Last Battle on English Soil, Preston 1715
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Whilst much has been written about the Jacobites, most works have tended to look at the Rebellion of 1745, rather than the earlier attempt to reinstate the Stuart dynasty. As such this book provides a welcome focus on events in 1715, when Jacobites in both England and Scotland tried to oust George I and to replace him with James Stuart. In particular it provides a detailed narrative and analysis of the campaign in the Lowlands of Scotland and in the north of England that led to the decisive battle at Preston and ended the immediate prospects of the Jacobite cause. Drawing upon a wealth of under-utilised sources, the work builds on existing research into the period to give weight to the community and individual dimensions of the crisis as well as to the military ones. Contrary to popular myth, the Jacobite army contained both English and Scots, and because it surrendered almost intact, an analysis of the surviving list of Jacobite prisoners captured in the North West England reveals much information about their origins, occupations, unit structure and, sometimes, religion, as well as the quality of the soldiers’ arms and equipment, their experience and that of their leaders. Through this study of the last major battle to be fought on English soil, a clearer picture emerges of the individuals and groups who sought to mould the direction of the freshly created British state and the dynasty that should rule it.
Dr Jonathan Oates has had a life-long interest in the Jacobite rebellions, which was consolidated by an undergraduate thesis and a PhD. He has published over thirty articles about Jacobitism and the Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1745, principally concerning England and military matters. He has had three books published about the Jacobite rebellions, The North West of England and the Jacobite Invasion of 1745 (2006), Sweet William or the Butcher? The Duke of Cumberland and the ’45 (2008) and The Jacobite Campaigns (2011). He has also edited a text concerning the Liverpool Volunteers during the 1745 Rebellion (Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 2006) and is currently editing the Duke of Cumberland’s correspondence, 1745-1748 for the Army Records Society.