Highness in Hiding

 The latest instalment in my Nigel Tranter project is 'Highness in Hiding,' the story of Bonnie Prince Charlie's escape to France after the Battle of Culloden in April 1746. This book is best described as a travelogue of his movements over several months in the West Highlands and the islands as he evaded his pursuers.

This is topical as archaeologists have discovered musket balls on the battlefield that they believe were fired by Irish Jacobite troops who enabled clansmen to escape the battlefield by stopping a mounted charge.

It also has a personal interest, as Ancestry has recently narrowed the Scottish side of my DNA to the West Highlands and the Hebrides. The Watsons are usually associated with the area north of Glasgow, and that is undoubtedly where my family lived. It is fascinating to discover that they originated much further north.

After Culloden, Charles became a hunted man with a £30,000 bounty on his head, the equivalent of £7.6m in today's money. I hadn't appreciated just how long he managed to evade capture, and how much effort the Government forces put in. At least 14 warships and thousands of troops, most of them coming from clans that supported the Hanoverians. He spent months hiding in the Outer Hebrides, moving between islands like Eriskay, South Uist, and Benbecula. Tranter is at his best when describing these remote places.

What most people know about this period (thanks to the Skye Boat Song) is that he escaped to the Isle of Skye with Flora MacDonald on June 28, 1746. She helped him disguise himself as a maid named "Betty Burke". After parting ways with Flora on Skye, he continued to evade capture, returning to the mainland before eventually securing a ship that took him to the continent and safety in France. 

Sadly, there was no happy ending. Charles never returned to Scotland and spent the rest of his life in exile, moving between France and Rome. He died in Rome on January 31, 1788, at the age of 67, having become an alcoholic in his later years. 

Wonderful though Tranter's description of the terrain is, it isn't the most riveting read. The bravery of the loyal clans who protected him is an integral part of the story, given the murder, rape and destruction visited on the Highlands by Butcher Cumberland. 

There are no real battles or even skirmishes for the wargamer. However, this is a popular period on the tabletop with some fine figure ranges. I would particularly plug the range by my pal Ian at Flags of War.

Some of my 28mm figures of the period