When Charles Edward Stuart landed on the shores of Scotland in 1745, he was greeted with ardent support from Jacobite men and women who supported the Stuart claim to the British throne. Women were particularly important supporters of Stuart. They provided money, hospitality, military support, and even acted as spies. While some women such as Jean Cameron and Anne Mackintosh actively mustered troops for the Stuart army, others such as Margaret Ogilvie and Margaret Murray accompanied their husbands during the entire military campaign. Despite Jacobite women’s high level of political and military involvement in the Jacobite Rising of 1745, scholarly writings have largely overlooked their significant contributions to the Cause, and theirwartime narratives have been largely dismissed. This project seeks to rectify the gender imbalance inherent in the Jacobite historical narrative through a focus on one artistic medium: song. This thesis examines the roles that women played throughout the 1745 Rising by focusing on musical lyrics composed both by and about Jacobite women. The lyrics composed by Jacobite women prior to the Jacobite army’s final defeat at the Battle of Culloden are shown to take on a politically aggressive stance uncharacteristic of typical women’s compositions for the time. Those composed directly after the Jacobite defeat turn inward toward personal expressions of grief and more characteristically traditional lyric content. In the decades following the failed Rising, Jacobite women’s musical contributions took on increasing levels of romanticization. While gender conventions of the period kept Jacobite women from engaging in combat throughout the 1745 campaign, these women turned to song composition as a means of supporting the Jacobite Cause. The importance of women to the Jacobite Cause can also be tracked through the number of songs written about them by both Jacobite, and Hanoverian propagandists. The two caricatures of Jacobite women that are most recognizable today, Flora MacDonald and Jenny Cameron, were popularized over the course of the Jacobite Rising and directly after, both to mythologize, and defame the Jacobite campaign. For her role in helping Charles Edward Stuart escape Scotland after the end of the failed Rising, Flora MacDonald was mythologized by Jacobite supporters. Many Scottish songwriters used her name as a means of garnering sympathy, and her narrative voice as a means of expressing grief. Supporters of the Hanoverian government also turned to the use of female figures in political propaganda surrounding the Jacobite Risings. Hanoverian songwriters took to defaming Jacobite women through propagandistic lyric, and focused their attention on one character in particular: Jenny Cameron. The character of Jenny Cameron was loosely based on a Jacobite woman named Jean Cameron, who mustered approximately three-hundred men to fight for the Stuart Cause. Her political exploits acted as the catalyst for the creation of the transgressive character Jenny Cameron. The anti-Jacobite songs written about Jenny Cameron attack her sexuality and political agency, while drawing from a repertoire of written and artistically-rendered propaganda depicting her as “mannish” and militaristic. The existence of female-centric political propaganda during this time, especially that aimed against Jacobites, proves just how important women were to the Stuart Cause. Had women not been providing a substantial amount of aid the Jacobites, the Hanoverian government would have felt much less compelled to undermine them by debasing their characters and threatening their physical well-being. As the songs written by and about Jacobite women prove, Scotswomen were active in the Jacobite Rising of 1745 from its very beginnings until its military conclusion on Culloden Battlefield. The women discussed in this thesis were important political and military actors who used their positions of authority to provide support for Charles Edward Stuart over the course of his campaign. Most importantly to this thesis, I wish to tell the stories of Jacobite women whose voices have previously been silenced. It is my hope that this project leads to further study of Jacobite women by scholars of all disciplines, as well as to an increased public awareness of women’s historical contributions to wartime efforts. Within this project, Jacobite women assert themselves as military leaders, poignant propagandists, grieving widows, and compassionate protectors, ultimately defying essentialization. With song as a uniting factor, this thesis draws Scotswomen together and asserts the importance of their voices to the Jacobite narrative. / A Thesis submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music. / Spring Semester 2018. / April 2, 2018. / Jacobite, Music, Scotland, Song, War, Women / Includes bibliographical references. / Sarah Eyerly, Professor Directing Thesis; Charles E. Brewer, Committee Member; Douglass Seaton, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_654705 |
| Contributors | Bani, Rachel M. (Rachel Michele) (author), Eyerly, Sarah (professor directing thesis), Brewer, Charles E. (committee member), Seaton, Douglass (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Music (degree granting college), College of Music (degree granting departmentdgg) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text, master thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (131 pages), computer, application/pdf |
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