This is a rough draft post of a TL I've been thinking of writing. I'd appreciate any and all input you have. Thanks in advance.
22 October 1746
We were so damn close! Thought Frederick. The Jacobite's, starved and low on morale, were on the verge of defeat. Forces under his brother the Duke of Cumberland had converged on the Jacobite army and their commander, the Young Pretender, Prince Charles Stuart near the town of Culloden. How did those damned Scot’s manage to sneak their forces by patrolling Royal Navy warships without being spotted? Their surprise attack on Nairn had quickly overwhelmed the British forces capturing the Duke and the majority of his army leaving the remainder of the forces vulnerable which the Jacobite's used to their advantage delivering a decisive defeat to the British Army.
That was six months ago. Now instead of fighting in Scotland and northern England here he was, north of the battered city of Winchester, heading west with what remained of the dragoon regiment sent to protect him and his family as they retreated from a besieged London. The Prince of Wales supposed that he should count himself lucky to have gotten away at all. Most of the rest of the Royal Family dead, imprisoned, or trapped in London or the nearby Windsor.
Damn the French! Despite the setbacks, the reinstated Field Marshell George Wade had stopped the Jacobite Army’s offensive at Derby in late August. On September 11 however, the Royal Navy was surprisingly defeated by the French fleet in the Battle off Sussex. This allowed a short window of opportunity which allowed the French Army to land 12,000 troops in Kent. That was the nail in the coffin that was Great Britain.
As the Prince was lost in thought when a commotion erupted among the troops. This was where Frederick heard the horrible news, “It’s Fallen! It’s fallen! Windsor Castle has fallen! The King is dead!” It was now that the Prince of Wales, now King Frederick I, knew that Britain was lost. If he was to have any chance of saving what remained of his family and eventually liberate Britain for the House of Hanover he had to flee and regroup.
But where? The obvious was to Hanover itself. However, with the reentrance of Prussia into the war the previous July, almost all of the Electorate was occupied, and Prussian forces would almost surely capture them. That left but one place still in British hands. “Colonel Talbutt!” the King called. “Let us move to Bristol at once. Send word to the fleet that is to bring transport for us. We are to go to America!”
22 October 1746
We were so damn close! Thought Frederick. The Jacobite's, starved and low on morale, were on the verge of defeat. Forces under his brother the Duke of Cumberland had converged on the Jacobite army and their commander, the Young Pretender, Prince Charles Stuart near the town of Culloden. How did those damned Scot’s manage to sneak their forces by patrolling Royal Navy warships without being spotted? Their surprise attack on Nairn had quickly overwhelmed the British forces capturing the Duke and the majority of his army leaving the remainder of the forces vulnerable which the Jacobite's used to their advantage delivering a decisive defeat to the British Army.
That was six months ago. Now instead of fighting in Scotland and northern England here he was, north of the battered city of Winchester, heading west with what remained of the dragoon regiment sent to protect him and his family as they retreated from a besieged London. The Prince of Wales supposed that he should count himself lucky to have gotten away at all. Most of the rest of the Royal Family dead, imprisoned, or trapped in London or the nearby Windsor.
Damn the French! Despite the setbacks, the reinstated Field Marshell George Wade had stopped the Jacobite Army’s offensive at Derby in late August. On September 11 however, the Royal Navy was surprisingly defeated by the French fleet in the Battle off Sussex. This allowed a short window of opportunity which allowed the French Army to land 12,000 troops in Kent. That was the nail in the coffin that was Great Britain.
As the Prince was lost in thought when a commotion erupted among the troops. This was where Frederick heard the horrible news, “It’s Fallen! It’s fallen! Windsor Castle has fallen! The King is dead!” It was now that the Prince of Wales, now King Frederick I, knew that Britain was lost. If he was to have any chance of saving what remained of his family and eventually liberate Britain for the House of Hanover he had to flee and regroup.
But where? The obvious was to Hanover itself. However, with the reentrance of Prussia into the war the previous July, almost all of the Electorate was occupied, and Prussian forces would almost surely capture them. That left but one place still in British hands. “Colonel Talbutt!” the King called. “Let us move to Bristol at once. Send word to the fleet that is to bring transport for us. We are to go to America!”