decimating ambush at the ho of cromdale the jacobites eventually dispersed to the glens after another meeting at blair castle with cannon disappearing to france in scotland round one of the jacobite risings was now over both sides blooded but still in the fight the jacobites in ireland were the next problem for william led by their king and aided by the dreaded french in the southern highlands the age of the forays had seen the emergence of highland raiding parties among the most brazen and notorious being the mcdonald's of glencoe and mcdonald's of kepok these came to be known to their victims as the gallows heard because the dreaded gallows in vireri supposedly awaited them if they could be caught earlier in the century a previous mckean of glencoe and his men had feuded with the stewards of appen murdering many clansmen and relieving them of most of their cattle accordingly letters of fire and sword were issued against them and mccain and his brother had been beheaded by the stuart in retaliation the apple didn't fall far from the tree in 1689 the mckean chief was alistair mcdonald who was by now an old man but still saw the campbell lands and cattle as fair targets following the jacobite meeting at blair castle the mcdonald's of glencoe and mcdonald's of kepoc made their way back slowly via bridalben glenn lyon and ranic moore murdering stealing or destroying pretty much everything that they could get their hands on acts which they supposedly justified as a repayment for their soldiering it just so happened that these lands were those of robert campbell of glen lyon a destitute alcoholic and gambler whose last possessions including a magnificent red stallion had just been fleeced by the accursed mcdonald's his mortal enemies and taken back to glencoe this final insult would not be forgotten [Music] james irish campaign saw him establish control of the majority of the country calling a new parliament and providing a brief period of happiness and security for the irish catholic population however his plan to continue north to scotland had hit a big snag ulster remember those protestant settlers introduced to the area by james the first well their descendants put up such fierce resistance that his grandson couldn't capture it despite his best efforts instead of continuing on the offensive into scotland james was now forced into a defensive war to hold ireland william meanwhile needed the jacobites in ireland dealt with as soon as possible so that he could fight the french without distraction or ambush from the back door he landed in carrick fergus on the 14th of july 1690 with around 35 000 danes swiss dutch and english troops fighting his way south to meet james forces at the now infamous battle of the boyne here james lack of military expertise was sorely exposed by william's experience and tactical nows and the battle ended with victory for the orange man defeat at the boyne meant the irish jacobites only option was now to retreat to limerick on the west coast where they were besieged by williams forces and finally worn down this forced the rebels to sign the treaty of limerick which essentially ended the irish jacobite threat james again returned to france to lick his wounds and would never again set foot on the british isles for the victorious prince of orange meanwhile the only domestic loose ends remaining were the desperate jacobites in the scottish highlands these william reasons were a far lesser threat than the irish rebels and thus a problem that he could delegate to his government allowing him to return his full attention to the main fight against france this gave said government considerable power and a dangerously nebulous directive basically take care of those scottish jacobites for me which they could interpret as they saw fed william would sign orders but he would never visit scotland himself likely due to his severe asthma he also considered the nation to be of little relevance to him he instead relied on what his scottish advisers told him was happening there to inform his decisions and these advisors certainly weren't averse to taking artistic licence with their reporting if it served their own political agendas those paying attention will remember that campbell's now occupied high government positions and as we'll see next time there were undoubtedly some of these who saw in this edict from william an unprecedented opportunity for revenge against the gallows heard in their kin [Music] in scotland and ireland the apparent deification of the stuart dynasty with james as noble martyr was somewhat ironic given that the stewards had long schemed and bristled against the power of the gaeltek while kings of scotland james himself had little interest in highland affairs and outside of their potential military usage viewed the highlanders and the gale-tech with at best indifference in reality those who considered themselves jacobites were not necessarily in the james vii fan club indeed many of his supporters aligned themselves with him out of sheer desperation james represented the old order the moral supremacy of god and king over the sinful lifehog it may sound counterintuitive but what the jacobites wanted wasn't necessarily james on the throne but more generally a second stewart restoration in which the values they represented under charles ii would be restored this would never happen and with the benefit of hindsight it's easy to understand why this time the king had been replaced without violence by someone who actually had a clue what they were doing and crucially in circumstances that made it inevitable for limits to be placed on the power of the monarch in the creation of the historic bill of rights william was coerced into accepting far less control than he had envisioned in the first place and forced to concede more power to parliament and thus the people than he would otherwise have liked many in britain saw this as progress and by most measures of functional and sustainable society they were right the stark truth was the stewards were political dinosaurs and the impact and aftermath of william the first coronation was the meteorite that wiped them out changing the political landscape and the course of british history forever the jacobite cause had a different definition of progress that had little to do with the primacy of democracy and indeed could even be accused of being poor authoritarian in some aspects the old alliance between scotland and france now represented scotland's potential subjugation to a ostensibly fascist superpower louis xiv was not someone who could be coerced into seeding even an inch of his supposedly divine mandate there was also the economic factor that we touched on earlier had the jacobites ultimately succeeded in their aims britain and particularly scotland would have been shut out of the nascent dutch stock exchange the manipulation of which would later play a big part in the financing of the british empire now while such a defanging of britain's colonialist ambitions would have been of great public service to those outside it the effect on britain's economies would have been significant making the nations even more dependent upon france [Music] this is where equating jacobism and for example modern scottish nationalism falls down there was no intention or likelihood of scotland quote going it alone before they could dissolve the hated union with england they would have to take great britain itself we'll continue the jacobite story in later episodes but you've probably heard much about the final act of the saga bonnie prince charlie the march to darby and finally disaster colluden after the massacre of glenn cole jacobitism began to be co-opted to the extent that by 1745 it had become less about restoring the stewards themselves and more convenient bandwagon for a broad spectrum of disgruntled actors opposed to english rule or the very united kingdom itself jacobitism was later the subject of much art prose music and poetry with all the romanticism and artistic interpretations such media entail this is why it's so poorly understood and mythologized in the modern era for example depicting the stuarts as infantile cherub-like angels who wouldn't hurt a fly may be amusing to those with a passing knowledge of history but it's also hugely disingenuous airbrushing out their frankly less than angelic actions the annexation of ulster declaring war on their own people and industrializing the slave trade to name but a few robert burns and sir walter scott indeed have a great deal to answer for regarding this hagiographic revisionist narrative of clear good guys bad guys and best of all bonnie dundee i mean take these two paintings of john bonny dundee graham for example one of these is accurate and i don't think you need me to tell you which one it is whether the jacobite causes something to celebrate today is up to the viewer to decide but in terms of relevance it does kind of lie on the wrong side of history those less charitable than myself might point out that in their fanatical devotion to restoring an imagined halcyon era at the cost of their own economic prosperity jacobites arguably had more in common with brexiteers than scottish nationalists but i'll be kind and say that this too is a tenuous analogy [Music] and that brings us to 1691. so far in series two we've learned about the campbells the mcdonald's and the jacobite cause we're now ready to tackle the complex story of the glencoe massacre itself in the next episodes you may think that you know the tale but the reality was far messier and less clear-cut than it's usually presented in popular retellings and buckle up because the real culprits may not be who you think [Music] thanks for watching if you enjoyed the episode hit like and subscribe to see new episodes as soon as they arrive and to support the show hit us up on patreon where for just three pounds a month you can get exclusive content and behind the scenes updates until next time enjoy your adventures [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Utopia Planitia Studios

Views: 38,842

Keywords: Munros, mountains, Scotland

Id: AzFlCbngR4s

Length: 59min 29sec (3569 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 15 2022