Culloden Battlefield

The Battle of Culloden took place on 16 April 1746, near Inverness, in the Scottish Highlands. A Jacobite army under Charles Edward Stuart was decisively defeated by a British government force commanded by the Duke of Cumberland, thereby ending the Jacobite rising of 1745. Charles landed in Scotland in July 1745, seeking to restore his father James Francis Edward Stuart to the British throne. He quickly won control of large parts of Scotland, and an invasion of England reached as far south as Derby before being forced to turn back. However by April 1746 the Jacobites were short of supplies, facing a superior and better-equipped opponent. The Jacobite commanders decided their only option was to stand and fight. When the two armies met at Culloden, the battle was brief, lasting less than an hour, with the Jacobites suffering an overwhelming and bloody defeat. This effectively ended both the 1745 rising and Jacobitism as a significant element in British politics.