The Storm Breaks (The Jacobite Chronicles Book 4)

by Julia Brannan

  Alex squeezed his hand, but it was a mechanical gesture only.

  “Aye,” he said expressionlessly. “Ye did your best. I understand. Ye couldna have done more.”

  He released Angus’s hand and turned his head away, towards the wall. His eyes started to close.

  “Avenge us,” said Iain suddenly from the corner. “That’s what Maggie said, before she died.”

  Alex turned his head back and looked at Iain.

  “It must be hard for you, man,” he said gently. “Ye loved her, I ken that.” He turned his head away again, waiting for the merciful sleep to descend.

  Iain moved forward to stand over the bed.

  “She was my life,” he said simply. “I thought Beth was yours. I wasna there when Angus swore to avenge them, but if I had been I’d have sworn too. Beth killed the man who stabbed Maggie and paid for it wi’ her life. I mean tae avenge Maggie as soon as I’m healed, and Beth too, if ye willna do it.”

  Alex’s head snapped back, and for a moment his eyes blazed as his gaze locked with Iain’s.

  “Aye,” he said softly. “I’ll do it.”

  Then he looked away and closed his eyes and let the oblivion of sleep take him.

  HISTORICAL NOTE

  In view of the interest many of my readers have shown in the historical events portrayed in the Jacobite Chronicles, I thought some of you might want to learn a little more about the background to some of the events in this book.

  Firstly let me say a few things about Prince Charles Edward Stuart and the ’45 in general. He is generally remembered as the romantic but tragic hero of a rebellion that was doomed to fail from the very beginning. He has been alternately portrayed as an arrogant fop with little command of English, a fanatical Roman Catholic desperate to bring Protestant Britain back under the thumb of Rome, an irresponsible womanising alcoholic, and a mentally deranged megalomaniac.

  Having read numerous biographies of Charles and various other historical books in which he features, I’d say that all these portrayals possess a grain of truth, but none of them come close to depicting this complex individual.

  Certainly he could be arrogant and stubborn; he had been brought up to believe that the Stuarts were the rightful monarchs of Great Britain, as in fact, by right of heredity they were. He believed that it was his destiny to reclaim the throne for his father, and he spent much of his youth preparing for that. He spoke English, French and Italian fluently, and could read and write, if badly, in all three languages.

  He was extremely adept at riding, hunting, and the art of war, and was a crack shot. He also danced very well, and was physically extremely fit and courageous.

  As for his religious beliefs, he was fully aware that Britain would never accept a Roman Catholic monarch, and appears to have been relatively indifferent to religion, believing that people should be free to worship as they wished. He could certainly hold his liquor, and this did cause him problems in later life, but not at this point. And although he was definitely heterosexual, he was not a womaniser, and in fact resolved to remain chaste for the duration of the rebellion, to the frustration of his many female admirers.

  Prince Charles was certainly caring, and he did stop the bombardment of Edinburgh Castle because he was concerned for the welfare of the citizens. He also regularly released prisoners who had given their word not to fight against him again, to the frustration of Lord George Murray. Charles considered all the people of Britain to be his father’s subjects, and was therefore merciful to all of them.

  Overall he was considered tall, handsome, was extremely charismatic and persuasive, intelligent and brave, and the Hanoverians feared him, and rightly so. With hindsight it seems that the ’45 was doomed to fail, but this is most certainly not how it appeared to the people of the time. The rebels’ progress through Scotland and England, and their numerous victories (Culloden was the only battle Prince Charles ever lost, and the only one the Duke of Cumberland ever won) caused widespread panic in Hanoverian circles.

  In Chapter Two, Alex and co relate the events of the Battle of Prestonpans to Beth. I’ve taken the account of the battle directly from history – it really did last no more than fifteen minutes and was a spectacular victory for the Jacobites, causing the Hanoverians to take the rebellion seriously for the first time. As for General Cope, after the battle he retreated so quickly and comprehensively that when he reached Berwick, it is said that he encountered Lord Mark Ker, who wryly observed that he must be the first general in history to outstrip the news of his own defeat. His name lives on in the song ‘Johnnie Cope’, which is still played at reveille for a number of Highland Regiments.

  In Chapter Six, the Jacobites enter Manchester. There was considerable support for them in Manchester, partly thanks to three influential men. They were Dr Deacon, Dr John Byrom, (who really did have a Highland guard at the reception for Charles), and Colonel Francis Townley, whose father had fought in the Jacobite rebellion of 1715. Francis had considerable military experience and in the ’45 he took command of the Manchester Regiment. Although a great many residents of the town claimed to be Jacobites and Charles was given a very warm welcome when he arrived, only 250 – 300 men actually enlisted to fight in the cause. Nevertheless, Manchester was the only English town to raise a regiment, and suffered badly after the rebellion as a result.

  Incidentally, you may like to know that John Betts and John Holker were real people, and both are mentioned in the records as being captured at Carlisle. Little is known of John Betts, apart from his immediate fate after being captured (see Book Five) so I have taken the liberty of making him Beth’s stableboy and giving him a history the real man certainly never had.

  More is known of John Holker, who was born in 1719 in Stretford and who ran a calendering (cloth finishing) business with his partner Peter Moss, before enlisting in the Manchester Regiment in 1745. He was also captured at Carlisle, and his fate will be documented in Book Five as well.

  In Chapter Seven we come to the Council of Derby and the decision to retreat on 5th December 1745. Certainly some of the blame for the fateful decision has to lie with Prince Charles. Lord George Murray and the clan leaders had warned him that the advance into England was conditional on them receiving support from the English Jacobites or the French. Charles had blithely promised both, presumably assuming that his charisma and sheer force of personality would win the day. They had heard all his arguments before at various other councils, and now demanded proof that the help he was promising was forthcoming. As far as Lord George was concerned, there were two armies (Wade’s and Cumberland’s) behind them and another at Finchley ahead of them. If they had to fight the Finchley army, they’d arrive in London exhausted, with no certainty that the million citizens of the capital would welcome them. Charles, however, was convinced that just one final push was needed and the throne would be his for the taking. We will never know whether this would have been the case, but the main reason for the retreat was the fact that at this point Charles had no definite sureties of support from either the English, Welsh or French. This was mainly due to a lack of intelligence gathering, which in my book I put down to the fact that Sir Anthony was betrayed. The Jacobites really had no idea how French preparations for invasion were going or the size of the army awaiting them at Finchley, and had not co-ordinated their movements with the English Jacobites, which meant that those who would have been willing to support him, were not prepared to do so.

  At this point Charles lost all his support, so when Dudley Bradstreet entered with his false tale of a third army at Northampton, (I did not invent this! He was a real person) this was the final nail in Charles’ coffin, and the decision to retreat was made, with fatal consequences to the rebellion.

  Although historians argue about the point, I think that Charles really did have a good chance at this point of taking the throne. There was no army at Northampton, and the army at Finchley was a badly-armed rabble of soldiers and militia, who would almost certainly have been obliter
ated by the Jacobites. London was in a desperate panic, Wade’s army was too far away to have any chance of stopping them, Cumberland’s army was also a good way behind them, and even if he could have got some of his army south in time to contest the Jacobites, his men were exhausted and demoralised, whereas the clansmen’s morale had never been higher. The London mob was notoriously fickle, as Alex points out to the other council members. Although they had not come out in favour of the Jacobite cause so far, neither had they rushed to the aid of King George. It’s possible that the Jacobites would have been successful, at least initially and possibly permanently, in restoring the Stuarts to the throne. And ironically, King Louis had finally ordered an invasion of England in support of Prince Charles, which was ready to set sail at the end of December. The retreat from Derby effectively halted the prospective invasion, which was later aborted.

  Chapter Eleven deals in part with the Battle of Falkirk Muir, in which we meet General Hawley. He really was a foul-mouthed brutal man, nicknamed ‘Hangman Hawley’ by his own troops after his favourite method of punishment. He was said to have the flayed skin of one of his victims hung up in his tent. Whether or not this is true, he was certainly renowned for his savagery, and even sadism. He really did sit down to dinner, convinced that his army would not be attacked, and it’s said that after the battle Prince Charles ate the dinner that Hawley left untouched when he dashed off to command his troops. Although the Jacobites won an easy victory, they should have pursued Hawley as he made his way to Edinburgh, and retaken the city, instead of which they left him alone, allowing him to recover his strength.

  Chapter Twelve is concerned with the Rout of Moy. This reads like pure fiction, but it actually happened, and almost as I’ve written it. Prince Charles was entertained at Moy Hall by Lady Mackintosh, who was a formidable woman. While her husband was fighting on the Hanoverian side, she single-handedly raised the Mackintosh clan for the Jacobites. Whilst Charles was visiting her, five men, including the village blacksmith, Donald Fraser, were set to watch the road from Inverness for any sign of Loudoun’s troops, who were stationed there. Loudoun heard about the prince’s visit and decided to capture him and gain the £30,000 reward for himself. He assembled 1500 men to do so. But the innkeeper’s daughter heard of the plan and warned the Jacobites that the army was coming. The rest of the situation played out exactly as I’ve described it in the book. It was a novelist’s dream, but sounds so fantastic that I was sure you’d think I’d invented it, and that it was extremely far-fetched, even for a novel!

  In the final chapters of the book we come to Culloden, and the fateful battle there. Again, the abortive night march in an attempt to surprise Cumberland’s army did take place, with the result that the Jacobite army was starving and exhausted as it faced Cumberland’s troops on the 16th April 1746. Some of them were still asleep as the battle began, and were killed where they lay. Others were dashing across the country to try to get to Culloden in time to fight. Prince Charles, in spite of having been awake for three days and nights, did ride to Inverness to try to get provisions for his men, and there was some argument between the prince and Lord George as to the most suitable battlefield.

  When the battle actually started, the Hanoverian guns fired at the Jacobite lines for some twenty minutes, causing horrific casualties among the clans. When the order to attack was finally given the messenger was decapitated by a cannonball, and another messenger had to be sent, by which time the clansmen were understandably on the point of fleeing. Drumossie Moor itself, which I’ve visited on more than one occasion, is a bleak stretch of moorland, which seems to still hold the atmosphere of frustration and despair which must have been felt by the Jacobites as they stood with the rain and sleet blowing in their faces, waiting for the order to attack to come, and watching men fall all around them.

  The immediate aftermath of the battle is well documented, with the Hanoverian forces running wild over the field, killing both fleeing Jacobite soldiers and civilians indiscriminately. Wounded soldiers were killed and those who took shelter had the huts burnt down with them inside. It’s not uncommon for atrocities to take place directly after a battle when bloodlust is high. What is unusual is that the Duke of Cumberland seems to have actively encouraged it. I deal with the aftermath of the rebellion in the next book.

  And finally, in Chapter Fourteen, while many of the clans made their way home from Ruthven surreptitiously, the MacGregors, a fragmented and proscribed clan for nearly 200 years, gathered together and marched home in full battle array, with pipes playing and broadswords drawn, in blatant defiance of their enemy. When they arrived back in their territory (or what they considered their territory, as legally they had no lands or rights), they fragmented into small groups again, and became once more ‘the Children of the Mist’.

  Also by Julia Brannan

  The Jacobite Chronicles

  Book One: Mask of Duplicity

  Book Two: The Mask Revealed

  Book Three: The Gathering Storm

  Book Five: Pursuit of Princes (Summer 2017)

  CONTEMPORARY FICTION

  A Seventy-Five Percent Solution (Early 2017)

  About the Author

  Julia has been a voracious reader since childhood, using books to escape the miseries of a turbulent adolescence. After leaving university with a degree in English Language and Literature, she spent her twenties trying to be a sensible and responsible person, even going so far as to work for the Civil Service. The book escape came in very useful there too.

  And then she gave up trying to conform and resolved to spend the rest of her life living as she wanted to, not as others would like her to. She has since had a variety of jobs, including telesales, teaching and gilding and is currently a transcriber, copy editor and proofreader. In her spare time she is still a voracious reader, and enjoys keeping fit and travelling the world. Life hasn’t always been good, but it has rarely been boring. She lives in rural Wales with her cat Constantine, and her wonderful partner sensibly lives four miles away in the next village.

  Now she has decided that rather than just escape into other people’s books, she would actually quite like to create some of her own, in the hopes that people will enjoy reading them as much as she does writing them.

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