Capturing the Capital: Edinburgh in the Last Jacobite Rising

In September 1745, the Jacobite army of Prince Charles Edward Stuart arrived in Edinburgh on its campaign to restore the royal house of Stuart to the throne. They found a city of towering tenements over cramped, narrow streets, but a community on the cusp of enlightenment. As if to symbolise these contrasts, the Jacobite prince appeared as both a symbol of a lost past and a vision for a different future.

This is the story of Edinburgh’s experience of the last Jacobite Rising, from its unexpected capture by the Jacobites to its recovery by the government. Rooted in the words of those who experienced it, supporters of both sides, it is an exploration of the tensions and traumas of life within Scotland’s capital city during one of the country’s most famous historical episodes. It brings to life the streets and citizens of Edinburgh in 1745 as they struggled to balance political ideology with self-preservation amid an increasingly bitter conflict.