Writer's Gramps

Having worked my way through the Old Pretender’s struggles, let me turn to Bonnie Prince Charlie and the rebellion of 1745. The background, as so often when Scots started a face-off with the English, was a war in which France wanted the ‘English’ distracted, the war of the Austrian succession. The general situation of the landing and the calling of the clans is well known but it needs to be remembered that only a smattering of the clans answered the call and that many of the Redcoats who finally faced and routed them at Culloden were Scottish. Charlie was an Italian, born in the Vatican lands, brought up in privilege and where the Pope’s word was law and obeyed without question. The peasants were mere numbers; there to provide a gracious living at no great effort, other than being charming, from their betters. The long 1745 march into England is given a kind of heroic colouring but, if the attitude of the Highlanders is taken into account, the picture is one of a gang of bandits surg...

As I look for story lines let me pause and consider before giving the bird to Jacobites with the 1745 and Bonnie Prince Charlie. The 1719 is my kind of tale   -- The Spanish marines have landed at Eilean Donan and occupied the castle. They’ve left forty to guard the place and marched off to collect Highlanders loyal to James Stuart, the King Across the Water. I imagine Dani deVito playing the part of the officer in charge at the castle when three Royal Navy ships appear. He rushes back and forward waving his hands in the air and complaining he’s been left with the lame and lazy. When three Navy warships arrive and the first broadside hits the castle - his corporal starts to shout, 'Don't panic, don't panic.' and one of the men moans, 'We're aaall doomed.' They rush off to join the main body of their troop and find them drawn up facing the Government (Hanoverian) troops in Glen Shiel. The Spanish Marines are in the centre and on the flanks are Highlanders...

I'm falling into the trap of writing about kings and empires when I started to explore trade and emigration but I'll get back to it. The trouble is that, the Stuart's attempts to recover the throne are so gorged with incident and potential stories, it's easy to fall into the trap. For example, four years after the shambles of Sheriffmuir, who would have thought the Old Pretender would have an influence on the affairs of the Austrian Empire, France, The Netherlands,Sweden, Spain and be the trigger for raids on the Florida coast and Carolina. It all began with the Treaty of Utrecht and Sicily being taken from spain and given to the Austrians. The Spanish took it back but the Navy threw them out with a bit of Hornblower work. The Swedes wanted a bit of Hanover, which belonged to King George, but the Navy were watching there too. Between the two they decided to use King James Stuart to distract the Brits. They reasoned that in 1715, there had been risings in Northumbria and...

As I ramble through the later years of the Stuart era, events follow one another at a surprising pace. I'd been taught about the 1715 and the '45 but there was 1689, then 1708 before the '15. The 1869 was triggered by the forced abdication of Charles II in 1688 and his replacement by Mary and William; the 1708 was triggered by the Act of Union that made a united Britain of England and Scotland; and the '15 was precipitated by the death of Queen Anne in 1714 and her replacement by George I. What was not explained was the spread of loyalty that existed at that time. People of widely differing views met socially and even Anne's Conservative Government had made appeals to her half-brother, James (VIII and III), to become their monarch on her death. The condition that he abandon Catholicism was too much and it was left to more warlike methods to attempt a restoration. The united country was in such turmoil that a bill was placed before parliament in 1713 to reverse the A...

One of the least talked about events of the Stuart era is the Irish invasion of 1644, a repetition of the ancient Dalriada excursion. To succour King Charles during the civil war struggles and at the request of the Duke of Montrose, the giant, left handed Alastair McColla McDonald landed in the West of Scotland with 2000 Antrim warriors at his back. His natural enemies were the Campbells of Argyll and he immediately set about killing as many as he could. Montrose and he terrorised the North West and took Aberdeen before Alastair went back to collect more supporters. The new army set about the Campbells and their Covenanter friends again, leaving 3000 dead at Kilsyth. Having killed those he could and taken such booty as was available, the Antrim men went home, leaving Montrose to deal with the backlash. This is the background to the 'Massacre at Glencoe' and, the Covenanters and Kilsyth being Lowland, the unforgiving attitude of what might be called the Britannic forces at Cullo...

I really must get into gear over this. What I will do is put the historical novel blogs on here . For the meantime, this is the latest. Skimming through history like this was a way of settling my thoughts. The idea was to lead up to the uprising of 1820 and the novel I'm busy with but I've stalled on the Stuarts. I'd known about them from Nigel Tranter and his Lords of Misrule and dismissed them and even Bonnie Prince Charlie but there's a lot more to that era than my history teacher even hinted at. I'd thought of maybe three books, Darien, Nova Scotia and New Scotland, the proposed opening of the Pongola River to give the Boer republics a sea port but when I looked at Nova Scotia, I realised how much had been going on during the Stuart kingdoms. It made me wonder if a book on the expansion of trade and exploration at that time might be an exciting proposition. The research would be fascinating in itself and I'm sure there would be spin-offs. 1820 is a time of...