REBELLION
In 1746, the Act of Proscription sought to prevent further uprising against the Crown.
It was the royalist regime’s second attempt to remove a key element of the Highlanders’ unity and their clan empowerment by making it illegal to wear certain types of garments.
The common misconception is the Act was a ban on tartan, but it wasn’t, and it didn’t apply to everyone. It was a restriction by the English over the Scots and, in some sense, it was more of a disarmament than anything else.
It was not put in place to affect the gentry or nobility of the cities, nor was there a restriction on women and children.
Instead, it was firmly aimed at the Highlanders and their way of life.
The “ban” was lifted in 1782 with a proclamation sent out to the Highlands.
The right to wear tartan almost came too late. By the end of the 18th Century, a whole generation had passed, and with the threat of the law and imprisonment hanging over them, people had quickly forgotten the skills necessary to make tartan.
But something was brewing in the minds of a select few (including Sir Walter Scott) in Edinburgh… A Royal Pageant would be the first time a monarch from the House of Hanover set foot on Scottish soil. The monarch was King George IV.
Scott’s dream of how the ceremony should look was pure pomp. All would be swathed in tartan, accompanied by bagpipes.
Highland dress became national costume. The demands of fashion chose, as always, style over function, as some of the surviving pieces in the National Museum of Scotland show to great effect. Tartan’s place in history was now firmly embedded.