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| Mudlarking find: clay pipe bowl commemorating the battle of Culloden |
I was thrilled to find this little fellow. It's really exciting finding something that shows a figure. It really makes me wonder about their story, buried in the river for centuries. With this piece, I have (with the help of a D. Higgins, thank you!) been able to identify the find, and somewhat unravel its secrets. The figure is William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland celebrating his victory at the Battle of Culloden.
Here is
D. Higgins description of how the full pipe would have looked:
“The bowl depicts a standing English figure
(Cumberland) with upheld sword and scroll on the left hand side and ‘I.VICTORY.GAIND’
above and a Scotsman in traditional dress with round shield and downturned
sword on the right hand side, with ‘I.BUT.DISTURB’ above. There is a Royal
Standard on the seam facing the smoker and vine scroll type leaves away from
the smoker’.
I feel
very grateful to have been given this information, and can only imagine how
impressive the complete pipe would have once looked.
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| Left: William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, commander of UK Government army. Right: Charles Edward Stuart, leader of Jacobite army. |
The pipe I found was made to mark the
victory at Culloden, which was the final confrontation of the 1745 Jacobite
rising- the last major battle fought on British soil. The battle took place on
16 April 1746, when the Jacobite forces of Charles Edward Stuart fought
loyalist troops known as ‘redcoats’ commanded by William Augustus, Duke of
Cumberland near Inverness. The Jacobites were decisively defeated and Charles
Stuart never again mounted any further attempts to challenge Hanoverian power
in Great Britain.
Charles Stuart’s, (affectionately known as ‘Bonnie Prince
Charlie’s’) Jacobite army mainly consisted of Catholics, whilst the British
Governments Hanoverian loyalist forces were mostly Protestants. The battle was
quick and bloody, finishing in less than one hour. Around 1200-1500 Jacobites
were killed or wounded, compared to only around 300 UK Government soldiers.
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| Left: Example of UK Government army soldiers uniform. Right: Example of the Highland units Jacobite soldier uniform. |
By the time they had arrived back in Culloden in the morning of the 15th April, they stood there waiting for the opposition to approach Inverness. Unbeknown to the Jacobites, that morning was the Duke of Cumberland’s 25th birthday, and he had no intention of fighting a battle. He remained in his camp at Nairn and issued brandy and cheese to his men to celebrate. So it wasn’t until the morning of the 16th April after the Jacobites had made an aborted night march against the government camp that the battle itself began, and Charles's dreams of victory evaporated.
Ignoring the advice of his best commander, Lord
George Murray, Charles chose to fight on flat,
open, marshy ground where his forces would be exposed to superior government
firepower. Charles commanded his army from a position behind his lines, where
he could not see what was happening. Hoping Cumberland's army would attack
first, he had his men stand exposed to Hanoverian artillery. Seeing the error
in this, he quickly ordered an attack, but the messenger was killed before the
order could be delivered. The Jacobite attack, charging into the teeth of
musket fire and grapeshot fired from the cannons, was uncoordinated and met with
little success.
The
Jacobites broke through the bayonets of the redcoats in one place, but they
were shot down by a second line of soldiers, and the survivors fled. Murray
managed to lead a group of Jacobites to Ruthven, intending to continue the
fight. However Charles, believing himself betrayed, had decided to abandon the
Jacobite cause.
At a time when the etiquette of
warfare was considered very important, Cumberland was able to dispense with it
by labelling the Highlanders inhuman savages. The brutish way in which
Cumberland went about dismantling Highland culture by disarming the clans,
banning the wearing of Highland dress, suppressing certain surnames and the use
of the Gaelic language amounted to an early example of ethnic cleansing. Cumberland
set about destroying the social nexus of the clan that was at the heart of
Highland society. After the battle, as a result of his ruthless treatment of
the rebels William Augustus was known as the ‘Butcher’.
After Culloden, Cumberland
emerged a powerful and opinion dividing character. He was despised by the
Highlanders and remains perhaps the most villainised historical figure of his
age, yet idolised in England and the Lowlands.
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Due to his unpopularity in the Highlands, Cumberland was frequently satirized. |
As for Charles's, his subsequent
flight has become the stuff of legend and is commemorated in the popular folk
song The Skye Boat Song and also the
old Irish song Mo Ghile Mear.
Hiding in the moors of Scotland, he
traveled about, always barely ahead of the government forces. Though many
Highlanders saw Charles, and indeed aided him, none of them betrayed him for
the £30,000 reward offered.
Assisted by supporters such as the pilot Donald Macleod of Galtrigill, Captain
Felix O'Neill of the O'Neills of
the Fews dynasty and Flora
MacDonald, who helped him escape pursuers on the Isle of Skye by taking him in a small boat
disguised as her Irish maid, "Betty Burke,” he evaded capture and left the
country aboard the French frigate L'Heureux,
arriving back in France in September.
The Prince's
Cairn marks the traditional spot
on the shores of Loch nan Uamh in Lochaber from which he made his final departure
from Scotland. With the Jacobite cause now lost, Stuart would spend the
remainder of his life — with one brief secret visit to London — in exile.
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| Left: Flora Macdonald. Right: Charles Edward Stuart dressed as Betty Burke. |
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| The 'Princes Cairn' today |
