Archibald MacGregor and the Battle of Culloden Moor

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IN SEARCH OF SCOTTISH ROOTS - Article #1

Archibald MacGregor
and the Battle of Culloden Moor

by Steven C. Gardner

A wind that awoke on the moorland came sighing,
Like the voice of the heroes who perished in vain:
“Not for Tearlach alone the red claymore was plying,
But to win back the old world that comes not again.”
Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

     The Battle of Culloden[i] was fought in the spring of 1746 between the forces of King George the II of England, led by his son Prince William Augustus, the Duke of Cumberland, and the Scottish forces led by Charles Edward Stuart, commonly referred to as Bonnie Prince Charlie.  This was the last great engagement fought on either Scottish or British soil between these two contentious forces, and is known for its determined ferocity, vicious brutality, and rapid British victory.

Figure 1: Charles Edward Stuart (1720-1788)

     The conflict was spurred by an attempt of Scottish loyalists to restore “The House of Stuart” (or Stewart) to their hereditary and rightful place as rulers of the British Isles, which encompassed Scotland, England, and Ireland.  Charles Edward Stuart (1720-1788) was an exiled Jacobite[ii] who persisted in his rights to the throne after his grandfather, King James II of England, was deposed in the Revolution of 1688, more commonly referred to as the ‘Glorious Revolution.’  As a result of this claim, Charles was labeled by those favoring British rule as “The Young Pretender.”

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