Culloden

[slohairt]

Really? And suppose the Jacobites had won. Would you then consider the Duke of Cumberland a mountebank for having duped his troops into fighting to support his father's claim to the throne?

I'm not sure what you're asking. Are you creating a 'what-if' version of history? Suppose the Stuarts had succeeded in reclaiming the throne of Great Britain. The former king flees to the Continent and his son comes back much later, makes a celebrated landing in Wales (or maybe Cornwall) and rallies the Welsh to his father's standard. The Welsh eagerly take up arms, some believing their culture or way of life will be protected in the newly restored regime, or at least no longer subject to increased Anglicisation or maginalisation. When the Duke is later defeated and flees, these same Welsh are mercilessly put down, laws are created to prohibit many of their cultural trappings, and the Anglicisation and marginalisation of their society is 'stepped up a notch'. So, would I then say the Duke duped these Welshmen and used them to further his own ends? Yes.

The truth is, this Anglicisation and marginalisation of Highland culture had started long before 1707. Some Highlanders may have thought (and were likely led to believe) that this would perhaps be halted. We know that probably wouldn't have been the case, but certainly it wouldn't have taken the drastic downturn it did after Culloden.