No, it's not. It's full of serious misinformation - lots of it. Some of the atrocities committed after the battle are accurate - but so much is based on Prebble's book which Prof Sir Tom Devine called 'faction' - fiction with a bit of fact. One example: we know know from multiple primary sources that clan Donald did NOT refuse to charge - that's not what happened. Nor did Elcho call out the insult to Charles (that was made up by Walter Scott in 1822).
Such an incredible documentary. This is my first time watching it, I’ve seen Outlander and I have always had a genuine love of knowledge of world history. To have it broken down to the roots of how it went so disastrously is both deeply sad and enlightening (if you don’t learn your history, you’re doomed to repeat it.) My great grandfather, still living, is Mexican. He married an English woman in the 1950’s. I’m now married to a Scottish man. My great grandfather’s love (and respect) of history was passed onto me, I hope to continue on learning as much as possible within the heritage of my ancestors and my husband as a tribute as my grandfather ages and is so sadden with his losses with dementia. I know he’s always been proud of my thirst for historic knowledge.
@brazenbull7567, What actually made this so real was the research done by John Prebble ,who wrote the story. He was born in Saskatchewan, Canada of Yorkshire parents. I believe he spent most of his life in England. He also wrote "Mutiny" which was an account of the Highlanders forced into the Redcoats and sent overseas.
Watched part of it as a very young child in 1964 before my mum switched off the tv because it was too disturbing. Watched it again about five years later and it was and is still disturbing.
I was 12 and my mum ( Scots ) watched it - it was quite profound an experience and a sign of the real vibrancy of 60’s culture and Arrival of Harold Wilsons government…bbc was on the ball then
I remember watching this presentation on the old NET network in 1964 as a thirteen-year-old. The presentation of this English import was unlike anything I had ever seen before on American TV. A great piece of film making.
1:10:29 "On an April morning I no longer hear birdsong or the lowing of cattle on the moor. I hear the unpleasant noise of sheep and the English language, dogs barking and frightening the deer."
Although they run down the Jacobite leaders at the start of this film, their men had been rampaging across Northern England before this with great success. Little wonder they were battle weary and worn down. I think most of the men who took part in that last charge knew it was folly. Their bravery in the face of a a well-trained and supplied army should have shamed and haunted Charles Stuart to his final days.
@@alancumming6407probably because he was quite well respected by the Jacobite army. He was often seen marching with his men in mud unlike the government forces where the higher ups aee riding horses. Imo the biggest reason the jacobites failed isn't because they weren't capable of winning because prior to Culloden and some other battles. The Jacobites did well. They failed because the French invasion that was meant to coincide with the jacobite incursion into England never happened.
@@-._A2._- I thought this was his part in the war of the Austrian Succession and was trying for success by any means. It doesn't explain why he thought to lead these men in a place like Culloden, flat ground against a well trained and disciplined force, with no element of surprise. Overly romanticised figure in my opinion with perhaps too little thought for those who believed in his 'cause'.
@@alancumming6407You should check out some of the newer books on the 45. You are taught the Hanoverian side. There's more to it that the princess arrogant an dumb. Its not true an there's way more factors that led to this battle. Our ancestors weren't fools to follow them, we just seem to forget the winners write the history books.
Trying to figure out how a low-budget, B+W, 70+ year old docu-drama managed to make a better war movie than anything I’ve seen made in the last 20 years.
" They looked like so many butchers than christian soldiers " . So spoke an english witness referring the behaviour of the loyalist troops in the aftermath of the battle.
Glad you enjoyed the film. By the 1740s, the Stuarts weren't popular in the lowlands. Treatment of the rebels was harsh, they were seen as guilty of treason.
I like both this and The War Game, but I think this is Watkins' best of the two. Despite a few slips, he did a great job of portraying what it ultimately was: the desperate final battle in a British civil war with a wider European dimension, with a lot of innocent people used as pawns.
This is really good !!! Highly informative… just been to Culloden … if you go you must do a guided battlefield tour organised at the visitors centre .. excellent !!!
There were Scots on both sides. 1/4 of the regular army Government forces were Scottish regiments. With the militia, far more Scots fought against the Jacobites. The Jacobites didn’t have a monopoly on Scottish nationality.
@@advanceaustralia3513none of that, which he knows, takes anything away from what he just said 🤷🏻♂️ although he may be forgetting the Picts that the Gaels shared the Highlands with, and the Anglo-Saxons in the Lowlands and conquered territory on who's account Scotland as a nation started speaking English a thousand years ago, and the Normans in the Courts, Castles and Royal Households, such as the Bruce.
Outstanding filmmaking. I would warn viewers though that the scholarship behind it is quite dated - we now know from archaeology that the Jacobites mostly had French muskets, and the artillery ammo was in fact the right size. Many of the Jacobites were not actually Highlanders - their ranks included lowlanders, and even some Englishmen. Most of the "English" government army was Lowland Scots. Mr O'Sullivan was a professional soldier in his 40s, while Murray was not and had not seen action since 1719. Murray's criticisms of O'Sullivan are now thought to have been meant to deflect criticism from his own conduct, including the botched night attack (which was actually Murray's idea.) Most British junior officers at this time were poorly paid, and had purchased their commissions in cheaper militia units before transferring. They were not, for the most part, wealthy rakes. The Jacobites did not lose because they were poorly equipped or ill-supplied, they lost because they were outnumbered, had no significant cavalry force to speak of, and had a command structure that was in complete chaos.
Yeah, I find, this now over dramatic, it does talk about the ordinary people who were fighting this war. The film takes a class veiw of the battle of Culloden.
But it was hugely bias against the jocobites in the first quote Charles Stuart is proclaimed to have no military experience what so ever even though he had already won many battles and come as close as Derby to taking England
Bias aside the truth is there. Charlie did not know what the heck he was doing! If this drama is outdated and biased as many commenters state then why do military historians stand by it. The field was wrong for battle, the jacobite troops were in chaos, Stuart listened to the wrong men and their tactics were outdated and foolish. Yes the Jacobites got as far as Derby but ask yourself why they had to retreat back ! The truth was Culloden was the result of centuries of Clan conflict, blood fued, vengence and blind devotion to religion. That combined resulted in massacre and deletion of human rights. And Charlie? He got away to drink away in comfort. Leave the romance for Outlander, this is reality. Carnage and folly. RIP to ALL the soldiers that fought n died for the wealthy fools
I don't know where you are getting that O Sullivan was an experienced soldier , or that Lord George Murray used him as an excuse for his own failures .
This is brilliant rendition. If this was how the Stuart monarchy's arrogance handled leadership, it is well that they never got the throne back. Total waste of the lives of hard working men with no freedom in the clan system. Makes you sad for them even today.
And yet Scottish culture and people still exist and have spread to every corner of the world with ingenuity, courage, and strength that England could not quite extinguish.
I see John Prebble was adviser for this production. His account, "Culloden" well repays reading, as does his "History of Scotland". I look forward one day to reading his account of the Highland clearances - forced migration long before Mengistu's dictatorship in Ethiopia.
A truly excellent presentation of history. So very sad what horror and pain was wrought on these brave Scots. Small wonder Charles had to be rescued, by a brave Scots woman, to escape again across the sea. So very sad, that this ill considered battle ripped a great gaping hole in the highland clans. It is scarcely believable how Charles Stuart managed to utterly ignore Lord Murray. Murray, the only experienced senior officer among Charles` advisors.
No - it's not. Charles Edward did not ignore Murray - that's utter bunk - see the better scholarship of Prof Murray Pittock and Dr Christopher Duffy on the battle. If you knew more about the history, you would know that long before the '45 Rising, plans were being made to destroy the Highland culture (per the writing of clan chiefs Lochiel and MacLean) This was their last chance.
Almost right. The Scots renamed the awful smelling common ragwort Stinking Billy, whilst the English renamed the beautiful and aromatic dianthus baubatus - Sweet William.
It not surprising since Irish and scot cathixs were transported to the Caribbean as indeturedvsetvents and labourers, under punitve laws, to keep them from formenting a rebellion with enslaved African against the English plantocracy.
Actually a young boy of 13 in those days was an adult. Children as young as 7 or so were just young labourers.Teenagers certainly did not exist until the 1950’s.
It's a superb documentary.. it's a wee bit dated because it still presents the war as Scots vs English.. at the time the British government were careful to refer to their army as the BRITISH Army..this was because Cumberland was very conscious of maintaining the loyalty of the lowland Scots.
absolutely! Cumberland's success was due to the presence of so many Scots in his army. The Jacobite cause was not popular with most Scots. Just listen to Burns' on the subject with his poem "Ye Jacobites by Name" and you will see why mosy Scots opposed Charles Stuart.
The Scots always like to forget, the English Army had a lot of Scottish soldiers in it in this battle. The Stuarts still believed in the divine right of Kings.
Most Scots seem to believe that England was solely responsible, but many low-landers supported the English Crown. Stuart support was from the highlanders.
There was no "English Army." It was the British Army. The film mentions once that more Scots fought for the government than for the Jacobites. Clan Campbell fought for the government in Culloden.
@@VileFemboyAlso this would not be grammatically correct, the "an" does not fit in that sentence. Any idea why he is speaking german? I guess some british nobles had ties to Germany or were related to Germans?
@@jericx4852 Thanks! I suspect that a few German aristos followed the Hanoverian dynasty to the UK, which is reflected here. The actors were probably British, hence the bad German.
Remember, the Highland Clans were unspeakably brutal. Don’t be fooled into thinking the British government troops were any more monstrous. In clan feuds, the wounded and non-combatants were frequently slaughtered. And when government troops fled (e.g. Killiecrankie, Prestonpans…) the Jacobite clansmen never gave them any mercy.
Records of clan battles rarely seem to bear this claim out and more often than not clan battles resulted in relatively few dead for the size of the army. Importantly, does this claim really justify occupation and oppression by a foreign country in your mind? BTW, the Jacobites did take prisoners after Prestonpans, around 500 from a force of 2,000
@@debbiegilmour6171 An account written by James Johnstone, a Jacobite officer, describing the slaughter at Prestonpans: '[those British soldiers which] threw down their arms, and begged for quarter upon their knees, were cut inhumanely.... such who fled into the enclosures were pursued and murdered...'
@@debbiegilmour6171 Battle of the Spoiling Dyke, Isle of Uist "massacre cave" incident and the Campbell-MacDonald feud are just a few examples of clan brutality. Few casualties for combatants in clan battles is because the clan levies were small in size and warfare was usually based on raiding/hit and run. However, there were exceptions to this norm, like at the Battle of the Shirts (nearly 100% casualties for both sides!)
Clan brutality and feuding certainly justified a full military occupation of the Highlands and government disarming acts. That was the only way of bringing law and order to northern Scotland.
Research the Battle of the Spoiling Dyke, the Isle of Uist "massacre cave" incident and the Campbell-MacDonald feud to find out how non-combatants were treated in clan feuds. The relatively small number of casualties among combatants in clan battles was down to the Highlanders' preference for small-scale raiding (using hit and run tactics). However, at the Battle of the Shirts, both sides suffered nearly 100% casualties!
My family and those of many of my American and Caribean Friends are in the western hemesphere because of this. I am descended from MacLaughlains. They were in with MacDonalds and Campbells.
The stuarts and wee bonnie prince charlie jacobite rebellion ultimate aim was to usrp the legitimate crown from the House of Hannover, and they paid the price of their folly.
The Prince was badly advised to fight on open ground. A retreat to his HQ at Inverness would have made military sense. The government forces would have found their supply lines stretched.
Didn't Murray tell the Prince he shouldn't have fought at culloden moor !? He told them it would suit the British army the cannons their cavalry & infantry . I havnt watched this video But I did read about Murray a few years ago. They say he was a great commander it was because of him they got as far as derby That they won at Preston pans and other battles . From what I remember Prince charley blamed him and didn't want to know him after culloden,.
and English Jacobites too; Manchester Regiment for example. Just made sense to launch the rebellion in the highlands where you could take advantage of limited government control and residual Stuart loyalty among certain clans.
Its a myth that many of the clansmen had swords . Most were very poor and carried farming implements and general tools . It was really mostly the officers that carried a sword or musket .
when your average 1960s BBC documentary with a shoestring budget and totally amateur first time 'actors' chosen from random townspeople is more entertaining than Hollywood 😆
Shoestring budget and amateur actors might be right, but I don't think this docu was ever 'average'. Made a huge impression on me (aged 9) and those of my classmates who were allowed to watch it (many weren't). Didn't see Culloden again for 40 years, but could never forget it.
God bless their Brave souls It was more or less the same result as the Irish suffered at vinegar hill which was twice the size in scale of culloden obliterated with grape shot cannon fire
They try to crap on the bonny Prince, he didn't have a foreign accent, he was raised in the exiled Stewart court by English and Scottish tutors. He was also sent to military schools, the whole point of his life was to be a warrior prince. They hate on him because he rebelled against the establishment. The Hanoverian propaganda persists to this day. They'll make him out to be this way but they'll never mention he won more battles than he lost. which was one. Drummossie moor. Theres a wealth of knowledge coming out on the 45, an alot of it was ignored because it didn't go well with the modern narrative. The hielan men with they're lang swords were right.
Ah but the Hanoverian propoganda fails with the rise of Scottish nationalist propoganda. Many people like to think that Culloden was a battle fought between the Scot’s and English but it was so much more then that, it was in many ways a civil war with English, Welsh, Irish and Scottish all fighting each other in both the Hanoverian and Jacobite ranks.
He didn't "rebel against the establishment" He wasn't a bonnie free rebel The jacobites fought for absolute monarchy and the divine right of kings. They later on fought to crush the american war of independence They were enemies of freedom and liberty and lovers of absolute monarchy and open tyranny.
Without wishing to sound pedantic, those drums are not correct for the era. Those are modern drums with mechanical tensioning. Drums from this era would have been Rope tensioned and would not have Kevlar heads.
So glad my Scottish ancestors made the voyage to America, where, after the revolution, self determination was and is the ladder to upward mobility. No matter how hard you worked in the old country, you remained in debt, enslaved, and conscripted. God rest their mighty souls
It's not a bed of roses now, is it. The States have hardly known more than 30 years when it wasn't fighting a war since its inception and, had they arrived at this time, they would have landed right in the middle of a nation when slavery was still legal. Vote for Tulsi Gabbard and you might get some of the American dream back.
(Those single rail cannons look more like mid to late 19th Century. But if course most people wouldn't know that and their effect is more important here anyway.)
@@Desert-Father The begining of your comment ≠ the ending. Try again... this time without bias. Here, I'll help: I did not pick a side, I spoken in general as an observer. I saw an acknowledgement of authority, that gave it credence, which was very absurd to me. Meaning royalty on both sides in dispute, lining up men for slaughter, then culling them for their own ends. Again... I did not pick a side, I simply observed, and thought to myself what a shame for brothers to kill one anouther, over some pompus royal dispute that they have nothing to do with. What gave these pompus royals the rite to do that? Then I thought: Why give a pompus royal authority over you, by acknowledgeing their dogma, and thereby giving their authority credence? NO! I say If the royals have a dispute THEN LET THEM SETTLE IT THEMSELVES!!! Meaning they can pick up a rifle or pistol, and settle it ON THEIR OWN!! Hope I helped break the royal cults grip on your mind.
@Ed-ty1kr If you can't see how this is blatant propaganda, you need a history lesson. The English narrator just describe a clan system that existed for hundreds of years as "ruthless" knowing full well that the English systematically destroyed it in one of the most brutal acts of genocide in the history of the British Isles. This film is a relic of a time when they described the British Empire as it was a positive.
If you consult the better scholarship of Prof Murray Pittock (Glasgow) and Dr Christopher Duffy (most respected military historian on Culloden) you will find that so much of what's in this film is pure bunk. Charles Edward did not ignore Murray's advice - the choice of the field was made by the entire Jacobite Command - lots of documentary evidence to support that. It's just one instance of the anti-Stuart bias of this English made film.
And Duffy was 17 or 18 years old in 1964. Historical scholarship is constantly revised by nature. Poor interpretations are being re-examined all the time. The later, more complicated accounts did not exist when Watkins made this film. It is also not really intended to be a commentary on the history but rather an allegory for the Vietnam War (that critics did not notice this always bothered Watkins) and, more importantly, a means to convey the social history of the conflict and the lived experience of people thrust into conflicts dictated by people beyond their control.
Amazing film! Man's inhumanity to man. Many deserts have thus been renamed "peace." May God have mercy on us all.
Brilliant docudrama. Watched it as a kid in 1964.
No it's not - its full of Cumberland's propaganda from Prebble's book. Lots of misinformation in it.
Ditto
I saw this on PBS TV in the late 60's or early 70's. I've never forgotten it.
I remember thinking that it was so realistic when it first showed on PBS
When it went out in the UK in 1964, my dad thought it so important he allowed me and my 2 brothers ( 11, 9 and 7 yrs old) to stay up to watch it. 👍
I remember watching it in 1964, never forgot it. I remember lots of the government troops were lowland Scots.
That's because it was made up nonsense
The best docu dramas ever made......first watched it 45 years ago at school...hit hard then....just watched it again....still just as powerful..
No, it's not. It's full of serious misinformation - lots of it. Some of the atrocities committed after the battle are accurate - but so much is based on Prebble's book which Prof Sir Tom Devine called 'faction' - fiction with a bit of fact. One example: we know know from multiple primary sources that clan Donald did NOT refuse to charge - that's not what happened. Nor did Elcho call out the insult to Charles (that was made up by Walter Scott in 1822).
Yeah me too, I was a kid and it left. A strong impression, both for the subject matter and the style of documentary making.
The docu drama that got me interested in military history and eventually to get a degree..my eternal thanks to my teacher Mrs Elizabeth Hooton x
Such an incredible documentary. This is my first time watching it, I’ve seen Outlander and I have always had a genuine love of knowledge of world history. To have it broken down to the roots of how it went so disastrously is both deeply sad and enlightening (if you don’t learn your history, you’re doomed to repeat it.)
My great grandfather, still living, is Mexican. He married an English woman in the 1950’s. I’m now married to a Scottish man. My great grandfather’s love (and respect) of history was passed onto me, I hope to continue on learning as much as possible within the heritage of my ancestors and my husband as a tribute as my grandfather ages and is so sadden with his losses with dementia. I know he’s always been proud of my thirst for historic knowledge.
@brazenbull7567, What actually made this so real was the research done by John Prebble ,who wrote the story. He was born in Saskatchewan, Canada of Yorkshire parents. I believe he spent most of his life in England. He also wrote "Mutiny" which was an account of the Highlanders forced into the Redcoats and sent overseas.
Watched part of it as a very young child in 1964 before my mum switched off the tv because it was too disturbing. Watched it again about five years later and it was and is still disturbing.
I was 12 and my mum ( Scots ) watched it - it was quite profound an experience and a sign of the real vibrancy of 60’s culture and Arrival of Harold Wilsons government…bbc was on the ball then
I saw it as a kid in the late 60's. Tom Weir did a two part programme about Charlie's journey after Culloden and is worth a watch.
What a brutal and harsh existence back in those days.
This deeply affected me when I saw it at the Royal Armouries when I was a child.
I remember watching this presentation on the old NET network in 1964 as a thirteen-year-old. The presentation of this English import was unlike anything I had ever seen before on American TV. A great piece of film making.
1:10:29 "On an April morning I no longer hear
birdsong or the lowing of cattle on the moor.
I hear the unpleasant noise of sheep
and the English language, dogs barking
and frightening the deer."
If the film makers wanted to show the horror of war and its impact on everyday people they did ti.
Although they run down the Jacobite leaders at the start of this film, their men had been rampaging across Northern England before this with great success. Little wonder they were battle weary and worn down. I think most of the men who took part in that last charge knew it was folly. Their bravery in the face of a a well-trained and supplied army should have shamed and haunted Charles Stuart to his final days.
Exactly. They had little chance of success and Charles must have known this. Why there is a romantic notion about him is a bit of a mystery.
@@alancumming6407probably because he was quite well respected by the Jacobite army. He was often seen marching with his men in mud unlike the government forces where the higher ups aee riding horses.
Imo the biggest reason the jacobites failed isn't because they weren't capable of winning because prior to Culloden and some other battles. The Jacobites did well. They failed because the French invasion that was meant to coincide with the jacobite incursion into England never happened.
@@-._A2._- I thought this was his part in the war of the Austrian Succession and was trying for success by any means. It doesn't explain why he thought to lead these men in a place like Culloden, flat ground against a well trained and disciplined force, with no element of surprise. Overly romanticised figure in my opinion with perhaps too little thought for those who believed in his 'cause'.
@@alancumming6407You should check out some of the newer books on the 45. You are taught the Hanoverian side. There's more to it that the princess arrogant an dumb. Its not true an there's way more factors that led to this battle. Our ancestors weren't fools to follow them, we just seem to forget the winners write the history books.
@@Sonny-m1f So he didn't lead his tired followers into battle on flat ground with no element of surprise against a well trained and disciplined force?
With a name like Watkins, you KNOW it's tip quality!
Trying to figure out how a low-budget, B+W, 70+ year old docu-drama managed to make a better war movie than anything I’ve seen made in the last 20 years.
If you liked this you should watch 'The massacre of Glencoe'
I've had both on my hard drive since I was a teenager!
I'm 39 this year.
absolutely stunning docudrama
" They looked like so many butchers than christian soldiers " . So spoke an english witness referring the behaviour of the loyalist troops in the aftermath of the battle.
What a cold open!!!
And the rest of the film more than fulfills the promise of that open.
Peter Watkins is a genius.
As a scotsman, can confirm
Masterpiece.
Glad you enjoyed the film. By the 1740s, the Stuarts weren't popular in the lowlands. Treatment of the rebels was harsh, they were seen as guilty of treason.
Molto bello e interessante.
Saluti dall'Italia.
I like both this and The War Game, but I think this is Watkins' best of the two. Despite a few slips, he did a great job of portraying what it ultimately was: the desperate final battle in a British civil war with a wider European dimension, with a lot of innocent people used as pawns.
It wasn’t civil war it was England invading Scotland 🏴 Scot’s aren’t British we are Scot’s
@@Parker_Douglas Janice, I'll just be charitable here: you evidently do not have a clue what you are talking about.
It's not a civil war and to frame it as such is disingenuous, I mean for fuck sake the Jacobites rejected British rule!
This is really good !!! Highly informative… just been to Culloden … if you go you must do a guided battlefield tour organised at the visitors centre .. excellent !!!
Scotland is still here🏴 Gaelic is still spoken💪
There were Scots on both sides. 1/4 of the regular army Government forces were Scottish regiments. With the militia, far more Scots fought against the Jacobites.
The Jacobites didn’t have a monopoly on Scottish nationality.
@@advanceaustralia3513none of that, which he knows, takes anything away from what he just said 🤷🏻♂️
although he may be forgetting the Picts that the Gaels shared the Highlands with, and the Anglo-Saxons in the Lowlands and conquered territory on who's account Scotland as a nation started speaking English a thousand years ago, and the Normans in the Courts, Castles and Royal Households, such as the Bruce.
@@advanceaustralia3513 "Culloden was Scotland vs England"
Black Watch: "are we a joke to you"
Outstanding filmmaking. I would warn viewers though that the scholarship behind it is quite dated - we now know from archaeology that the Jacobites mostly had French muskets, and the artillery ammo was in fact the right size. Many of the Jacobites were not actually Highlanders - their ranks included lowlanders, and even some Englishmen. Most of the "English" government army was Lowland Scots. Mr O'Sullivan was a professional soldier in his 40s, while Murray was not and had not seen action since 1719. Murray's criticisms of O'Sullivan are now thought to have been meant to deflect criticism from his own conduct, including the botched night attack (which was actually Murray's idea.)
Most British junior officers at this time were poorly paid, and had purchased their commissions in cheaper militia units before transferring. They were not, for the most part, wealthy rakes.
The Jacobites did not lose because they were poorly equipped or ill-supplied, they lost because they were outnumbered, had no significant cavalry force to speak of, and had a command structure that was in complete chaos.
Yeah, I find, this now over dramatic, it does talk about the ordinary people who were fighting this war. The film takes a class veiw of the battle of Culloden.
But it was hugely bias against the jocobites in the first quote Charles Stuart is proclaimed to have no military experience what so ever even though he had already won many battles and come as close as Derby to taking England
Bias aside the truth is there. Charlie did not know what the heck he was doing! If this drama is outdated and biased as many commenters state then why do military historians stand by it. The field was wrong for battle, the jacobite troops were in chaos, Stuart listened to the wrong men and their tactics were outdated and foolish. Yes the Jacobites got as far as Derby but ask yourself why they had to retreat back ! The truth was Culloden was the result of centuries of Clan conflict, blood fued, vengence and blind devotion to religion. That combined resulted in massacre and deletion of human rights. And Charlie? He got away to drink away in comfort. Leave the romance for Outlander, this is reality. Carnage and folly. RIP to ALL the soldiers that fought n died for the wealthy fools
I don't know where you are getting that O Sullivan was an experienced soldier , or that Lord George Murray used him as an excuse for his own failures .
@@TheSavagederek Murray Pittock's book on Culloden is an excellent source.
I swear clips of this were shown at the Museum at the battlefield when I was there.
This is brilliant rendition. If this was how the Stuart monarchy's arrogance handled leadership, it is well that they never got the throne back. Total waste of the lives of hard working men with no freedom in the clan system. Makes you sad for them even today.
Incredible moving telling of this terrible saga. Shows what can be done with so few extras if only the director is faithful to the history
And yet Scottish culture and people still exist and have spread to every corner of the world with ingenuity, courage, and strength that England could not quite extinguish.
Didn't it say civil war ?
@@robbiemcc4355 I cant remember does it matter what "it" calls it? apart from the fact that is a wrong description.
Grazie.
Thank you so much for the SuperThanks. It means allot to us!
I see John Prebble was adviser for this production. His account, "Culloden" well repays reading, as does his "History of Scotland". I look forward one day to reading his account of the Highland clearances - forced migration long before Mengistu's dictatorship in Ethiopia.
I read Prebble’s book on a train in Thailand on the way to Australia.
As a Cameron this makes me shiver!
As a Hanoverian and scion of Cumberland im sorry for your loss
A truly excellent presentation of history. So very sad what horror and pain was wrought on these brave Scots. Small wonder Charles had to be rescued, by a brave Scots woman, to escape again across the sea. So very sad, that this ill considered battle ripped a great gaping hole in the highland clans. It is scarcely believable how Charles Stuart managed to utterly ignore Lord Murray. Murray, the only experienced senior officer among Charles` advisors.
Ye cannae hurray a Murray.
No - it's not. Charles Edward did not ignore Murray - that's utter bunk - see the better scholarship of Prof Murray Pittock and Dr Christopher Duffy on the battle. If you knew more about the history, you would know that long before the '45 Rising, plans were being made to destroy the Highland culture (per the writing of clan chiefs Lochiel and MacLean) This was their last chance.
I had tostop watching at 30 mins for a bit. A sick feeling in the stomach.
The Duke of Cumberland still known today as Stinky Billy.
Almost right. The Scots renamed the awful smelling common ragwort Stinking Billy, whilst the English renamed the beautiful and aromatic dianthus baubatus - Sweet William.
@@davidwolfe9722 Absolutely my mum didn’t have Sweet William in her garden but she did have Orange Lilies? Now that’s another story!!!!
"Butcher" Cumberland was another nickname
@@IanCross-xj2gj I didn't know he had a shop.
Any one seen the series OVERLANDER ??? i was blown away at the qaulity of actors.
do you mean outlander?
I know some of the guys . I was a member of Clanrannald who do some of the extras during battle scenes .
@@TheSavagederek Ha ! i was once a member of the sealed knot but bot i got many bruises
I am jamaican there is a district in a parish by the name Culloden
It not surprising since Irish and scot cathixs were transported to the Caribbean as indeturedvsetvents and labourers, under punitve laws, to keep them from formenting a rebellion with enslaved African against the English plantocracy.
Actually a young boy of 13 in those days was an adult. Children as young as 7 or so were just young labourers.Teenagers certainly did not exist until the 1950’s.
It's a superb documentary.. it's a wee bit dated because it still presents the war as Scots vs English.. at the time the British government were careful to refer to their army as the BRITISH Army..this was because Cumberland was very conscious of maintaining the loyalty of the lowland Scots.
absolutely! Cumberland's success was due to the presence of so many Scots in his army. The Jacobite cause was not popular with most Scots. Just listen to Burns' on the subject with his poem "Ye Jacobites by Name" and you will see why mosy Scots opposed Charles Stuart.
The Scots always like to forget, the English Army had a lot of Scottish soldiers in it in this battle. The Stuarts still believed in the divine right of Kings.
Most Scots seem to believe that England was solely responsible, but many low-landers supported the English Crown. Stuart support was from the highlanders.
There was no "English Army." It was the British Army. The film mentions once that more Scots fought for the government than for the Jacobites. Clan Campbell fought for the government in Culloden.
The English Army ceased to exist after the Act of Union
What does the officer say in German at 37:40? It’s something about stones (Steinen) but I can’t make it out.
@@VileFemboy Listening to it again, that sounds spot on. Thanks!
As a native speaker I would say that he says "Sie fangen an Steine nach uns zu werfen" (They start throwing rocks at us)
@@VileFemboyAlso this would not be grammatically correct, the "an" does not fit in that sentence. Any idea why he is speaking german? I guess some british nobles had ties to Germany or were related to Germans?
@@jericx4852 Thanks! I suspect that a few German aristos followed the Hanoverian dynasty to the UK, which is reflected here. The actors were probably British, hence the bad German.
@@jericx4852from what I understood there was a mix of German and English troops, about 50 or so years after the kings german legion was formed.
Uk tv then at school, quite excellent 👌
My first hearing of Gaelic, I think.
Remember, the Highland Clans were unspeakably brutal. Don’t be fooled into thinking the British government troops were any more monstrous. In clan feuds, the wounded and non-combatants were frequently slaughtered. And when government troops fled (e.g. Killiecrankie, Prestonpans…) the Jacobite clansmen never gave them any mercy.
Records of clan battles rarely seem to bear this claim out and more often than not clan battles resulted in relatively few dead for the size of the army. Importantly, does this claim really justify occupation and oppression by a foreign country in your mind?
BTW, the Jacobites did take prisoners after Prestonpans, around 500 from a force of 2,000
@@debbiegilmour6171 An account written by James Johnstone, a Jacobite officer, describing the slaughter at Prestonpans: '[those British soldiers which] threw down their arms, and begged for quarter upon their knees, were cut inhumanely.... such who fled into the enclosures were pursued and murdered...'
@@debbiegilmour6171 Battle of the Spoiling Dyke, Isle of Uist "massacre cave" incident and the Campbell-MacDonald feud are just a few examples of clan brutality. Few casualties for combatants in clan battles is because the clan levies were small in size and warfare was usually based on raiding/hit and run. However, there were exceptions to this norm, like at the Battle of the Shirts (nearly 100% casualties for both sides!)
Clan brutality and feuding certainly justified a full military occupation of the Highlands and government disarming acts. That was the only way of bringing law and order to northern Scotland.
Research the Battle of the Spoiling Dyke, the Isle of Uist "massacre cave" incident and the Campbell-MacDonald feud to find out how non-combatants were treated in clan feuds. The relatively small number of casualties among combatants in clan battles was down to the Highlanders' preference for small-scale raiding (using hit and run tactics). However, at the Battle of the Shirts, both sides suffered nearly 100% casualties!
My family and those of many of my American and Caribean Friends are in the western hemesphere because of this. I am descended from MacLaughlains. They were in with MacDonalds and Campbells.
this recreation is very very good if Very harsh on Charles - who made sure the Rebles were in a " shambles " ? .
The stuarts and wee bonnie prince charlie jacobite rebellion ultimate aim was to usrp the legitimate crown from the House of Hannover, and they paid the price of their folly.
The Prince was badly advised to fight on open ground. A retreat to his HQ at Inverness would have made military sense. The government forces would have found their supply lines stretched.
Didn't Murray tell the Prince he shouldn't have fought at culloden moor !?
He told them it would suit the British army the cannons their cavalry & infantry .
I havnt watched this video
But I did read about Murray a few years ago.
They say he was a great commander it was because of him they got as far as derby
That they won at Preston pans and other battles .
From what I remember Prince charley blamed him and didn't want to know him after culloden,.
The Welsh had Jacobites as well....
and English Jacobites too; Manchester Regiment for example. Just made sense to launch the rebellion in the highlands where you could take advantage of limited government control and residual Stuart loyalty among certain clans.
Welsh jacobite were no good 2 buzzy shafting sheep
Better check it out, as Brandon F has recommended it.
I just wonder if this ever haunted Prince Charles Stuart? The loss of lives, especially so young!! And did I hear one was a 13-year old???
And never again, would anyone make a claim to the throne of Great Britain.
Its a myth that many of the clansmen had swords . Most were very poor and carried farming implements and general tools . It was really mostly the officers that carried a sword or musket .
when your average 1960s BBC documentary with a shoestring budget and totally amateur first time 'actors' chosen from random townspeople is more entertaining than Hollywood 😆
Shoestring budget and amateur actors might be right, but I don't think this docu was ever 'average'. Made a huge impression on me (aged 9) and those of my classmates who were allowed to watch it (many weren't). Didn't see Culloden again for 40 years, but could never forget it.
God bless their Brave souls
It was more or less the same result as the Irish suffered at vinegar hill which was twice the size in scale of culloden obliterated with grape shot cannon fire
They try to crap on the bonny Prince, he didn't have a foreign accent, he was raised in the exiled Stewart court by English and Scottish tutors. He was also sent to military schools, the whole point of his life was to be a warrior prince. They hate on him because he rebelled against the establishment. The Hanoverian propaganda persists to this day. They'll make him out to be this way but they'll never mention he won more battles than he lost. which was one. Drummossie moor.
Theres a wealth of knowledge coming out on the 45, an alot of it was ignored because it didn't go well with the modern narrative. The hielan men with they're lang swords were right.
Ah but the Hanoverian propoganda fails with the rise of Scottish nationalist propoganda. Many people like to think that Culloden was a battle fought between the Scot’s and English but it was so much more then that, it was in many ways a civil war with English, Welsh, Irish and Scottish all fighting each other in both the Hanoverian and Jacobite ranks.
He didn't "rebel against the establishment"
He wasn't a bonnie free rebel
The jacobites fought for absolute monarchy and the divine right of kings. They later on fought to crush the american war of independence
They were enemies of freedom and liberty and lovers of absolute monarchy and open tyranny.
Charles had earlier won the battle of Prestonpans
And Falkirk . Where I live .
Without wishing to sound pedantic, those drums are not correct for the era. Those are modern drums with mechanical tensioning. Drums from this era would have been Rope tensioned and would not have Kevlar heads.
So glad my Scottish ancestors made the voyage to America, where, after the revolution, self determination was and is the ladder to upward mobility.
No matter how hard you worked in the old country, you remained in debt, enslaved, and conscripted.
God rest their mighty souls
It's not a bed of roses now, is it. The States have hardly known more than 30 years when it wasn't fighting a war since its inception and, had they arrived at this time, they would have landed right in the middle of a nation when slavery was still legal. Vote for Tulsi Gabbard and you might get some of the American dream back.
The Scottish feudal system is what oppressed your ancestors, not the English.
Mine too, the Clendenins settled in West Virginia in the 1800s.
The British army never conscripted until 1916 and then ended in 1918
.. and Centuries later so it continues...Human Evolution has a long, long, way to go.
How did the people in those days manage to be so cleanly shaven?
"They have created a desert, and have called it peace"
Aye, and had the battle gone the other way, of course, there would have been no brutality...
Early BBC effort though well done.
(I wonder if all those facial scars are real or just damn good makeup?)
I feel that I was there...
(Those single rail cannons look more like mid to late 19th Century. But if course most people wouldn't know that and their effect is more important here anyway.)
Fun fact that Cannon was the only one they had if you look closely it’s the same one ever-time
Also the English drummers are playing modern drums. Drums of this period would have been rope drums.
Awesome tragedy. Outstanding presentation!
Go on ye Jacobites
and the germans are still in buckingham palace.
They have more Stuart ancestry!
House of Windsor are the great survivors.
@@marypetrie930still not Scottish, nor british. We dont need these germans ruling us
There were Germans in the Princes army as well . Most fought in the reserves .
II wouldn't know anything about this battle if it wasn't for the series, "Outlander".
What a grotesque, primitive thing the clans were. Great doccie.
Bonnie Prince Charlie sounds like an ancient version of The leader of Hamas all talk and no capability 😀
Some of the rebels would be my ancestors if they reproduced and got their kids out of harm's way
I see why the traitor clans still have there castles hmm.i want ours back
Most of the ruined castles are in ruins because they took the roofs off to avoid taxes
Killing as suffering in the name of dogma, and one mans claim of authority over anouther. The only authority a king has over you, is one you give him.
Which side are you talking about again? Someone has drunk too deeply of his own dogma...
"🤢🤮"~@@Desert-Father
@@Desert-Father The begining of your comment ≠ the ending. Try again... this time without bias.
Here, I'll help: I did not pick a side, I spoken in general as an observer. I saw an acknowledgement of authority, that gave it credence, which was very absurd to me. Meaning royalty on both sides in dispute, lining up men for slaughter, then culling them for their own ends. Again... I did not pick a side, I simply observed, and thought to myself what a shame for brothers to kill one anouther, over some pompus royal dispute that they have nothing to do with. What gave these pompus royals the rite to do that? Then I thought: Why give a pompus royal authority over you, by acknowledgeing their dogma, and thereby giving their authority credence? NO! I say If the royals have a dispute THEN LET THEM SETTLE IT THEMSELVES!!! Meaning they can pick up a rifle or pistol, and settle it ON THEIR OWN!!
Hope I helped break the royal cults grip on your mind.
@Ed-ty1kr If you can't see how this is blatant propaganda, you need a history lesson. The English narrator just describe a clan system that existed for hundreds of years as "ruthless" knowing full well that the English systematically destroyed it in one of the most brutal acts of genocide in the history of the British Isles. This film is a relic of a time when they described the British Empire as it was a positive.
@@Ed-ty1kr Go back to school kid.
I don't know who's side God is on, but he is rarely on the side of idiots.
They all no their bo chance inn still went ahead nio tht game as fk😮😮😮❤it Scots r stil here😊
"John Mallorby, pressed into service..." 😐😮
SCOTTLAND! FOR EVER!
A pretty good, though heavily biased, account of the 45.
This feels like actual historical fotage 😂
😢
Ne Obliviscaris
The actors are a hilarious
You mean brilliant
37:07 what is he duing 😂
I'm a Mackenzie I was a traitor??
A patriot
your ancestor was
Dont you mean loyalist?
Snider rifles with a fake lock
😇😇😇
Blàr Chùil Lodair.....
''They have created a desert, and called it peace''
lol not quite
at any rate the Jacobites are to blame if you ask me
yeah they did
As always it's the rich and privileged who are in positions of power, and it's the ordinary man who suffers.
The genocide of the Scottish Highlanders.
Aye. They can deny it but truth reigns supreme! Saor Alba Gu Bràth 🏴
@@-._A2._- FAFO
I’m of clan Douglas my ancestors fought beside the Bruce . Scottish & proud never British.
the bruces were in the arse pocket of the english
The Jacobite prisoners, and highland civilians were treated like the Palestinians are being treated by the Israelis.
Difference of scale not type
Aye mo Bhròn Mo Phalestine 🏴💙🇵🇸
May freedom be here for us both
Pure let dwn gtn beat way tht mob but they did av better weapons😮scot game as fk
Irishmen fought on both sides 🇮🇪
If you consult the better scholarship of Prof Murray Pittock (Glasgow) and Dr Christopher Duffy (most respected military historian on Culloden) you will find that so much of what's in this film is pure bunk. Charles Edward did not ignore Murray's advice - the choice of the field was made by the entire Jacobite Command - lots of documentary evidence to support that. It's just one instance of the anti-Stuart bias of this English made film.
Well considering that Pittock was 2 years old when the film came out no wonder.
And Duffy was 17 or 18 years old in 1964. Historical scholarship is constantly revised by nature. Poor interpretations are being re-examined all the time. The later, more complicated accounts did not exist when Watkins made this film. It is also not really intended to be a commentary on the history but rather an allegory for the Vietnam War (that critics did not notice this always bothered Watkins) and, more importantly, a means to convey the social history of the conflict and the lived experience of people thrust into conflicts dictated by people beyond their control.
A rangers fan special..😒
This was sad to watch. As a veteran military man of two wars, I see this as a pathetic, needless massacre. Where is Mel Gibson when you need him?
In this case the British were in the right they ended the horrible Scottish feudal system
@@snazzydares8787 but by what means? By the complete destruction of an entire race of people?
@@snazzydares8787 And they fought to preserve constitutional monarchy in the face of someone who wanted an absolute monarchy
Funny. Not quite as romantic as in Outlander. 😂