Last modified: 2021-08-07 by rob raeside
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In response to a question from Jesús del Campo, "Do you know about the banners of the Jacobites at Culloden battle?":
Most of the flags of the Prince Charles' army that were captured at Culloden were burnt by the public hangman in Edinburgh. A list was made of those flags, but only contains brief descriptions:
Ian Sumner, 15 March 2000
![[Jacobite flag]](../images/g/gb^cull.jpg)
located by Ivan Sache, 23 November 2006
Source: Highland News
Donald Wilson reports in the "Highland
News", 23 November 2006, the finding of a flag that could have been used
during the battle of Culloden (16 April 1746):
[...]
Researchers have confirmed the discovery of half of a 300-year-old flag
belonging to the Frasers of Lovat. Initially, it was thought it may have been
carried by the Frasers at Culloden. But historians now believe it may have been
carried by clansmen who missed the battle. Clan Fraser Society this week
confirmed its whereabouts is being kept a closely-guarded secret. Graeme Fraser,
speaking on behalf of the Clan Fraser Society, said it’s now believed the flag
pre-dates the famous battle which saw the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie and
brought to an end the Jacobite uprising. “The flag was inherited by a young
family last year from a close relative,” said Mr Fraser. “We are keeping its
whereabouts a closely-guarded secret, but I can tell you it’s in a bank vault in
England. “The family who inherited it are of Scots descent and want to remain
anonymous. Owners of the flag would love to find the missing half. “It is their
wish at some time to share it with the nation and put it on temporary public
display.”
[...]
Mr Fraser said on the day of the Battle of Culloden the Fraser Clan was led by
Charles of Inverallochy. “There were reinforcements on the way led by the Master
of Lovat who was the son of the 11th Lord Lovat. The history is a bit unclear,
but it’s thought they never arrived in time for the battle. They may have been
carrying this banner. “Most of the Jacobite flags were taken to Edinburgh and
publicly burned by the hangman. Only one or two are believed to have survived,
so this really is a unique part of Scotland’s and the Clan Fraser history. “We
believe it’s a camp flag dating back to 1725, possibly the personal flag of the
then Lord Lovat, as it bears his arms. In 1725 Lord Lovat persuaded the
government at that time to raise the Black Watch regiment and this flag relates
to the Independent Highland Companies, also known as the Black Watch. “As to the
mystery of the other half and why it was cut in the first place, all we know was
it was kept by an Inverness antiquarian, called Dr Macintosh. The other part has
been missing since 1827. Dr Macintosh cut it in half.
[...]
located by Ivan Sache, 23 November 2006
![[Ogilvy flag]](../images/g/gb_cull1746.jpg)
image provided by Mark Webster, 1 April 2010
An amazing and fascinating piece of Angus's 18th Century history has just gone on display at the McManus Gallery in Dundee. The artefact in question is the flag raised at The Battle of Culloden in 1746, by the 2nd Battalion of Lord Ogilvy's Forfarshire Regiment. When the battle ended, the defeated regiment retreated south to Glen Clova, where it was disbanded. Oral history legend has it that Captain John Kinloch, who carried the flag at Culloden, then hid the banner at Logie House, near Kirriemuir. Given that all the Jacobite flags captured by the Hanoverian troops at Culloden were taken to Edinburgh and burnt, it's amazing that this banner has managed to survive.
Lord Ogilvy, the Earl of Airlie, had a long tradition of Jacobitism in his family, dating back to 1640, when the Ogilvy family supported Charles I during the time of the National Covenant and the English Civil War. Indeed, the burning of Airlie Castle (near Kirriemuir) in 1640, is immortalised in the Jacobite folk song, 'The Bonnie House of Airlie'.
The Latin words on the flag translate into the old Scottish motto: 'No one provokes me with impunity'. Interestingly, the emblem on the flag is the Scottish thistle, rather than a symbol or a coat of arms associated with the deposed Stewart dynasty. However, it transpires that the Scottish thistle was the crest used by Lord Ogilvy's Jacobite regiment.
Angus was (still is?) famous for being a Jacobite region, as highlighted by the 'King O'er the Water' political messages contained in the intricate plasterwork at the House of Dun, near Brechin (not to mention all the white roses in the garden - a white rose being the symbol of the Jacobite movement). Still further, Balnamoon's Cave in Glen Esk, is another famous Angus haunt for Jacobites, and is the location where Laird Balnamoon famously hid himself for several months following Culloden. In short, Angus's history in the 17th and 18th centuries is virtually a Jacobite Trail of derring-do, coded messages, folk songs and secret hideaways in the Glens.
Source: http://www.angusahead.com/AngusListings/News/jacobite-banner-flag-culloden.asp
I recommend Stuart Reid's book 1745: A Military History of the Last Jacobite
Rising. It is a very informative and well balanced look at the whole episode
revealed by a former professional solider who walked every battlefield.
Mark Webster, 1 April 2010
From 5 August 2003 Glasgow Herald:
Banner carried against the Jacobites unfurled in Scotland again
by FRANK RYAN
A Scottish banner raised by opponents of the Jacobites during the 1715
Rebellion, has been repatriated from Australia after almost a century.
The painted silk standard was carried by the Gordon family, of Earlston, near
Kirkcudbright, as they fought to prevent Bonnie Prince Charlie's father, the Old
Pretender, from regaining the throne for the Stuarts.
It remained in the area until the second decade of the twentieth century, when
it was sent to a branch of the family which had settled in Australia and had
inherited the baronetcy of Earlston and Afton.
From 1920, the Earlston Banner was a treasured exhibit in the Hall of
Remembrance in the Scots Church in Sydney, but when the building was scheduled
for demolition in 2001, Sir Robert Gordon, the flag's owner, and the church
authorities sought a new home for it.
They contacted the Stewartry Museum in Kirkcudbright and a Heritage Lottery
Grant was obtained to bring the banner home and have it conserved by the
Scottish Museum Council's conservation unit in Edinburgh.
Yesterday, it was unveiled in its new home by Alex Fergusson, Conservative MSP
for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, who congratulated the museum for co-ordinating
the project that brought the banner back home "where it once boldly flew".
David Devereaux, Stewartry curator, said the banner would help to present and
interpret a complicated period of history.
"The religious upheavals of the seventeenth century and subsequent Jacobite
rebellions had a major impact on Kirkcudbrightshire," he added. "National events
crashed in on local affairs."
Rob Raeside, 5 August 2003
I yesterday saw a TV programme which referred to the battle of Culloden, that
famous 18th century battle which ended Scotland's attempt to regain independence
from England. Very briefly shown was a shot of the battleground, on which two
flags now stand, representing the starting positions of the English and Scottish
forces. They show, respectively, a stylised white flower on red and a stylised
black flower on yellow, but I didn't see enough of them to get any further
details. Does anyone know anything more about these flags?
James Dignan, 19 April 2004
I would guess that these represent the Jacobite White Cockade and the
Hanoverian Black Cockade, cockades being a distinguishing mark worn on the
headdress. This was not a Scottish war for independence; it was a dynastic
struggle between the Stuarts and the Hanoverians, the Scottish house of Stuart
having inherited England in 1603, and having lost both thrones through the
stupidity of James II in 1685-88 and lack of heirs in 1714. The Jacobite wars
(named for the party owing allegiance to James II and his heirs) were Stuart
attempts to regain the throne of Scotland AND England. Scots were fairly evenly
divided in this struggle, and since clan tartans did not exist at the time, the
cockade was the method of identifying friend and foe on the battlefield. The
Jacobites especially had no other uniform.
The White Cockade Society sometimes carries a banner of a white cockade on a red
field. I doubt this existed in 1745-46. The yellow background for the black
cockade is probably just a good contrasting colour.
T.F. Mills, 20 April 2004
A websearch on "the White Cockade Society" did provide a beautiful picture at
http://www.highlanderweb.co.uk/culloden/inmemory.htm which shows two of the
WCS's flags, plus the red and white flag that I originally referred to, at
Culloden Moor (it is the one on the far right*). From other sites (such as
http://www.robertwhite.co.uk/Gallery/AllanJamieson/Photo03.htm it appears
that the flag I was referring to is not that normally flown by the WCS.
James Dignan, 20 April 2004
* This flag which can be seen in the photo is in fact the banner flown at
Culloden Battlefield by NTS to mark the Jacobite lines and is not being carried
by the Society although it does look as though it is in the photo.
Janette Hannah, 20 July 2004
I've just been watching a video about the battle of Culloden Moor, which
might have given a few more clues to the flags. The expert (from the British
National War Museum, I think) referred at one point to the "black government
army cockade and the Jacobite white cockade". At another point the comment is
made "The government army were lined up where the yellow flags are [meanwhile,
the Jacobite ranks] are marked by a row of red flags...". It seems to me that
this does indicate the yellow flags have a black cockade, and the red flags have
a white one.
James Dignan, 3 May 2004
The flags which fly at Culloden do in fact signify the redcoat lines and the
Jacobite lines. The reason behind the colours, reflects the family colours of
the two royal families concerned with the battle the red is the background for
the house of Stewart royal standard, the yellow is the background for the royal
house of Hanover.
For your information this was not a Scottish English war as we are led to
believe, there were already 2500 Scottish troops in the regiments which fought
at Culloden.
Ian Deveney, 11 December 2006
The Wikipedia article on the Treaty of Limerick shows, at the bottom, the “Personal standard of Charles Edward Stuart,” without explanation (he was born almost thirty years later) or authority. The field is scarlet with a row of seven white roses at the hoist, with some of their anatomical parts in green and the center yellow. In the center of the remainder of the field is another such white rose, about half the height of the flag. Proportions look to be about five by seven.
The image appears to be based on one at
https://clancarrutherssociety.org
John Ayer, 29 July 2021