The Queen and Scotland – A Platinum Jubilee Tribute
Highlanders
Prince Charles Edward landed on the west coast of Scotland in 1745, intent on repossessing the British throne for the Scottish dynasty of Stuarts, who had lost it to the House of Hanover on the death of the last Stuart, Queen Anne, in 1714. Charles rallied the Highlanders, but after initial successes, and a triumphal entry into Edinburgh, he was finally routed at Culloden, the last – and one of the shortest – battles fought on British soil.
What followed was little short of ethnic cleansing, as the House of Hanover did its bloodthirsty best to eradicate all traces of the old Highland way of life, banning tartan and bagpipes and forcing thousands into emigration to the New World as southern farmers were encouraged to take over the land for their Merino sheep. Even the word ‘Scotland’ was not mentioned in polite London society, and ‘North Britain’ became the politically correct reference to the top half of the nation.
With Stuart aspirations to the throne safely dead and buried, Scotland was finally forgiven with a State Visit to Edinburgh in 1822 by the portly George IV, who thoroughly enjoyed every minute of his 15-day stay. He delighted his hosts by appearing in full Highland dress including a kilt of Stuart tartan, with flesh-coloured tights beneath as a compromise between local practice and royal decorum.
George’s visit was masterminded by a successful Edinburgh lawyer, Sir Walter Scott, the finest spin-doctor Scotland ever had. As an impresario, Sir Walter was a brilliant success. He gathered Gaelic chiefs at his Borders home to meet the King, and with impeccable timing ‘found’ the ancient Crown Jewels, known as the Honours of Scotland and far older than their English counterparts, which had lain forgotten in a chest in Edinburgh Castle.
But Sir Walter did much more than royally entertain his sovereign. His hugely popular romantic novels and poetry stirred a new interest in Scotland and gave its wild landscape a beguiling rather than a threatening gloss. The first tourists, including William and Dorothy Wordsworth, began to make their adventurous way north.
