Culloden is the last battle on British soil. Here the last rebellion of the Scots was shot down. After that, the British covered the Highlands with murder and terror – they deliberately destroyed the culture of the Scots.
Most Germans are probably familiar with the Battle of Culloden from the romantic time-slip series “Outlander”. In the TV opera, WWII medic Claire falls in 1743 Scotland and promptly falls in love with Highlander Jamie. The passionate love is overshadowed by her knowledge of the future: she knows that the world of the clans will be shattered in 1746 on the field of Culloden in the fire of the English army (“Outlander – strong men needs the woman”).
In the United Kingdom and the debate about Scottish independence, the battle is of eminent political importance, because here, on April 16, 1746, London bloodily stifled Scotland’s last attempt at independence. The battle and the relentless suppression of the Scots that followed are etched in the memory. For the victorious royal family was concerned with nothing less than eradicating an entire culture.
hatred that never went away
Paul O’Keeffe tells the story of the last great battle on British soil. O’Keeffe is a tremendous storyteller and he found a trick to give a different spin to stories that have been told a thousand times. As in his Waterloo book, he doesn’t focus on the struggles but more on the aftermath.
The basic perspective is conventional. O’Keeffe succeeds the heir to the throne, the only 24-year-old Charles Edward Stuart – the grandson of the deposed Stuart monarch James II. In the summer of 1745 he lands in the Outer Hebrides with only seven men and challenges the royal house in London. After all, he had 1,500 muskets, 1,800 broadswords, 20 artillery pieces and a war chest of 4,000 gold pieces with him.
The radiant youth – “Bonnie Prince Charlie” – caused the clans of the Highlands to rise up and has occupied romantic souls ever since. “I’ve come home, sir… If I can get a hundred good, burly, honest-minded fellows to join me, I’ll give it a try,” he declared as he landed.
A company that could only fail
Thousands joined him and his bold campaign. Ultimately, he had to fail – without reinforcements, without an industrial base and without allies who could have sent real troops. The oddity is not that his savage troop went down in Culloden, still armed with shields and the traditional Claymore sword, but that they were able to harass the British like this before.
At Prestonpans, 2,500 Highlanders crushed a slightly smaller government force under Sir John Cope. The Crown infantrymen were poorly trained and undisciplined. At the first onslaught their ranks broke and the soldiers tried to flee. In just ten minutes they were wiped out. “The blows the Highlanders dealt with their swords,” says an eyewitness, “showed their strength; not only were the hands and feet of the men severed, but even the legs of the horses.” The Clans also defeated General Henry Hawley’s army at Falkirk. But this time some regiments withstood and covered the retreat of the defeated army “My heart is broken,” wrote Hawley, out of anger he is said to have broken his sword.
The Butcher rules Scotland
But that was the time of easy victories and high-spirited opponents. As with many uprisings, time played into the government’s hands. The new commander, the Duke of Cumberland, revived the morale of his soldiers and found new tactics to counter the onslaught of the savage Clan warriors. Cumberland was not a military genius, he was a battle-hardened officer and possessed a certain lack of conscience. Above all, he knew the tactics of the Highlanders. He knew how to resist their famous charge. In hand-to-hand combat, the Highlanders used their small shield to deflect the opposing man’s pikes and bayonet, and then slew him with a swing of their short broadsword. Cumberland trained his soldiers not to stab at the immediate attacker, but always to hit the man to his right on his exposed side.
The charging Highlanders had no chance. The artillery had already decimated the weakened troops. “Our soldiers,” wrote one British officer, “were rendered beyond the reach of the sword by the new exercise; and the rebels, as they pressed forward, fell to certain death. Ours killed at least ten men in a favor of their own.” Within half an hour the battle was over and an “unresisting, defenseless slaughter” was underway.
consolation in the drunk
After the battle, Cumberland massacred the prisoners, many said to have been burned alive. The book isn’t called “Battle and Aftermath” for nothing. Paul O’Keeffe is dedicated to the aftermath of the last field battle on British soil. He tells how the Duke of Cumberland went from hero and savior to “The Butcher” in the public consciousness. Because even after the battle, Cumberland continued to rage. His troops murdered, raped and burned. The stated aim was to destroy Gaelic culture and the clan system. But awareness quickly changed. If the Highlanders were just uncivilized barbarians, they were transfigured into noble savages by the beginning of Romanticism. The British were no longer regarded as the heralds of civilization, but were seen as the brutal oppressors, which they arguably were. In the “Outlander” series, the romantic vision of the lost Highlands still shines through today.
O’Keeffe follows the fall of the handsome prince. After Culloden he could never raise an army again. He wandered about the country for five months. None of the poor peasants who hid him betrayed the prince, even though the British had placed an outrageous bounty of £30,000 on his head. Bonnie Prince Charlie fled to France in September 1746. The last Stuart died a broken alcoholic, leaving no heir.
Source: Culloden: Battle & Aftermath, Paul O’Keeffe
Also read:
Outlander – Strong and willing men need women
So much for demure: in the 18th century, one in five Londoners had syphilis
Jane Austen’s wild sister – the voyage of “John Bull”
Netflix series Bridgerton – with cleverness and cleavage, Daphne has to pave her way into life