Jacobite rising of 1715
Jacobite rising of 1715
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Jacobite rising of 1715

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Jacobite rising of 1715

The Jacobite rising of 1715 (Scottish Gaelic: Bliadhna Sheumais [ˈpliən̪ˠə ˈheːmɪʃ]; or 'the Fifteen') was the attempt by James Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender) to regain the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland for the exiled Stuarts.

At Braemar, Aberdeenshire, local landowner the Earl of Mar raised the Jacobite standard on 27 August. Aiming to capture Stirling Castle, he was checked by the much-outnumbered Hanoverians, commanded by the Duke of Argyll, at Sheriffmuir on 13 November. There was no clear result, but the Earl appeared to believe, mistakenly, that he had won the battle, and left the field. After the Jacobite surrender at Preston (14 November), the rebellion was over.

The 1688 Glorious Revolution deposed James II and VII, who was replaced by his Protestant daughter Mary II and her Dutch husband William III, ruling as joint monarchs. Shortly before William's death in March 1702, the Act of Settlement 1701 definitively excluded Catholics from the throne, among them James's son, James Francis Edward Stuart. Since his Protestant half-sister Anne had no surviving children, the Act named her successor as the distantly related, but Protestant, Sophia of Hanover, who died two months before Anne in August 1714. This made Anne's heir presumptive Sophia's eldest son, George I of Great Britain (who therefore had maternal descent from the House of Stuart), and gave the pro-Hanoverian Whigs control of government for the next 30 years.

French support had been crucial for the Stuart exiles, but their acceptance of the Protestant succession in Britain was part of the terms that ended the 1701–1714 War of the Spanish Succession. This ensured a smooth inheritance by George I in August 1714, and the Stuarts were later banished from France by the terms of the 1716 Anglo-French Treaty. The 1710–1714 Tory government had actively prosecuted their Whig opponents, who now retaliated, accusing the Tories of corruption: Robert Harley was imprisoned in the Tower of London while Lord Bolingbroke escaped to France and became James' new Secretary of State.

On 14 March 1715, James appealed to Pope Clement XI for help with a Jacobite rising: "It is not so much a devoted son, oppressed by the injustices of his enemies, as a persecuted Church threatened with destruction, which appeals for the protection and help of its worthy pontiff". On 19 August, Bolingbroke wrote to James that "…things are hastening to that point, that either you, Sir, at the head of the Tories, must save the Church and Constitution of England or both must be irretrievably lost for ever". Believing the great general Marlborough would join him, on 23 August James wrote to the Duke of Berwick, his illegitimate brother and Marlborough's nephew, that; "I think it is now more than ever Now or Never".

Despite receiving no commission from James to start the rising, the Earl of Mar sailed from London to Scotland, and on 27 August at Braemar in Aberdeenshire held the first council of war. On 6 September at Braemar, Mar raised the standard of "James the 8th and 3rd", acclaimed by 600 supporters.

Parliament responded with the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1715, and passed an Act that confiscated the land of rebelling Jacobite landlords in favour of their tenants who supported the London government. Some of Mar's tenants travelled to Edinburgh to prove their loyalty to the Hanoverian crown and acquire title to Mar's land.

In northern Scotland, the Jacobites were successful. They took Inverness, Gordon Castle, Aberdeen and further south, Dundee, although they were unable to capture Fort William. In Edinburgh Castle, the government stored arms for up to 10,000 men and £100,000 paid to Scotland when she entered the Union with England. Lord Drummond, with 80 Jacobites, tried under the cover of night to take the Castle, using a ladder. However, the ladder proved to be too short, leaving them stranded until morning, at which point they were discovered and arrested. It was subsequently alleged that this plot was organised by William Arthur, the King's Botanist and brother-in-law of prominent Scottish Whig, Unionist, and Hanoverian Sir John Clerk, Baron Clerk.

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