8 August 2007
Scottish Bioweapons and the Jacobite Rebellion
Posted by Adrian under History
In an old edition from May 2003 about the Jacobite Rebellion (audio stream/wiki), when Bonnie Prince Charlie came from France to Scotland and attempted to put himself - a Stuart - back on the throne, there was an interesting discussion about his strategy. Prince Charlie and the Jacobites had made it down as far as Derby without much trouble, and were faced with a tough decision: should they make a risky march to London where they could win the prize of the capital, or should they play it safe and to Scotland to resupply?
Many things weighed into their ultimate decision, such as misinformation about the number of armies that might intercept them, the availability of French troops and the coming winter. These are all well known - but there was another factor that is little known and rather fascinating to hear about…
Allan Macinnes: There’s also one other factor, believe it or not, that comes into this. Both in the Fifteen but also in the Forty-Five there was a major outbreak of cattle disease in the south of England. If you look at the local press, there’s a conviction that this cattle disease can also spread to humans. Now, if you’ve also got a lot of Highlanders coming down - and their whole trade is based on cattle, so they reach Derby - and it’s almost the limits of the cattle disease. You can find (laughter) - seriously, you can find whole areas in Essex saying the French could be bringing with them foot and mouth or something! So there is a cattle -
Bragg: Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Foot and Mouth Disease?
Murray Pittock: Bioweapons!
Allan Macinnes: (Laughing) There is this issue that comes in the press, a serious issue, of the cattle disease that’s affecting decisions.
This is the reason why I love In Our Time - you get to hear some of the more unlikely but colourful details of our history that would never appear in textbooks (or the web, for that matter - I couldn’t find anything about this on Google).