Empire: World History - 189. Culloden: Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Last Stand

Episode Date: September 25, 2024

Few battles in history have been remembered as powerfully, nor been as mythologised, as Culloden on the 16th of April 1746. Under the leadership of Charles Edward Stuart - Bonnie Prince Charlie, ‘the Young Pretender’ - the Jacobites fight to the death upon Culloden Moor to place their own king on the British throne. Outgunned, outnumbered, the kilted swordsmen and musketeers took on the forces of the Hanoverian George II of England, in what would be the last battle fought on British soil. What would be their fate? In today’s episode, William and Anita are joined again by historian Jacqueline Riding to discuss the Battle of Culloden: one of the most cataclysmic battles in British history.  To fill out the survey: survey.empirepoduk.com To buy William's book: https://coles-books.co.uk/the-golden-road-by-william-dalrymple-signed-edition Twitter: @Empirepoduk Email: [e-mail] Goalhangerpodcasts.com Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett Producer: Callum Hill Exec Producer: Neil Fearn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you want access to bonus episodes reading lists for every series of Empire, a chat community. Discounts for all the books mentioned in the week's podcast, add free listening and a weekly newsletter, sign up to Empire Club at www.mpowerpoduk.com. Hello and welcome to Empire. We left the last episode on this cliffhanger with Charles Edward Sincar. Stuart Bonnie Prince Charlie at Glenfinnan on the 19th of August 1745, with the Scots clans massing around him and the sound of the pipes echoing through the Scottish hills as the 45, what the English call the second Jacobite rebellion, breaks out in Scotland.

This is Empire Pod. I am William Durimple. I'm Anita Arnan. Hello. And we are joined once again by, I think, our epic historian who just took us through a great romp through some really complicated history. Jacqueline Riding, author of Jacobites, is here with us again. And honestly, you create such a stirring image of a young man. Let's not forget in his 20s, who has been abandoned by the people who he should have been able to count on, the French, who've been sort of meddling on tinkering with Jacobite uprisings in the past. But here he is, all alone, buoyed up by this massive sound and this roar of fealty from people who he's never met before. Arriving in full sort of highland gear, not the kilt, though. I mean, just describe what he looks like. What's he wearing? Because in the Victorian pictures, he's in a kilt, which wasn't even in its modern sense invented yet.

It was invented by an Englishman in 1720s, the Phillybeg. But he's not wearing that because he's got to ride a horse. When he shifts his kit, if he's marched. Withing with his army, he's wearing tartan. He's in formal European dress mode when he's in court. So at Holyrood, as we'll get to Holyrood House later. So what should we imagine him in the Highlands then when he's just beginning the uprising? In the Highlands and marching in front of his army, he will be wearing some form of tartan jacket,

probably red velvet trousers or breeches, and then obviously knee-length boots if he's riding on horseback. If he's walking, then he'll be wearing something slightly different. He'll also be wearing a bonnet, the blue bonnet with the white cockade. I should tell a wee story here from my teens. I remember going to see the famous Sir Donald Cameron of Loch Eel, who was a great war hero when I was in my teens. And you go down his drive in the West Highlands, and there's this very, very neat line of trees planted in a perfect avenue.

And then suddenly, at a certain point, it stops. And there's this enormous clump of trees, all growing higgily-pillity altogether. And this is the point at which Body Prince Charlie turns up on the Lockheel lands and Lockheel, who is planting his avenue, drops all the acorns of all the oaks that he's planting on the spot. And all these trees just grow up on the one spot. It's a wonderful sort of moment of the, you can see everything stops when this uprising breaks out. And it still sits there today, this clump of trees. The clump of astonishment.

I love that story. She's a lovely image, isn't it? It's really lovely. So tell me this, Treklin. I mean, when he is there sort of marching ahead of these men who are roaring for him to succeed, he must feel he has a chance. Looking back, how much chance does he really have? Thing is, until you've absolutely failed, you've got the chance to succeed, you know,

I know it sounds a stupid answer, but, you know, the momentum's with him. When all those people have gathered at Glenfinnan, you've got about a thousand or so people, but at least it's more than nothing. And now you've got ahead of steam, and he starts to march towards Edinburgh, with barely any interruption whatsoever. Because don't forget, while he's doing this in the August and then September of 1745, the British Army is still fighting in Flanders in the War of Austrian Succession. They're fighting the French.

And they've just started to release people, start to send them back when they're starting to realise that this is more serious than perhaps they thought. And the future demon of the end of our story, butcher Cumberland, and stinking Billy is still on the continent, isn't he? Yep, and he never wants to come back to do anything in Great Britain. He's very happy being in mainland Europe fighting the French in Flanders. That's what he's interested in. He's hauled back because they're rising because increasingly fraught

from the kind of British government and the British army. When do the English begin to hear that there's trouble afoot in Scotland? They're hearing it all the time. The newspapers are full of it. If you look at a newspaper from 1745 July onwards, the front pages are literally full of what's happening in Scotland, what's happening in the rising. But people are also fearful in the lowlands of Scotland.

They're fearful of this Highland Army. This idea of United Scotland at this point is it's very far from the truth. You do have this separation between the Highlands and the Lowlands, although Charles manages to encourage support from across the Highlands, mainly Highlands, but also Lowland Scots as well. well, do start to come on board by the time he gets to Edinburgh. But Edinburgh, he gets there with very little interruption at all. Can I ask about some of the clans which have been vilified by other chieftains at this point?

I mean, people like the Campbells, for example. Or indeed the derrimples. And the derrimples. Where are they in this maelstrom of declaring loyalty to Bonnie Prince Charlie or not? Or they don't. I mean, the Dukes of Argyll are pro-Hanavarian. They're very vehemently anti-Stewart because the Stuarts executed one of their chiefs. So, you know, and Charlie mentions this.

Bonnie Bridge Charlie actually says, if only my ancestors have been kinder to the Campbell's, then maybe we wouldn't have had this vehement, you know, anti-Stewart stance from the Dukes of Argal and the Canberland. But the Campbells are carefully on the west coast and he marches down the east, doesn't he? And he has an easier passage to Edinburgh. Exactly. So he lands on the west, but he walks, he marches, increasingly gathering troops as he goes along through to the east side to Edinburgh itself. And so, I mean, the symbolism, let alone the strategic success of taking over Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, is extraordinary. Of course, the big question is, does he stay there and simply rule Scotland, or does he carry on marching south towards London? And that's the big question when they arrive in Edinburgh.

And how long do they hover over that question in Edinburgh? Well, they're in Edinburgh for two months. In the Palace of Holyrood. In the Palace of Holyrood House. and this is where you have a prince of the Ancian regime, even if he's in a military campaign, we'll behave like a prince of the ancient regime. He bought silver in Paris,

candelabra, you know, soup, spoons, all sorts of stuff prior to him coming to the Western Highlands because that's how a Prince of the Anseigne regime travels. He'd have accoutrements, which includes silverware. I have to tell you a very sad story about that. My mother's family, I regret to say, also on the government, side in this uprising. And it's someone from my mother's family who takes the news of the eventual defeat of this to London. He gets given as a present for that, Bonnie Prince Charlie's Silver

canteen. And it remains in my mother's family until a useless uncle of mine, who was a gambler, couldn't find any money at home and picked up something from the sideboard and left it in a pawn shop at Newmarket and literally put the money on the horses and then forgot to go in and pay the pawn shop back and redeem it. It was bought back for the Scottish nation for five million pounds a few years ago. And it's now in the National Museum of Scotland, just terrible, terrible story. And that one item is exquisite. Absolutely exquisite. It's the fanciest camping kit you can ever see. It's a silver travelling set of knives forks and little dishes that unfold. And it could have been yours.

It would never have been mine because I've the wrong side of the family. Okay. I sometimes feel that during these podcasts, we need a therapist. really on hand or on speed dial to talk our way through your family's machinations. So look, in Edinburgh, there he is in Holyrood. He's throwing parties with the requisite silverware. We won't dwell on that because it's painful for some of us. In the meantime, let's talk about the London end of this whole affair. So you have George II, the English Hanoverian king, on the throne.

British. British, absolutely right. Tell us a little bit about him. do us a pen portrait of what he is and who he is, and what is he surrounded by while all this is going on? Well, this is the closest that the Hanoverians, I think, the Hanoverians get to being dislodged from the throne. I mean, this is both a personal and a dynastic crisis for the Hanoverians.

I mean, George II at least spoke some English, unlike his father. You know, the way he's a sort of doer individual. It's very difficult to get excited about the Hanoverians. Even sort of someone like Andrew Roberts struggles to show an enthusiasm. I mean, the other thing is that in setting up this contrast between Charles and the Hanoverians in London, whether it's the Duke of Cumberland or indeed his father, George II, they are quite a doer bunch. But George II is still, he's a brave individual in the sense that he does lead an army. You know, he's not somebody who just sits in a palace and expects other people to get on with it.

He was an enthusiastic, perhaps too enthusiastic, military student. And he wanted to be in the thick of it. he wanted to lead his armies into battle. I think I'm right in saying he's the last British king to lead an army into battle, which was Dettingen during the war of the Austrian succession. So when the sort of pro-Jacobite propaganda machine words up and says he was ready with a yacht next to the Tower of London to escape to his Hanoverian domains, should this get any worse, that's simply not the case.

He was firmly rooted in London and would have gone to Finchley Common, the famous subject for the March of the Guards to Finchley by Hogarth, He would have gone to Finchley Common and would have been there with his troops. So, I mean, there's bravery there. There's a very sort of brickish jawline. It may not be a very exciting company. You wouldn't want to look over at Candel Arbor at him. But he's not taking chances either.

Am I right in saying that he does place a bounty on Charles's head, £30,000 back in the day, which is about £5 million today, that if anyone could rid me of this troublesome Bonnie Prince Charlie, they will be rich? Well, I think any self-respecting government would put a bounty on the head of somebody who wants to overturn the government and the dynasty that happens to sit there. I mean, the wonderful thing from kind of the Scott support in Great Britain is that nobody gave him up for that sum of money. That's a sizable sum of money.

Nobody ever takes him and surrenders him or tries to surrender him for that. It is a lovely part of the story that for all the other tragedies, and he's escorted even when he's lost out honorably person to person. Well, he's still a royal steward, even if you consider him the bogey man. He's the wrong steward, the wrong branch. to the Stuarts. Nonetheless, he's still royal and he's still a human being. And I think there's an element of that. We'll get on to that later when he's actually sort of scurrying around the highlands and islands after the Battle of Collodon. But I think George II, it's difficult to love him,

but he embodies the Protestant succession. So regardless of what you think of the individual, if you believe in that succession and you believe in the kings of Great Britain and Ireland should be Protestant, then you're going to support whoever's there, and that's George the Second. Now, Jacqueline, the exciting first great battle of the uprising takes place on the 21st of September, beside where I grew up in Preston Pans and East Lothian. Tell us about this battle. My forebears, I should say at this point, play a rather unheroic role and go and sit in a ship in the birth of fourth to say which way the battle goes. Yeah, so this of course happens just after he arrives in the Palace of Holyrood House.

This is within a few days of arrival. This is quite an extraordinary moment. some of the troops that have been sent back and some who have been raised, who are recently raised as troops, to march north to get to this area of Scotland in order to fight this Jacobite army, which is starting to gain ground.

It's thousands of people. To nip it in the bud is the hope from the Hanoverian point of view. So they send Johnny Coop. They sent a very seasoned military general is leading this group of earlier a few thousand. These are small armies in comparison to the ones that we get used to

later, Waterloo, say. Anyway, but they're small armies, but this army is sent there and they start marching towards Edinburgh and then the Jacobite Army. From Newcastle, I think, is it? Yeah, they march north from there. And then the Jacobite Army forms up and starts to march southeast from Edinburgh. And it's September, it's autumn and it's a foggy morning. It's apparently a foggy morning. And the legend and the reality goes that there was some local knowledge about the marshland around of Dramor. Yeah, that they are given heads up about certain ways of being able to get through what seems to be an impenetable boggy land.

There's a way of picking your way through it, which is pretty crucial in the context of what happens next, because what basically happens next is that Jacobite Army is fully ready to fight the British Army. And they come rushing in a surprise attack out of the mist, taking the red coats by surprise. It's one of the great moments of history. And of course, this is a style of. of fighting, this Highland charge with the sword, the back sword and the claymalls and the, you know, it's a style of fighting which is frightening because if you ever watch anyone doing reenactments

of early 18th and mid-18th century military, they march gradually forward in a sort of line, in a very sort of coherent and sort of highland charge. There's an element of organisation, but it is scary. And this, of course, you know, all these troops are watching this for the first time. You don't have fighting between Britons that often, and they see this amazing charge, and some of them, most of them, flee. So you're running against a sort of fleeing army. We should paint a picture of this. This is beside the Firth of Fourth, this flat land.

You can see the waters of the Fourth, if you're in the Jacobites, on your left. And the red coats are lined up in a thin line, the far side of the bog. And out of this fog mass suddenly come the cry of the handers and the swirl of the pipes, Yeah, and the English army flees. And Johnny Cope heads off back to Newcastle with his tail behind his, what's the phrase? Tale between his legs, I think you're trying to say. The tail between his legs is exactly the words I'm looking for. I am going to correct you, though.

Oh, no, am I wrong? That's what the song says. Go Johnny Cope. He does. He gallops all the way to bear it. But this army is technically British. Even if there's a lot of English soldiers there, it's technically a British army. And it's not the government army.

This is the British army, the King's troops. They swear allegiance to the King. of Great Britain. So terminology is quite important. No, no, it's fair. And you're very, very right and proper to pick us up on it. I mean, I'm sort of thinking the other reason that well-trained troops might have fled when faced with this, you know, sort of mass coming out of the fog, with the noise and the sound, is that they've been brought up on stories of the highlands being full of savages. You know, so for all they know, these are monsters coming at them through the fog, because propaganda and as you say, terminology are very, very important.

And that's what they've been fed largely. And of course, a lot of people in the lowlands of Scotland, they remember having Highlanders billeted on them to soften them up, you know, during the course of previous wars and stuff and civil wars and so on. And this certainly becomes an issue when the Highland, which is a predominantly Highland Army, but becomes increasingly mixed, lowlanders, English as an English regiment and so on. But nonetheless, these are seen as they speak a different language.

They speak what they call Ers or Gallic. They look different to the lowlanders. They are pretty unusual, let alone by the time you get into somewhere like Derby in the middle of the Midlands. And in front of these, I take it that he's still in front of these wild men from the highlands, is this beautiful young boy, a Bonnie Prince Charlie, who by the way, I love this, in fact, was called Bonnie Prince Charlie in Edinburgh because it was like the arrival of Harry Stiles. You know, all the women had heard about his beauty and come out and that's where the name stuck. Well, he is incredibly striking. He's incredibly striking looking individual.

he stands shoulders above anybody else. So he's got great presence. And everyone says it, whether they're for or against the stewards. They do describe him as this very striking looking individual, which is why the court at Holyrood House, it's not just play acting with your silver and this and the other. You're presenting the potential monarchy for Great Britain. You're presenting what he might look like at St. James's as the heir to the throne of Great Britain. This is what he's trying to present. And so the girls, falling in love with him is part of this development of loyalty. A lot of Jacobite women encourage their men to fight on behalf of Charles Edward Stewart because they found him alluring.

They found him attracted. Because he's a beautiful, beautiful boy and writers on his side. Can I just ask, is he at the front of that, you know, in Preston Pans and beyond? Is he at the front leading from the front? Now, you don't want your air killed in the battle. He is the regent to his father. So he's slightly back. He's behind the lines. He's slightly back. But he's not, he's in the thick of it, but not right in the thick of it. He's not charging forward. Lord George Murray is the general, isn't he, who is in charge of Preston Pan? Lord George Murray, exactly. He's the sort of, another d'ur individual, but very committed to the restoration of the Stuarts. So they have this moment in Edinburgh. After Preston Pans and after the kind of Harry Stiles moment, people are

pouring in, absolutely pouring in from all sides, people that ditherers have been on the now think this one's going to win, and you have people coming from all over Scotland. Not as much as they would have liked. I mean, you know, this is still an army of about 6,000. It's still not massive, but bear in mind the army size at Preston Pans was about 15,000 each. They're small armies, but 6,000 men, by the time they leave Edinburgh at the end of October, beginning of November, 6,000 men and boys can do some damage, that's for sure,

particularly if your enemy is still caught on the hop. From Edinburgh, they actually split the army in two to trick the British Army commanders who are looking to see what's going on, trick them to think they could be going either down the East Coast or the West Coast. And then they rejoin and they come down through the West Coast of England. So they actually enter England near Carlisle. That's how they enter England. So they choose the M5 rather than they want. And then they start marching down.

And of course, Carlisle, the castle with a, you know, a citadel. But, you know, the walls are collapsing because nobody's had to defend it, you know, in ages. So, again, unaware, there was people who knew how to fire a gun, but not a gun that was actually good enough to fire. There was all sorts of things going on. The kind of logistics of it was appalling. And where's the nearest English army at this point, if they've outwitted them? Well, they're trying to drag them back from Flanders for a start, and they're starting to form in different parts of the country. And eventually they do a pincer movement towards the advancing Jacobite army. But the thing about the Jacobite Army is it's quite light, it's fleet of foot, it's not dragging huge things behind it, it can travel really fast.

Do they have cannon? They have some cannon, although eventually they start abaddening it, but yes, they do have some cammon. Again, this canon is quite light, you know, this light, you know, transportable stuff. As they're going down through the west coast of England, so they go from Carlisle, then you've got some places like Penrith. Rory Stewart's old constituents, what you should say. Exactly. Kendall, they walk through all the... those towns, they literally go town to town to town. They stock up on Kendall Mintke.

Exactly. And then eventually Manchester through Ashbourne and then Derby, all the way, what I found fascinating about doing the book was working with the Royal Archives, the Stewart Archives and the Cumberland Papers at Windsor. And these minute by minute notes from people standing in the street and watching this army walk through and trying to work out how many there are and are they well armed, you know, are they going to carry on? Are they staying the night? Where are they going to all these sorts of things are all jotted down into little notes which are now in the archive. You can just read them, these bits of intelligence, which of course if you were caught and you weren't in military kit, you could be executed. Are these formal spies or people just sending notes on their own basis?

A combination of both. You've got people in the streets sort of saying, oh, I was told yesterday by the butcher or the baker or the candlestick maker, the candlestick maker, the X happened yesterday and I'm just writing this down and sending it to you. The intelligence is coming from all over the place. But this is this thing about going. back to the idea that the 45 was doomed. It's not doomed. When you read this intelligence, you're basically watching the worst case scenario from the government in London's point of view is that this is succeeding. And there's a run on the bank, isn't there? There's a panic. There's a run on the bank. And also, I mean, Derby's, let's just place Darby for those people don't live in England. It's only 150 miles from London. They are getting closer and closer and closer. You mentioned before that the French always buy their time before becoming involved because

they do things in their interest. They must be watching with enormous interest, this extraordinary advance through England by Bonnie Prince Charlie and his Scottish followers. Well, while he was in Edinburgh, in the October, a French ambassador turns up to give him a bit of courage and to give the troops courage to say, look, we are behind you. We're just trying to work out how to do it. About time the French showed some interest. Yeah, but Charles keeps saying, where are you? Where are you? You need your money. Need your men. Me to your guns. Where are you? Yeah. He's trying to keep all his commanders upbeat, but a lot of them are Scottish commanders, like Lord George Murray. He'd much rather stay in Edinburgh and just consolidate their gains in Scotland and just stay put,

rule Scotland. Don't bother with England, you know, but they're kind of convinced by Charles Edward that the French will turn up eventually in the south-east of England or they'll deliver things to the north-east of Scotland or wherever it is. And he has to do this because otherwise the whole thing is going to collapse. And they managed to get all the way, he convinces them enough to get them all the way to Derby. As you say, it's between 100. 20, 30, 50 miles from London. You know, it's five days fast march to London, and that's where they get to in Derby. And just again, to emphasise this point, we said there's a run on the bank.

People are queuing outside the banks, trying to get their money out of the banks. The banks start giving out the money in pennies, isn't it? Isn't that the story in order to slow the withdrawals? They count them out in penny by penny, and the queues are growing outside the banks, and people are screaming. And if only they had known this in the Jacobites, they had better intelligence. They'd have pressed on. Well, of course, you know, the intelligence would have to get past increasingly a wall of British Army troops, you know, which is now ringing London. I mean, it's obvious where they're going for London. And actually, they could have got to London, in my opinion.

Absolutely, they could. But what happens at Swarckston Bridge? I've been to the spot and sat at this terrible turning point. What happens to make them pause and re-evalue their chances? They'd already decided the day before. They'd been a Council of War in Edinburgh, and people were voicing concern about advancing into England, even in Edinburgh. So that's in the October. By the time you get to Derby, which is in the beginning of December, the dissent is almost universal amongst these commanders. So in actual fact, and the only one of the few people is actually arguing for an advance to London is, of course, Charles Edward Stewart himself. But guess what?

The French still haven't turned up. Why are the French being so useless? Well, they actually are. Henry Benedict, Charles's brother, is actually on the northwest coast of France, just like his brother before him, a year before or so. He's there preparing another invasion force, which is about to leave, but it all leaves too late. Or at least the intelligence that that is accruing on the northwest coast of France just arrives with the Jacobite Army too late. Is it more contrary wins, or what's the problem? Well, there's a bit of contrary wins, but actually sheer scale of preparation. Bearing in mind, they're fighting a major war across. the rest of France. You know, this is all logistics, but there's an element of trying to keep intelligence to break the intelligence through so that Charles knows for certain that they are waiting for them that there is going to be this invasion force into the southeast of England,

which would have been a game changer. So the game doesn't change frustratingly, even though Charles is the one voice saying, we can do this, we can win this, we're on the verge of something really big. There's panic in London. We can do it, guys. There's a retreat. Now, tell us about the retreat. There is some panic going on. And a lot of people people had left London because they knew full well this is where they're aiming for and didn't want to be around, didn't want to hang around. At the same time, much like the support for the Jacobites, there was also a support, you know, a rallying of defending London as well, which is where you get the March of the Gars to Finchley, this famous painting by Hogarth. So, for example,

they're raising money in the theatres. You know, David Garrick's troop is raising money to support the defence of London against the Jacobite Army and time. The Garret Club's on the wrong side again. Yeah, but this Finchley gathering, you've mentioned it twice, the Hogarth painting, for those who haven't seen it. So these are just sort of the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, everybody rallying to London saying we will fight them, we will protect London. Is that what that's all about? Yeah, well, you get people that actors companies forming up into military companies in order to replace trained regular troops to then march north towards Finchley Common, which is a big area of common land, which is where armies traditionally, whether they're advancing to London or from London, amass on this particular place. And that's where the regular army is going to mass up in order to either advance north or defend London. And that's where George II is intending to go with his equipment.

and stuff, is to actually go to Finchley Common and be with his troops there. So that's why that's significant. And Jacqueline, one of the things that had depressed the commanders was perhaps because this army did look so very Scottish, English Jacobites are not flucking to the standard. There is actually, for the last hundred miles towards Derby, almost no one knew joins this army. And they feel the hostility of the Midlands people around them. This is not a liberating army being welcomed on. There are doer faces in all the Midlands towns looking at this bunch of tartan-clad Highlanders as they march onwards. Well, they raise in Manchester, there's a Manchester regiment, and they raise about 300 main Englishmen. They come from a variety of places, but mainly Lancashire.

And Lancashire, of course, is a strong Catholic county, and a lot of Catholics do join, but also Protestants as well. So this is just about the Stuets being the rightful kings. Yeah, so it's as simple as that. But 300 is not a big army. It's still a regiment. It's the same size of some of the clan regiments. But it's not massive. It's not the full rising they're expecting. What might have put off the English rising is this overt Scottishness, the Highlanders.

Because even the Manchester Regiment wear Tartan. So you're starting to see, well, because it becomes the symbol of this army. The Tartan is a kind of unifying thing, regardless of where you come from, you wear the tartan. And that makes them seem to be more overtly Highland than they actually are. And you're right, they may well have put off the English Rising. But still, even then, even with, you know, they've got one regiment raised. they're still making progress. Why, when and who is the person who forces the retreat? Because it's certainly, Charlie doesn't want to retreat, does he? Bunny Prince Charlie wants to carry on.

Well, there's a show of hands. Is it literally that? Hands up he wants to go on? No, really? I think the Jacobite Duke of Perth is a gentle soul, was happy to advance with Charles, if that's how the vote would go. But in the main, most sources tell you that, in fact, everybody says no, they want to go back to Scotland. And one of the reasons they want to go back to Scotland is one of the bits of intelligence they are getting is that there's a second Jacobite army forming in the northeast of Scotland under John Drummond. And they decide that either we go back, consolidate, pull this army together in Scotland and then advance again in the spring because nobody marches an army around any country during the winter. It's an absolute nightmare trying to move an army around in those conditions.

And what is the date they get to Thuxton Bridge? Well, they retreat on the 6th of December and going back to that bridge. That's a feint. They've already decided they're not going on. They send out an advanced party to look like they're advancing. So they get to Swarxton Bridge and that's on the way towards London eventually. That's a faint. That's a military faint.

And in fact, they turn around and they all come back. And in fact, the rest of the army is marching north, going exactly the same way, but backwards through where they came up through Penrith, Carlisle, eventually getting back to Scotland. So that's the significance of that. It is the furthest south they got, but it's a part of the army and it's just a faint. Well, look, with the retreat in motion, it's a good point to take a break. Join us after the break when we find out, actually, is there any way back? Once you've gone back, is there any way back?

Welcome back. So we left the last half with the Jacobite army in retreat. And again, we often look at this with the eyes of hindsight. Historians always regard this as the moment that the Jacobite bottle goes that their courage fails, and after this it's just a slow march towards the final terrible battle at Calodden Moor. But that's actually not the case, is it, Jacqueline? There's still fighting the army. There's a sensible strategic reason for them going back to Scotland. There is a new army forming. There's every reason to think the French might send a fleet to Scotland. And in fact, we still

have one last victory, don't we? The Battle of Fulcourt, on the 17th of January, 1756, which shows actually what a fast retreaters have been too. Yes, just when you think all is gloom and doom, they actually do return to Scotland successfully, and they do end up fighting a battle in January, which nobody wants to do, by the way, nobody wants to fight a battle in January for obvious reasons, but it is a success.

And it's the same thing as Preston Pans, isn't it? It's another Highland charge, which immediately breaks the lines of the red coats, and they flee. And a much bigger British army. So this is on much bigger scale. You have got the troops that have returned from Flanders, So you've got the commanders.

Proper battle-weary troops. Exactly. These are regular troops, but it's on very strange terrain that they decide to fight on that it's happened. Again, it's slightly done on the hoof from the kind of British Army point of view. They are slightly caught out by a sort of cunning advance by the Jacobite Army. And this is the second defeat out of two. And the big difference is you say that this is not rookies who've just sort of come through the mist from Newcastle. This is the absolute crack British Army troops.

They've won the Battle of Detour. and here they are now finally confronting the Jacobites. And again, there's a Jacobite victory. Well, the letters from General Hawley, the grovelling letters from him, he's just embarrassing to read, because he's clearly literally caught with his trousers down because he simply wasn't, I don't know whether he thought that somehow Preston Pans hadn't happened. But he clearly didn't think much of his enemy. And of course, they trip him up as a result. So his grovelling letters to Cumberland, who of course has to be brought back in now, he's disappeared. You know, he's gone off. He's not involved in what's happened since the retreat from Derby,

but he's called back in because George II just feels the only person who can sort this out is my son, my second son. So give us a pen portrait of this man that I was always taught to think of as one of the great sort of stinking figures in history, as one of the brutes and cruel and sort of callous man. Is that truth in that? Well, his parents would refer to the Duke of Cumberland as Prince William Augustus, third and youngest son of George the second. So, I mean, the portraits I've seen, Augustus Gloop comes to mind, a portly fellow with a very unfortunate horse underneath him, because this is not a small, this is not an tiny man, is it? So tell us what he's not. I mean, he is the commander of the

Allied forces in Flanders. That's partly through Dint of him being the son of a king, of course, and also obviously the elector of Hanover. I mean, he is a military man to his core. Now, how good he is as a military man. It depends on who you read, which book you read. Even in the 18th century, it depends on who you're looking at. But he does have the ear of the king. So in that sense, you know, the commanders are very flattering towards him. But George II simply thinks that the only person you can actually deal with this is my own son, the only person I trust now, because Hawley's made such a mess of it. We need to send my son back. The thing about the Duke of Cumberland is that he is a Hanoverian to the core. He doesn't seem to have any off switch when it comes

to winning, you know, there's no sense of elegant victory where you might be a little more accommodating towards your enemy or show some mercy. That's not how he rolls. He's a brute. He is a brute. He shoots his prisoners, doesn't he? You know, he's very fair to his own army, but he seems to have no truck whatsoever with somebody who he considers to be a rebel. A rebel is a traitor, as simple as that. What we might today call terrorists, he regards these people as somehow beyond the pale and therefore not worthy of following the rules of war or the rules of humanitarian conduct. Yeah, I mean, they are trying to remove my family from the crown and my job is to get rid of them. So it's as simple as that.

So where does he land, Jacqueline? He's been in Flanders, he's been in command. He takes a ship across presumably the channel. Does he land in London and ride the way up? Well, he's been in London and then, of course, he takes command of an army and then marches north. And that's, as they're advancing towards Derby. So he's already been in England for several months. I mean, the army disbands from, or effectively comes back over the October November.

So while Charlie's in Edinburgh, the main army is now coming back from Flanders. Because either there's that thing, it's a bit that politeness of military war in the 18th century. You stop fighting. Everyone agrees to stop fighting because it's winter. And we don't have winter campaign. So that's when he comes back. So he's been in England for a while. In the very, very good Jacobite Museum on Collodden Moor that the National Trust has set up,

you have a very nice set of videos of the different armies maneuvering around Britain. And you get in that the impression that the Jacobites are very successfully weaving their way around the country, avoiding the government troops and their concentrations. But yet after Falkirk, they continue to retreat to the Highlands. What's in their minds? Is it that they're now in flight? or is it that they think that the Highlands is the place where they'll get support? Consolidation, you know, to connect up the armies.

I think it's consolidation. They've also started, they're running out of money. I mean, you've got these various ships that arrive from France, but they've never got enough cash in them. And you've got to pay your army. You've got to pay people. And they're running out. And so they end up in the vicinity of Inverness.

And this is where they have this madcap idea of actually printing money because he's running out of money. He can't pay anybody. So the army, you know, if you're not paid, you have to find food from somewhere, you wander off. It's not so madcap. It's, I mean, in the short term, it's something that could have worked. It could have worked. And in fact, there's a plate and there's some wonderful printing of these Jacobite notes.

And I printed in Inverness. And they're printed in Venice. And the idea is that they're almost like I owe you notes. So that when the restoration occurs, you can cash them in after Charles and his father have arrived in London. That's the idea of them. But they're trying to form and consolidate themselves around. in Venice. Meanwhile, after Falkirk, you've now got Cumberland has now come back in to Edinburgh as the commander of the troops in Scotland, King's troops in Scotland. And there is going to be a

moment where these two sides face off. He's itching to teach them a lesson. They have some confidence because it's too nil so far in the battles. So we are being drawn to the word that people will be familiar with, Culloden. Now, to first of all, tell us where is Culloden and why is it geography important as well. Colodon's five miles to the east of Inverness. So its significance is because it's a moor, but it's also close to where the Jacobites have been hunkering down and gathering their troops and trying to replenish and raise money, etc.

So that's the convenience of it. That's the significance of it from the Jacobites' point of view. We have an image in our heads of the Highlanders fighting best in sort of mountainous territory with rather like the Afghan Mujahideen sort of sitting up on mountains and then coming running down and ambushing people. But Colloden's not like that at all. It's as flat as anywhere in the south of England. It's next to the sea. You can see for miles. It's flat and it's moorland. You can see the sea on one side. It's such a beautiful aspect when you're at Colloden. You can't really

imagine anything horrible happening there, which of course it did. You've got the sea in front of you, and then behind you, you have the slow rising ground. So you do have sort of hills behind you. But it is effectively a flat piece of farmland. And of course, Collodon was owned by a pro-Hannaverian Highlander called Duncan Forbes of Collodon. A very nice house he has that still stands. Very nice house he has. And who was a very brave but also very sort of staunch Highlander, you know, a proud Highlander, but pro-Hannaverian. And this is what I mean, the complications of who the Highlanders were supporting. It is different depending on your background and so on. So Collodon, ironically enough, becomes the site of the battle, which is actually owned,

is part of the lands of a pro-Hanavarian highlander. So take us to the last 24 hours before the battle. Everyone knows the two sides are getting closer to each other. And there is this clever idea, isn't that? They're going to surprise the government troops, that they're going to leave in the night and they're going to get the government troops and ambush them at Nairn. But that plan goes badly wrong, Jacqueline. Tell us about it. That's right. So the British Army has been training and acclimatizing and waiting for the spring to occur in a April. So after all the battles in January and stuff, they've been sort of bedding down in the north-east of Scotland around Aberdeen, and they are rested. Cumberland has also introduced a manoeuvre,

which is supposed to give heart to his troops, the frontline troops, are facing this Highland charge, which is where you take your bayonet and you shove it into towards the right of you, and then the person next to you does the same thing. So you kind of traverse the shield. So people won't see it coming. Oh, that's interesting. Most military historians think that that was just a of a thing that would help to give courage as opposed to a proper manoeuvre that would make any difference whatsoever. It just makes the front line waiting for this charge to come towards you feel a little bit more confident that they've got the support of the people either side of them. And so it's much more about a sense to keep the line rather than necessarily a new that

was going to succeed per se. But anyway, he's trained them in this way. He's built up their confidence and stuff at that. And then they eventually arrive at Nairn on the 15th of April. This is where they in camp. So it's the spring. It's April, 15th of April, which happens to be the Duke of Cumberland's 25th birthday. He's only 25. God, he looks older. He's younger than Charles Everett Stewart by a few months. I mean, I really do urge people to look at paintings from the time. This is a man who has not worn his age lightly. I mean, she's 25. Neatly put. But tell us what goes wrong with this night attack, because it's the sort of thing which, again, the whole fate of the country turning on a penny. Had the night attack worked, it could have ambushed the government troops.

The whole of history could have been different. But what actually happens? But also it's important. It says birth. I think this is really important because they are a bit pissed. I mean, aren't they all given two gallons of brandy to drink to celebrate? For Georgians, they're not pissed. Okay. Fair point. Okay, but two gallons of brandy each and they weren't pissed. Each regiment, not each place. Each regiment, yeah. That makes more sense.

Could they be like poisoned and lying on the ground? Okay, that makes more sense. Yeah, a lot of Georgians are drinking small beer rather than water. So, you know, they've got a light level of inebriation. It seems to be the sort of norm. Now, basically, he has dished out some booze for his men in celebration of his birthday. But I suspect they also knew that that's exactly what Jacobites would know. They would know it was his birthday.

They would know he would give the little treat to his troops. There's no expectation per se that the battle will occur on the. the 16th the following day. It could happen at any time. All the Jacobites could have retrieved elsewhere and there's no battle at all. So this idea that there was going to be a battle on the 16th of April is not necessarily the case at all. But they're in with the vicinity of each other now. They are now within the area. Yeah, Kallodn Mour-Tuneran is about six miles, isn't it, or seven miles? Exactly. So they're within the hailing distance of each other now. So the idea is that while they're in camp and Lord George Murray suggests this, he says they're going to be pissed, you

because it's the Duke of Cumberland's birthday. While they're in their tent, in their beds, we should night march over, so send the troops over and then kill them in their beds. Just kill them, just snuff them out. It's a brilliant plan. This is what Clive used to do in India. He used to attack people at night while they were sleeping in their tents,

and it always worked. But in this case, it doesn't. Why not? Well, because they leave too late, because there's arguments. I mean, the trouble is that the Jacobite army, when they're all united behind Charles and thinking, okay, he seems to know what, he's doing. It's okay. The cracks aren't appearing, but the minute there's any dissent or any

arguments between the commanders, the splits start appearing. And you get a separation between the Scots and the Irish commanders, they start to separate. So there's divisions. And so, unfortunately, they didn't leave in a timely fashion. Lord George Murray later says, he survives the whole thing. He says, if only we'd left when I'd said, by the time we left, it was too late. He's right. And people were exhausted. They were waiting for troops to come back because they were exhausted. You know, they were going off to find food and they were wandering about and stuff. He said, if only they'd all got together and we could have marched in a timely fashion and done exactly what I said we should do.

The trouble is, we left too late. And then they don't even get there, do they? They don't get to now. They turn back. Yeah, they get near enough for the scouts, the British Army scouts, to spot them. They see them coming along. So they've actually, they get the heads up. And so they send the reports back to the army, the encamped army at Nen.

And then that army then springs to life, forms up and starts marching to. towards Colloden. Meanwhile, the Jacobite army is having to go back through the rough terrain, exhausted, even more exhausted than they were before. Because they'd been up all night. They've been up all night. I mean, there's descriptions of Charles and his commanders getting to Collodden House, the famous house, Duncan Forbes House, collapsing on the bed and then almost within minutes feeling they had to get back up again because their scouts say the British army's on the move. And we should also say, you know, it is April. It is wet, it is cold, It is snowing that morning.

Then even worse, the snow has melted, so it's cluggie ground. So it's wet, sort of sucking your shoes off kind of terrain that they're walking in. And the bog is a bog even now. You can lose your shoe in Cloddenmore, even with the National Trust and charge. I mean, the thing is that obviously the day before, there had been reconnoitre across this terrain to work out which was the best place for the Jacobo Army to form up. But that's only if you form up in order. The bottom line is they've walked all the way practically on towards Nairn and then walked all the way back again, barely had any sleep.

And then the British Army has started moving towards them. And to give a picture of it, there's this bog. There's a few drystone walls, aren't there, crossing them all? Yes, it's part of the park walls of Collodden House itself and then various farmsteads and stuff like that. This is farming land, you know, this is where battles are fought. When you go there today, it's a very moving site because they have the cairns erected where the different clans gather. there's the McIntoshes here, the McDonald's there. And then on the other side, you've got the straight lines where the Duke of Cumberland is on one wing, Alba Malle is on another,

and all these generals are forming up in their red coats with their white epaulettes, with their barenets. And both sides know where each other are. There's absolutely no sense of surprise. It's completely flat ground. And things begin to go wrong from the beginning, don't they? There's one wonderful, optimistic charge, which breaks one wing, but after that, it's downhill, all the way, Jacqueline. Tell us what happens. Well, of course, you know, the Jacobite army isn't in the position it wanted to be in. So even from the get-go, where they're forming up, to face the British army, they are in the wrong place from their point of view. So they're having to improvise. And, of course, in the middle of it is this bog. So I think the Jacobites fire first, but the whole

thing is done and dusted within an hour. Which is unusual in the 18th century. Battles can go on for much longer. Exactly. And there is a spirited Highland charge. They're held back by some of the commanders to hold them back while the firing is occurring from the British Army side, which softens up the front line, has to be said. Then they're unleashed to do this Highland charge, but then you've got this bogginess that they end up having to run round and all sorts of things. There is hand-to-hand fighting on the Jacobite right flank, the British Army left flank, and people are killed. Some of the British Army commanders are killed or maimed. Burnets against Claymore's.

Exactly. So that's the hand-to-hand fighting going on there. But that falls back quite quickly because there's a third line, second and third line behind the British Army then move forwards. Properly lined up in proper British Army file firing 18th century mode. Stuff they've got really well settled now. Then the horsemen are sent in who have been breaking down these little walls that are seemingly covering the various flanks, in fact, vulnerable. You break the wall down. You've suddenly got access.

to the rear of the Jacobite army and stuff. So there's all sorts of things going on at the same time, which means that eventually it's fairly clear that there's going to be a route, and that's what happens. So I often wonder, in the mythologising of all of this, whether there is an inflation of the number of Bonnie Prince Charlie's supporters who get killed at Collodon. I mean, do we have an idea of how many are killed on his side?

Well, it's difficult to pin down how many people on the Jacobite side were actually there. It certainly wasn't the first. army because some of them were still wandering off trying to find food. So this is the trouble. It was a mad assembling of the army. Then there'd been, even the night before, the Fraser's joined the Jacobites. The old fox has been sitting on the, the old foxes, Lord Lover, the clan chief of the Fraser's, my in-laws clan, I should say, and they've been dithering and sitting on the fences. And then they joined the wrong losing side the night before Colodon in a sort of terrible act of self-destruction. So there's some new troops coming in even then,

phrases. And some of the troops are actually marching along the road towards Collodden, and the other troops are fleeing towards Inverness, you know, because the battle's already happened and everything's collapsing. I think it's hundreds, possibly thousands, and there's certainly on the British Army side, it's closer to, let's say, a hundred or several hundred, but obviously killed, but also wounded is a bit more. But most of the casualties are certainly on the Jacobite side by sheer dent of what happens, you know, the collapse of the line and then the pursuit by the cavalry, which always happens. This is the route bit of it. If you're running off a battlefield, the battlefield extends as far as the troops get.

And the cavalry follow the running figures and just hack them down as they're going along. So you've got bodies lining the road on the way to Inverness. And even into the town itself, there's people who describe cavalry charging into the streets, the cobbled streets of Inverness, with people running and then just hacking at them. And there's half a plan, isn't there, for the Jacobites to regroup at Ruthen Barracks? Exactly right. They do. So in fact, it's not all over. And in fact, Colloden was not seen, it was seen as a great victory for the British Army and the Hanoverians. But it was not seen as definitive because you get letters from the Duke of Cumberland saying,

the very nature of this country is that rebellion will rise up, you know, as soon as soon as anything. Hang on a minute, but where's Charlie? I mean, if Charlie's still at large, then it's not over. So where is Charlie? What happens to him in all of this? Well, actually, he's had a horse shot from under him. You know, all sorts of things have gone on. You know, he's, even though he's not at the front of the army, he is in the thick of it, and he gets mud splattered all over him whenever the great shot and the kind of cannon fire and all that kind of thing. The shells land.

So he's in the thick of it. And eventually, it's fairly clear that once the Jacobite front line has broken up and people are starting to flee, it's fairly clear. You just can't control an army once it started doing that. So it's all up for now. So he says he insisted on standing still. And other people say this too. someone grabs the reins of his horse and drags him off the battlefield because if he goes then the whole cause is done.

That's it. As long as he's alive, there's still something. Yeah. The trouble is though, he then escapes with a few 100 or maybe 50 people escort him off the battlefield. They end up wandering around. The rest of them have been told by, I think it must have been Lord George Murray, tells them to meet at that barracks. Rivengladen still stands if you go up the 8-9, you can see it on the right. Exactly. Several thousand Jacobite soldiers gather 30 miles south of Collodon at the barracks. And they wait for Charlie to come and he doesn't. That's right. And he doesn't come and eventually there's a signal sent to say just every man for himself. So from the minute of the defeat, Butcher Cumberland shows himself at his true self.

No prisoners are left alive, either they slaughter the prisoners. Anyone wounded on the battlefield is berneted. there's absolutely no mercy shown to any of the Highlanders from that moment. Well, prisoners are taken, but parts of the British Army do return to the battlefield and you do get examples of people being killed on the battlefield. He'll just wounded. So in other words, wounded people are not being taken. There's a barn at the back of Kalluddin where the Jacobites have put a lot of their wounded and all that lot are berneted within an hour of the defeat.

Yes, this is where the butcher element comes in. This is definitely where it comes in. there is a print which shows a bull or a bull, you know, a kind of calf, standing on his hind legs, holding an axe, you know, who's a butcher's axe, and it's got the star of the order of the garter on it, and this is the butcher. And that starts the ball rolling back in London in regard to this nickname, the butcher. That's how they instigated. And they talk about him becoming a freeman of one of the guilds in London. And they say, well, let it be the butcher, the butcher's guild. So that's where that starts. Okay, but big question. I mean, all of this whole, is going on, where's Charlie? Where is Charlie? So, I mean, there is a lovely story, a romantic story. Is it a true story about a young woman called Flora MacDonald who is his salvation? Tell us about that story, the myth and the reality, I suppose, or are they the same in this case? Well, she meets him for two days out of five months.

Okay. But we should say who she is. She's stepdaughter, a fiancé of two officers in George's Army. I mean, she's kind of star-crossed in that respect because she shouldn't be on her side. She should be the person who's shopping him to the authorities, but she doesn't. What does she do instead? She supports him, partly because of the human thing about a person who's been hunted. You know, that 30,000 still hanging over his head, that bounty is still hanging over his head. So there is that thing about Highland hospitality and stuff. She's also fearful about her own clan chief, the MacDonald clan chief, because he's kept out of it.

He kept out of the 45. So she's quite ambivalent about what to do when she's asked to help Charlie. And how she helps him, though, she does agree in the end. is that she pretends that Charles is her maid, an Irish maid called Betty Burke. And so Charles, who's 5'10, which is very tall, 5 foot 11, 5 foot 10 in his stocking feet, is then dressed as a woman in a full gown, a mop cap, the whole shebang. And this Betty Burke, who's Charlie, escorts his mistress, Flora MacDonald, and she takes him on a boat.

This is the famous Skyboat song. Over the Sea to Sky. over the sea to sky, but dressed the whole time as initially as a woman. Song doesn't mention that, by the way. Song doesn't mention the cross-dressing. No, she gets into a safer place dressed as a woman. But this is only two days out of five months of him being a fugitive. So he has a terrible time.

But weirdly enough, he starts off moaning about the midges and moaning about what terrible food he's being given and stuff like that. Well, if you've been to Sky, I mean, the midges, he has a point, to be honest. They are awful on Sky. But eventually people describe him as having a lovely Auburn beard and his hair and he's wearing the full kit. Oh, he is pretty. He's an unusual Irish maid. Betty's got a beard. Not wearing the dress anymore.

But after the five months, he starts to get you because he knows how to shoot. He's a crack huntsman. You know, he knows how to ride. He's used to being out in terrain, hunting and stuff like that. So he almost comes into his own curiously. And he ends up dressed in plaid, almost like a hundred. Highland cheese. That's what he looks like with his wonderful red hair, his Auburn hair and stuff. And he starts to sort of slip into the life, as it were. But the whole time being a fugitive. You know, he's running away from people who want to either capture him or kill him. But she gets him to Sky. He makes it to Portree. And then from there they get a boat to Rasi, don't they? The island of Rasi. That's right. But then that continues the whole escapade around hopping from Ireland to island, back to the main end, back to the island. And eventually off to France. Eventually, yeah.

Yes, yes. But were they in love and did they do it? I mean, I'm sorry, but you're just skirting around. You just want to know, because that's one of the great love stories. It's known really how they knew each other. It's a story of highlight hospitality. Just wanted to clarify because, you know, in the film version in my head, there was a great love affair and a great deal of daring do involved.

But as you were. I mean, she is arrested for her part in that and she's taken to the Tower of London, which isn't quite as bad if you've been to the Tower of London. and you know it's not quite as birds as that sounds. But she's under house arrest, but eventually becomes this great heroine and painted by loads of portrait painters and stuff at that, and very much a star and a Jacobite heroine,

but she does survive the encounter. But others are not so lucky as Body Prince Charlie. He makes his escape to Rasi and off to the continent. But meanwhile, there is blood and retribution across the Highland. The Highland clans are sequestered. The tartan is banned. The pipes are banned. The red coats are let loose on all the villages, people are bernetid, and Butcher Cumberland is forever

known after this as one of the cruelest of all English commanders. New English forts spring up across the highlands like Fort George. And this is what, in a sense, will prime us for the rest of this series, because at this point, all sort of options for Highlanders and many Scots are reduced by this defeat. and many Scots will now be looking to the wider horizons, whether it's emigration to America, whether it's a new career in the Caribbean, or particularly a new career in India. And we will see in the episodes that come that many of those who fought at Collodon will meet again, just to give a little hint of that, the man who trains Robert Clive, who gives him the military knowledge that allows Clive,

to win Plathie is Stringer Lawrence, who was on the government side in Colloden. And the French commander that he's facing in Ponder Cherry had also been in the Jacobite Rebellion on Bonnie Prince Charlie's side. So this is a crucial turning point in Scots history and one which will lead us on to the rest of our series of Scotland and Empire. Yeah, and you've done a wonderful job of actually showing how this is part of a much, much bigger picture. We're so grateful. The historian Jacqueline riding, author of Jacobites, a new history of the 45 Rebellion, but more recently, Hogarth Life in Progress. And you've heard Hogarth mentioned by Jacqueline a couple of times during these two podcasts.

And she also runs something very exciting. She was telling me about it. It's like a Jacobite Support Group, Jacobite Studies Trust, where anybody who's interested in this period of history can join. Is it anybody, anybody, Jacqueline? Yes. So there'll be details on the website for the Jacobite Studies Trust. but we have these regular seminars where interested folk can listen to somebody just talking about

their most recent research. And people who know a lot more than I do about Scottish, Irish elements of Jacobitism, some wonderful stuff is being done in recent scholarship and so on. And yes, it's a community we're trying to expand. So all welcome. We should end, as we've mentioned, Jacqueline's fantastic book on Hogarth with the fact that Hogarth is very much around at this time. And he makes a famous painting of the old fox, Lord Lovett,

who had joined the Jacobite army on the last night before Galodon, and immediately then is arrested. And there's a famous story that Hogarth tells about Lord Lovett going off from the Tower of London for execution along with other Jacobites. And as he's been taken through the crowd to the place of execution, a woman jeers at him, you're going to have your head cut off, you ugly old Scottish dog. And he replies with perfect composure,

I believe I shall, you ugly old English bitch. Staring words on which to end this in this podcast Jacqueline, thank you very much indeed Till the next time we meet Edie's Goodbye from me Anita Arn And goodbye from me, William Duremple