Bonnie Prince Charlie Fights on After Culloden

According to Schama's second volume, Bonnie Prince Charlie could have fought on after Culloden but instead bolted for France, leaving all his supporters to scramble for their own lives.

Schama wrote that only 3/5 of the Jacobite army was at Culloden and some of his supporters advocated they keep fighting in the Highlands and islands until some kind of negotiated arrangement (amnesty) could be won.

So what if BCP doesn't bug out and the Jacobites remain intact? How long do you suppose they could drag it out?
 
They won't get that "negotiated settlement", that's for sure, as Culloden had broken any credibility there band had altogether; there actually was an armistice (any man who presented his weapons to the authorities was spared punishment, whether or not he had been a Jacobite) and it was generally honoured, and it will start to look increasingly attractive to both men and governments.

I predict that the Rising will last a few months more, and its armed forces will gradually dissolve until BCP has to flee. That or be captured, which is another question altogether, of course.
 
I predict that the Rising will last a few months more, and its armed forces will gradually dissolve until BCP has to flee. That or be captured, which is another question altogether, of course.

Do you have any thoughts on what might happen in those months?

Edinburgh was under Jacobite control, so I would imagine that'd be a target. Stirling Castle, however, was still holding out before a Jacobite siege, so relieving that would be a priority too.
 
Do you have any thoughts on what might happen in those months?

Not really; I'm sure you know more about the ins and outs of the campaigning than me. My knowledge of Scottish history is political and social, and I know that the Risings were eventually going to fail, but the precise effects of prolonging them a little aren't really my field.

Edinburgh was under Jacobite control, so I would imagine that'd be a target.

Well, barely. The government still had the castle, and you could shoot pretty much anything in Georgian Edinburgh from the castle if you felt like it. They hung out in Holyrood, but in a military sense I doubt Edinburgh was a pressing concern for anyone.
 
Not really; I'm sure you know more about the ins and outs of the campaigning than me. My knowledge of Scottish history is political and social, and I know that the Risings were eventually going to fail, but the precise effects of prolonging them a little aren't really my field.

Well, I don't really know a whole lot myself. I first heard about Culloden in elementary/middle school (a book of famous battles with lots of maps) and I don't recall serious research on the subject.

Schama's book only goes into vague detail, beyond the Jacobite troops having to attack uphill and thus the "highland charge" that inflicted so much damage at Killecrankie got slaughtered and the fact BPC's generals didn't want him to fight at Culloden.
 
Due to being outnumbered, outgunned and in a poor supply situation with morale low plus the enemy having taken what the prince's competent officers recognized as an ideal defensive position the top commanders absolutely opposed a battle at Culloden but were overruled.


There is not the slightest chance of the remaining demoralized and poorly supplied forces available either launching a successful seige of Edinburgh or of Stirling, which was being attacked by BPC's forces, not held by them. Gathering them together before the vastly superior British forces could crush them piecemeal was unlikely and what could be gained by giving the British a fixed target?


The prince 'scrambled' because the army was broken and because if he were captured it was really all over. Further, given his remarkable disinterest in the fate of his loyalists can you really see Bonnie Prince Charlie putting himself at risk to improve his loyalists chance for an amnesty?
 
There actually was an amnesty, IIRC: if you handed in your weapons and swore an oath to King George, you would not be punished for any aid to the Jacobites. Enforcement was patchy, but I believe sources show quite a lot of people actually took advantage of it, which makes sense (and only works against BCP and the Jacobite cause, of course).
 
There was but it took some time and it wasn't much help to the rank and file in the aftermath of the battle, nor for the top figures, some of whom waited years for an amnesty, if they ever received one.
 
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