DHe has also done a lot with the end of Scottish independence with a famous German. Composer and music entrepreneur George Friedrich Hendel wrote one of his most famous oratorios in 1746 with “Judas Maccabius” in London. A hymn to the third son of the English king George II from the house of Hanover. That Wilhelm August, Duke of Cumberland, laid down the Scots’ final rebellion and the ousted Stuart dynasty. As “butchers” (butchers) they went into the Scottish tradition.

Because Cumberland was the winner of Colloden. On April 16, 1746, on this swamp away from Inverness, Prince Charles Edward Stuart’s army met and was annihilated by an army of English professional soldiers. As a result, the Scots lost their weapons, their kilns, and the equipment that aroused courage and fear among their enemies in their campaigns: the bagpipe.

Kaloden marks the end of a complex story. From a Scottish perspective, it starts with medieval trains of English forces north of the British Isles. From an English point of view, “The Forty-Five”, also called the Rebellion of 1745, meant the eventual abolition of the Stuart dynasty and the achievements of the glorious revolution of 1689. At that time, II, along with James, Catholic Stuart was overthrown. With the seizure of power by his son-in-law Wilhelm of Orange, Parliament and Protestantism prevailed and eventually led the way from Hanover to the throne for the Welfs.

But there were still “Jacobites” in the land. For example, a Motivational Party saw itself, which saw the king and his descendants as legitimate rulers of the United Kingdom: Catholic, but also of divine grace or non-bodyguards and – above all, non-English, Irish and Scots. Were supporters. They can always count on the support of two European powers (or at least believed to be so): France and the Pope.

5000 Scots marched against London

The fact that the two most important revolts of the Jacobites were instigated in 1715 (“Fifteen”) and 1745 says much about the political fate of their leaders. In both cases, France, as England’s eternal rival, held back gracefully because domestic political conditions or general European weather conditions reduced military intervention from opportunity. Nonetheless, Stuart supporters were killed and ran to their doom.

After “Old Pretender”, Jacob II’s son James Edward failed in 1715/16, his son Charles Edward tried again after 30 years. “Bonnie Prince Charlie”, fondly called the 24-year-old by his followers, landed in Scotland in August 1745. Immediately he joined the 3,000 Highlanders, with whom “The Young Pretender” took on Edinburgh. In December, Stuart Pretender finally stood in front of the derby with 5,000 belligerent Scots, only 150 kilometers from London, where panic immediately spread.

But the English failed to support hope-support from the Jacobites, as did a French army, which Prince Charlie predicted with such certainty of victory. Also there were cold and supply problems, so Charles was forced by authorities to withdraw the march, a decision that still continues to cause heated debate in Scotland today.

Because in the spring of 1746 Cumberland advanced to the Highlands with 10,000 men. His troops were far superior to the half-baked Highlanders and the Hanoverian prince, though a few months younger than his Stuart rival who gained experience in the war of the Austrian succession. He cleverly used the roads and depots kept by the English authorities since “The Fifteen” in Scotland.

After 25 minutes it was all over

Cumberland also cleverly used a resource that London gave abundantly: money. Many Scots had long been turning to the wages of foreign powers to reduce the strength of their battles. Half of Cumberland’s army at Culloden was made up of Scottish veterans.

Nevertheless, the MacLeans, MacLachlans, and other clans attacked with courage of desperation. But whoever survived the bullets of the British died in the grave attack. The battle was over in less than half an hour, with over 1200 Yakub killed, English losses being only a quarter of them.

Bonnie Prince Charlie survived and wandered the Highlands for five months. Its inhabitants proved their loyalty by not cheating him, despite a bounty of £ 30,000. Disguised as a woman, she is said to have ended up on a ship that brought her to France.

The Scots had to pay the bill. Still in the battlefield, hundreds of prisoners were killed in Cumberland. When Handel was writing his oratorio in London for “a truly sensible, brave, and virtuous commander”, the English army plundered and murdered through the Highlands. The clans were disarmed, their palaces, flags and forts burnt. “The Butcher” did a great job.

While “The Thirty-five” was being styled in Scottish commemorative culture as a final rebellion against abominable foreign rule, less-partisan crosslers are getting closer to the case: “The company, in retrospect, most concerned of the mind Is and imagination “, writes Jenner Historian Michael Maurer In his “Little History of Scotland”, it was “more of a futile bravura than a strategically thought-out military action.”

This article was first published in 2014.