A Jacobite Victory
British forces were no match for the Highland charge at Prestonpans
Commemorate the 275th anniversary of the Battle of Prestonpans
DEFEATING the highly efficient, regimented British government troops in combat has rarely come easily. The Battle of Prestonpans, however, fought on September 21, 1745, was a notable exception. Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Jacobite forces turned over a government army with minimal casualties in less than 30 minutes. Jacobites 1, Hanoverians 0 you might say.
Two months earlier, the 24-year-old Bonnie Prince landed in Scotland. He was Charles Edward Stuart, grandson of the exiled King James VII of Scotland and II of England, and was here to reclaim the throne for his house.
Charles mustered the Highland clans at Loch Shiel, where his standard was raised at Glenfinnan, at the head of the loch. He soon had a small force of 1000, which grew to 2500 by the time he’d attained Edinburgh.
Not everyone was convinced by the prince’s cause, however, and the whole venture might have collapsed had it not been for Lochiel the Younger’s Clan Cameron coming out. Many clans were absent, including the Macleods. When one chief advised Charles to go home, the prince is said to have replied, “I am come home, sir.”
At Prestonpans, East Lothian, some 2500 Highlanders under the Bonnie Prince took to the fray for the first time against a similar number of government troops led by General Sir John Cope and Colonel James Gardiner.
General Cope had been sent north by King George II to get rid of this claimant to the throne, and he landed at Dunbar with dragoons, or cavalry.
Charles’s arrival was timely, however – government forces in Scotland were depleted due to the ongoing War
of the Austrian Succession with France, and Cope was left with an army of raw recruits. Despite this, the general sought confrontation.
When the two armies arrived at Prestonpans they faced one another across what is now a railway line – the East Coast Main Line running from Edinburgh to London.
The government force was to the north, with the sea at its back, and the Jacobites were to the south, near Tranent.
Between the army lines was a marsh, which would have nullified any Highland charge. The Jacobites had few cavalry and no cannon, while the government troops had both.
Charles had a secret weapon, however, the canny General George Murray, who took charge of the
Jacobite force, and marched them across the marsh under cover of darkness, arriving at a new position east of the government army. They were now aligned north-south with Cockenzie with the sea to their right and Seton Park on their left.
General Murray set the Macdonalds on the left flank, and the Camerons on the right. The second reserve line included Robertsons, replete with their elderly chieftain, and also Atholls and Maclachlans. Cope’s army had to turn 90 degrees to face its enemy again.
This Jacobite manoeuvre alone was deserving of admiration, but Murray neglected to discuss it with the prince, the titular commander-in-chief. According to a Jacobite broadsheet, presumably propaganda-laden, the prince appealed for the “assistance of God”, while Cope promised his men “eight full hours … pillage” in Edinburgh. A mere 365 metres (400 yards) now separated the two armies.
Murray held off until the sun was up and shining into the eyes of his enemies, then ordered the attack. Cope’s army was still disorganised after its manoeuvre, with his artillery bunched on the right, and it seems his infantry only had time to fire one round before 1400 Highlanders of Murray’s front columns were upon them.
Dragoons were unhorsed and infantry rolled up. Now face-to-face with the screaming Highland charge, most of the government troops turned and fled.
Col. Gardiner was the highest profile casualty among some 300 government dead, with a further 1600 captured. He’d bravely tried to rally those around him and died with a dozen wounds. The captured included many Highlanders who’d been recruited by King’s troops.
“Now face-to-face with the screaming Highland charge, most turned and fled
The Jacobites, by contrast, lost only 30-50, with maybe 75 wounded – and the Jacobite reserve wasn’t even required, much to its frustration.
Cope and some of his dragoons escaped and headed ignominiously for Berwick, while his carriage and papers were seized by the Jacobites. The carriage provided comfortable conveyance for the venerable Robertson clan chief, who was ceremonially transported back to Atholl.
Cope had so mismanaged the battle that he had fought it on the Highlanders’ terms – which is usually a recipe for disaster.
He was in Berwick so speedily it was joked he must be the only general in Europe to be the first to bring news of his own defeat. The “little, dressy, finical man” who would be lampooned in song had met his match.
Prestonpans was so decisive a victory that an encouraged Charles Stuart began plans to march on London to achieve his destiny of claiming the throne.
It proved, of course, an ill-fated venture. Chased back to Scotland and ultimately defeated at Culloden in April, 1746, Charles was hunted throughout the Highlands and islands before making his way to France.
Murray escaped abroad and died in Holland, in 1760, aged 66. The embarrassed Cope died in the same year, aged 72.
Charles Stuart was never again to set foot on Scottish soil. He died in Rome, where he was born, in 1788, drowning his sorrows as the prince who would never be king.