Games of Crowns exhibition looks at the 1715 Jacobite Rising

The National Library of Scotland is hosting an exhibition as part of the lead up to the three hundredth anniversary of the 1715 Jacobite rising, when Jacobites loyal to James VII  first rose up against the Hanoverian regime, just 8 years after the union of Scotland and England to create the political entity of Great Britain. The exhibition charts the period from 1688, with William of Orange's arrival in England, to the Rising itself. Here's the blurb from the NLS exhibitions page (www.nls.uk/exhibitions) :

Game of Crowns: The 1715 Jacobite rising

10 December to 10 May

Treachery, power struggles, royal in-fighting and religious wrangling are all reflected in the 'Game of Crowns' exhibition at the National Library of Scotland.

The exhibition tells the story of the 1715 Jacobite rising as the 300th anniversary approaches. Using contemporary records, books, maps, portraits and songs, it explains this turbulent period of British history.

One of the documents on display will be the order for the massacre of Glencoe in 1692, when 38 members of the clan MacDonald were slaughtered because of their suspected Jacobite sympathies.

The attempt to restore the Stuart dynasty to the throne ended in defeat with James VIII — the Old Pretender — returning to exile in France. Thirty years later, his son, Bonnie Prince Charlie, suffered a similar fate with the failure of the 1745 uprising.

The exhibition looks in detail at the period from 1688 to 1715 and the fierce contest for Crown of Great Britain, closing with a look ahead to 1745.

For further details visit www.nls.uk/exhibitions/jacobites

Chris

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