David Morgan, the Welsh Jacobite: A Contribution to the History of Jacobitism in Wales

One of the most romantic and spirit-stirring episodes in English History is that presented to us by the last effort of the partisans of the expelled House of Stuart to place the representative of the exiled family on the throne of his ancestors.

The Rebellion of 1745 has been acknowledged universally to have been remarkable for the interesting incidents, and romantic adventures, to which it gave rise; and the annals of history do not furnish examples of greater personal sacrifices, more exalted heroism, and chivalrous devotion, than were exhibited during that momentous struggle.

In these peaceful times, and blessed with institutions that afford the fullest security for the preservation of our civil and religious liberties, it is difficult to conceive the stormy struggles to which the country was subjected, in the efforts of our forefathers, amid contending factions, to secure and maintain the liberties which we now enjoy, and to hand them down to us unimpaired. Still more difficult is it to realize the fact, that very little more than a century has passed since this country was the scene of a fierce civil war, in which members of the same family were arrayed against each other in hostile conflict, and, during the progress of which, and of the ruthless and vindictive executions that followed it, the bravest blood of Britain,—that of the devoted, though mistaken, adherents of the Stuarts,—was poured out like water on their native soil.

The circumstances out of which this great conflict originated may be thus briefly detailed. The continued infraction of the laws by a systematic indifference to every principle of legality, the violation of the liberties of the people, the brutal cruelty and senseless obstinacy, the persistent determination to deprive the Episcopal and Presbyterian Churches of their rights and privileges, and to restore the domination of the Roman Catholic Church, which characterized the proceedings of James II. during his short and most unhappy reign, completely alienated the affections of his subjects, and eventually led the best and greatest men of the country to seek the aid of the Prince of Orange, afterwards William III., against the tyranny and oppression to which they were subjected.

The flight of the King, and the successful accomplishment, and glorious results of the Revolution of 1688, speedily followed that movement, and the stable and permanent advantages, and constitutional reforms, that subsequently had their origin in the Bill of Rights, were thus secured to us.

While experiencing those manifold benefits, and realizing the blessed results of the solid guarantees for the maintenance and extension of their liberties, that sprung out of the expulsion of James II., and when there were numbers of living men, who had not only been witnesses, but were also victims of his oppression and misrule, it is passing strange that such a feeling should have existed among any considerable body of the people as could have rendered possible the Rebellions of 1715 and 1745, and have enlisted in favour of the Stuarts, and enrolled among their enthusiastic adherents, many men of high position, and extensive territorial possessions. But, though at the period of the outbreak of 1715, only 27 years had elapsed, and not more than 57 years had passed, when the Rebellion of 1745 occurred, since the Revolution, the resentment, the sense of wrong, and the many painful impressions produced on the public mind by the occurrences of James II.’s fated and luckless reign, though not wholly effaced, had unquestionably been very considerably subdued and obliterated. The sons and grandsons of the brave and devoted Cavaliers, who fought and bled for their King in the bloody fields of Naseby and Worcester, and who sacrificed wealth and life in the royalist cause, clung tenaciously to the recollections associated with those unhappy days, and still sympathised with the fallen fortunes of the Stuarts.