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| Was de Ruvigny fully committed at Ripon |
For those blog followers interested in our 1692 alternative history of the struggle between Jacobites and Williamites for control of Britain, here is a summary of where we left off BEFORE we share our latest experiences of April 2017/ April 1693.
Written in a suspect narrative style, it covers the main events although, not necessarily as all players may recall ....
It will appear in a couple of parts as it requires detail...
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| Mackay - puppet or Puppeteer? |
A pamphlet entitled ‘Commitment to the cause?’ thought to have been conceived in Tower Hamlets by an informed
source in March of the year 1693.
In the aftermath of
the two great battles, one fought in the North and the other in the South the
recriminations and accusations flew as densely as a murmuration of starlings.
The righteous fury
of Viscount Dundee and the voracity of his denunciation of French commitment at
Ripon is well known from the crofts of Lewis to the coffee houses of Chelsea
yet, measured evaluation of the available reports both from Versailles and York
reveal an alternative perspective. It is true that the defeat suffered by King
James’s army before Ripon was resounding and the fracturing of the coalition
forces in the aftermath dramatic yet, can this all be laid at the feet of Le
Marquis de St Ruhe alone?
Was it not Claverhouse who, having hurled his
Highlanders upon the fiery muskets of Mackay made the unilateral choice to quit
the field without a nod to his French ally and naught save a glancing apology
to his fellow Scot Wauchope?
Examination of the
statistics evidence that nine tenths of Dundee’s casualties fell cruelly upon
his clan regiments. Near one thousand brave Highlanders were cut down at Ripon
driving the point of the Jacobite attack. It has been remarked upon that several
of these noble clans have territory immediately bordering the great estates of
the House of Mackay in Sutherland. As a consequence of the defeat, their
inherent strength is much depleted leaving these ancestral lands all but
indefensible against predatory neighbours or malcontents who might exploit a
weakness created through loyalty, valour and sacrifice.
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| Gallant Wauchope's bloody last stand |
Cynical men have
pointed to the hecatomb endured by that bold and true officer General Sir John Wauchope whose warriors fought to
the death with French troops in the van. What price this? At the storm’s eye as
he desperately called for reinforcement it is said he cast his gaze to the rear
to see his last reserves – those of Colonels Currie and Zeitzinger march north with Dundee at
which soul destroying sight his shoulders slumped in despair.
For only at that
moment did he realize that he was sacrificed on the altar of a hidden agenda
and a mere catspaw in a larger game played behind a heavy brocade of deceit,
ambition and lies. It is a truth that after the cataclysmic battle, his command
was no more. The tattered remnants of French under his order marched away with
St Ruhe to Maryport and its great camp whilst Dundee had already many Scots miles
tramped upon the road to Perth.
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| Betrayal.. by both commanders of their troops? |
Hapless John Wauchope stood alone amidst the
heaps of dead who fell vainly upon the blood drenched Yorkshire sod. Abandoned
and forgotten, the good Wauchope is now thought to be suffering a malady of spirit preferring
seclusion and a life of contemplation in an undisclosed monastery.
No less a personage
than Louvois himself has confirmed over one thousand and seven hundreds of
French soldiers were lost at Ripon.
More of the pamphlet to follow...