Prince Charles Edward Stuart arrived on Northwest coast of Scotland in July 1745. When he arrived on Eriskay it was the first time Charles had ever been in Scotland and yet he announced his arrival with the words “I am come home.” There has been so much written about the 1745 Jacobite rebellion in romantic terms. Indeed Charles Edward is probably better known as ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie.’ However there was nothing romantic about this campaign. I have to acknowledge that Robert Burns played a huge part in helping to romanticize the Jacobites. However I will seek to argue that Burns’ support for the Jacobites and his desire to promote their cause, even as the last light of the Jacobite cause flickered out, was partly due to his family’s connections to the cause and also his own political understandings and beliefs. We will seek to enter into a deeper discussion around this we when we look at our third & final Robert Burns song later on in the week.

Today we turn our eyes to the beginning of the 1745 campaign. Our first song that we will look at today is Johnie Cope. Almost immediately we hit the question of authorship of the song and not for the first time with Burns, it is clear that he did not write the original version of this song. The authorship of the first version of Johnie Cope was a contemporary of the campaign. He was called Adam Skirving and it is believed he was born in Haddington on the south east coast of Scotland in 1708. Haddington is very close to where the Battle of Prestonpans took place. Skirving’s farm was not far away from where the battle took place and it is entirely possible that he watched the battle himself. (Skirving’s lyrics can be found here. Burns’ version can be found here.) As happened quite a few times with Burns as he travelled round Scotland he picked up old songs and lyrics. This is clearly what happened with Johnie Cope. Both songs use the same tune.

Clearly Johnie Cope is not a murder ballad. It tells the story of a battle. However there is much within the story of the 1745 Jacobite rebellion that will be of interest to murder ballad fans. So I hope you will indulge me in my journey through the Jacobite rebellion as seen by Robert Burns.

The Glenfinnan monument.

Almost immediately as the highland chiefs gather to meet Charles Edward at Glenfinian there is a sense of pointlessness. Many instantly get on the wrong side of the Prince by telling him that the cause is lost before they even begin. Lord George Murray, his best military commander, believed the Prince’s planned invasion of England was a mistake waiting to happen.

However such was the respect for Charles Edward’s father and grandfather that the clans continued to gather. By August Charles Edward was supported by members of the MacDonalds, McPhees, Camerons and the MacDonnells clans. On the 19th August Charles Edward raised his banner in Glenfinnan and proclaimed his father to be the king of Scotland and England.

It has been often thought that the 1745 Jacobite rebellion was a Scotland v’s England affair. Where there was certainly aspects of truth in these claims, it is simply far too simplistic to state this. Indeed in many ways the 1745 Jacobite rebellion could be more accurately named as civil war both within Scotland and within Great Britain as a whole. Clearly many of the Jacobite supporters wanted to end the 1707 Act of Union which had seen both parliaments of Scotland and England forming the parliament of Great Britain. Part of Charles Edward’s declaration included an end to Union. Most of Charles Edward’s followers came from the Highlands of Scotland. A great deal of lowland Scotland wanted nothing to do with Charles Edward, the highlanders or the Jacobites. Many lowland Scots wanted to see Charles Edward, whom they rather unfairly labelled, ” a small Italian dwarf” sent back to Rome as fast as possible.

There was also, as has been hinted at, a very deep fear resting within the heads and hearts of the clan chiefs at the outbreak of another Jacobite rising. There was serious concern over what would happen to those who openly supported the cause of King James. Indeed many highland chiefs deliberately hedged their bets and send sons to fight on both sides in the hope that regardless of the outcome the chiefs could claim to be on the winning side of someone.

In London there was claim and counter claim about the arrival of Charles Edward. Many within the British government simply refused to believe that Charles Edward would even try an invasion. Others, such as Prince William Augustus, the Duke of Cumberland, were very keen to get organised and to get stuck in. The Duke will reappear in this story later on for all the wrong reasons. Slowly word started reaching London that Charles Edward had, indeed arrived. Extra troops were sent to Fort William, the closest British Army base to Glenfinnan. Additional troops were also dispatched to Fort Augustus, further north near Inverness.

Charles Edward and his army now numbered around 3000 troops. More and more clans flocked over the hills to the Prince and his cause. Intelligence about British Army troop movements started to arrive and there were demands for action. However what Charles Edward and his highland army did not count on was the British government disappearing up their own posterior. In the summer of 1745 the British Army had most of their troops overseas. The entire defence of Great Britain rested on an assortment of Dutch troops and hundreds of British Army ‘redcoats’ running wildly across the Highlands of Scotland looking for Jacobites. Suddenly by the end of August, Charles Edward and his military commanders realised that there was nothing between them and the capture of Edinburgh.

By mid September the Highlanders arrived at the gates of Edinburgh. They had marched across a huge part of Scotland utterly unopposed. According to various accounts 20,000 cheering crowds greeted Charles Edward who took up residence at the Palace of Holyroodhouse. He declared his father King and renounced an end to the Act of Union of 1707. Not for the first time in its long history Edinburgh Castle stood remote, far from the reach of Charles Edward’s troops, safely held by British troops. Despite the welcome that Charles Edward received from the Edinburgh folk both the Bank of Scotland and the Royal Bank of Scotland moved all their monies into the castle prior to the Prince’s arrival.

Meanwhile somewhere in the Highlands, General Sir John Cope, Commander of the British Army in Scotland decided that rather heading back south to protect Edinburgh, it was better to continue north towards Inverness in the hope of meeting the Highland Army there. On reaching Inverness with the news that the Prince and his army were to the south of him, Cope decided to march his rather inexperienced troops to Aberdeen and then get on the ships of the Royal Navy and sail round the coast back to Edinburgh. Despite the fact that Laurel and Hardy did not yet exist, I can’t help think that someone somewhere whistled their famous theme song as Sir John Cope announced his plans.

Unsurprisingly by the time the Royal Navy got Sir John Cope and his troops down the coast towards Edinburgh, Charles Edward was enjoying charming the ladies of the city. Cope decided to land further down the coast at Dunbar. Charles Edward and his troops saw a chance and marched towards him.

Memorial cairn for the Battle of Prestonpans 1745.

As the two armies faced up to each other, the Jacobites had a clear advantage in that one of Charles Edward’s Lieutenant’s was the son of a local farmer who knew the area very well. Lord George Murray, the best Jacobite military commander, listened to Lieutenant Anderson and drew up plans to move his troops through the marshes to flank the British on their east side.

Map of the British and Jacobite Armies at Prestonpans.

The actual battle was over quite quickly. As dawn broke on the morning of September 21st the inexperienced British Army quickly buckled at the sight and sound of a highland charge. Within ten minutes over 700 British troops were dead and around 1500 had been captured. Sir John Cope tried to muster his remaining men but quickly realised that as he had so few men left there was little point. He suffered the ignominy of being able to report in person to his superior officer based at Berwick about his own defeat.

Burns uses the exploits of Sir John Cope to celebrate the first major success of the rising. He opens with Cope coming down south and looking to catch the Prince:

Sir John Cope trode the north right far,

Yet ne’er a rebel he cam naur,

Until he landed at Dunbar

Right early in a morning.

He wrote a challenge from Dunbar,

Come fight me Charlie an ye daur;

If it be not by the chance of war 

I’ll give you a merry morning.

When Charlie look’d the letter upon

He drew his sword the scabbard from

So Heaven restore to me my own,

‘I’ll meet you, Cope, in the morning.’

Burns has a similar chorus to Skirving but Burns does not use it as a constant refrain. His language though is wonderful as we see in the last verse in the next quote where Burns has  Sir John Cope rather disturbed by the sight of the Highland army’s naked thighs!

          

It was upon an afternoon,

Sir Johnie march’d to Preston town;

He says, my lads come lean you down,

And we’ll fight the boys in the morning.

But when he saw the Highland lads

Wi’ tartan trews and white cockauds,

Wi’ swords and guns and rungs and gauds,

O Johnie he took wing in the morning.

On the morrow when he did rise,

He look’d between him and the skies;

He saw them wi’ their naked thighs,

Which fear’d him in the morning.

Burns finishes his song with Cope being mocked by the towns folk of Berwick and the legend is cemented:

          

Sir Johnie into Berwick rade,

Just as the devil had been his guide;

Gien him the warld he would na stay’d 

To foughten the boys in the morning.

Says the Berwickers unto Sir John,

O what’s become of all your men,

In faith, says he, I dinna ken,

I left them a’ this morning.

Says Lord Mark Car, ye are na blate,

To bring us the news o’ your ain defeat;

I think you deserve the back o’ the gate,

Get out o’ my sight this morning.

Hey Johnie Cope are ye wauking yet,

Or are ye sleeping I would wit;

O haste ye get up for the drums do beat,

O fye Cope rise in the morning.

We end this part of our Burns’ inspired Jacobite story with Prince Charles Edward Stuart and his Highland Army in complete control of Scotland. In London the news of the Prince’s victory at Prestonpans has sparked panic. Rumours flood all over London that the Hanoverian King George II is about to flee. Huge queues are seen outside banks as the people of London dread the coming Highlanders. Banks are reportedly heating up coins so that customers can’t carry a large amount.

For Robert Burns his delight in the story of Charles Edward reaches its high water mark. Interestingly though this is one of the few times that a Robert Burns version of a song is not the most popular one. I have been unable to find a version of someone singing Burns’ Johnie Cope.

Still to come in our story of rebellion: In our next entry we travel into the deep dark heart of British history and look at how the Jacobites move from stunning success to complete and utter disaster. We hear the story of the British government’s revenge against the Highlanders who fought in the Prince’s cause and how many of them faced death or exile.

We end this part with The Corries singing their version of Adam Skirving’s Johnnie Cope. Interestingly if you listen to Ronnie Brown’s spoken introduction you will get a sense of how the British government fought back against the Highlanders.