Battle's Cries Still Linger On

JAMES DOUGLAS-HAMILTON

CULLODEN: even the word has a doomed romantic ring to it. Of all the great battles which took place in Scotland - and this was the last major clash on British soil - Culloden is probably the one most steeped in misty-eyed myths. Even now, thousands make the journey to the moor near Inverness, where in 1746 the army of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, otherwise known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, the "Young Pretender" to the throne, was crushed by the forces of the Hanoverian government.

The site of the battle is owned and cared for by the National Trust for Scotland and this summer, the heritage body is mounting an exhibition which will be running at its headquarters in Charlotte Square from July 31-September 9. It will feature a selection of items loaned from the Drambuie Collection and . will also include a fly-through giving the viewer an impression of the battlefield's planned new visitors centre.

Already £7 million has been raised to help create a new visitors centre, for the more than 250,000 people who visit each year and another £900,000 is needed. It's a fantastic scheme and thoroughly deserving of our backing - because although Culloden happened long ago, its importance to Scotland, even today, cannot be overestimated.

For a start there is the purely historical perspective. For generations the Scottish pysche has been tinged by the image of a Scots versus English battle, with south of the Border Redcoats bayoneting wounded Highlanders as they lay on the field. One only needs to look at the debate surrounding who is and who isn't supporting England in the current World Cup to realise relations with our nearest neighbour can still be controversial. So it's important that both we as Scots and those from other countries with an interest in our nation learn the facts, and not just the myths, about this battle.

Certainly the Hanoverians' leader, the Duke of Cumberland, brought his office of Commander in Chief into disgrace and disrepute by ordering his soldiers to murder the Highlanders who were wounded and dying and also those who were taken prisoner.

However, the reality was that there were probably more Scots fighting on the Hanoverian side than on the Jacobite side, including Munro's Regiment of Foot, the Royal Scots Fusiliers Regiment, the Royal Scots Regiment of Foot and Campbell's Militia. Not quite the black and white, English versus Scots version of events.

And indeed, although today Bonnie Prince Charlie is regarded as a quintessentially Scottish figure, that wasn't the way many Scots would have seen it back in the 18th century. Many of the Scots soldiers fighting on the Hanoverian side were Lowlanders from Covenanting stock and believed in their right to worship God in their own way. They saw the future with the Protestant succession, rather than Bonnie Prince Charlie's Stuart line with its old echoes of the divine rights of kings and its Roman Catholic allegiances. And they were ready, willing and able to fight and die for their beliefs.

There is no doubt that the romantic figure of Bonnie Prince Charlie is one of the main reasons why the battle is remembered. If history is written by the victors, perhaps the songs are penned by the losers; The Skye Boat Song and Will Ye No Come Back Again are deeply evocative, as is the story of Flora MacDonald's aid in his escape from Scotland to France.

For the Prince himself was undoubtedly a charismatic figure - he had been offered 6000 soldiers by the King of France, but he would not wait until they were ready. Instead he appealed to the Highland chiefs, who decided to risk all and follow when there was no guarantee or even probability of a positive outcome. In fact, the battle itself was a foregone conclusion. The Hanoverian army was more numerous, was better equipped with artillery and was supported by the dreaded Dragoons.

And yet the strength of feeling and loyalty which Bonnie Prince Charlie had aroused in the Highlanders struck such fear into the Hanoverian dynasty that severe repression followed Culloden. And the implications of those measures resonate even today.

The Highlanders were not allowed to wear tartan, the Roman Catholic and Episcopalian religions were suppressed and the Gaelic language was discouraged. Hanoverian governments were so terrified that the Highlanders might rise again, they built Fort George - an impregnable fortress near Inverness - and they established the Black Watch Regiment, to keep a close eye on the Highlanders. In years to come after Culloden, governments sadly would not even act to prevent or mitigate the Clearances, which saw thousands forced off their land, and even leaving Scottish shores altogether.

For better - the proud history of the Black Watch - for worse - the empty glens, the still-poignant reminder of the brutal Clearances - and the plain quirky - Walter Scott's coup in getting King George IV in 1822 to wear plaid for his Scottish visit was an iconic moment precisely because tartan had been suppressed - in so many ways, Culloden shaped the way Scotland is today, and I urge you to visit the National Trust for Scotland's exhibition this summer and discover Culloden for yourselves.

• Lord James Douglas-Hamilton is a Conservative MSP for the Lothians.

To find out more about the NTS's Culloden project, log on to www.culloden.org.uk

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