Why Culloden?

By Kevin Meyers

Why in this place, occurred the last battle of the Jacobite uprising of the last heir of King James II, thus ending the Gaelic order and dashing all hope of political independence for Scotland?

Why did Prince Charles Edward Stuart insist on fighting this battle at Culloden, a place where the military advantage would be with the Duke of Cumberland?

Why Culloden, when his military advisors pointed out a superior defensive position not far from Culloden? Why did the Jacobite army retreat to Culloden when it had nothing but success in England?

When CES landed, his chances of success were much better than later historians would grant him. He fully expected a 10,000-man French contingent to follow shortly after his landing. French involvement in the '45 was so devious that its true nature was hidden from even professional historians until the 20th century. As a result, the official explanation that CES went off on his own without official backing of the French government stood for nearly 200 years. In fact, CES knew the French government knew of and supported the invasion, were actively a part of the planning, and arranged for support of the uprising while it was ongoing. For example, the French government tried to raise a regiment of Swedish soldiers for service in Scotland. Unfortunately, once the true nature of the scheme became known, King Louis XV was forced to cancel the scheme.Although there was an English standing army of 18,000 soldiers on the home island, no more than 7000 men would be available to repel an invading army. The advantage would clearly be with CES at the head of an expeditionary force of 10,000 trained French/Irish veterans combined with disaffected Scots and Englishmen.The Hanoverians were grossly unpopular. The English government, headed by Walpole, was corrupt and completely ignorant of government as a moral enterprise. The populace of England and Scotland rioted often in response to the criminal enterprises that passed as civil government. Hanover's policy of "meddle and muddle" in Germany was a disastrous failure. Much of the government and most of the populace wanted out of the continental wars.CES may have been impulsive, but he fully expected to win as he raised his standard on Scottish soil at Glenfinnan on August 19th, 1745.

So, what happened?

First, the most obvious explanation: the French failed to place an expeditionary army in Scotland.

Second: the, at best, lukewarm support of the English and Scottish Jacobites.

Third: the capture of the French ship, "Le Prince Charles", with L12,000 in Gold English Guineas. The lack of support and the loss of a base of operation meant that he could not continue to provide for the meager army still left to him. He needed the French gold or he must stand and fight for a desperate victory.

But, why Culloden?

The Jacobites had enjoyed a string of victories but had not faced the one English commander that mattered - Cumberland, King George's brother. Cumberland was an "out-and-out bastard" (to the Scots, in both meanings of the word), but completely competent in military matters.

Having said everything else, the one overriding factor leading to the debacle of Culloden was the poisonous relationship between Lord George Murray, the overall Jacobite military commander, and Bonnie Prince Charlie. During the uprising, the relationship grew from strained to openly hostile. It was a hostility that continued to the grave. The Highlanders followed their military commander, Lord George Murray, and trusted in him. The Highlanders were all for reasserting Scottish national (and their own) interests. Their number one priority, however, was not placing Charles on an English throne. This basic difference in view and Murray's low opinion of Charles was responsible for much of Charles' anger and frustration. After the victories of Derby and Falkirk, and on the night march preceding Culloden, Murray thwarted CES' desire to press on for victory. In his biography of CES, Frank MacLynn asserts that in times of extreme stress, CES displayed self-destructive impulses. It is Mr. MacLynn's contention that this self-destructive impulse is what drove CES to insist that the Jacobites stand and fight at Culloden, and to invoke his divine authority to reject his military advisors' recommendations of better sites and options.

The rest, as they say, is history. In terms of men lost, the defeat at Culloden was not as bad as first thought, and under different circumstances the uprising might have continued. The loss of cohesion, and the dissolution of the Jacobite army and loss of hope ended it, however. Charles spent the next few months bearding the English until he was finally rescued and taken to France. He could have been off immediately after Culloden, but he went into hiding. With no hope of resurgence, was this another example of his self-destructiveness? Charles was bold, energetic, and enigmatic, with ambivalent feelings about the Scots.

Perhaps we'll never know his true feelings about them, but to the Scots, he'll always be Bonnie Prince Charlie!