Jacobite Works of Art

The Battle of Culloden | 1746

26 November 2024

Colin Fraser

On a windswept moor outside Inverness, on the 16 of April 1746 the fate of the Jacobite cause was sealed in a matter of less than an hour explains our Jacobite specialist Colin Fraser. The Battle of Culloden marked not only the end of the final Jacobite uprising, but also the beginning of a cultural and political transformation in the Highlands - one that would reverberate through Scottish history for centuries to come.

The battle has passed into legend: Prince Charles Edward Stuart - Bonnie Prince Charlie - standing at the head of a weary army, facing a disciplined government force under the command of William, Duke of Cumberland. Outnumbered, outgunned, and desperately underfed, the Jacobite army made its final stand on Drumossie Moor. What followed was not a romantic clash of noble ideals, but a short, brutal, and bloody slaughter.

The Jacobite Uprising: 1715 - 1745

The three decades between the failed uprising of 1715 and the more ambitious attempt of 1745 were marked not by silence, but by simmering unrest, exiled ambition, and political manoeuvring on both sides of the Channel.

A Prince, a Cause and a Miscalculation

In many ways, Culloden was the inevitable conclusion of a campaign that had once promised so much. Charles had returned to Scotland in 1745 with little more than conviction and charisma, but his arrival sparked a fire across the Highlands. After initial victories - most notably at Prestonpans and Falkirk - the Jacobite forces reached as far south as Derby, only a few days’ march from London. But strategic disagreements and dwindling support forced a retreat, one that would lead them inexorably back north to the bleak ground at Culloden.

The site itself was a tactical misstep. Open, boggy terrain robbed the Highlanders of their greatest asset: the devastating impact of a full-throttle charge. Cumberland’s men, better armed, better drilled, and supported by heavy artillery, waited in formation. When the Jacobite line finally broke forward under musket and cannon fire, they were met with bayonets aimed not at the chest but at the unprotected flank, ordered by Cumberland specifically to counter the traditional Highland fighting style.

In less than an hour, over 1,500 Jacobites lay dead or dying. Government losses were minimal. The Jacobite dream of restoring the Stuart monarchy had been crushed.

PAST LOT

William Duke of Cumberland, Battle of Culloden Medallion

A medallion with right facing bust of William Duke of Cumberland, reverse with scene of the battle with motto 'Rebellion Justly Rewarded, Culloden 1746'

After the Moor Fell Silent

What followed Culloden was not peace, but punishment. The government sought not only to end the rebellion, but to prevent any future uprising by dismantling the very culture that had supported it. The Highlands, once a fiercely independent region of clans and traditions, came under systematic assault.

The Act of Proscription banned the wearing of tartan, the bearing of arms, and the playing of bagpipes, deemed instruments of war. The clan system, already strained, was further eroded as chiefs were stripped of authority and estates forfeited. Jacobite prisoners faced execution, exile or imprisonment, while the Duke of Cumberland earned his grim nickname, The Butcher, for his ruthless suppression.

The cultural consequences of Culloden were far-reaching. In time, the Highlands became romanticised as a lost world, even as its real identity was being dismantled. The battle marked the end of Jacobitism as a viable political force but not the end of its symbolic power.

Charles Edward Stuart

Scottish 1720 - 1778

James Francis Stuart

Scottish 1688 - 1766

William Augustus Hanover, Duke of Cumberland

British 1721 - 1765

Simon Fraser

Scottish 1667 - 1747

Culloden has become a touchstone of Scottish memory, not because of its strategic importance, but because of what it represents: the collapse of an ideal, the destruction of a culture, and the enduring power of loyalty in the face of defeat.

Today, the battlefield is silent, dotted with memorial stones that bear the names of fallen clans. Yet the legacy lives on in the relics that survive, Jacobite medals, engraved drinking glasses, letters and snuff mulls - many of which pass through the salerooms of Lyon & Turnbull, each one a quiet witness to a louder age.

These objects remind us that Culloden was more than a military encounter. It was a cultural reckoning, a moment when the course of history shifted, not just for the Jacobites, but for Scotland itself.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Colin Fraser

GUIDE

The Jacobite Uprising

1688 - 1715

GUIDE

The Jacobite Uprising

1715 - 1745

DEPARTMENT