• Responding to the Jacobite threat
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Responding to the Jacobite threat

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This book examines how various states and governments collectively responded to the Jacobite threat during the long eighteenth century. It emphasises the strategies and methods employed to dismantl...
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  • 03 November 2026
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In this first comprehensive monograph to examine the Jacobite threat from the perspective of its opponents, Cunningham investigates the mechanisms employed by states across the British Isles to eliminate this significant danger. Drawing on original primary research and data analysis, the study illustrates the complexity and scope of the politico-legal responses required to eradicate Jacobitism, responses that shaped all social classes and spheres within the three kingdoms. The book shows how numerous governments adopted a balanced approach that combined punishment with clemency, seeking both to deter rebellion by making its consequences clear and to reintegrate as many former state enemies as possible. By utilising institutional memory and administrative precedents to address the ‘Jacobite problem’, the British State ultimately dismantled the eighteenth-century socio-political structures that allowed Jacobite ideology to persist, destroying its remaining influence.
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Price: £85.00
Pages: 312
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Imprint: Manchester University Press
Series: Jacobite Studies
Publication Date: 03 November 2026
ISBN: 9781526189233
Format: Hardcover
BISACs:

HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / Scotland, HISTORY / Modern / 18th Century, HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / Stuart Era (1603-1714), HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / Georgian Era (1714-1837), European history, History: specific events and topics
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‘This study offers the first comprehensive survey of how the English, Scottish and Irish States responded to the Jacobite threat. Cunningham elucidates how an increasingly centralised government deployed multifarious legal and social measures to suppress and ultimately eliminate Jacobitism. He definitively shows that persecution worked, and that events beyond the battlefield were just as decisive as any military defeat in destroying the Jacobite cause.’
– Daniel Szechi, Emeritus Professor of History, University of Manchester and Honorary Professor in Irish and Scottish Studies, University of Aberdeen

‘A strikingly detailed evaluation of government policy towards the Jacobite threat, with remarkable scholarship on legislation and its implementation.’
– Murray Pittock, Pro-Vice Principal and Bradley Chair of English Literature, University of Glasgow

‘Lucidly presented and diligently executed, this is an intellectually accomplished work. The endeavours of various iterations of the Scottish, English and British States, initially to suppress and finally to assimilate Jacobitism, are forensically examined. Reprisals particularly impacted the Scottish Highlands, while imperial service on exposed frontiers sustained Jacobite rehabilitation.’
– Allan I. Macinnes, Emeritus Professor of History, University of Strathclyde and Honorary Professor in Irish and Scottish Studies, University of Aberdeen

Calum Cunningham is an Associate Tutor at the Universities of Dundee and Stirling

Introduction

PartI:Delegitimisation
1 Legitimacy and legality
2 Devotion and division

PartII:Criminalisation
3 Policy and hindsight
4 Legislation and precedent
5 Prosecution and defence
6 Punishment and clemency

Part III: Reincorporation
7 Policy and reform
8 Legislation and repeal
9 Assimilation and reinvention

Conclusion

Appendices
Appendix A: An analysis of Jacobite punishments following the rising of 1715–16
Appendix B: An analysis of Jacobite punishments following the rising of 1745–46
Appendix C: Jacobite-related public legislation, 1688–1807
Bibliography
Index