Scottish aid, and the Covenanters\' army helped to reverse the course of
events. Then the Marquis of Montrose rekindled Royalist hopes with a
string of triumphs in Scotland, but King Charles, beleaguered on all sides
in England, deemed it best to surrender to Scottish troops there. Covenant
generals appear to have sold Charles to their allies in return for arrears
due for invading England. At once they repented this vile and foolish act
and intervened again, this time on behalf of the captive sovereign, but it
was too late. In January 1649 Charles ascended the scaffold in London.
In Scotland the execution horrified even his most implacable opponents,
and his son Charles was immediately proclaimed king. National feeling
assumed a familiar anti-English tone. But all the forces raised and
battles given were lost to the formidable might of General Cromwell, who
headed the English Republic and its newly-reformed army. Despite a
stubborn and protracted resistance, in the 1 650s Scotland, for the first
time ever, was annexed by a foreign power, \"as when the poor bird is
embodied into the hawk that hath eaten it up\". However, the rightful king,
the Scottish parliament and thousands of exiles never recognized
Cromwell\'s Commonwealth, and English occupation of Scotland lasted for
just a few years. In 1660 Charles II returned to punish the rebels and
restore all government institutions. Apart from the resolute suppression
of extreme Covenanters, his long reign was fairly uneventful, especially
by comparison with the troubled times before and after it.
In the person of his brother, James II (VII of Scotland), Britain acquired
a Catholic monarch, something which has long been forgotten. James\'s
earnest and understandable efforts to secure religious toleration and
equality for those who professed his faith resulted in wide Protestant
opposition. After just three years in power, faced with the armed
intrusion of his own son-in-law, the Dutch prince William of Orange, James
lost heart and fled to France. The Scottish estates followed English
example by declaring that he forfeited the crown, which they bestowed on
William and his wife Mary.
King over the Water
The so-called \"Glorious Revolution\" of 1688-9 was little more than a
Protestant coup, bringing few laurels to its perpetrators. It gave birth
to a wide and deep-rooted movement in support of the exiled Stuart
dynasty, known as Jacobitism (from the Latin Jacobus, meaning James).
No sooner had William of Orange been proclaimed king than John Graham,
Viscount Dundee, mustered the clansmen loyal to the Stuarts and marched
against William\'s troops. In the country divided between the two claimants
it was no longer Scot versus Englishman, but usually Scot versus Scot. In
the mountain pass of Killiecrankie, as a wild Highland charge downhill put
the enemy to flight, Dundee received a mortal wound and expired in the
very moment of victory. Without his vigorous command the first Jacobite
attempt petered out.
The London government counterattacked, and its measures hardly endeared it
to the subjects. In February, 1692, on the pretext that the elderly
chieftain of the Glencoe MacDonalds gave the oath of loyalty a few days
later than ordered, a company of Campbells billeted and entertained by
them, fell on their hosts and slaughtered them. It was not so much the
scale of the massacre (38 people perished) as the flagrant breach of
hospitality that appalled everyone. King William and his senior officials,
who issued express instructions to the killers, managed to wash their
hands.
William died childless and was succeeded by his sister-in-law, Anne
Stuart. Since none of her many children survived, the English parliament
offered the crown to the Protestant Electors of Hanover in Germany to the
detriment of the rightful heir, James Francis Stuart, and 57 other
European princes with a better claim to the crowns of Britain. It was now
vital for English authorities to ensure that \"the backdoor be shut against
the attempts of the Pretender\", i.e. to exclude any possibility of Stuart
restoration in Scotland. Clearly, this could be attained only by disposing
of Scottish independence.
\"What foreign arms could never quell, by civil rage
and rancour fell\". In 1707 with the help of the pro-English (or \"Court\")
party, by combined means of intimidation and promises of financial and
trading benefits, the Scottish parliament was persuaded to accept the
Treaty of Union and abolish itself. \"There\'s ane end of ane auld sang (old
song)!\", came a nostalgic comment from the Scottish chancellor as he
signed the document. Thereby the realm of Scots ceased to exist (as did
the realm of England) to be incorporated in a United Kingdom of Great
Britain with a single ruler, parliament, citizenship, currency and flag.
Under the terms of the Union Scotland retained her Presbyterian Kirk, her
legal system and some other privileges, but her representatives in the
joint legislature in London were hopelessly outnumbered by over ten to
one. The vast majority of Scots had no say in the transaction, which from
the very outset became widely resented, even by several of its signers.
Jacobite feelings flared up all over the British Isles, and Stuart agents
shuttled from one European capital to another. Their slogan appeared on
sword blades: \"Scotland - No Union - Long live King James VIII!\"
James himself, saluted by many as \"King over the Water\", approached the
coast of Scotland in 1708 with a French squadron, only to withdraw before
the English fleet. Success seemed certain seven years later, after the
coronation in London of George of Hanover, who could not speak a word of
English and was generally mocked as a usurper and \"a wee German lairdie
(petty German baron)\". In 1715 the greatest Jacobite rising began
throughout Scotland and in northern England. An army far in excess of
Hanoverian troops was recruited, while important Scottish burghs,
including Aberdeen, Dundee and Perth, gladly opened their gates to the
insurgents. But they were plagued by the indecision of their leader, Lord
Mar, as well as sheer bad luck. Besides, many Scots preferred to sit on
the fence or rise for King George; old rivalries often induced some clans
to oppose a cause for the simple reason that others have joined it. After
much waste of time the one major battle of Sheriffmuir ended in stalemate,
and James Stuart, the titular sovereign, arrived from France too late to
regain his kingdom. A small-scale Jacobite campaign of 1719 also failed
notwithstanding Spanish assistance, but another opportunity still lay
ahead.
In July, 1745 a French frigate landed on the Scottish islet of Eriskay a
handsome young man of noble mien with only seven companions. Charles
Edward Stuart, affectionately called by his followers \"Bonnie Prince
Charlie\", boldly affirmed his father\'s right to the throne despite the
doubts of local chieftains. In a matter of weeks he raised the Jacobite
banner at Glenfinnan, assembled several thousand men, captured Perth and
entered Edinburgh, where he had James VIII and III proclaimed king again.
Having routed General Cope, the Hanoverian commander, at Prestonpans,
Charles found himself master of Scotland.
He craved for more. In November, at the head of his Highlanders, he
crossed the English border. Carlisle surrendered, as did Preston,
Manchester and Derby. The elated Charles stood a mere hundred miles from
London, where panic was such that George II and his dignitaries considered
evacuation. At this moment, however, his staff insisted on returning to
Scotland, a decision still hotly debated by historians. True, the expected
reinforcements of English Jacobites or French descents did not come, and
three English corps, each one bigger than his own, opposed the Prince. But
these were out-manoeuvred, and the whole course of the campaign showed
that the best chance of success lay in audacity, which took the Scots so
far.
Although Charles won another encounter with the Hanoverians at Falkirk, he
was finally cornered, and on 16 April, 1746 the last battle fought on
British soil, at Culloden, sealed the fate of Scotland. On flat ground,
with little cavalry and no artillery, the Jacobites could not prevail
against well-drilled government troops, a good number of which were
Scottish, too. Hundreds of braves fell on the spot, the wounded were
mercilessly butchered and prisoners shot, hanged or sent to American
plantations. The victors employed every possible measure to humble the
spirit and eradicate the customs of the Gaelic Highlands. Even tartan
garment and bagpipes were banned for a long spell.
This was the end of one of the most marvellous adventures in European
history. Prince Charles survived Culloden, and despite the enormous sum of
-L-30,000 on his head, not one of the people who could well blame him for
their ruin thought of getting the reward during half a year of his
wanderings in the Highlands. His cause died with him in France, but in one
respect it did triumph — dozens of Jacobite ballads are fondly sung in
Scotland today, but nobody would recall a single Hanoverian one.
The Scottish Enlightenment and Beyond
The Jacobite period and its aftermath was not all bloodshed and intrigue.
An efficient school system and four universities in a nation of just over
a million people ensured one of the highest literacy rates and levels of
education in the world. In the Middle Ages Scotland already produced
several scholars of renown, such as \"The Subtle Doctor\" John Duns Scotus,
