Jacobitism

Jacobitism
Scottish Gaelic: Na Seumasaich Irish: Seacaibíteachas, Na Séamusaigh
James Francis Edward Stuart, Jacobite claimant between 1701 and 1766
Leaders	James II (1688–1701) James Francis Edward Stuart[a] (1701–1766) Charles Edward Stuart [b] (1720–1788) Henry Benedict Stuart (1725–1807)
Military leaders	Tyrconnell Dundee Saint-Ruhe Patrick Sarsfield Earl of Mar Thomas Forster Tullibardine Lord George Murray
Dates of operation	1688–1780s
Active regions	British Isles
Ideology	Regime change and restoration of the House of Stuart Indefeasible dynastic law-based royal succession and legitimism divine right of kings freedom of religion freedom of the press devolution in the United Kingdom linguistic rights for minority languages Irish nationalism Scottish nationalism traditionalist conservatism
Battles and wars	Jacobite rising of 1689 Williamite War (1689–91) Jacobite rising of 1715–16 Jacobite rising of 1719 Jacobite rising of 1745–46

Jacobitism^[c] was a legitimist political ideology advocating the restoration of the House of Stuart to the British throne. When James II of England's efforts to grant Catholic Emancipation through the Royal prerogative resulted in the trial of the Seven Bishops and the November 1688 Glorious Revolution, the Parliament of England ruled he had "abandoned" the English throne, which was given to his Protestant daughter and former heir presumptive Mary II of England, and her husband William of Orange.^[1] On the same basis, in April the Scottish Convention awarded Mary and William the throne of Scotland.^[2]

Whig political ideology and Whig history both alleged that the 1688 Revolution created the principle of a social contract between the monarch and the people, which meant the monarch could have their power limited or even be removed if the contract were violated. In actual fact, the same principle has very deep roots in Roman Catholic theology, such as Thomas Aquinas "On Kingship", and was seen in practice during the Pre-Reformation regime change wars that removed King Edward II, King Richard II, and during the Wars of the Roses.

During what some modern historians now call the 1714 to 1783, "age of the Whig oligarchy",^[3] the key tenets of Protestant Jacobitism were legitimism and the divine right of kings and this meant by implication considering the post-1688 regime illegal, but also what are now termed traditionalist conservatism and Anglo-Catholicism. Jacobitism also promised freedom of religion and civil rights to all outside the established churches of the realm, devolution in the United Kingdom, minority language rights, freedom of the press, and accordingly functioned as both an outlet for anti-Whig dissident intellectuals and as a coalition of the disaffected. Thus, while rooted in the Counter-Enlightenment, Jacobitism was eventually composed of a complex mix of ideas, many opposed by the House of Stuart government in exile. For example, John Matthews, a Jacobite printer who was executed in 1719, had called in his pamphlet (Latin: Vox Populi vox Dei, lit. "The Voice of the People is the Voice of God"), for the overthrow of Hanoverian monarchy and the Whig political party based upon the Whiggist and Lockean ideological concept of the social contract, which very few other Jacobites or Tories of the era would have dared to do.^[4]

Due to the government's ongoing religious persecution and disenfranchisement of religious minorities, Jacobitism was strongest in Ireland, the Western Scottish Highlands, Perthshire, and Aberdeenshire.^[5] Pockets of support were also present in Wales, Northern England, the West Midlands and South West England, all areas strongly Royalist during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Due its very strong presence among speakers of Celtic languages facing linguistic imperialism, Jacobitism helped sow the seeds of the subsequent Celtic revival.

In addition, the Stuarts received intermittent backing from countries like France, usually dependent on their own strategic objectives. In addition to the 1689–1691 Williamite War in Ireland and Jacobite rising of 1689 in Scotland, there were serious revolts in 1715, 1719 and 1745, French invasion attempts in 1708 and 1744, and numerous unsuccessful plots.

While the 1745 Rising briefly came within an ace of toppling the House of Hanover and the Whig political party, arguments between Prince Charles and the leaders of the Jacobite Army over the reversal of the Acts of Union 1707 and which other conditions they could set in return for their military service proved fatal to the 1745 rising. The Jacobite Army's defeat at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, newly crowned King George III's decision to allow Tories back into government in 1760, and the formal recognition of the Hanoverian monarchs by the Vatican in 1766, ended Jacobitism as a serious political movement. It's ideological and literary legacy, however, continues to shape the modern world and modern thought.

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