Qualla: Siege of Carlisle (December 1745)

Siege of Carlisle (December 1745): Introduction

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. James Johnstone, one of Prince Charles Edward Stuart's officers, was given the chance to stay behind in Carlisle as part of the rear-guard garrison. He refused. 'I would never,' he later wrote, 'be a victim by choice.' He understood what his prince did not: the men left in Carlisle in December 1745 were not defenders, they were a sacrifice. Charles had decided to leave a garrison in the city to demonstrate his determination to return to England. Almost every one of his officers told him it was a mistake. Most of the men who obediently stayed behind would be dead within a year.

Image: Public domain

Siege of Carlisle (December 1745): The Long Retreat from Derby

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The original uploader was Soloist at English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0. The Jacobite army had marched into England in November 1745 and made it as far as Derby, deeper than any of Charles's family had managed in over half a century of pretending to the throne. There they discovered they were almost alone. The English Jacobites had not risen. London w...

Image: The original uploader was Soloist at English Wikipedia. | CC BY-SA 3.0

Siege of Carlisle (December 1745): Towneley and the Manchester Regiment

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. The town garrison was commanded by Francis Towneley, a hot-tempered English Catholic who had served in the French army before joining the Jacobite cause. He led the Manchester Regiment, the only significant English unit Charles had managed to recruit. Of the 396 men who would eve...

Image: Public domain

Siege of Carlisle (December 1745): The Guns Arrive from Whitehaven

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nilfanion, CC BY-SA 3.0. Cumberland arrived on 21 December with his advance guard, but the heavy guns he needed had been left behind at Lichfield during the chase north. For six days the siege was effectively a blockade while the artillery was hauled up. The first battery arrived on 25 December. On the 2...

Image: Nilfanion | CC BY-SA 3.0

Siege of Carlisle (December 1745): King's Pleasure

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Neil Boothman from Carlisle, United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0. When regular armies surrendered to each other, the defeated were treated as prisoners of war. Cumberland refused this. As rebels, the Carlisle garrison was granted only their lives, subject to the king's pleasure, meaning trial rather than summary execution. It was a fine distinc...

Image: Neil Boothman from Carlisle, United Kingdom | CC BY 2.0