Jacobites: A New History of the ’45 Rebellion

Riding, a specialist in 18th-century British history, relates how Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Young Pretender, tried and failed in 1745 to replicate Charles II’s restoration of the Stuart monarchy. She maintains objectivity regarding the struggle for power between the Stuarts and the Hanovers, making this work unusual among the many passionate and patriotism-tinged treatments of the oft-romanticized prince. Riding’s Charles, naive yet determined, relentlessly pushes toward London, gathering a mix of informally trained Highlanders and Lowlanders as well as a promise of French support. Throughout, Riding seamlessly incorporates journal entries, letters, and other primary sources from both major figures and the local people affected by long-hidden hopes, media-stoked fears, and ravenous armies on both sides. This incorporation of ordinary Scots reveals the mixed attitudes toward Charles’s cause. Illustrations accompanying each chapter also bolster the textual descriptions of Charles’s use of various dress styles (Highland kilts, Lowlander breeches, French trends) to show familiarity with the various groups whose support he desperately needed. Riding effectively shows why Bonnie Prince Charlie’s once-great hopes during a tumultuous and adventure-packed year in Scotland led to a crushing defeat at Culloden—and continue to inspire the romanticization of his legend centuries later. Illus. Agency: A.M. Heath & Co. Ltd. (U.K.). (July)