Four years later, another attempt was made at the instigation of Spain. Spain was anxious to recover some of the Italian territories that it had lost during the War of Spanish Succession (Sicily, Sardinia and Southern Italy). Austria was the primary impediment to Spanish territorial aspirations in the Mediterranean and it was correctly assumed that the British Navy would assist the Austrians in that part of the world. On the other hand, a diversion, such as an invasion of England, might keep the Royal Navy in the English Channel. A force of 29 ships and 5,000 Spanish troops sailed from Cadiz on March 7, 1719 under the command of the Jacobite Duke of Ormonde. Their destination was the south of England and a march on London in the name of King James III. However, the fleet was scattered by a violent storm off of Cape Finesterre and the survivors limped back to their home port badly damaged.

An earlier diversionary force, including 307 Spanish regulars, had already sailed and reached Stornoway (in the western isles of Scotland) undetected. George Kieth, the hereditary Earl Marischal of Scotland, commanded this small force and his job was to divert government troops from England and away from Ormonde's landing area. They set up headquarters and a powder magazine at Eilean Donon Castle in Loch Alsh and then marched in the direction of Inverness. News of Ormonde's disaster discouraged most of the Highland clans from rising, nevertheless, some 1500 Highlanders joined the Earl Marischal's force. The Jacobites were met by General Wightman and 1100 men from the Inverness garrison in the pass of Glenshiel. The government troops outflanked the Jacobites and drove them into the hills and the Spanish troops had the good sense to surrender. It would be another 25 years before the next and last attempt to put the Stuarts on the throne.

The interim period between the Little Rising of '19 and the "FortyFive" was a bleak one for the Jacobite Cause. Numerous plots were proposed, but the British government had so thoroughly infiltrated the Jacobite hierarchy with spies that all such schemes were snuffed out before they could hatch. The one glimmer of hope was the marriage of James to Princess Maria Clementina Sobieska of Poland and the subsequent births of Prince Charles Edward (the Young Pretender) in 1720 and Prince Henry in 1725. By the mid 1730's, the Hanoverians were firmly in place and nobody gave much thought or credibility to the Jacobite Cause. Even James had given up any thought of returning to Britain.

More Origins of the Jacobite Rebellion 1745

Introduction
Dundee's Rising In 1689
The Old Pretender
The Great Rising of 1715
The Little Rising of 1719
The "Forty Five" (1745)