Jacobites

Jacobites were the supporters of the exiled Stuart King James II (Latin: Jacobus) and his descendants. The Jacobite movement was a political movement with the aim of undermining the Hanoverian regime and restoring the Stuarts as the ruling monarchal family. The movement began in the course of the Glorious Revolution (1688) and was crushed as a political force after 1746.

Origins

As a consequence of the Glorious Revolution in 1688, the catholic king James II was dethroned and exiled and his daughter Mary II and her protestant husband William III of Orange were crowned king and queen. Supporters of James II advocated a hereditary succession of the catholic House of Stuart and asserted their customary loyalism by revolting against the regime and the protestant line of succession. After the death of Queen Anne who followed her sister Mary on the throne, George I, belonging to the house of Hanover, was installed as king and finally superseded the House of Stuart. The Jacobites, who were in favor of the catholic James Francis Edward Stuart, son of James II, as king, questioned the legitimacy of George II and began to riot. Several Jacobite risings took place.

Composition and Forms

Many Jacobites were Scottish and Scotland became one of the cockpits of conflict“ (Speck 18), because the Stuarts retained much more support there. But also English and Irish people became associated with the Jacobite movement, as well as Anglician Tories. Jacobites were both plebeian as well as patrician and Szechi states that Jacobitism generated an introverted commensality within British society, i.e. it produced a self-sustaining, recognisable minority who rejected the social, political and religious order installed after 1688“ (12). Szechi continues by explaining that Jacobite society revolved around networks of kinship and sociability and was a rather exclusive society. It was comprised of three layers. On the one hand, there were the hard-core, ideologically commited Jacobites who brought up their children accordingly. On the other hand, there were the politcally embittered who had simply lost in the political game and were seeking a radical way to reenter the fray (Szechi 17). Apart from that, some Jacobites can be seen as simply adventurers that were driven to Jacobitism due to the fact that they had no other means of mending their fortunes. The Jacobite ideology did not only manifest itself through revolts and risings, but also culturally and in every day life. Jacobites sang special songs (e.g. the Cavalier anthem The king shall enjoy his own again), read poetry evoking the good old days and hang portraits of the exiled Stuart family in their houses.

Important Jacobite risings

1715: Earl of Mar raised the Stuart standard at Braemar on 6 September 1715. The Battle of Sheriffmuir between Jacobite armys and royal armys led by the Duke of Argyll ended in a draw. The Jacobite army dispersed.

1745: Prince Charles Edward, the Young Pretender, raised his standard at Glenfinnan on 19 August 1745. The Jacobites were defeated at the Battle of Culloden.

Cook, Chris; Stevenson, John. The Longman Handbook of Modern British History 1714-1987. New York: Longman Inc.,1983.

Speck, W.A. A Concise History of Britain 1707-1975. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1993.

Szechi, Daniel. The Jacobites. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994.