A Nation of Ians

Meet Ian:



Mrs. Werbenmanjensen and I have noted that every third man we meet in Scotland is named Ian. It shouldn't be surprising, given that Ian is Gaelic for "John." This particular Ian was a guide at the Culloden national battlefield.



I wasn't too keen on spending much time in Inverness--too much Loch Ness Monster nonsense for my tastes--until I learned that the battlefield was close by. Then, I insisted that we make a stop there.

I won't bore you with too many of the details of the battle, since you can read better descriptions elsewhere, but some things are worth noting:

1. Any present-day regiment that fought at Culloden is not allowed to list the battle in its combat honors, since the treatment of the wounded and prisoners post-battle was not considered honorable, in hindsight.

2. Ian described the battle not as one between Scots and English--after all, Scots fought on both sides--but as a battle between the House of Hanover, which was on the throne of England, and the House of Stuart, ousted two generations earlier for their efforts to bring the English church back into communion with Rome.

3. The Hanoverian English forces fought with the Brown Bess, a musket that would be used on both sides in the American Revolution three decades later. I guess it was the Springfield rifle of its era.



Above, Ian demonstrates how the sword-carrying pro-Stuart forces (called "Jacobites" for their loyalty to King James II of England and VI of Scotland, the grandfather of their leader at Culloden, Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Silvester Maria "Bonnie Prince Charlie" Stuart) could catch the sword of an opponent in the baskets of their own sword and break the blade or otherwise disarm their opponents.

Note the spike on his shield. That was used in battle, as was a second dagger held in the shield hand, protruding from the bottom of the shield. Highlanders charging into battle would thrust the spike of the shield into their opponents, then slash with the dagger, and finally hack with the broadsword.

There are many reasons why this technique failed at Culloden. Among them:

1. Many of the Jacobites had neither sword nor shield, but instead marched into battle with weapons they could take with them from the farm, such as axes.

2. The Hanoverian forces were all well-equipped with cannons, muskets, and bayonets, proving the axiom "never bring a knife to a gunfight."



Indeed, the locals recruited to bury the dead at Culloden first sorted the Jacobites by clan before burying them in mass graves marked by the clan name, as here:



The Hanoverians, however, get no special treatment. I believe their mass grave is simply called "The Field of the English."

The punishment meted out to the Highland clans effectively ended their way of life, accelerating the Highland clearances. Whether or not this constituted "ethnic cleansing" is a matter of some debate (I will take no sides), but it is worth noting that the clan system was in nature a feudal one, which much of Europe had already abandoned centuries earlier. Post-Culloden, Scotland became a nation of engineers, industrialists, and scholars, the nation that invented the modern world.