49. Oh no! Not more Stuarts...

While the British army was on the European continent, putting up a pretty useless fight against the French in the Austrian Netherlands, Charles Edward Stuart launched a new uprising - or possibly rebellion, depending on your point of view - back in Britain. Known as Bonnie Prince Charlie to some, his uprising - the final attempt to put the Stuarts with their absolutist views of monarchy back on the throne - was far from bonnie in its consequences for the people of Scotland. Partly because he turned out to be a less attractive character than one might believe, but even more because of the programme of ethnic cleansing run in the Highlands by the Duke of Cumberland, who came to be known as 'Butcher Cumberland', the king's younger son and a hopeless general against armies, but highly effective against disorganised insurgents and civilians.

Nothing bonnie about this ugly episode in the history of the British nations.

Illustration: Not so bonnie in later life. Prince Charles Edward Stuart by Hugh Douglas Hamilton, circa 1785
National Portrait Gallery 376

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License