Come thro' the heather, around him gather,
Ye're a' the welcomer early;
Around him cling wi' a' your kin;
For wha'll be king but Charlie?
Come thro' the heather, around him gather,
Come Ronald, come Donald, come a' thegither,
And crown your rightfu' lawfu' king!
For wha'll be king but Charlie?
The News from Moidart
The year is 1745.
It has been nearly fifty-seven years since King James II and VII was deposed by William of Orange.
It has been nearly thirty years since the Old Pretender, James Francis Edward Stuart, launched a vain attempt to seize back his rightful throne. Lord Mar's Revolt ended in quick and utter defeat at the hands of the Hanoverians and the Duke of Argyll's army.
Under the devastation and the chaos of the War of Spanish Succession, spurned on by promises of French assistance, Charles Edward Stuart - the Young Pretender - has decided to take up the mantle where his father failed. Seeing nothing but his father and his House's right to rule over the British Isles, he has made an alliance with the Catholic kings of Spain and France - who are fighting against the Protestant Britain - and, after making plans to land in Scotland and purchasing weapon and shot for the loyalists to the House of Stuart, set off from Saint-Nazaiare aboard a French warship, bound for Scotia.
Prince Charles and the Seven Men of Moidart landed on Scottish soil, first near Eriskay. Noblemen attempted to persuade the Young Prince to return to France, but blind with desire to reclaim his birthright, Prince Charlie and his entourage landed at Glenfinnan, along the western shores. At this isolated Scottish town, the MacDonalds, Camerons, Macfies, and MacDonnells arrived to pledge fealty to the House of Stuart and to assist him in his claim to the Throne of Britain.
It is at Glenfinnan that the Bonnie Prince Charlie climbed a hill and raised the Royal Standard in revolt, and the Highland clans rose up in defiance of the foreign German King in London. With brandy flowing and the spirits high, the Scottish Jacobite Army marched southward and began the Forty-Five, the latest and the last attempt of the Stuarts to reclaim their Throne.
Our Roleplay
The Hieland clans, wi sword in hand,
Frae John o' Groats' to Airlie,
Hae to a man declared to stand
Or fa' wi' Royal Charlie!
Our roleplay will focus on three main characters of the Revolt. All four are historical personages, who actually took part in the Jacobite Rising of 1745. My intention is to have these four characters (two Jacobites, two Hanoverians) each conduct their manner perhaps in line, or perhaps divergent, from their actual role in history. We can take this into alternate history, if we so wish. I will take the role of both Bonnie Prince Charlie and King George I, and sort of conduct myself outside the realm of the four characters. The Bonnie Prince will be more direct with the Jacobites, whereas King George will be far-removed from the Hanoverians.
The idea of the roleplay is to trace, to theorize, and to play the part of the Jacobite Rising. For those who are unfamiliar, the Rising took place over the course of 1745-1746 with Prince Charles Edward Stuart's bid to reclaim the British Throne for his Father, the Old Pretender, and for the House of Stuart. The House of Stuart believed heavily in the ideals of divine right and absolutism, contrary to the established English traditions of Parliamentarianism. The Jacobite Army, comprised almost entirely of Scottish clans, set a course towards London through the Lowlands and into England proper. The Jacobites reached as far south as Derby, before turning northward. They were ultimately taken to battle at Culloden, where the Army was routed and destroyed. Prince Charlie fled back to France, and the last of the Jacobite Revolts ended as the others did - in the failure of the House of Stuart to reclaim their throne.
Perhaps we can ask, what if he had won? Or perhaps we can play as it had done, with the end of the Highland clans at the fields of Culloden and the destruction of the Young Pretender's dream.
It is ultimately up to you.
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