Na Seumasaich

Calum's class have spent the last couple of months studying the Jacobites. He has really, really loved this project. This morning his class were performing their play about the Jacobite story at the school assembly so the parents were invited along to watch.

Here is our Calum and his best friend before the play.

Don't they look ready for battle?

Calum was playing the part of General George Murray, one of Prince Charlie's advisers, who led them into battle at Prestonpans and who also advised them that Culloden was not a good place for a battle!

I was going to put a clip of the play on here too, but it's taking forever to upload so I'll save that for another day!

I asked Calum for a brief over-view of the Jacobites for the blog and this is what he said;

'Bonnie Prince Charlie wanted to get the throne back, and the Jacobites wanted a Scottish king again because King George II was a German. Prince Charlie and King George had the same great great grandfather, King James VI of Scotland (later known as James I of England and Scotland).

It wasn't just Scots against English like people think. There were Scots on both sides and English on both sides, as well as Irish. Gaelic was spoken by Redcoats as well as Jacobites, although Charlie only spoke French!

The Jacobites went to Glenfinnan, near Fort William, where Prince Charlie put up the Jacobite flag. Then they marched to Prestonpans, near Edinburgh, where they fought the Redcoats and won. Charlie still wasn't happy because he wanted England too so they marched to Derby. Prince Charlie had a meeting with his advisers. His advisers didn't want to go to London but Charlie did because he was convinced the French would come to help them (they didn't!).

The Jacobites then marched back to Scotland. At Culloden, near Inverness, they were caught unprepared by the Redcoats and lost the battle. Charlie fled to Skye dressed up as a woman. He then went to Italy.

The Redcoats then banned the wearing of tartan, the playing of bagpipes and the speaking of Gaelic! This lasted for about 100 years. A lot of the Jacobites fled to Canada and America. This is why part of Canada is called Nova Scotia.'

So there you go - history lesson for today, correcting romantic myths!

Gaelic word of the day:

well it has to be,

Na Seumasaich (na shay-mas-eech) - the Jacobites

derived from Seumas, Gaelic for James, which is of course where the Jacobites get their name, as Jacob is Latin for James.

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