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Jacobitism and Highland Society
Ryan
Renfro
Jacobitism is an historical subject plagued with political bias
and romanticism, one in which one’s alignment within
contemporary politics does much to define one’s views on the
subject. Jacobites are often portrayed as either glorious
Highland warriors, struggling against all odds for the just
succession of their rightful king, or an unwashed Celtic rabble
intent on infecting civilised Britain with highland barbarism and
popery. Whatever the view presented may be, Jacobitism is
linked inseparably and often exclusively to Highland society.
As early as John Home’s writings, Jacobitism has been
portrayed as the product of distinct factors within Highland
society and culture. This view, however, fails to
acknowledge both the essential nature and magnitude of
Jacobitism. Although many factors within Highland society
caused it to be the strongest region in terms of Jacobite
support, Jacobitism was by no means an ideological belief and a
political movement restricted exclusively to the Highlands but
instead a national and international eighteenth-century political
phenomenon.
The first image that comes to mind when one hears the word
‘Jacobitism’ is often that of Bonnie Prince Charlie,
clad in full highland garb, adorning many short cake tins. To
be a Jacobite is to be a Highlander and a highlander must be a
Jacobite. When John Home took up the subject of Jacobitism,
he concentrated on the Highlands, particularly in those aspects
of Highland life which made it a hotbed for Jacobitism.
He holds the Highlands to be “essentially different”[1] than the rest of Britain,
as if Jacobitism were solely the product of the Highlands. He
writes that they speak a different language, wear different
clothes, and lack towns, trade, commerce, manufacturing and
agriculture- they were essentially barbarians. They did not
liver under normal government like the rest of Britain. Instead,
they were organized under the clan, an old familial sort of
social organization that was the remnant of a bygone era. This
made them likely supporters of James, since clan chiefs ruled by
the same claim by blood that James possessed and would have
perhaps seen their own inheritance at stake.
Home also writes of
the clan was also a form of military organisation. Loyalty
to the chief was stressed, and, since the chief held judicial
powers over those under his care, the Highlander was well-advised
to support his chief in any Jacobite support regardless of his
personal sympathies or willingness to fight. He claims that
all of Scotland had once been like the Highlands; however, the
lowlanders had laid down their arms and become peaceful once
James VI had taken the English thrown as well.[2] The Highlanders, however, remained
militaristic, “nay they went to church with their broad
swords and dirks.”[3] The Highland clans
were, in the eyes of Home and others, a breeding ground of
military insurrection where poor, backward bands of warrior stood
waiting for battle. Home sees Jacobitism as a military
threat to the peace and sovereignty of the British state that was
embedded in the very nature of the Highlands. This is
evident in his inclusion of Duncan Forbes of Culloden’s
solution to the problem of Jacobitism: since the militaristic
Highlanders are going to fight regardless, the British state
should recruit them to fight in foreign wars rather than have to
deal with them in rebellions at home.
Home’s analysis of the rebellion displays much insight into
the peculiarities of Highland life that made it such a hotbed of
Jacobite support. Writers such as Smout still point out
that “The clan…was still a marital society”[4] and that
Jacobitism’s close ties with Highland society lead to the
banning of firearms, highland dress and the bagpipes in that
region by anyone other than the Black Watch.[5] What, then, is wrong with Home’s
interpretation? The main flaw lies in his understanding of
the nature of Jacobitism itself. Home sees it as an almost
purely Highland phenomenon whereas, in fact, Jacobitism existed
on an international scale during the first half of the eighteenth
century.
The Jacobite threat has undergone the transformation in the view
of many historians in the last couple decades from a Highland
nuisance to “the greatest crisis that affected the
eighteenth-century British state.”[6] Historians are looking less and less to
the ‘Celtic fringe’ and more towards Jacobitism in
other areas where the movement looks much stronger than those
such as Home would concede. It is estimated that as much as
25 percent of English country gentry were had Jacobite sympathies
during the reigns of the first two Hanoverians.[7] Furthermore, Jacobitism was common among
Tories, who had lost power to the Whigs, as a possible tool for
regaining power from the Whigs. Jacobitism would also have
been popular among traditionally Catholic regions of England and
was an ideological necessity for those who adhered to such ideas
as the divine right of kings and therefore rejected the
succession of William of Orange and the Hanoverians. Furthermore,
Jacobitism found favour in France, Italy and Spain, all Catholic
states that saw a political advantage in aiding the Catholic
Stewarts.
Despite the internationalism of the Stewarts’ support,
Jacobitism was viewed as a primarily Highland threat. Even
the Scots themselves began to portray Jacobites as heroic
Highland warriors following the rising in 1689.[8] They linked support of James with the
romanticised notions of the Highlanders in Jacobite propaganda.
Why then would Whig historians such as Home be eager to
characterise Jacobites as Highlanders? First off, as
Pittock points out, Whig history is written to elevate the
winners and marginalize the losers, thus validating the powers
that be.[9] By isolating
Jacobitism to the Gaelic-speaking, Catholic, poor- in essence
barbaric- fringe, they were able to generate a sense of unity at
the core of British society in opposition to Jacobitism and all
the negative Highland values associated with it. Thus by
associating Jacobitism with Highland society, Whig historians
were able to discredit it as a potentially powerful force in
British society and exile it to those outsiders in the extreme
north of the island.
Home’s basic claim is that Jacobitism is rooted in the
distinct culture of the Highlands. It is already clear that
this is not so, since James found sympathizers in England and
military support from France and Spain on several occasions.
But is there not still some truth in what Home writes? Perhaps
a clearer definition of Jacobitism is needed at this time. Jacobitism
is merely the support of the Stewart claim to the thrown of the
United Kingdom. Under this definition Jacobitism was indeed
international. Home, however, seems to have a different
understanding of Jacobitism. It seems that what Home must
be discussing is militant Jacobitism, the sort which ultimately
lead to armed rebellion. There is no doubt that the
Highlanders were the most willing to fight for the Stewart cause,
often fighting alone when Jacobites in England and France were
unwilling to rally under James or Charles’ banner because
the odds did not appear in their favour.
Does Jacobitism then become for Home the willingness to
participate in a Jacobite rebellion? Even under this
modified definition of Jacobitism, Home’s theory has its
flaws. When discussing the rising in 1715, Pittock claims
that approximately 42 percent of the Jacobite forces where
Lowlanders.[10] According
to Jean McCann’s research, the number of Highlander’s
participating in the 1745 rebellion was only in the mid-forty
percentile.[11] This
is a much lower percentage than one would suspect from having
read Home’s or any number of other writings on the
rebellions. Having studied the list of names of those
participating in the Rebellion of 1745, Rev. Walter
MacLeod’s observation agrees with these numbers, pointing
out that the names are “insufficiently Celtic: hinting
indeed that the Highland host is something of a phantom.”[12] Lowland Jacobites
and even foreign troops often adopted highland dress and even
without it they were likely easily mistaken for Highlanders by
many of the English, thus accounting for the perception of all
Jacobites as Highlanders. One lowland Jacobite, Colonel
John, Master of Sinclair, complained in 1715 about the
Lowlander’s attachment toward tartan, expressing fears that
a Stewart restoration would become associated with the Highlands
and not with a national British political movement.[13] This shows the
understanding, even among some of the rebels, that if Jacobitism
could be linked exclusively with the Highlands, then it would
become a lost cause. Having fought against the Jacobites,
Home’s undoubtedly possesses a bias against them and would
gladly link them with the backward Highlands. His denial of
their true threat, as expressed by the panic shown in London in
1745, denies the Jacobites validity as one of the strongest
factors in British politics of the day.
Although Home provides what is, at least for his day, an
excellent analysis of why Highland society provided so much
military support for the Jacobite rebellions, he does not provide
a good overall view of Jacobitism. Even, or perhaps
especially, to one who witnessed a Jacobite rebellion first hand,
the subject of Jacobitism proved too bogged down by romanticism
and mischaracterization to get a firm grasp upon in its entirety.
Although historians may never reach the true nature of
Jacobitism, they seem to have a better understanding of it than
in Home’s day.
Home, John Esq. The history of the
rebellion in the year 1745. London : A. Strahan,
1802.
Lenman, Bruce. The Jacobite Risings
in Britain 1689-1746. London: Eyre Methuen
Ltd., 1980.
Pittock, Murray G.H. Jacobitism.
London: Macmillan Press Ltd., 1998.
Pittock, Murray G.H. The Myth of
the Jacobite Clans. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University
Press Ltd., 1995.
Smout, T. C. A History of the
Scottish People 1560-1830. London: Fontana Press, 1998.
[1] Home, John Esq. The history of the rebellion in the year 1745, p. 3.
[2] Ibid, p. 13.
[3] p. 11.
[4] Smout,T. C. A History of the Scottish People 1560-1830, p. 320.
[5] Ibid, p. 321.
[6] Pittock, Jacobitism, p. 4. It should be said, however, that this view did exist as early as the eighteenth century, as Jeremy Black makes a similar statement according to Pittock (The Myth of the Jacobite Clans, p. 20.)
[7] Ibid, p. 59.
[8] Pittock, The Myth of the Jacobite Clans, p. 27.
[9] Ibid, pp. 4-5.
[10] p. 51.
[11] p. 60.
[12] p. 54.
[13] p. 11.