Jacobite Prisoners of the 1715 Rebellion

by Margaret Sankey

The Jacobite rebellion of 1715 was a dramatic but ultimately unsuccessful challenge to the new Hanoverian regime in Great Britain. It did, however, reveal serious fault lines in the political foundations of the new regime which enormously restricted the government's freedom of action in the suppression of the rebellion, and effectively made the treatment of the rebels in its aftermath the true test of the new dynasty's legitimacy and stability.

Whilst the rulers of England had traditionally dealt harshly with internal rebellion, monarchs and their ministers had to find a delicate balance between showing the power of the regime through the candid exercise of force while maintaining their own reputation for justice and clemency. As such George I and his government had to tailor their reaction to the 1715 rebellion in such a way that it effectively discouraged further participation in Jacobite insurgency, undercut the rebels' ability to challenge the state, and made clear the regime's intention to use a firm hand in preventing rebellion. At the same time it could not cross the line into tyranny with excessive or sadistic executions and had to avoid giving offence to powerful magnates and foreign powers likely to petition for the lives of the captured rebels.

To accomplish this feat, the Hanoverian Whig regime used a programme far more subtle and calculated than has generally been appreciated. The scheme it put into effect had three components, to put fear into the rank-and-file of the rebels through a limited programme of execution and transportation, to cripple the Catholic community through imprisonment and property confiscation, and, most crucially, to entertain petitions from members of the elite on behalf of imprisoned rebels. By following such a strategy of retribution tempered with clemency, this book argues that the Hanoverian regime was able to quell the immediate dangers posed by the rebellion, and bring its leaders back into the orbit of the government, beginning the process of reintegrating them back into political mainstream.

196 pages, Hardcover

First published September 30, 2005

Reviews

[Nicholas Aune · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book that examines what happened towards the end and following the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion. Sankey examines in depth the various crises that the new Hanoverian regime faced due to the 1715 rebellion, such as how to put down an insurrection made up of high ranking officials and important nobility without being to harsh or too lenient, and what can be done with prisoners when there simply isn't enough room in jails. Sankey spices up the narrative with anecdotes of the various follies and foibles from the Jacobite tragicomedy like being drug around the floor by the king's robes, an episode titled " How being an indentured servant made realize I could be a Loyalist slaveholder" and plenty of crossdressing.

This isn't an introductory work on Jacobitism to be sure, but it does give perspective on the full and lasting effects of their rebellions, and potentially the effects of other modern insurrections

[Victoria Vane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strictly research material not pleasure reading but very informative.

[Emery Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strictly research material not pleasure reading but very informative.