Battle of Glenshiel

The 25-ton barque was hopelessly off course. Since its departure from the Seine River in France, its crew had set sail for the Isle of Lewis off the west coast of Scotland, via the Orkney Islands. Now, after being blown by a steady easterly wind through St. George’s Channel, the small boat was bobbing in the waters off Ireland as a darkened British man-of-war bore down on it. The occupants of the smaller vessel held their breath; the warship was carrying troops from Ireland to the British mainland in anticipation of a new Jacobite invasion, little knowing that the threat had already been snuffed out by one of the ‘Protestant storms that have meteorologically protected the British coastline throughout history.

Now the only invasion was from a small diversionary force to be led by the clan chiefs cowering aboard the small boat, including James Keith, the 22-year-old younger brother of George Keith, the 10th Earl of Marischal, Ranald MacDonald of Clanranald and John Cameron of Locheil, chief of the Camerons. Determined to restore a Stuart king to the British throne, they had expected considerable support from Spain, which was to invade England while they rebelled in Scotland. There had been two attempts before, leading to wars named after the years in which they began. Because of poor planning and bad leadership, however, this latest effort seemed doomed to fizzle out.

The impetus behind the conflict that would be known as the Little Rebellion began in 1688, when James II was deposed by Dutch-born Duke Willem of Orange — crowned King William III — in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Supporters of the exiled Stuart king, taking their name from Jacobus, the Latin form of James, believed in the principle of hereditary succession and the divine right of kings. The Stuart dynasty had become unpopular because of its poor leadership and adherence to the Catholic faith — and the Jacobite Rebellion of 1689 ended in bloody failure.

When James II died in exile in 1701, his son, James Francis Edward Stuart, was recognized as James III by the French and Spanish courts. An abortive invasion was attempted in 1708, but the first serious rebellion occurred after the death of Queen Anne in 1714 and the accession of the unpopular Hanoverian Protestant King George I. Although James, known as the Old Pretender, was brave and honorable, the rebellion of 1715 was ineffectual largely because of the incompetent leadership of John Erskine, the sixth Earl of Mar, whose bad luck earned him the nickname Old Mr. Misfortune. James returned to exile in France, but Philippe II, duc d’Orléans, acting as regent for the infant King Louis XV, wished, in part for personal reasons, to reverse previous French policy and foster ties with England. A Jacobite court on French soil hindered the development of that policy, so James was forced to move his court to the papal territory in Avignon.

While the Jacobite court functioned in obscurity and some of its strongest supporters languished in the Tower of London, the English government sent an ultimatum to Pope Clement IX, alluding to the possible bombardment of Civitaveccia if the Jacobites did not move farther away from Britain. In February 1717, James uprooted his court and journeyed over the Alps via Mont Cenis Pass and his mother’s home in Modena to Urbino. There, Pope Clement provided him with an old palace where Jacobite intrigues could continue.

Although France had been removed as a possible ally, James still had strong support from King Charles XII of Sweden. Charles was a warrior-king who would have been James’ brother-in-law had James’ sister, Princess Louise, not died suddenly. Charles had strong motives for revenge against the Hanoverian George I following a territorial dispute over the bishoprics of Bremen and Westphalia. A plot was hatched through the German-born Swedish chief minister, Georg Heinrich, Freiherr von Schiltz Gortz, to finance an invasion of Britain, with Charles leading an army of 12,000 men. Although the plot petered out in the wake of Charles’ death in 1718, it had included the promise of a subsidy from Cardinal Giulio Alberoni, the chief minister of King Philip V of Spain. Cardinal Alberoni was the most powerful man in Spain and was determined to thwart the growth of British power, especially after the capture of Palermo and Messina in Sicily by Sir George Byng, and the defeat of the Spanish fleet off Cape Passaro on August 11, 1718.

The Spanish offer came just as the Jacobites were running out of funds and ideas. On November 5, 1718, James Butler, Duke of Ormonde, the last of the Jacobite leaders in French territory, set off to cross the Pyrenees disguised as a valet. Ormonde met up with Cardinal Alberoni, who promised that Spain would provide five thousand men, of which four thousand are to be foot, a thousand troopers, of which three hundred with their horses, the rest with their arms and accoutrements, and two months pay for them, ten field pieces, and a thousand barrels of powder and fifteen thousand arms for foot, with everything necessary to convey them. The main force was to be commanded by the Earl of Marischal in an invasion of southwest England, but Ormonde insisted on the need to create a diversionary attack in Scotland. Meanwhile the Old Pretender was to travel from Italy to Spain and either join the expedition or follow it at a later date.

James departed Rome under a cloak of secrecy on February 8, 1719. A decoy was arrested in northern Italy while James slipped aboard a small Genoese vessel. He landed in Spain on March 8 and headed for Madrid, where he was afforded a royal welcome. On the same day James arrived in Spain, two frigates carrying arms and 307 Spanish soldiers left San Sebastian. Commanded by Marischal, the force was to stage the diversionary attack in Scotland requested by Ormonde. On March 9, an armada of 29 Spanish ships, 5,000 troops and 30,000 muskets left Cadiz, intending to rendezvous with Ormonde in Corunna, then invade England.

On March 29, a fierce storm scattered the main body of Ormonde’s fleet, and the invasion was officially canceled. Marischal, however, had sailed too early for that news to catch up with him as he proceeded on his mission toward Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis.

Meanwhile, Marischal’s brother, James Keith, prepared to take a small boat with Jacobite leaders from the Seine River on March 19. Blown off course and narrowly avoiding capture by the British man-of-war, Keith’s party eventually arrived on Lewis on April 4. After waiting several days until the two remaining frigates arrived in Stornoway, Keith informed his brother of the disaster that had befallen the Spanish fleet, and also of the factionalism and intrigue that had developed to deprive him of his role as commander of the Scottish invasion. The Jacobites held a council of war and discussed two possible plans of action. They could either wait in the islands for any remnants of Ormonde’s dispersed invasion fleet to arrive, or they could follow Marischal’s suggestion: Proceed to the mainland and capture Inverness, which was garrisoned by only 300 troops.

Although Marischal’s plan was agreed upon, the next day William Murray, the Earl of Tullibardine, showed his hand by announcing his commission as lieutenant general of the invasion force and suggested remaining inactive on Lewis. Upholding a promise he had made to accept the authority of anyone who held a superior commission to his own, Marischal resigned his commission over the soldiers, but retained command of the ships.

Tullibardine fell in with Marischal’s plan, and eventually the force battled through storms and crossed to the mainland at Loch Alsh on April 13. There, they were promised support from disappointingly few local clan chiefs. Most of the chiefs were prudently awaiting news of the landing of Ormonde’s main invasion force in England before they committed their men to the struggle.

The small Scottish invasion force established a base at Eilean Donan Castle, an ancient stronghold of the Mackenzies situated at the point where Loch Alsh branches, forming Loch Long and Loch Duich. Instead of marching on Inverness, the Jacobites wasted time arguing in war councils until the news confirming the disaster to Ormonde’s fleet arrived. The invaders’ already low morale was dented by this news, and Tullibardine considered returning to Spain. Marischal, however, had sent the two ships he controlled out to sea to prevent them from being blocked in or destroyed by enemy men-of-war.

The acrimonious relationship between Tullibardine and Marischal continued, with the two protagonists establishing separate camps some two miles apart. Meanwhile Ormonde reported the invasion’s cancellation and exhorted the leaders to raise the clans in rebellion while he set about supplying arms. The Jacobites struck camp and marched inland to an advance base at Crow of Kintail. They left behind 48 Spanish troops, under the command of a captain and lieutenant, at Eilean Donan to guard their ammunition and provisions.