Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The Jacobite risings of 1715 and 1745 were major uprisings that seriously challenged the Hanoverian regime in Great Britain. Their aim was the restoration of the royal House of Stuart to the thrones of England, Ireland, and Scotland. As well as immediate Irish and Scottish resistance to the “Glorious” Revolution, other Jacobite attempts occurred in 1708 and 1719, although these were relatively unconvincing. Jacobitism sustained itself as an ideological movement in Britain until the death of Charles Edward Stuart (aka Charles III, aka the Young Pretender) in 1788. As a militant movement it remained a sporadic cause in England until 1716, but in Scotland motive and organization sustained it into the late 1720s, and it resurfaced again in 1745. While Jacobitism represented a dynastic alternative to the monarchies of William III & II, Queen Anne, and subsequently the House of Hanover, it became a vehicle for other causes, which included confessional disenchantment, the movement for Scottish parliamentary independence, and the private fortunes of out-of-favor politicians. Jacobitism was also a powerful tool in European statecraft, and the Jacobite cause was occasionally adopted as an expedience by rivals to Britain. The Jacobite rising of 1715 (the '15) was a major domestic uprising which tested the stability of the Hanoverian government of the United Kingdom. Upon ascending the ... log in or subscribe to read full text