Scottish History Books
The Battle of
Prestonpans 1745
By Martin Margulies
This is the first history of the Jacobite battle fought on 21st
September 1745 between the forces of the Hanoverian regime and Prince Charles Edward Stuart,
better known as 'Bonnie Prince Charles'. Lieutenant-General Sir John Cope, the leader of the
English army, has been ridiculed, in song and in history books, for losing the Battle of Prestonpans
- the first major battle of the 1745 Jacobite Rising. His defeat led to the invasion of England,
in which the Jacobites almost drove King George II from the throne. But was Cope really to blame?
The Jacobite Risings occurred after Parliament ousted King James Stuart in 1688 and installed
a new dynasty. Stuart loyalists, many of them based in Scotland, took up arms repeatedly in futile
attempts to restore James' descendants. The 1745 Rising, led by Bonnie Prince Charlie, was the
last. Martin Margulies traces Scottish history up to 'the '45', describes the sharply contrasting
weapons and tactics of the opposing armies, and follows the Prestonpans campaign from the time
Charlie landed, almost alone, on the remote Isle of Eriskay through the moment his tiny force
destroyed Cope's regulars in an early morning highland charge.
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