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Reminiscences of a Jacobite: The Untold Story of the Rising of 1745
Michael Nevin Birlinn Ltd (2020) pp. 288 Hardback, £25.00; paperback, N/A; (Kindle £18.48) ISBN: 9781839830099
In 2002, economist Michael Nevin acquired, at auction, a letter that Charles Edward Stuart had written to French king Louis XV after the Culloden debacle. To Nevin’s mind, the letter debunked the view, which he had encountered in his reading, that Charles turned his back on Scotland once he had fled the country. This discovery ignited, in Nevin, a lifelong enthusiasm for all things Jacobite. He joined the 1745 Association, ultimately becoming its chairman, and wrote Reminiscences of a Jacobite.
This is not an academic history. Rather, Nevin targets sophisticated lay readers who know the subject well enough to have fixed notions about it. He sets out to explode those notions. According to Nevin, for instance, the Glorious Revolution was neither glorious nor a true revolution. Instead, it was a Dutch invasion followed by a Dutch occupation. The leading English players were mere facilitators.
Why did British general Wightman, victor at the 1719 battle of Glenshiel, not follow up his
