The Battle of Culloden - Scottish History - Extra History

The Scottish Highlands, April 16th 1746.
Prince Charles Edward Stuart has rallied a Rebel Jacobite Army. This group of Scottish Highlanders mixed with Lowland Scots and even French regimens set out to reclaim the throne for Charle's family. However, this would be the final confrontation of the Jacobites against the British

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[CliffCardi]

Fun fact: Many Scots moved to America, and specifically in the Appalachian mountains, the American frontier in the 18th century just so they can have their little clan wars. Two of those feuding clans were the Hatfields and the McCoys.

[raynitaylor]

In high school my history teacher wanted us to do a research paper (the ones with resources listed) on a historical battle. Most students did Civil War battles like Gettysburg and Manassas because there were easy to do. A few rebellious types did battles in ww1 or 2.
I was determined to not do an American military battle. At the time I was reading a Scottish historical fantasy book and read a line referring to the Culloden.
Before the internet was if any real use and way before Wikipedia was conceived, finding information on it was nearly impossible. I combed every vhs tape, book, and cassette tape available, but there just wasn't any information. Then 2 weeks before the due date I decided to try my luck at a local Scottish Fest and came across a historian from Scotland. That dude was ecstatic at my interest in Scottish history and got to work asking folks on the phone to get books sent over.
I was late on my due date but had all my resources and a pretty darn lengthy paper! Got a 120 A+
Still got all the books. Had lost the vhs document years ago though.

[aidanrogers]

I’m glad this highlighted the fact the Jacobite Rebellions weren’t just Scotland vs England, but had complicated political allegiances on both sides.

And just an extra note on Bonnie Prince Charlie, years later he secretly made his way to London for a brief visit but the government didn’t do anything about his presence there because they just did not see him as a genuine threat anymore.

[KesselRunner]

Thanks for showing the multi national factions in this war. One of the biggest misconceptions, even here in Scotland, is that the Jacobite Uprising was a Scottish war for independence. You would not believe the number of Scots who, when the subject of Culloden is raised, start going on about "The bloody English." In the Battle of Culloden, there were almost as many Scots in red coats as there were under Charles' banner, and the aim of the war wasn't to establish a monarchy in Edinburgh, but to put a new one in London. The Scottish Highlanders - many of whom were forced to fight - were used as cannon fodder for people whose ambitions couldn't care less about the nation of Scotland.

[abigailcollins]

Love that they show the basket-hilted claymores of the scots rather than the greatsword. One of those little touches that is so over overlooked.

[Artur_M.]

Fun fact: the other (maternal) grandfather of "Bonnie Prince Charlie" was John III Sobieski. You know, the one of the battle of Vienna fame.

[stevencooper]

“A day to come seems longer than a year that’s gone.”
– Scottish Proverb

[euansmith]

At Culloden, a bayonet is a weapon with a Scotsman at each end.
I love the drawings of horses on this channel.

[abcdef]

I can’t stop being amazed at how Matt describe battles during Extra History episodes. Simply perfect!

[_Hoagie]

I just got back from a UK trip, including a guided tour through the HIghlands to Skye. We stopped at Culloden on the first day, and our Scottish guide emphasized the fact that despite the assumptions of many, this was not another Scottish-English brawl, and was in fact a Scottish vs Scottish & English uprising, known by both sides to be treasonous, and punishable by death. The Jacobites who were killed or executed that day were unceremoniously dumped into mass graves without being identified, and now there are simply stones with the clan names and estimated body count for each one where they were roughly buried.

[rometheawsome]

Love the Celtic themed videos lately, as a descendent of people of the Celtic diasporas both Irish and Scottish I love learning about history of the Celtic peoples in all eras

[jeremy]

This battle is one of those events that I've always heard of as being a pretty pivotal moment in Scotland's history, but I never really delved much deeper into it beyond that. Thanks for making a video on it 😊

[abhishekchaudhry]

I am in Glasgow right now, Scottish people are the most polite and kind people I have ever encountered. I love Scotland ❤️

[gibiuswrecks]

What a great video on a historic battle. My family’s clan didn’t officially take part in the conflict under the direction of the clan chief, but his brother and a smaller fighting force joined the Jacobites. It was fascinating to visit the site of the battle and the museum set up nearby. One thing that I remember from the museum (that I haven’t fact-checked, mind you) is that British infantry were ordered to attack the rebel to their right rather than the one directly in front of them, so that the highlanders (who we can assume were mostly right-handed and carried their shields in their left hands) couldn’t use their shields as effectively. In previous battles where the government infantry had defaulted to squaring off with the foe directly in front of them, the highlanders were able to move their bayonets aside with their shields before attacking with their swords.

[statelyelms]

I actually have been to the site of the Battle of Culloden, there's a very good museum there. So many mass graves. They have exhibits with a 360 degree battle immersion room where soldiers charged st you screaming, grapeshot fired from cannons whizzed over your head and musketsmoke everywhere. They also had a top-down map that shower the battle sped up.

But most impactful for me was the brick wall on the outside of the museum which showed casualties by a brick jutting out a smidge. The Government casualties took up something like to sparse four metres. The Jackobite casualties took up the REST OF THE WALL.

Yeah turns out fighting your enemy exhausted while they they're better equipped, organized and were just trained into reloading muskets lightning fast doesn't end well for you

[iapetusmccool]

People say "history is written by the winners", but the Jacobite Wars are probably a good example of the reverse happening.

They were fighting to restore a royal dynasty that was notorious for asserting a divine right to rule, a religion that was rejected by most English and Scots, and (in the clan system) the last remnants of feudalism. But popular history presents them as romantic heroes, and the war as a war for Scottish independence.

[GabrielForth]

Well done pronouncing Gaelic correctly, my aunt is from Skye and always made sure we pronounced it correctly so now when I hear it incorrectly it has a "nails on chalkboard" effect for me.
It's a small thing I know but when informational channels get it wrong it always makes me cast doubt on their research regarding the rest of their content so I was very happy to hear you get it correct :)

[lakelandbuzz]

"Aghh! My hand. It's been cut off!!!"
"But captain, how can you tell? We don't have arms."

[hallamhal]

I'm glad you looked at the nuances of this, a lot of histories simplify this to battle of highlanders vs lowlanders/brits, when it's really a tangled mess of different clans and regiments fundamentally fighting for a regime change.
(Ps its pronounced Edinburgh, like how it's spelled 😝)

[berdyie]

I really love seeing this deeper dive into the actual combat and tactics of this one battle, as opposed to the normal, more generalized, overview that Extra History keeps to (to save on time, of course, not every battle in their history episodes can be explored as thoroughly). I have a love for history and historical battles, but being able to get a better view on what it was like for the soldiers on the battlefield is a great thing to understanding how these battles transpired. Not to say this is some perfectly in-depth discussion of this particular battle (or even musket warfare in general), but it's definely a nice breath of fresh air than the normal Extra History episodes that are usually much more "zoomed out".

If the Extra History team reads this, it would be awesome to see more single episodes (or, heck, even Youtube Shorts) like this!