#39 - The First Jacobite Rising

The first Scottish attempt to restore the deposed King James VII & II onto the thrones usurped by his daughter and son-in-law Queen Mary II & King William II & III, occurred in 1689. This first Jacobite Rising was unsuccessful, as were all subsequent Jacobite Risings in Scotland, the Jacobite Risings in Scotland were like successive Tory Prime Ministers in Britain between 2010 and 2024, they were all wholly unsuccessful but each in their own unique ways. This first Jacobite Rising received little support from anyone of any significance in Scotland. James had been stripped of all his royal titles, but his arrogance and hubris meant no one supported his attempts to try and get any of his titles back, he was like the Prince formerly known as Andrew. Despite its lack of support, the first Jacobite Rising was an initial success. Under the inspired leadership of its dashing leader John Claverhouse, ‘Bonnie Dundee’, the mostly Highland Jacobite army pulled off a spectacular victory at the Battle of Killiecrankie on the 27th of July 1689. The victory at Killiecrankie would come at a cost however, the loss of the Jacobite army’s charismatic leader Dundee. Without Dundee’s inspired leadership the disparate group of Highland clansmen that comprised the first Jacobite army disintegrated, and the movement fizzled out after an inspired Cameronian defence of the town of Dunkeld in August 1689 led by the Covenanting hero William Clelland. The Williamite authorities in Scotland had managed to successfully curtail the Jacobite threat in Scotland, for the moment at least….