The armies of the Old Pretender disbanded at Aberdeen - On this day in history

The Jacobite uprising of 1715 came to its end as the armies of James Francis Edward Stuart disbanded at Aberdeen on 7 February 1716. The 'Old Pretender' James Stuart had fled to France three days earlier and it would be another thirty years before his son Charles would try to claim the throne - the man later known to history as Bonnie Prince Charlie.

The Fifteen Jacobite rising

The Fifteen Rising - taken from the year in which it occured, 1715, was ill-fated from the start. The supporters of James Stuart aimed to put him on the throne as King James VIII of Scotland but their ambitions were thwarted following their failings at the Battle of Sheriffmuir and James's illness whilst in Scotland, which forced him to cancel a planned coronation at Scone and return to France, where he had been living under the protection of King Louis XIV of France.

James died in Rome on 1 January 1766 and is buried in the crypt at the Basilica in the Vatican. As pretender to the throne, James's wait for the crown - 64 years, three months and 16 days, is longer than the reign of any British monarch.
 

QUICK LINK: The Jacobite '45 reconsidered