Conflict and Loyalty: Jacobitism in Europe and Beyond

Jacobitism, the cause championed by the exiled Stuart royal house, endured from the Revolution of 1688–91 until 1807, fuelled by plots, propaganda and uprisings – especially in Scotland. As the movement shifted from exiled courts in France and Italy to a wider diaspora, Jacobites spread across Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. From soldiers in European armies to settlers in British American colonies, Jacobites left a global impact: aiding Native American resistance yet also engaging in the enslavement of Black Africans. Their experiences abroad influenced European Enlightenment and Romanticism. This book offers a critical yet sympathetic view of Jacobitism, revealing its complex legacy across the world.

About the Author :
Allan I. Macinnes is Emeritus Professor of History, University of Strathclyde and Honorary Professor in Irish and Scottish Studies, University of Aberdeen. His books include A History of Scotland (2018).

Review :
This book is arresting from the very first page. A distillation of fifty years of research on Scottish Jacobitism, Conflict and Loyalty is full of insights into the impact of Jacobitism on Scotland and – just as importantly – the wider world, to say nothing of glorious vignettes illustrating Allan I. Macinnes’s argument. The net result is a mortal blow to any vision of Scots Jacobitism and Scots patriotism (yes, the two were inextricably intertwined) that fails to understand its global ramifications. Conflict and Loyalty combines Allan I. Macinnes’s trademark perceptive analysis and vivid narration in depicting the clans and individuals, winners and losers of the Jacobite risings, detailing tales of heroism, victimhood and villainy (sometimes all in the same individual). Its panoramic scope extends from the campaigns of 1688–1746 to Jacobite participation and representation in the intellectual and cultural currents of Enlightenment and Romanticism. Jacobitism in Macinnes’s persuasive conception is a great deal broader and deeper than a failed political-military campaign confined to Britain in the first half of the eighteenth century. From the desolate moors of Culloden to the distant shores of Ethiopia and beyond, from a faltering cause fought with the sword and the pen to the triumphant Enlightenment throughout Europe, renowned historian Allan I. Macinnes paints a vibrant and unprecedented global portrait of Jacobitism and those who have supported it, at home and abroad. An erudite and lively history of a political and intellectual movement with far-reaching implications for the British Isles, Europe and its empires altogether. This book conveys not just the faint voice of the outcast and the vanquished but, between conflict and loyalty, through hardships and accomplishments, the epic of a nation towards its voice in the world . . . Captivating.