DERBY

Derbyshire, central England

The Jacobite army turned back here

On 1 November 1745 Prince Charles Edward Stuart set out from Edinburgh on the long march south, intending to reach London and proclaim his father King of Great Britain. Although many Scots felt that he should be content with claiming the throne of Scotland only, the Prince had wider ambitions, being convinced that there were many English Jacobites who would rise for his cause.

By the time the Jacobite army reached Derby in early December, the silver lining of the Prince's dreams were beginning to tarnish. It had become clear that the supposed English support was not going to materialise. Lord George Murray and the other Jacobite advisers saw that their ranks were dwindling due to desertion and believed that three different Government armies were on their way to intercept their further progress. They persuaded a reluctant Prince Charles that the only sensible course was to turn back. Accordingly, on the morning of 6 December, the first "Black Friday", when little more than a hundred miles from London, the Jacobite army turned wearily and retreated into Scotland, to be annihilated four months later at Culloden.

Had they continued south, who knows ... ? It is a favourite pastime to second-guess history and wonder what might have happened if they had pushed on south instead. Would they have captured London, where the Hanoverian court already had its bags packed? If they had done so, would they have been able to hold it, and for how long? These speculations are not part of sober history but the questions have lingered in the minds of would-be Jacobites ever since.