The Jacobite Rising of 1715 — The Fifteen
The rising of 1715 — known as 'The Fifteen' — was the most serious military challenge to the Hanoverian succession in the first decade after the Act of Union, and it drew its energy from a convergence of Scottish grievances against union, Episcopal and Catholic religious resentments, and the opportunism of Jacobite nobles who had long awaited a moment to strike. The death of Louis XIV of France in September 1715 was a complicating factor: it removed the most powerful European patron of the Stuart cause at the very moment the rising began, depriving the Jacobites of the French military support that might have tipped the balance. The Earl of Mar — John Erskine — raised the Jacobite standard at Braemar in September 1715 with an initial force that grew rapidly to around twelve thousand men drawn from Highland clans and Lowland Episcopalians. Mar was an inept commander whose nickname 'Bobbing John' reflected his habit of switching political sides, and his hesitancy proved fatal to Jacobite momentum. He failed to march south while the government forces were still assembling and spent critical weeks allowing the Duke of Argyll to consolidate a government army at Stirling. The Battle of Sheriffmuir on November 13, 1715 was the decisive — or rather, the decisively indecisive — engagement of the rising. Both armies attacked on their right wing and routed the opposing left simultaneously, leaving the battlefield in a kind of mutual confusion. Argyll's government force of around three thousand five hundred men held the field at the end of the day, but was too weakened to pursue. Mar retained most of his army but had lost any realistic offensive capacity. The contemporary ballad captured the absurdity: 'Some say that we wan, some say that they wan, and some say that nane wan at a', man.' James Francis Edward Stuart — the 'Old Pretender,' son of the deposed James II — landed in Scotland in December 1715, weeks after Sheriffmuir. His cold, melancholic demeanour disappointed those who had hoped for a charismatic war leader. When it became clear that no French reinforcements would arrive and that government forces under the Duke of Argyll were advancing, James and Mar embarked for France in February 1716, abandoning their supporters. The rising collapsed without a final battle, and government reprisals, though not as savage as those that would follow 1745, ended the careers and estates of many Jacobite nobles.
- Year: 1715 CE
- Category: Military
