Why did the Jacobite rebellion fail?
The purpose of this essay is to answer the question: - Why did the Jacobite rebellion fail? In 1745 the Jacobite (followers of James), attempted to regain the crown that was stolen by William of Orange from James Stuart because he was a Catholic. Charles Edward Stuart joined the Scottish Catholics in an attempt to regain his fathers throne. This rebellion failed because lots of people didn’t support it, Charles had made bad decisions, the soldiers moral fell, they lost the battle of Culloden and his men were ill equipped.
The rebellion failed for many reasons one of these is that some of the people that should have joined the rebellion didn’t. The French who were against England didn’t help Scotland. Prince Charlie didn’t receive as many men from the Scottish highlanders as he hoped, the total men in the Scottish clans were 17,950, Prince Charlie received 4,000 men. Some of these men did not have passion for the war as they were forced to fight or their houses and cattle would be burned. Als0, many Scottish clans were against the rebellion as Scotland had been an undeveloped but later made a union with England. This union bought new farming techniques, and trade between the English and Scottish. People near the border benefited from this and would not join the rebellion and instead fought against the rebellion. When Prince Charlie conquered Edinburgh he expected to gain 4,000 men, however, he only received 1,500.
The number of men that were ill equipped also played a part in the failure of the rebellion. The first real sign of this was in Edinburgh, Charlie demanded for 1,000 tents, 2,000 targets, 6,000 pairs of shoes and 6,000 water canteens, of this he received only 2,000 targets and 500 tents. This would mean his men had no shoes, water or half the tents they required. In the battle of Culloden they had cannons but their cannon balls did not fit. It was this type of carelessness that had caused the rebellion to fail.
Bad decisions and falling moral did not help the rebellion. An example of this is evident from the number of men who arrived at Carlisle was 1000men less than the number of men which left Edinburgh. A newspaper in the time had said that deserters swarmed from the highland army. The men overall had a shabby appearance as well as a lack of confidence.
As well as the rebellion they had a terrible retreat, which caused disasters for the Jacobite highlanders. As they began to retreat back to Scotland from derby they were closely followed by a government army lead by Cumberland. Luckily the Jacobite beat this army in the battle of Falkirk. After this battle they hoped to regain some more soldiers from Scotland however many went and did not return. Cumberland’s army caught the highlanders at Culloden. The battlefield that was chosen heavily favoured the government cannon and set up a good place for the cavalry. The three days before the battle the highlanders were starved.
At Culloden the catastrophes began. They lost the battle severely, many were left dead because of crossfire from the government army. Charles had predicted that the crossfire would not happen; the cannon obliterated all that was left from the crossfire. Charles stopped making decisions half way through the battle and confusion hit the highlanders. The main problem was the new technique adopted by the government army, hit the man on your right were he has no shield.
In my opinion the Jacobite rebellion failed because of lack of organisation, bad decisions and sheer carelessness. They were unlucky that they did not get the support from the people that they required it from. Also the leadership from prince Charles was not at the standard that was required.
The number of men that were ill equipped also played a part in the failure of the rebellion. The first real sign of this was in Edinburgh, Charlie demanded for 1,000 tents, 2,000 targets, 6,000 pairs of shoes and 6,000 water canteens, of this he received only 2,000 targets and 500 tents. This would mean his men had no shoes, water or half the tents they required. In the battle of Culloden they had cannons but their cannon balls did not fit. It was this type of carelessness that had caused the rebellion to fail.
Bad decisions and falling moral did not help the rebellion. An example of this is evident from the number of men who arrived at Carlisle was 1000men less than the number of men which left Edinburgh. A newspaper in the time had said that deserters swarmed from the highland army. The men overall had a shabby appearance as well as a lack of confidence.
As well as the rebellion they had a terrible retreat, which caused disasters for the Jacobite highlanders. As they began to retreat back to Scotland from derby they were closely followed by a government army lead by Cumberland. Luckily the Jacobite beat this army in the battle of Falkirk. After this battle they hoped to regain some more soldiers from Scotland however many went and did not return. Cumberland’s army caught the highlanders at Culloden. The battlefield that was chosen heavily favoured the government cannon and set up a good place for the cavalry. The three days before the battle the highlanders were starved.
At Culloden the catastrophes began. They lost the battle severely, many were left dead because of crossfire from the government army. Charles had predicted that the crossfire would not happen; the cannon obliterated all that was left from the crossfire. Charles stopped making decisions half way through the battle and confusion hit the highlanders. The main problem was the new technique adopted by the government army, hit the man on your right were he has no shield.
In my opinion the Jacobite rebellion failed because of lack of organisation, bad decisions and sheer carelessness. They were unlucky that they did not get the support from the people that they required it from. Also the leadership from prince Charles was not at the standard that was required.
This was originally written by Michael Curie
