7. Lord Mar’s revolt in 1715 led to mass trials for treason and executions
Queen Anne had a half-brother, James Edward, who was living in exile in France and who was excluded from ascending to the throne because of his Catholicism. The Jacobite faction in Scotland desired the restoration of James Edward and the House of Stuart to the by then combined thrones of Scotland and England. In 1714, Queen Anne died, her heir had been a distantly related Princess Sophie of the German House of Hanover. Sophie’s son was invited to accept the throne by the Whigs in Parliament, and the House of Hanover became the Royal Family of Great Britain, with George I as King of a nation whose native language was beyond his linguistic abilities. James Edward, urged by supporters in Scotland to depose the new king, appealed to the Papal States for aid.
As Jacobite representatives plotted on the continent and in the British Isles, the Earl of Mar – without the instruction or permission of James Edward – raised his (Edward’s) standard as the rightful King of England and Scotland, hoping to gain British support against a German monarch. By October 1715 most of northern Scotland was under the control of Mar’s troops. By late November British and Scottish Jacobites had joined together in western England, where they were opposed by Royal troops. This combined Jacobite army suffered a defeat at the hands of the English at the Battle of Preston. Over 1,400 Jacobite troops surrendered to the British and imprisoned, tried for treason, and sentenced to death. Most of those who had not been executed were pardoned in 1717, except for the specifically excluded Clan Gregor.