Most "What if's?" of the '45 start from Derby..but what if the Night attack on Nairn had succeeded? Cumberland's army scattered to the winds,Jacobite reinforcements coming in..what happens next??
Steve

Hi Steve,

This is an excellent question, and one I don't have time to 'give the full treatment to' at the moment. Suffice it to say that evidence exists for an incremental ammount of increased French aid - arriving too late at that moment to do much good, as things turned out.

That said, while Louis XV would gladly give just enough aid to make things difficult for England, given the successes of the Jacobite army, I doubt he would ever give them enough aid to successfully oust the Hanoverians. I think you would be looking at a minature reenactment of the Civil Wars of the previous century. I think the best they could have hoped for was an independant Scotland, and the Stewarts would never have settled for so small a prize.

I'll go along with that...There's also the point how much French support would the Jacobites find politically acceptable...Rest of the Irish Brigade,yes..much more could look like being French puppets...an independant Scotland in the short term..But I wonder how long the Hanoverians would last with a (Successful?) Stuart Kingdom to the North?
Steve