#jacobitism

[purplelinks]

7/26/2025: 4

[cuddlytogas]

Fyre sent me an article that made me Lose My Mind, so instead of sending 800 tweets about it, I decided to just write up my thoughts here

so, in re: ET Fox, 'Jacobitism and the Golden Age of Piracy' --

Fox is definitely exaggerating. His logic jumps from 'ship names and alleged toasts', to 'every pirate was one contact away from a confirmed Jacobite', to "a Jacobite maritime community" (296), with little evidence beyond each previous assumption. He does demonstrate a link with popular Jacobitism, but overstates pirates' political commitment by far.

There's one letter to George Camocke, a Jacobite naval officer, suggesting that the pirate fleet should unite under his command and take Bermuda as a Jacobite base, but the source is shaky, and it went nowhere once Woodes Rogers ousted the pirates. (It's I think from 1718 and unsigned? Possibly from Charles Vane and his crew? Fox only says that, "Through these contacts [unspecified, between Vane and English Jacobites] a letter reached George Camocke" (286), which is suspiciously vague, and I can't access the original to check. Either way, it would still only prove the committed politics of one crew.)

Fox also makes a lot of Archibald Hamilton, governor of Jamaica from 1710-16, who commissioned and profited from the anti-Spanish privateers who turned pirate and made up some of the original Bahamas pirates c. 1715. Since "it has been suggested that [Hamilton] was a Jacobite supporter" (283), Fox claims that these establishing pirates were also committed Jacobites, and therefore the whole pirate community that grew around them must have been. (Which leads to Fox then being baffled when there's no direct evidence of Jacobitism among some of them, such as the crews of Anstis, Fenn, or Rackham.) He relies on these assumptions, and then claims that every connection between pirates proves their mutual Jacobite sympathies.

It's much more likely (and in line with the historians I've read so far) that the Jacobite toasts and ship names speak to a broader anti-authoritarianism among pirates, with no evidence of committed Jacobite actions by them, eg, specifically targeting Hanoverian ships, or materially supporting or trying to support Jacobite rebels beyond that one letter. Indeed, the 1710s/20s pirates are generally agreed to be distinct for not adhering to religious/national loyalties like the C17th pirates usually did. (I'm so sorry, I haven't consolidated my notes yet, but I know Marcus Rediker goes through this, as does Kris E Lane, and I think Tim Travers and David Cordingly.)

Fox does identify a correlation between the rise and fall of Jacobitism and piracy over the mid/late 1710s, but attributes a pretty shaky causation: pirates ceased their Jacobite loyalties due to the suppression of Jacobitism in Britain and Europe. A much more obvious explanation is that both anti-authoritarian movements simultaneously flourished in the post-war, post-succession instability, then were both quashed as the new regime established itself and cracked down on rebels.

So, did many pirates espouse Jacobite sympathies? Yes! They named their ships in favour of Jacobite causes and rulers, and there are plenty of reports of them toasting to King James / the Pretender. (Which it must be said, although the sheer volume lends a ring of truth to the trend, individual claims should be taken with a grain of salt, as Jacobitism was a common accusation against criminals at the time, with or without a basis.)

Does that mean that the 1710s Caribbean pirate community was centred around a heart of politically committed Jacobites, as Fox argues, or largely motivated by Jacobite sentiments? Yeah, probably not.

Anyway, I am SO sorry that this article got me riled up XD the whole point of this is to say, I've never read anywhere that "many pirates were Jacobites driven out of Britain", which I KNOW wasn't even your main point, but I am unfortunately Insane. We can and should talk about expressions of pro-Jacobitism and actual political engagement among 'Golden Age' pirates, but what we know of their actual actions and espoused ideals doesn't speak to a trend of committed Jacobite politics beyond a general loyalty to rebellious causes.

[milenapetrofig]

Royal Stuarts

Outside Ireland Jacobitism was strongest in the western Scottish Highlands, Perthshire and Aberdeenshire and areas of Northern England with a high proportion of Catholics such as western Lancashire, Northumberland and County Durham. Sympathisers were also present in parts of Wales, the West Midlands and South West England to some degree overlapping with areas that were strongly Royalist during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.

In addition to the 1689 to 1691 Williamite War in Ireland and the Jacobite rising of 1689 in Scotland there were serious revolts in 1715, 1719 and 1745. French backed invasion attempts in 1708 and 1744 and several unsuccessful plots. While the 1745 rising briefly threatened the Hanoverian monarchy and forced the recall of British troops from Continental Europe its collapse and withdrawal of French support in 1748 ended Jacobitism as a serious political movement.

Jacobite ideology originated with James VI and I first monarch of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1603. Its basis was divine right which claimed his authority came from God and the crown's descent by hereditary right.

As the first step towards union James I began standardising religious practices between the churches of England, Scotland and Ireland. After his death in 1625 his son Charles I lacked his political sensitivity by the late 1630s instituting personal rule in 1629 enforced by an Archbishop Laud in reforms on the Church of England. Ruling without Parliament led to the English Civil War. Similar measures in Scotland caused the Bishops' Wars in 1639 and 1640 and installation of a Covenanter government.   

The elder son of James Francis Edward Stuart grandson of James II and VII and the Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1766 as Charles III was named by the Whigs the Young Pretender and the Young Chevalier in popular memory known as Bonnie Prince Charlie..

[racefortheironthrone]

So the Irish and Scots supported the Jacobite cause in the hopes that the king was going to let them go their own way? Despite the Stuarts being pretty much "my way or the highway"? Was it a hope or did they have some kind of assurances from James? Or was home rule more in line with conventional monarchy but not the parliamentary one?

Look, political ideology isn't always rational and we're talking late 17th/early 18th century political ideology which had barely begun to be worked out, and we're talking about a movement that was generally pretty conservative for its time.

But....the idea was that, because James and his successors were the rightful kings anointed by God, they would not oppress their subjects because A. they had a sense of personal honor, and B. God wouldn't let them. Not joking about that last bit.

[racefortheironthrone]

Why did the Blackfyres keep attacking for decades, despite failure after failure? I guess they're modelled after the Jacobites, so why did the Jacobites keep attacking?

While there are some commonalities between the different Rebellions, I do think that a bunch of them were sui generis and others were strongly influenced by what had happened the previous Rebellion.

So for example, the Second Rebellion was motivated pretty strongly by a sense that Bloodraven and Aerys I had so badly mishandled the royal government that a Blackfyre Rebellion would develop something of a bandwagon effect as disaffected nobles heard that a Blackfyre had landed in Westeros and hatched a dragon egg, and perhaps even something of a populist uprising as people were finally able to vent their frustrations about plagues, droughts, famine, and a royal government that did not care.

The Third Rebellion was motivated by a sense that they would not repeat the mistakes of the Second, that while the Targaryen regime was still a bit shaky, that Bittersteel and the Golden Company would cross the Narrow Sea this time so that the rising could not be easily squashed, and that they would march behind a Blackfyre king who had been given the sword so that no one who had fought for Daemon would forget that here was the rightful king. And I think this one was probably the high-water mark for the Blackfyres.

The Fourth was largely motivated by the conclusion of the Third - namely, the murder of Haegon Blackfyre after he had surrendered honorably. This violation of the laws of chivalry and kinslaying, when combined with Bloodraven's equally treacherous murder of Aenys Blackfyre after he'd been given a promise of safe conduct, created a strong sense of grievance, that House Targaryen in the person of Bloodraven was a house of dishonorable murderers who held power only because they assassinated Daemon's children and them himself at the Weeping Ridge, then murdered Haegon, then murdered Aenys.

Whereas the War of Ninepenny Kings seems to have been entirely opportunistic.

As for the Jacobites, it was really motivated by religion (Jacobites tended to be Catholic or quasi-Catholic High Church Anglicans, while William & Mary, Queen Anne, and the Hanoverians were all Protestant), belief in divinely-sanctioned monarchy instead of the corruption of Parliament, and a nationalist desire among the Irish and Scots to get out from under the thumb of the British Empire especially following the Act of Union in Scotland and the Protestant Ascendency in Ireland.

[aaronjhill]

I am trying to understand Jacobitism

“The word ‘Jacobitism’ means loyalty to the exiled Stuarts, after James VII of Scotland and II of England was deposed by the English parliament in January 1689, and the Scottish parliament a couple of months later. James had already fled to France. The Jacobite cause involved loyalty to James—and his son and later grandson, Charles Edward Stuart—and a desire to restore them to the crowns of England, Scotland, and Ireland.”

[milfitinstitute]

What was the Flight of the Wild Geese?

What was the Flight of the Wild Geese?

Introduction The Flight of the Wild Geese was the departure of an Irish Jacobite army under the command of Patrick Sarsfield from Ireland to France, as agreed in the Treaty of Limerick on 03 October 1691, following the end of the Williamite War in Ireland. More broadly, the term Wild Geese is used in Irish history to refer to Irish soldiers who left to serve in continental European armies in…

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What was the Planned French Invasion of Britain (1708)?

What was the Planned French Invasion of Britain (1708)?

Introduction The Planned French Invasion of Britain, 1708, also known as the ‘Entreprise d’Écosse’, took place during the War of the Spanish Succession. The French planned to land 5,000-6,000 soldiers in northeast Scotland to support a rising by local Jacobites that would restore James Francis Edward Stuart to the throne of Great Britain. Despite French commander Claude de Forbin warning the…

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