Jacobites: A New History of the '45 Rebellion - Softcover

Riding, Jacqueline

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1408867648 ISBN 13: 9781408867648

Publisher: Bloomsbury Paperbacks, 2017

Synopsis

The 1745 Jacobite Rebellion was a turning point in British history. When Charles Edward Stuart, commonly known as the Young Pretender, sailed from France to Scotland in July 1745, and with only a handful of supporters to claim the throne for his exiled father, few people within Britain were alarmed. But after he raised the Stuart standard at Glenfinnan in the Western Highlands, destroyed a contingent of the British army at Prestonpans near Edinburgh, and then marched south into England, swiftly reaching Derby, the rising threatened to destabilise the British state, dethrone King George and the Hanoverian dynasty, while disrupting Britain's military capability in Europe and colonial activities in America and beyond., Less than four decades after the controversial Act of Union between Scotland and England, arrogance and incompetence on the part of government ministers had allowed the small danger Charles and his Jacobite army had initially posed to escalate into a full-scale civil war: part of the on-going dynastic, political and ideological struggle for the heart and soul of this new nation. Yet the reality of the '45 continues to be obscured by fiction and myth, as personified by the heroic, gallant but doomed `Bonnie Prince Charlie' versus the heartless victor, `Butcher' Cumberland. In the years 1745-6 nothing was certain., While utilising past and recent scholarship, this magnificent account draws extensively on a wealth of contemporary sources, revealing the thoughts and feelings of the key players and local eyewitnesses as these extraordinary events played out. What emerges is a story more complex, paradoxical and even tragic than the myth suggests. From the exiled Stuart court in Rome to the palaces of Versailles and Holyroodhouse, from the battlefields of Flanders to Falkirk and Culloden, Jacobites brilliantly sets the '45 in its full and proper context on the stage of European history., And in our own time of seismic shift for the Union, the British politic

About this title

Review:

"Substantial, deeply researched and fast-moving, [it] mingles the thrill of revolt with a careful analysis of international contexts and motives." "Literary Review""

"Substantial, deeply researched and fast-moving, [it] mingles the thrill of revolt with a careful analysis of international contexts and motives." "Literary Review"

"[Riding] maintains objectivity . . . making this work unusual among the many passionate and patriotism-tinged treatments of the oft-romanticized prince . . . Throughout, Riding seamlessly incorporates journal entries, letters, and other primary sources [and] effectively shows why Bonnie Prince Charlie s once-great hopes . . . continue to inspire the romanticization of his legend centuries later." "Publishers Weekly"

"Given the popular sentimentality of her subject Jacqueline Riding achieves a remarkable feat in producing a history which is both compulsively readable and factually packed. Having brilliantly toured the political situation of mid eighteenth-century Western Europe, she takes us along on the political (and then military) campaign trail with the Young Pretender. But the triumph of Riding s new account of the 1745 rebellion is that, as we move from Rome, through Paris, to Scotland and England, we are taken grippingly from romance to comedy, and even high farce, before the eventual tragedy." Catholic Herald

"[Riding] unflinchingly describes the consequences for those who supported the rebellion. The use of contemporary accounts, especially from women, offers a different and compelling perspective to events, resulting in a persuasive work geared toward 21st-century readers. Even-handed, refreshingly free of jargon, and organized into short, succinct chapters focused on geographic location that make the book read like a thoroughly researched adventure story, this work will appeal to the lay reader while also being an ideal resource for a Scottish history course." "Library Journal""

"[Riding] unflinchingly describes the consequences for those who supported the rebellion. The use of contemporary accounts, especially from women, offers a different and compelling perspective to events, resulting in a persuasive work geared toward 21st-century readers. Even-handed, refreshingly free of jargon, and organized into short, succinct chapters focused on geographic location that make the book read like a thoroughly researched adventure story, this work will appeal to the lay reader while also being an ideal resource for a Scottish history course." - starred review, Library Journal

"A comprehensive history . . . Riding provides an exciting account of a doomed rebellion and ably explores the psyche of the fierce, devoted Highlanders." - Kirkus

"Substantial, deeply researched and fast-moving, [it] mingles the thrill of revolt with a careful analysis of international contexts and motives." - Literary Review

"[Riding] maintains objectivity . . . making this work unusual among the many passionate and patriotism-tinged treatments of the oft-romanticized prince . . . Throughout, Riding seamlessly incorporates journal entries, letters, and other primary sources [and] effectively shows why Bonnie Prince Charlie s once-great hopes . . . continue to inspire the romanticization of his legend centuries later." - Publishers Weekly

"Given the popular sentimentality of her subject Jacqueline Riding achieves a remarkable feat in producing a history which is both compulsively readable and factually packed. Having brilliantly toured the political situation of mid eighteenth-century Western Europe, she takes us along on the political (and then military) campaign trail with the Young Pretender. But the triumph of Riding s new account of the 1745 rebellion is that, as we move from Rome, through Paris, to Scotland and England, we are taken grippingly from romance to comedy, and even high farce, before the eventual tragedy." - Catholic Herald

"[Jacobites] has an unusually acute sense of person and place . . . It is both scholarly and readable, with 60 bite-sized chapters each presenting a detailed, vivid part of a complex rebellion." - BBC History Magazine

"A fresh and historically convincing perspective An enthralling narrative [and] and a work of penetrating insight and dispassionate balance, which is captivating from start to finish." - Guardian

"Jacqueline Riding s Jacobites brilliantly captures the extraordinary daring of Bonnie Prince Charlie s 45, and takes us step-by-step to the final disaster at Culloden. This is the definitive modern account of the Jacobite Rising." - George Goodwin, author of BENJAMIN FRANKLIN IN LONDON

"

"[Riding] unflinchingly describes the consequences for those who supported the rebellion. The use of contemporary accounts, especially from women, offers a different and compelling perspective to events, resulting in a persuasive work geared toward 21st-century readers. Even-handed, refreshingly free of jargon, and organized into short, succinct chapters focused on geographic location that make the book read like a thoroughly researched adventure story, this work will appeal to the lay reader while also being an ideal resource for a Scottish history course." - starred review, Library Journal

"A comprehensive history . . . Riding provides an exciting account of a doomed rebellion and ably explores the psyche of the fierce, devoted Highlanders." - Kirkus

"Substantial, deeply researched and fast-moving, [it] mingles the thrill of revolt with a careful analysis of international contexts and motives." - Literary Review

"[Riding] maintains objectivity . . . making this work unusual among the many passionate and patriotism-tinged treatments of the oft-romanticized prince . . . Throughout, Riding seamlessly incorporates journal entries, letters, and other primary sources [and] effectively shows why Bonnie Prince Charlie's once-great hopes . . . continue to inspire the romanticization of his legend centuries later." - Publishers Weekly

"Given the popular sentimentality of her subject Jacqueline Riding achieves a remarkable feat in producing a history which is both compulsively readable and factually packed. Having brilliantly toured the political situation of mid eighteenth-century Western Europe, she takes us along on the political (and then military) campaign trail with the Young Pretender. But the triumph of Riding's new account of the 1745 rebellion is that, as we move from Rome, through Paris, to Scotland and England, we are taken grippingly from romance to comedy, and even high farce, before the eventual tragedy." - Catholic Herald

"[Jacobites] has an unusually acute sense of person and place . . . It is both scholarly and readable, with 60 bite-sized chapters each presenting a detailed, vivid part of a complex rebellion." - BBC History Magazine

"A fresh and historically convincing perspective . . . An enthralling narrative [and] and a work of penetrating insight and dispassionate balance, which is captivating from start to finish." - Guardian

"Jacqueline Riding's Jacobites brilliantly captures the extraordinary daring of Bonnie Prince Charlie's '45, and takes us step-by-step to the final disaster at Culloden. This is the definitive modern account of the Jacobite Rising." - George Goodwin, author of BENJAMIN FRANKLIN IN LONDON

"[A]n engrossing account . . . Riding allows those involved to tell the story; the narrative consists in large part of excerpts from the writings of participants and witnesses, including the Duke of Cumberland, which lends a sense of immediacy." - Choice

Book Description:

The extraordinary and dramatic history of Prince Charles Edward Stuart's 1745 campaign to seize the throne of Great Britain

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1408867648
• ISBN 13: 9781408867648
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 608