Culloden, Battle of

Defeat in 1746 of the Jacobite rebel army of the British prince Charles Edward Stuart (the ‘Young Pretender’) by the Duke of Cumberland on a stretch of moorland in Inverness‐shire, Scotland. This battle effectively ended the military challenge of the Jacobite rebellion.

Although both sides were numerically equal (about 8,000 strong), the English were a drilled and disciplined force, while the Jacobites were a mixture of French, Irish, and Scots, ill‐disciplined and virtually untrained. The English front line opened the battle with a volley of musketry, after which the Jacobites charged and broke through the first English line but were caught by the musket fire of the second line. They retired in confusion, pursued by the English cavalry, which broke the Jacobite lines completely and shattered their force. About 1,000 were killed and a further 1,000 captured, together with all their stores and cannon.