The high tide of Jacobite ambition
In late October 1745, Bonnie Prince Charlie made the most audacious decision of the entire Jacobite rising: he marched his Highland army south into England. Fresh from the spectacular victory at Prestonpans and with Edinburgh nominally under his control, the prince was convinced that English Jacobites would rally to his standard and that a march on London would topple the Hanoverian dynasty.
The army crossed into England on 8 November, captured Carlisle, and advanced through Lancashire and the Midlands. By 4 December, the Jacobites had reached Derby — just 125 miles from London. Panic gripped the capital. George II reportedly had his bags packed. The Bank of England paid out in sixpences to slow the run on its reserves. The London stage was cleared for evacuation.
But the English Jacobites did not rise. The promised French invasion force did not materialise. The Highland army, numbering around 5,000 men, was deep in hostile territory with two Government armies closing in. At a fractious council of war in Derby, the prince's senior commanders — led by Lord George Murray — insisted on retreat. Charles was furious and heartbroken, but he was overruled. The army turned north on 6 December, the so-called "Black Friday" of the Jacobite cause.
The retreat from Derby was the turning point of the '45. Though the army fought its way back to Scotland in good order — winning a rearguard action at Clifton and later defeating the Government at Falkirk Muir — the strategic initiative was lost. The Jacobites would never again threaten London. The march south remains one of the great what-ifs of British history: had the army pressed on, the Hanoverian dynasty might have fallen, and the course of European history would have changed utterly.