John Erskine Mar, 6thSeptember 1715
Attempts a failed siege of Edinburgh Castle
Scotland · Warfare / Jacobite Rebellion. Chronological records rendered directly from the World History Database.
Attempts a failed siege of Edinburgh Castle
The city, under the control of the Lord Provost Archibald Stewart, quickly surrendered
The Jacobite cause was still supported by many Highland clans, both Catholic and Protestant. Charles hoped for a warm welcome from these clans to start an insurgency by Jacobites throughout Britain. He raised his father's standard at Glenfinnan and gathered a force large enough to enable him to march on Edinburgh
The Jacobite forces reach Edinburgh
After negotiations had failed, the gates of the city are left open and the Jacobites enter, Charles is met by a cheering crowd of 20,000, however, Edinburgh Castle holds out against his forces
Against long odds, and aided by the early support of Donald Cameron of Lochiel, XIX chief of Clan Cameron, his party of ten raised an army which eventually numbered over 2,000 Scots as they marched to Glenfinnan and then to Edinburgh
He mounted a campaign to take Scotland and England with an eye towards reclaiming what he considered to be his father's two kingdoms (Great Britain, formally united in 1707, and Ireland).
With only 6,000 British troops left in England, and with the majority of those on the continent having been recently defeated, Charles Edward Stuart saw an opportunity to re-open the Jacobite Rising.
This factsheet is generated from stored World History Database records matching the country, broad category, detailed category and exact Event value shown above. Duplicate display records are collapsed; database wording is otherwise preserved. Source provenance varies by record, so formal academic citation should be checked against the relevant primary source, archive or specialist historical reference.