The Jacobite rebellion of 1719 was an abject failure, as all the history books will tell you. It ended in defeat at a scrappy skirmish dignified as the Battle of Glenshiel. However, it need not have turned out like this at all - if everything had gone according to plan, the 1719 would have had a higher level of foreign support than any of the other attempts to return the exiled Stuarts to the throne of Great Britain. It was Cardinal Alberoni, first minister of Spain, who set the ball rolling. He was furious when the Spanish fleet was defeated by the Royal Navy at Cape Passaro and looked around for some way of getting back at the British. He lighted on the Jacobites. Alberoni therefore sent for the Duke of Ormonde, one of the leading supporters of King James Stuart, and proposed another uprising. Ormonde wasn't all that keen on another rising so soon after the defeat of the 1715, but Alberoni offered him 5,000 Spanish troops and several thousand muskets. Not only that, but he had secured a pledge from Charles XII, King of Sweden, to aid the Jacobites with no less than 10,000 men. Ormonde was won over, and planning began in earnest. Soon the plans were laid: Ormonde would land in the south west of England with the Spanish troops and King James himself; Charles XII would land on the east coast with his 10,000; and a small force under the Earl Marischal of Scotland would land in the highlands of Scotland and raise the clans. That was when it all started to go wrong. First, Charles stopped a bullet at the siege of Frederickshall at the end of 1718 and the Swedish part of the plan died with him. Things were too far advanced to stop now, so everything else went ahead. The Spanish armada sailed from Cadiz, intending to pick up King James at Vigo. The fleet ran straight into the worst storm in living memory; many ships were damaged and the rest returned to port. Only the Earl Marischal's part of the invasion force got through to Britain: three ships, a couple of thousand muskets and 307 Spanish infantry. Having arrived in Britain, the leadership of the expedition proceeded to quarrel with each other over what to do next. The Marquis of Tullibardine, who was on very bad terms with the Marischal, took over command of the land forces. Few highlanders came to join the rising, despite the increasingly desperate messages sent out by the Marquis. Then the Royal Navy sailed into Loch Duich and destroyed the Jacobite supply base in Eilean Donan Castle. The Jacobite army, less than two thousand strong, shambled inland to Glen Shiel, where it was attacked by a government army on 10th June. Most of the highlanders only hung about long enough to discharge their shiny new Spanish musket at the redcoats before taking to their heels and going home. The Spanish, with nowhere to run to, surrendered next day and the whole sorry episode of the 1719 was over. I have long thought this was a fascinating historical "what if"; suppose Charles XII had been able to carry out his, admittedly optimistic, part of the plan? And what if Ormonde's armada hadn't run into that storm? The British army in 1719 was only 12,000 strong, outnumbered by the prospective invaders. It would be an interesting wargames project, I thought, to run the 1719 through to its alternative conclusion. I was a little unsure how to go about a fair re-creation of an alternative 1719; I felt I would probably skew my decisions, made on behalf of Alberoni, Ormonde et al, on the basis of what actually happened in 1719, which I didn't want. Steve Turner's advertisement for the ADC service in LW124 offered a solution, so I banged a letter off straight away, to offer my services and to ask for some help in return. Within a few days I had enlisted Steve himself as Cardinal Alberoni and Alex Garden as King Charles of Sweden. The first task I set them was to load up their invasion forces. Both were given a list of ships available and a table of how much could be accommodated in each ship. The actual composition of the invasion forces was left up to the ADCs, so long as they fitted into the ships they had. The second task was to issue orders to the invasion forces, i.e. where they were to land, initial objectives, etc. I also asked Steve to give orders to the Marischal for his small force and to decide whether James Stuart was to go with the expedition. Meanwhile, I placed the British troops and naval squadrons on the map and waited. Within a few days, the invasion plans were received back in the post and I was ready for. THE 1719 JACOBITE REBELLION (Take 2) With the prevailing wind in their favour, the Spanish fleet arrived first, at the beginning of April 1719. They had orders from Cardinal Alberoni to land on the west coast of Scotland, at Oban. Near Colonsay, the armada encountered a Royal Navy squadron of five ships of the line, plus some smaller vessels. Although outnumbered, the British sailed into the attack. (Using the scenario editor in Age of Sail on the computer, and setting both sides to 'auto'.) After heavy fighting, two of the Spanish vessels, laden with troops, were taken, but the British ships were too badly damaged to pursue further and the remaining Spanish were able to continue their passage. While the bulk of the troops disembarked at Oban, the Earl Marischal continued northward to rendezvous with known Jacobite chiefs. Once ashore, the Duke of Ormonde was now in command. (Alberoni had decided NOT to transport King James to Scotland.) Given the effect that the character of the principals involved had on the 'real' 1719, I wanted to include similar characterization in my alternative version. Fortunately, the temperament of most of the principal Jacobites is well documented (and an uninspiring bunch they were too) and I supplied characters for the fictitious Spanish generals at random. Now the Duke of Ormonde was well known for his indecision, which could have been difficult to recreate, but I solved this very easily - by co-opting one of my wargaming pals who doesn't know the period at all and only telling him what his 'advisors' would have told him. Accordingly, the Spanish force, now swollen by 500 Athollmen led by Tullibardine's brother, Lord George Murray, set off to march to Stirling, where they laid siege to the castle. In truth, the Spanish artillery was hopelessly inadequate for the task, but Ormonde, pulled both ways in council by his generals and not knowing which were right, dug in his heels and persisted. In the middle of May, nemesis arrived at Stirling in the form of a government army, reinforced by three battalions of Dutch infantry. The redcoats had been caught off balance, as the authorities, (i.e. me) had not expected the Spanish to land in Scotland at all and had taken time to sort themselves out. The battle at Stirling, almost on the battlefield of Bannockburn, was closely fought. The Spanish were superior in cavalry and artillery, but deficient in infantry. Their best general had been aboard one of the ships captured by the RN. Nevertheless, the Spanish cavalry hurled themselves onto the Hanoverian left wing with great elan. One of the front line battalions broke and fled, and the cavalry gathered itself for another charge, on the less steady Hanoverian second line. The Hanoverian c-in-c, the Duke of Argyll, rushed to the spot to encourage his wavering troops. The redcoats rallied, and met the Spanish cavalry with a withering volley which blunted their attack and killed their general, the dashing (fictitious) Duke d'Ordena. Simultaneously, the three Dutch units threw themselves at the Spanish left and, after a short exchange of fire, routed it. Murray's Athollmen were already in flight as the remaining outnumbered Spanish units crumbled under the increasing pressure from redcoats and Dutch. The Duke of Ormonde ordered sauve qui peut. A few quick dice throws saw Tullibardine and Lord George taken prisoner. Ormonde escaped. Meanwhile, the Swedes were having more luck. They were heading for Scotland too (another surprise) but were delayed by the same westerlies which hastened the Spanish and only sighted land on the last day of April. A British naval squadron intercepted the invasion fleet but, after some long range firing, refused to close and disappeared over the horizon. (I feel a court martial might be called for.) The Swedes disembarked at Nairn and marched to Inverness, where they laid siege to the government fort. The fort at Inverness was old and had been slighted by Cromwell 65 years earlier. It had recently been hastily repaired and renamed Fort George and had a strong garrison, but was not well supplied (decided by dice throw). While at Inverness, the Swedes were joined by the Earl Marischal, who had recruited some 1000 highlanders, mostly MacKenzies and Camerons. At about the time the Spanish were meeting defeat at Stirling, Fort George (not to be confused with the later Fort George at nearby Ardersier) surrendered. It was not long, however, before lost fugitives of Ormonde's army were brought in by Swedish picquets and reported the disaster to the Spanish army. What would the Swedes do now? With the senior partners in the enterprise, the Spanish, out of the picture, they might have considered cutting their losses and going home. However, with regard to what I knew of the character of Charles XII, I couldn't see him packing up and going home with his tail between his legs without a fight. Accordingly, I sent another letter to Alex, asking for further orders. After a few days, I received his instructions - a march on Aberdeen and then southward deeper into Scotland. With no need for any further Spanish orders, I wrote to ask Steve if he would like to turn his coat and write me some orders for the newly-reinforced Duke of Argyll. Steve jumped at the chance and pretty soon the redcoats and Dutch had turned their march (Yes - you've guessed it) towards Aberdeen. The two armies collided at Stonehaven. While one regiment, with the artillery, covered the road north, the bulk of the Swedish army lay in wait up a side glen, while Seaforth and the highlanders tried to draw Argyll into the trap. The vanguard of Argyll's army, however, was composed of three dragoon regiments, which refused to be drawn in and located the main Swedish force before any damage was done. Thus warned, the British forces deployed and advanced to contact. The Battle of Stonehaven was hard fought. British infantry under General Wightman carried the town at bayonet point and captured some of the Swedish artillery. On the other flank, the Swedish Liebfahne Dal regiment forced back their redcoat opponents with musket fire and seemed on the brink of rolling up the whole line. At nightfall, both sides fell back, exhausted. The battle had no clear winner, but both sides had lost heavily. So what next? The two armies had fought each other to a standstill. Would they renew the conflict on the next day? To be honest, I didn't think so. The Swedes were now cut off from reinforcement by the increasing Royal Navy presence in the North Sea, supplies were becoming increasingly difficult to get hold of, and they didn't even have James Stuart as a bargaining counter. On the other hand, Argyll's army had run out of steam too, and was equally unlikely to be reinforced in the near future. In the end, there had to be a settlement, with the Swedes suing for peace. I imagined Argyll accepting the peace plan with relief, feeling himself not strong enough to impose harsh terms. The highlanders, seeing which way the wind was blowing, scampered during the night. And so it was: the Swedish troops were allowed to go home in their own ships, the Spanish who remained at large were also repatriated, and 'German Geordie' got to keep his seat on the throne. Thus the campaign ended, after several weeks of enjoyable play, two close-fought land battles and two encounters at sea, with James Stuart still unable to regain his crown. And the 'ADC' service? Well, I can heartily recommend it. I had originally planned the campaign with the intention of making the invaders' decisions by dice throw, and I had pre-conceived ideas of how the whole thing would pan out. That it didn't go this way was entirely due to the fresh perspective given to the campaign by Steve and Alex. Not only that, but Alex was able to provide me with near-contemporary maps of the area in which the final battle took place, which happens to be close to where he lives! Thanks a lot, lads! [You do not have to become and ADC to use the service, but can do if you wish, it is not compulsory! If you are into solo campaigns then I would certainly bring in the extra dimension that this SWA service can provide. Kenn] Back to Table of Contents -- Lone Warrior #127 Back to Lone Warrior List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by Solo Wargamers Association. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com