The rock which Bonnie Prince Charlie used to begin the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 has been found by an English grandmother in her rockery.
Many Scots (and people around the world who love Scotland) believe that Bonnie Prince Charlie and his Jacobite followers were undertaking a just and noble cause.
However, it was anything thus.
Bonnie Prince Charlie believed that, as his grandfather King James II was deposed, that he should be king rather than the current incumbent of the throne George II. But Charlie would have made a hugely unpopular king - he was a Catholic and Britain was then, as now, an overwhelmingly Protestant nation.
Not only that, but Bonnie Prince Charlies and his Jacobite followers stupidly believed in the "Divine Right" of monarchs to rule outright, without parliament. This was a very dangerous thing to think, considering that just 100 years earlier King Charles I was beheaded for also believing in the undemocratic Divine Right of monarchs. The monarch that Bonnie Prince Charlie was trying to depose was King George II, an early Constitutional (democratic) Monarch, one that must reign alongside a parliament.
Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobites invaded England in 1745, but they were unsuccessful. They only got as far south as Derby before turning round and heading back to Scotland. They were ultimately defeated by British parliamentary forces at the Battle of Culloden, the last battle to be fought on British SOIL (though not the last battle to be fought in Britain. That occurred in the sky in the 1940s).
Bonnie Prince Charlie's stone found in grandmother's rockery
The stone upon which Bonnie Prince Charlie unveiled his standard to begin the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 has been found - in a grandmother's rockery.
By Stephen Adams
06 Feb 2009
The Telegraph
Historian Iain Thornber with the newly recovered Glenfinnan Stone back in its original hollow Photo: North News
The foot-wide stone was found by Hartlepool pensioner Connie Lofthouse, 79, after she recognised it from a programme charting its history and disappearance.
In 1989 it disappeared from a knoll near the Glenfinnan Monument at the head of Loch Shiel. There, on 17 August 1745, Bonnie Prince Charlie raised a 16ft-high standard on the stone to rally his troops to march on Edinburgh.
In 1990 Mrs Lofthouse was given the stone while living in Kentallen near Glencoe. Two years later she returned to north east England.
She said she immediately recognised the rock while watching BBC One's Countryfile, co-hosted by Daily Telegraph columnist Ben Fogle.
The retired schoolteacher said: "I honestly thought it was just a stone. It's incredible to think this big part of history has been sat in a garden all this time."
Historian Ian Thornber said: "This stone is contextually as significant as the Stone of Destiny in Edinburgh Castle that the Scottish fought so hard to get back from England."
Although the 'Young Pretender' Charles Edward Stuart (who believed in the "Divine Right" of kings to rule outright) took Edinburgh city in September 1745, the plan to restore a Stuart to the English throne stalled when English Jacobites refused to back the rebellion. His forces were defeated by British parliamentary forces at the Battle of Culloden in 1746.
telegraph.co.uk
******************************************
Scottish history is so clouded in mythology and romanticism that many Scottish causes against the "evil", "tyrrannous" English (and later, British) governments over the years have been believed by many to have been good, noble and just causes.
But, in fact, many of these Scottish causes against their English neighbours have been anything but - and the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 is one of them.
Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobites believed in the dictatorial and undemocratic "Divine Right" of monarchs to rule outright (i.e. as they pleased, without a parliament), a dangerous thing to believe in less than 100 years after Charles I was beheaded for that same belief.
This article, from a SCOTTISH website that "demythologises" much of Scottish history takes a look at Bonnie Prince Charlie...
SCOTCH MYTHED
Bonnie Prince Charlie: Anti-democrat who believed in "Divine Right" of monarchs
The romantic myth of the "Young Pretender" as a heroic and wronged Prince, adventuring against the "evil" usurpers to claim the throne that was rightfully his father's, is frankly a lot of b******s and belongs on the side of oatcake tins rather than in the annals of history.
The Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 that was sparked by his arrival on these shores was doomed to fail from the start and would never have happened had our Charlie not been so pig-headed and arrogant in his belief that "his people" wanted him.
Flora McDonald - helped Charlie to escape to prevent the English (the good guys) using him to embarrass the Scots if they captured him
firstfoot.com
Many Scots (and people around the world who love Scotland) believe that Bonnie Prince Charlie and his Jacobite followers were undertaking a just and noble cause.
However, it was anything thus.
Bonnie Prince Charlie believed that, as his grandfather King James II was deposed, that he should be king rather than the current incumbent of the throne George II. But Charlie would have made a hugely unpopular king - he was a Catholic and Britain was then, as now, an overwhelmingly Protestant nation.
Not only that, but Bonnie Prince Charlies and his Jacobite followers stupidly believed in the "Divine Right" of monarchs to rule outright, without parliament. This was a very dangerous thing to think, considering that just 100 years earlier King Charles I was beheaded for also believing in the undemocratic Divine Right of monarchs. The monarch that Bonnie Prince Charlie was trying to depose was King George II, an early Constitutional (democratic) Monarch, one that must reign alongside a parliament.
Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobites invaded England in 1745, but they were unsuccessful. They only got as far south as Derby before turning round and heading back to Scotland. They were ultimately defeated by British parliamentary forces at the Battle of Culloden, the last battle to be fought on British SOIL (though not the last battle to be fought in Britain. That occurred in the sky in the 1940s).
Bonnie Prince Charlie's stone found in grandmother's rockery
The stone upon which Bonnie Prince Charlie unveiled his standard to begin the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 has been found - in a grandmother's rockery.
By Stephen Adams
06 Feb 2009
The Telegraph
Historian Iain Thornber with the newly recovered Glenfinnan Stone back in its original hollow Photo: North News
The foot-wide stone was found by Hartlepool pensioner Connie Lofthouse, 79, after she recognised it from a programme charting its history and disappearance.
In 1989 it disappeared from a knoll near the Glenfinnan Monument at the head of Loch Shiel. There, on 17 August 1745, Bonnie Prince Charlie raised a 16ft-high standard on the stone to rally his troops to march on Edinburgh.
In 1990 Mrs Lofthouse was given the stone while living in Kentallen near Glencoe. Two years later she returned to north east England.
She said she immediately recognised the rock while watching BBC One's Countryfile, co-hosted by Daily Telegraph columnist Ben Fogle.
The retired schoolteacher said: "I honestly thought it was just a stone. It's incredible to think this big part of history has been sat in a garden all this time."
Historian Ian Thornber said: "This stone is contextually as significant as the Stone of Destiny in Edinburgh Castle that the Scottish fought so hard to get back from England."
Although the 'Young Pretender' Charles Edward Stuart (who believed in the "Divine Right" of kings to rule outright) took Edinburgh city in September 1745, the plan to restore a Stuart to the English throne stalled when English Jacobites refused to back the rebellion. His forces were defeated by British parliamentary forces at the Battle of Culloden in 1746.
telegraph.co.uk
******************************************
Scottish history is so clouded in mythology and romanticism that many Scottish causes against the "evil", "tyrrannous" English (and later, British) governments over the years have been believed by many to have been good, noble and just causes.
But, in fact, many of these Scottish causes against their English neighbours have been anything but - and the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 is one of them.
Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobites believed in the dictatorial and undemocratic "Divine Right" of monarchs to rule outright (i.e. as they pleased, without a parliament), a dangerous thing to believe in less than 100 years after Charles I was beheaded for that same belief.
This article, from a SCOTTISH website that "demythologises" much of Scottish history takes a look at Bonnie Prince Charlie...
SCOTCH MYTHED
Bonnie Prince Charlie: Anti-democrat who believed in "Divine Right" of monarchs
The romantic myth of the "Young Pretender" as a heroic and wronged Prince, adventuring against the "evil" usurpers to claim the throne that was rightfully his father's, is frankly a lot of b******s and belongs on the side of oatcake tins rather than in the annals of history.
The Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 that was sparked by his arrival on these shores was doomed to fail from the start and would never have happened had our Charlie not been so pig-headed and arrogant in his belief that "his people" wanted him.
The simple truth was that most people, including "his" people, did not.
The Stuarts were Catholic. By now, most of the country, with the exception of the Highlands, was Protestant.
Nearly 60 years had passed since the overthrow of the Stuart dynasty and the expulsion of Charles' grandfather, King James, by the Protestant Prince William of Orange. For the first time in a long time, the country was at peace. Nobody wanted another CivilWar. Especially one they could never hope to win.
Flora McDonald - helped Charlie to escape to prevent the English (the good guys) using him to embarrass the Scots if they captured him
Charlie ignored all the warnings and all the evidence and pressed on regardless.
That he was able to gain the support of the Clans was more a matter of honour and loyalty than of common sense or any real belief in his cause. The Chiefs knew that they were committing suicide, but, unable to convince the Prince of his folly, rallied to his Standard regardless.
The end result of his arrogance was Culloden, and the extermination of the clan system forever.
If you've ever seen the David Niven movie version of Bonnie Prince Charlie, forget it. Charles was an effeminate ponce who spoke not a word of his native Scots. He spoke and behaved Italian, which is to say that he was more suited to mincing around the masked balls of Milan than marching the mountains of Moidart.
He threw childish tantrums when his Generals disagreed with him, which was often.
He was a spoilt brat, used to getting his own way, and who, dangerously, believed in the Divine Right of Kings, even though he wasn't one yet.
In spite of the fact that a reward of £30,000, a lottery-winning sum of money in those days, was offered for information leading to his capture, not one Highlander ever came forward to betray their Prince. Nearly all who helped in his escape were either imprisoned or executed. And "his" people would be persecuted thenceforth to virtual extinction.
Charles' thanks for such unwavering loyalty and sacrifice was to blame his treacherous "mountaineers" for the failure of the rebellion until his dying day.
He died in Rome in 1788, a fat, shambling, bloated and bitter alcoholic.
firstfoot.com