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I am
indebted to the courtesy of the Council of the
Scottish History Society for permission to
incorporate in this chapter a portion of the
Introduction to The Jacobit’s Attemjpt of
1719,
edited by
me for the Society in 1895.—ED.
FOUR years later another
attempt was made on behalf of the fallen dynasty.
It was more complete and formidable in its
preparations than either the attempt of 1715 or
that of 1745; but, as it happened, it turned out
so complete a failure that it has been almost
ignored by most historians.
As
has been said, the death of Louis XIV. put an end
to the Jacobites’ hopes of help from France. After
the ‘15 the Chevalier was compelled to leave
Bar-le-Duc, in Lorraine, where he had resided
since the Peace of Utrecht. He went first to
Avignon, then he crossed the Alps and settled down
in the Papal dorninions, where he spent the rest
of his life. At the same time his French pension
of 50,000 crowns was stopped by the Regent.
It
was to Sweden that the Jacobites next turned for
support. Charles XII. had long projected an
invasion of Great Britain, and cordially welcomed
them as allies. Baron Gortz, his able and
unprincipled Minister, carried on an active
correspondence with their leaders, and had
projected a descent on Scotland by 12,000 Swedish
troops, to be headed by Charles in person, in
co-operation with a general Jacobite rising. The
scheme, however, proved abortive. The British
Government got wind of it; Gyllenborg, the Swedish
Minister in London, was arrested, his papers were
seized, and the whole project was made public.
In
the autumn of 1718 a new chapter in the history of
Jacobitism was opened by an offer of assistance
from Philip V. of Spain, or rather from his
famous Minister, Cardinal Alberoni. During the
years 1717 and 1718 the relations between
England and Spain had been growing more and more
hostile. The military operations of the Spaniards
against the Imperial territory in Italy were
regarded by the British Government as a breach of
the Treaty of Utrecht. Diplomatic remonstrances
had proved fruitless, and on August 11 the British
squadron in the Mediterranean, under Sir George
Byng, attacked the Spanish fleet off Cape Passaro
and almost destroyed it. The Spanish ambassador
was at once recalled from London; British ships
were seized in Spanish ports; British consuls were
ordered to leave Spanish territory; and Alberoni
determined to strike the British Government in
what was believed to be its weakest point by an
invasion on behalf of the exiled Stuarts.
The Duke of Ormonde, who had
been Captain-General of the British army, and who
had fled from impeachment after the accession of
George I., and was now openly in the service of
the Chevalier, was at this time resident in Paris.
Alberoni sent for him to Madrid, and the result of
their conferences there was that the Cardinal
decided to send an expedition against England,
consisting of 5000 men—4000 foot and
1000
troopers—with 300 horses, and an ample supply of
money, arms, and ammunition for the English
Jacobites. Ormonde himself was to command the
expedition. He was to land in the west of England,
the stronghold of Jacobitism, where it was
expected that there would be no difficulty in
raising a great army in support of the Stuart
cause, and attempt an attack on London. At the
same time the young Earl Marischal, who had been
out in the ‘15, and was now in exile at Paris, was
to land in the West Highlands and raise the
Jacobite clans.
The
co-operation of Sweden was also hoped for; but all
prospect of this was put an end to by the death of
Charles XII., on December 11, 1718, in the
trenches before Frederickshall, in Norway. In the
meantime James himself was invited to Spain. He
left Rome in disguise, and, after a perilous
voyage, landed at Rosas, in Catalonia, on March 9,
1719 (N.S.). He proceeded to Madrid, and there was
received with royal honours.
The
British Government had ample warning of the
danger, and prompt measures were taken to meet it,
The House of Commons voted the necessary funds;
the troops in the west of England were reinforced;
and a powerful fleet was fitted out to cruise in
the Channel. As the event happened, these
precautions were needless. The Spanish fleet put
to sea from Cadiz on March 7. On the 29th, near
Cape Finisterre, it encountered a terrible storm,
which lasted for forty-eight hours. The fleet was
scattered to the four winds; horses, guns, stores,
and arms had to be thrown overboard. All the ships
were more or less crippled, and had to make their
way back to Spanish ports as best they could. The
project of invading England had to be given up.
The
expedition against Scotland, however, was more
fortunate. The Earl Marischal sailed from Passage
on March 8. Alberoni had given him two frigates
and 2000 muskets, with a supply of money and
ammunition, and a body of 307 Spanish
regular troops to form a nucleus for the army of
Highlanders who were expected to flock to James’s
standard. He also carried letters from Ormonde to
a number of the Highland chiefs. James Keith, the
Earl’s brother, afterwards the famous Marshal
Keith, went to France to warn the Jacobite exiles
there of what was afoot. He was joined by
Clanranald, Lochiel, Seaforth, Tullibardine,
Campbell of Glendaruel, and a number of other
exiles of the ‘15. On March 19 they sailed from
Havre; they reached the Lewis on March 24 (O.S.),
and found that the Earl Marischal had arrived
before them, and that his two frigates were at
anchor in the harbour of Stornoway.
Intimation of the intended
invasion from Spain had been sent to the leaders
of the Jacobite party in the Lowlands, but they
had determined that no movement should be made
until they were sure that Ormonde had landed. On
hearing of the Earl Marischal’s arrival, Lockhart
of Carnwath sent him a memorial expressing his
views as to what ought to be done. The main point
emphasised in the memorial is the universal hatred
with which the Union was regarded in Scotland, and
the importance of making its repeal a chief
article of the Jacobite policy. It does not appear
that the document ever reached its destination. A
catastrophe was very nearly caused by an "unknown
fellow" who came to Mr Milnes, tutor to young
Macdonald of Glengarrv, representing that he was a
servant of Lochiel’s, that Ormonde’s fleet had
arrived, and that he had been sent ashore to warn
his master’s friends to be ready to take up arms.
In consequence of this news, which was confirmed
by a letter from Lord Stormont, then at his house
in Annandale, to the effect that Ormonde’s fleet
had been seen off the coast, Lords Nairn and
Daihousie prepared to take the field. Lockhart,
however, was satisfied that the messenger was
either a common swindler or a Government spy, and
succeeded in preventing Nairn and Dalhousie from
committing themselves. "As for my Lord Stormont’s
information," says he, "I gave it
the less credit when I perceived his
Lordship’s letter was dated at one in the morning,
about which time I knew he was apt to credit any
news that pleased him."’
Tullibardine, who held a
commission as a Lieutenant-General in James’s
service, took over the command of the troops at
Stornoway, the Earl Marischal retaining that of
the ships, which had been expressly committed to
him by Alberoni. As usual there was much
discussion and difference of opinion as to what
ought to be done. Ultimately it was decided to
cross to the mainland, and on April 13 a landing
was effected on the shores of Loch Aish. On the
following day Lord George Murray, Tullibardine’s
brother, arrived from France. The Jacobite chiefs
in the Highlands had been communicated with, and
were ready to rise as soon as there was any
certain news of the coming of Ormonde’s
expedition. The Earl Marischal and Brigadier
Campbell of Ormidale proposed marching straight to
Inverness with the Spaniards
and 500 men whom Seaforth undercook to raise, but
Tullibardine and Glendaruel insisted on awaiting
events.
Several days passed, and there
came no news of Ormonde. Tullibardine was with
difficulty dissuaded from re-embarking and
returning to Spain. This made Marischal resolve to
burn his boats. He determined to send the two
frigates back to Spain. Tullibardine tried to
detain them, but they obeyed Marischal’s orders
and put to sea, just in time, for within a week
after their departure there arrived on the coast a
British squadron consisting of five ships : the
Worcester, 50 guns, Assistance, 50,
Dartmouth, 50, Enterprise, 40, and
Flamborough, 24, under the command of Captain
Boyle. The Assistance and the Dartmouth
sailed round the north of Skye and anchored in
Loch Kishorn. Boyle with the Worcester,
Enterprise, and Flamborough came
through Kyle Rhea into Loch Alsh.
The Jacobites had fixed their
headquarters at Eilean Donan Castle, the ancient
stronghold of the Mackenzies. The castle, now a
picturesque ivy-covered ruin, is situated on a
little island close to the shore, opposite the
village of Dornie, at the point where Loch Alsh
branches into Loch Duich and Loch Long. It
consists of an ancient and massive keep some fifty
feet square, surrounded by court-yards and
outbuildings. Here most of the ammunition and
provisions of the expedition were stored under the
guard of a garrison of forty-five Spaniards, the
main body of the troops being encamped on the
mainland close to the shore.
On May 10, Boyle with his three
ships came up the Loch to Eilean Donan, and sent
an officer with a flag of truce to demand the
surrender of the Castle. The boat was fired upon
and not permitted to land. At eight o’clock in the
evening the ships opened fire upon the Castle. The
old stone fortress, impregnable in Highland
warfare, could not be held under artillery fire,
and when a storming party of two boats’ crews
landed, they met with little resistance. The
Spanish garrison were taken prisoners, and
afterwards sent round to Leith in the
Flamborough, and 343 barrels of powder and 52
barrels of musket bullets were captured. The
buildings in which the provisions had been stored
for the use of the Jacobite camp were set on fire
and the Castle was blown up. The Flamhorough
went up Loch Duich in search of another
magazine which had been formed near the head of
the loch, which on her approach was blown up by
the Highlanders.
The invaders were now in a
sorry plight. Their retreat by sea was cut off.
The coast was vigilantly patrolled by the boats of
the British squadron. It was impossible even to
cross to Skye. They had lost nearly the whole of
their ammunition and provisions, and were in one
of the wildest and most desolate parts of Britain,
with no base of operations from which it was
possible to draw any further supplies. The
Government troops in Scotland were being rapidly
reinforced from the South. Tullibardine now
determined to do what he ought to have done at
first, namely, to endeavour to raise a force from
among the clans. By this time the fatal news of
the dispersal of the Cadiz fleet had reached the
Highlands, and naturally recruits were not very
plentiful. "Not above a thousand men appeared,"
says Marshal Keith in his Memoirs, and even
those seemed not very fond of the enterprise." On
June 5 Lochiel came in with 50 men; on the 7th
Seaforth brought in about 500 of his men, and on
the 8th arrived a son of Rob Roy’s with some 80
more recruits.
In the meantime the garrison of
Inverness had been largely reinforced, and on June
5 Major-General Wightman marched from
Inverness with a force of about 850 infantry,
besides 120 dragoons and some 130 Highlanders, and
a battery of four cohorn mortars. He marched to
the head of Loch Ness, where he halted for a day,
and thence over by Glenmoriston towards Kintail.
It was decided to await
Wightman’s attack in Glenshiel, the grand and
desolate glen which runs inland in a
south-easterly direction from the head of Loch
Duich, skirting the vast southern slopes of Scour
Ouran. The position selected for defence was at
the place where the present road crosses the river
Shiel by a stone bridge, some five miles above
Invershiel. Here a shoulder of the mountain juts
into the glen on its northern side, and the glen
contracts into a narrow gorge, down which the
Shiel, at this point a roaring torrent, runs in a
deep rocky channel, between steep declivities
covered with heather, bracken, and scattered
birches. Above the pass the glen opens out into a
little strath. Then, as now, the road ran through
the strath on the north side of the river, and
entered the pass along a narrow shelf between the
river and the hill, from which it was entirely
commanded. This position was occupied by the
Jacobite forces on July 9. They were joined in the
course of the day by about ioo more recruits, and
next day by about 100 more.
On the evening of the 9th Lord
George Murray, who commanded the outposts,
reported that the enemy were encamped within four
or five miles, at the head of Loch Clunie. Next
morning he reported that they had struck their
camp and were marching over the watershed into
Glenshiel. As they advanced Murray retired before
them, keeping at a distance of about half a mile.
About two in the afternoon the armies came in
sight of each other, about half a mile apart.
Wightman halted and .deployed his troops for the
attack.
The great natural strength of
the Jacobites’ position had been increased by
hasty fortifications. A barricade had been made
across the road, and along the face of the hill on
the north side of the river entrenchments had been
thrown up. Here the main body was posted,
consisting of the Spanish regiment, which now only
paraded some 200 strong, under its Colonel, Don
Nicolas Bolano, Lochiel with about 150 men, about
150 of Lidcoat’s and others, 20 volunteers, 40 of
Rob Roy’s men, 50 of MacKinnon’s, and 200 of Lord
Seaforth’s, commanded by Sir John Mackenzie of
Coul. Seaforth himself was on the extreme left, up
on the side of Scour Ouran, with 200 of his best
men. The hill on the south bank of the river, the
right of the position, was occupied by about 150
men under Lord George Murray. Tullibardine
cornmanded in the centre, accompanied by
Glendaruel. Brigadier MacIntosh of Borlum was with
the Spanish Colonel. The Earl Marischal and
Brigadier Campbell were with Seaforth on the left.
Wightman’s right wing was
composed of 150 grenadiers under Major Milburn;
Montagu’s Regiment, commanded by Lieut.
- Colonel Lawrence; a
detachment of 50 men under Colonel Harrison ;
Huffel’s Dutch Regiment; and four companies of
Arnerongen’s. On the flank were 56 of Lord
Strathnaver’s men under Ensign Mackay. The whole
wing was commanded by Colonel Clayton. The left
wing, which was deployed on the south side of the
river, consisted of Clayton’s Regiment, commanded
by Lieut. - Colonel
Reading, and had on the flank about 80 men of the
Munroes under Munro of Culcairn. The dragoons and
the four mortars remained on the road.
The engagement began between
five and six o’clock, when the left wing of the
Hanoverians advanced against Lord George Murray’s
position on the south of the river. The position
was first shelled by the mortar battery and then
attacked by four platoons of Clayton’s with the
Munroes. The first attack was repulsed, but the
attacking party was reinforced, and Lord George’s
men, who were not supported, were driven from
their position, and retreated beyond the burn,
which, coming down from Frioch Corrie, descends
towards the Shiel in rear of the ground which they
had occupied. The precipitous banks of the burn
effectually checked pursuit. After the right wing
of the Jacobites had been dislodged, Wightman’s
right began to move up the hill to attack their
left. The detachment commanded by Lord Seaforth
was strongly posted behind a group of rocks on the
hillside, and it was against them that the attack
of Montagu and Harrison’s troops was directed.
Seaforth was reinforced from the centre by the
remainder of his own men under Sir John Mackenzie.
Finding himself hard pressed, Seaforth sent down
for further support. Another reinforcement under
Rob Roy went to his aid, but before it reached him
the greater part of his men had given way, and he
himself had been severely wounded. Rob Roy’s
detachment next gave way, and retired towards the
mountain. They were followed by "Lidcoat’s" men
and others. The whole force of Wightman’s attack
was now directed towards the Jacobite centre,
against which the fire of the mortar battery had
by this time been turned. The Spanish regulars
stood their ground well, but finding that most of
their allies had deserted them, they also at last
began to retire up the hill to the left. The whole
of Tullibardine’s little army was now in retreat.
The retreat soon became a flight. The victorious
Hanoverians pursued, their defeated enemies over
the shoulders of Scour Ouran, and only halted as
darkness fell, when they had nearly reached the
top of the mountain. Far up the hill there is a
corrie which, to this day, the shepherds call
Bealach-na-Spainnteach, "The Spaniards’ Pass."
The action had lasted some
three hours. The loss of the English troops
amounted to 21 men killed and 121 wounded,
officers included. That of the Jacobites is
difficult to estimate; it could not have been
great, as Keith thought at the time that not more
than 100 men on both sides had been killed or
wounded. Besides Seaforth, Lord George Murray was
wounded. One English officer was killed, Captain
Downes, of Montagu’s Regiment. He was buried on
the field of battle; his resting-place is still
pointed out, on the south side of the river, just
above the pass. Local tradition has transformed it
into the "Dutch Colonel’s Grave." If all tales are
true, his ghost still walks the glen o’ nights.
On the night after the battle
the Jacobite chiefs, seeing that they had neither
provisions nor ammunition, and that their few
troops had not behaved so as to give much
encouragement to try a further action, resolved
that the Spaniards should surrender, and that the
Highlanders should disperse as best they could.
Accordingly next morning the Spanish commander
delivered his sword to General Wightman, and
"everybody else," says Keith, "took the road he
liked best."
A week later Wightrnan writes
to say that he is "taking a tour through all the
difficult parts of Seaforth’s country to terrify
the Rebels by burning the houses of the guilty and
preserving those of the Honest." On June 30 he
writes from Inverness, "I have used all possible
means to put a Dread upon those who have been more
immediately concerned in this late unnatural
Rebellion, and by all just accounts am assured the
Rebells are totally disperst."
The rising was over. Its
leaders, after lurking for a while, with a price
on their heads, in Knoydart and in Glengarry’s
country, effected their escape to the Continent.
The Spanish prisoners, 274 in number, were marched
to Inverness, and on the 27th
they set out for Edinburgh.
"When the Spanish battallion
were brought prisoners to Edinburgh," says
Lockhart, "the officers, who had the liberty of
the town, were used by the loyall party with all
the civility and kindness imaginable; but the
Government for a long time refused to advance
subsistance money to them, by which in a little
time they were reduced to great straits, which
appeared even in their looks tho’ their Spanish
pride would not allow them to complain. As I was
well acquainted with Don Nicolas who commanded
them, I took the liberty to ask him if he wanted
money; and finding it was so, I told him it was
unkind in him to be thus straitned, when he knew
our King, for whose cause he suffer’d, had so many
friends in town that would cheirfully assist him;
so I immediatly gott him credit for as much money
as was necessary for himself and his men, till he
gott bills from the Marquis de Beretti-Landi the
Spanish ambassadour in Holland, when he thankfully
repay’d what was advanced to him." In October the
Spaniards were sent home to their own country.
James and Ormonde were still in
Spain, hoping that the enterprise might yet be
renewed. Alberoni at first professed his intention
of going on with it, but the thing was hopeless.
"Cardinal Alberoni," wrote Lord Stair to the
British Government on May 24, "still pretends to
carry on the enterprise against Great Britain. He
has given orders for victualling the ships anew,
and for reassembling the troops; but everybody in
Spain laughs at that project and, indeed, they do
so pretty much in France, except our Jacobites,
who have faith enough to believe everything that
makes for them, let it be ever so impossible." The
fleet would have taken three months to refit, and
by this time Alberoni’s hands were full of affairs
at home. Spain was at war with France. The French
army, under the Duke of Berwick, was making rapid
progress on the Pyrenean frontier. It was evident
that before long the French would be able to
dictate terms of peace to Alberoni, and it was
certain that one of the conditions of peace would
be the departure of James from Spanish territory.
Accordingly, it was
suggested to him that it might be well that he
should return to Italy to meet his bride, Princess
Maria Clementina Sobieska, who had just escaped
from captivity at Innsbruck. He sailed from
Vinaros on the 14th of August, and on the
25th landed at Leghorn. |
