Culloden

[slohairt]

I think you've missed the point-- it's not about "what if", but rather your stated position that due to the alleged vanity of one man-- presumably you mean Prince Charles or his father, the de jure King James-- the Scots (and some English and Irish as well) were duped into going to war. It seems to me that the suggestion that those who are defeated in any conflict are dupes is a rather, indeed extremely, cynical attitude as it either ignores or fails to take into consideration the deeply held convictions of those who rallied to the flag on both sides of the conflict. Their loyalty-- Hanovarian or Jacobite-- was a matter of genuine personal conviction, not the result of some confidence trick concocted in London or Paris. I agree that with or without Culloden the traditional way of life in the 18th century Highlands was doomed to be dragged into the modern era, and that it was a process that had its roots firmly planted in the 16th century. In my opinion the Highland people of the 18th century could not have survived as they were simply because time had passed them by, leaving in its wake the inevitability of profound cultural change.

I think, when it comes to nobles of that time period or earlier, there were few who could not be considered vain and power-hungry to some degree. I don't consider my viewpoint to cynical in the slightest, merely a realistic observation. I never suggested that all people who are defeated in any conflict are 'duped', I meant a certain segment of the Jacobites in the '45 specifically: Those who felt they were defending Highland culture. True, many Jacobites and Hanoverians did have genuine loyalty to their respective leaders, but there were many would have also switched sides the moment it was politically expedient. I think that James (and later Charlie) would have followed his 17th Century predecessors and set up himself up in a London court. He would maintained the centralist authority bequeathed to him by the Act of Union, forgetting about Scotland and the Highlanders in particular. The Stewarts did, after all, have a very short and turbulent history at the helm of Great Britain.