Jacobite Revolt and the destiny оf Scotland.

The Jacobite Revolts, or Jacobite Risings were a series of uprisings, rebellions, and wars in Great Britain. They were aimed at returning James VII of Scotland and II of England, and later his descendants of the House of Stuart, to the throne after he was deposed by Parliament during the Glorious Revolution.

The most remarkable revolts took place in 1715 and in 1745, and they were known respectively as "The Fifteen" and "The Forty-Five". The First Jacobite Revolt was organized against the new Hanoverian government. The supporters of James Edward Stuart (son of James VII), or the Old Pretender, wanted him to get the throne. On 6 September 1715, the earl of Mar raised the banner of revolt in Scotland, and James Edward prepared to travel north. The revolt soon covered a great part of Scotland, but the rebels failed to gain any sufficient support in England. Finally, the Jacobites were forced to surrender. The Pretender took ship for France on 4 February 1715, and all fighting was over by April 1716.

1745 was the year of another Jacobite attempt to restore the Stuarts. JamesL the Old Pretender, had been recognized by the Scottish opposition as James III, toasts had beenllnmk "for the King beyond the sea", but James was passive and didn't undertake any steps. His son and the grandson of James II, Charles Edward or the Young PretenderTTanded in Scolland together with his seven followers. They were enthusiastically greeted by the ffighlanders, who revolted in supporf of this romantic handsome young man and called him Bonny Prince Charlie. The Jacobite rebels captured Edinburgh the capital of Scotland but failed to withstand the attacks of the regular English army, they were defeated at the Cullodon Moor and scattered. Charles Edward escaped back to France.

 

The destiny of Scotland was tragic. The Highlanders were subjected to cruel punishments and repressions. The old clan system was destroyed, it was forbidden to wear a kilt or to play bagpipes. Leaders were executed, many Highland families left the country. The Highlanders were brought under the control of the central Government.

The Jacobite Risings were a series of uprisings, rebellions, and wars in the kingdoms of England, Kingdom of Scotland, and Ireland occurring between 1688 and 1746. Scotland also suffered from the efforts of the Sruarts to win back the throne. The first "Jacobite" revolt to win the crown for james Il's son, in 1715, had been unsuccessful, The Stuarts tried again in 1745, when [arnes Il's grandson, Prince Charles Edward Stuart, better known as "Bonny Prince Charlie", landed on the west coast of Scotland. He persuaded some clan chiefs to join him. Many of these chiefs had great difficulty persuading the men in their clans to join the revolt. Some were told their homes would be burnt if they did not fight. Most clans did not join the rebellion, and nor did the men of the Scottish Lowlands.

Bonny Prince Charlie was more successful at first than anyone could have imagined. His army of Highlanders entered Edinburgh and defeated an English army in a surprise attack. Then he marched south. Panic spread through England, because much of the British army was in Europe fighting the

French. But success for Bonny Prince Chatlie depended on Englishmen also joining his army. When the Highland army was over halfway to London, however, it was clear that few of the English would join him, and the Highlanders themselves were unhappy at being so far from home. The rebels moved back to Scotland. Early in 1746 they were defeated by the British army at Culloden, near Inverness. The rebellion was finished.

The English army behaved with cruelty. Many Highlanders were killed, even those who had not joined the rebellion. Others were sent to work in America. Their homes were destroyed, and their farm animals killed. The fear of the Highland danger was so great that a law was passed forbidding Highlanders to wear their traditional skirt, the kilt. The old patterns of the kilt, called tartans, and the Scottish musical instrument, the bagpipe, were also forbidden. Some did not obey this law, and were shot.

 

 

13 The Tudors - The Wars of the Roses-

Henry VII (1457 - 1509) was the first Tudor monarch. His claim to the throne was not strong and he became king after defeating Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.Henry's success on the battlefield ended the Wars of the Roses that had begun in 1455. The Wars of the Roses were a series of battles that were fought between the supporters of the House of Lancaster (Lancastrians) and the supporters of the House of York. The wars were called the Wars of the Roses because the Yorkists were represented by a white rose and the Lancastrians by a red rose.Although there were no battles fought until 1455, the cause of the wars dates back to the reign of Edward III and the power struggle between his sons after his death.**The four eldest sons of Edward III (1312 - 1377) were Edward the Black Prince (heir to the throne), Lionel of Antwerp (Duke of Clarence) John of Gaunt (Duke of Lancaster) and Edmund of Langley (Duke of York) # Edward III died in 1377. His eldest son, Edward, the Black Prince had died of the plague in 1376 and so his grandson, Richard, aged ten and son of the Black Prince, became king. Because Richard II was only ten years old, his uncle, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, ruled the country. As Richard grew older he rebelled against his uncle and made decisions that were not popular with the most powerful men in the country.#In 1399 John of Gaunt died and Richard II confiscated the land he had owned. John of Gaunt's son, Henry, raised an army and when Richard surrendered took the throne as Henry IV. Richard was imprisoned in Pontefract castle and mysteriously died in February 1400. # Henry IV died in 1413. Henry V was a strong leader and after ordering the execution of Richard, Earl of Cambridge for plotting to put the Yorkists on the throne, invaded France. He won many battles, including the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. In 1420, Henry married the daughter of the king of France and it was agreed that their children would War of Roses be the heirs of both England and France. In 1420, Henry married the daughter of the king of France and it was agreed that their children would be the heirs of both England and France. When Henry V died in 1422 from dysentery, his son, Henry VI became the only king to be crowned king of England and France # Henry VI was four months old when he became king and his father's brothers ruled England and France in his place. As Henry grew older it became apparent that he was a weak king, totally dominated by his French wife Margaret of Anjou.# The first battle of the Wars of the Roses took place at St Albans on 22nd May 1455. The Yorkists led by Richard Duke of York easily defeated the King's army. Henry VI was injured and taken prisoner. In 1455, Henry suffered another bout of insanity and Richard Duke of York was made protector of England. In 1456, Henry recovered and retook the throne. There were further battles and in 1459 Richard was killed at the Battle of Wakefield. #In 1461, Richard's son Edward, Earl of March, defeated the King's army, took the King prisoner and made himself King Edward IV. Queen Margaret took her son and fled to Wales where they were taken in by the king's half-brother Jaspar Tudor. In 1470, Henry regained the throne but in 1471 was defeated by Edward's army at the Battle of Tewkesbury and taken prisoner. Henry's son, Edward, Prince of Wales was killed during the battle. With no other Lancastrian heir to challenge him, Edward IV remained king until his sudden death in 1483. @Edward IV had two sons, Edward and Richard. in the summer of 1483 they mysteriously disappeared.# It is believed that their uncle murdered them. Richard was crowned Richard III. He was not a popular king and faced many challenges to his place on the throne, notably from Henry Tudor, grandson of Owen Tudor who had been second husband to Henry V's wife Katherine of Valois.#Henry Tudor raised a Lancastrian army against Richard Iii and at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, Richard was killed and the Yorkists defeated. It is told that Henry found Richard's crown on the battlefield and placed it on his head. Henry VII was crowned king and married Edward IV's daughter, Elizabeth of York a move that was to end the Wars of the Roses.

2 CAUSES OF THE WARS OF THE ROSES: An Overview

1) EFFECTS OF THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR (THE FRENCH WARS)

The English had just suffered their final defeat in the Hundred Years' War: Maine was surrendered in 1448, Normandy was lost in 1450, and finally Bordeaux in 1453. Nearly a hundred years and five generations' worth of battling and occupying France, and finally losing was a cause of great upset to the populace. Furthermore, to the landowners who lost their French holdings, the financial loss was considerable.

2) FINANCIAL PROBLEMS AND SOCIETAL CHANGES

The Black Plague, which had first arrived in England in 1348 and made several returns, had caused enormous losses in population, which in turn caused a dearth of labor force to tend the crops. This caused severe inflation in the prices of labor and agricultural products, and, in years of crop failures, periods of grave famine. Furthermore, the death toll of the plague had caused a great shift in the social order; previously minor landholders grew wealthy and upwardly mobile, taking over lands whose owners had all died. The French Wars also had put a strain on the royal treasury.

"Livery and Maintenance"

Since the fall of feudalism, the "Livery and maintenance" system meant that the great peers of the kingdom could call upon minor lords in their dominions to come fight on their side, under one banner. These, combined with career soldiers turned mercenaries after the French campaigns, meant that the peers could rouse large armies for themselves as easily, and in some cases more easily, than the king. When fighting a common enemy for a century was no longer an option, it was perhaps just a matter of time until the great warriors began to fight each other.

3) DYNASTIC PROBLEM

After the leadership of King Henry V, "The Flower of Chivalry" and the "Mirror of all Christian Kings," the weak and placid Henry VI was a great disappointment. Somerset and Suffolk, the king's favourites, were nearly universally loathed for their undue power and unwise wielding of the same. Many of the nobles, including Richard of York who had been superseded in France by Somerset, also harbored personal resentments and grudges against Henry's ministers, for slights and lacks of preferment.

 

Suffolk bore the brunt of the upset over the losses in France (although they were largely due to Somerset's inability). He was impeached on a trumped-up charge of treason and exiled by Parliament. Finally, he was murdered on board the ship carrying him out of England. Henry VI was unable to effect a strong central government, alienating many of his powerful lords by his unwavering support of Somerset. Henry VI further upset the Commons, who wanted Somerset gone, by ignoring their request to have Somerset exiled as well. A tentative peace existed for a few years (1450-53), because the nobles could content themselves with the fact that, should Henry VI die without an heir, they had a strong successor in Richard, Duke of York [see York's claim to the Crown]. Somerset, and the whole Beaufort line, had been excluded from succession by Henry IV's Parliament in 1407.

 

The birth of an heir in 1453 complicated matters—now, if the King were to die or be incapacitated, the kingdom would fall to an infant prince, most likely governed by the loathed Somerset. In 1453 King Henry VI did indeed become incapacitated; he suffered from complete mental derangement to the point of imbecility. He did not even understand that an heir had been born to him. York took over as Protector, but when the King regained his sanity a year later, Somerset was restored to power, and the Yorkists were thrown out. And thus followed the first battle in the Wars of the Roses: The First Battle of St. Albans, 1455.

Consequences

The War of the Roses, was, however, not just another medieval war. It was the last medieval war in England. This was primarily because so many nobels were killed in the fighting that the aristocracy was fundamentally weakened. This allowed both the monarchy and the gentry and merchant class to rise. It was also n important step in the evolution of democracy in England. Henry IV had set out to seize absolute power in England. The defeat of the Lancastrians brought the Tudors to power, a seies of monarchs willing to work with Parliament within the evolving English constitution. By the time a new dynasty, the Stuarts, appeard to challenge Parliament, the power of the gentry and merchant class had increased to the point that they were able to successfully challenge the monarchy through Parliament.

3 The Wars of the Roses were a series of dynastic civil wars for the throne of England between the supporters of the House of Lancaster (whose symbol was a red rose) and the House of York (whose symbol was a white rose). The war took place in 1455-1485.

Henry VI was not a suitable king to rule England at that time. England was weakened after the 100 Years’ War. These were the reasons why the nobles started to think who should be the real king. The interests of the House of Lancaster supported by the big barons collided with the interests of the lesser barons and merchants of the towns, who supported the House of York. The feudal struggle grew into an open war between the Lancastrians and the Yorkists. The war lasted for 30 years (1455-1485) and turned into a bitter struggle for the Crown, in which each party murdered every likely heir to the throne of the opposite party. It was a dark time for England.

The War of the Roses ended with the battle of Bosworth in 1485. King Richard III of the House of York was killed in the battle, and, right in the field, Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, was proclaimed King of England.

Henry Tudor was head of the House of Lancaster. A year later, in 1486, he married Princess Elizabeth of York. This marriage was of great political importance. It meant the union of the red rose of the House of Lancaster with the white rose of the House of York.

The consequences of the war were very sad. It was a real disaster for the nobility as about half of the nobles were killed, and it nearly destroyed the English idea of kingship.