Clan Cameron · 1745
The Gentle Lochiel
The single decision in the summer of 1745 that turned a desperate landing into a national rising.
Draft entry · awaiting review
When Charles Edward Stuart came ashore at Loch nan Uamh in late July 1745 he had with him seven companions, a hundred broadswords, and no army. The Highland chiefs he had counted on read the situation cleanly and refused him. Without Lochiel, no one would come.
Donald Cameron of Lochiel — 'the Gentle Lochiel' for his unwillingness to send his men against odds — rode to Borrodale to talk the prince out of it. The prince's reply, as it has come down: 'In a few days, with the few friends I have, I will erect the royal standard and proclaim to the people of Britain that Charles Stuart is come over to claim the crown of his ancestors or to perish in the attempt. Lochiel, who, my father has often told me, was our firmest friend, may stay at home and learn his prince's fate from the newspapers.'
Lochiel raised his clan. Once Cameron was in, Keppoch, Glencoe and the others followed. The rising that took Edinburgh and reached Derby — that closed at Culloden — had its origin in that single conversation at Borrodale.
Lochiel was wounded in both ankles at Culloden by grapeshot and carried from the field. He escaped to France with the prince, was given a regimental command in the French army, and died at Bergues in 1748, aged forty-eight.