The King's successor, James VII of Scotland ( James II of England), openly supported Roman Catholicism, Scotland's traditional religion. England's parliament forced James VII out, and rather than fight for his crown, he went into exile in France. England offered the crown to his son-in-law, William of Orange, who became known as King William III of Great Britain.

James VII and the House of Stuart were gone, but they still had support from many Catholic Highlanders, who considered the Stuarts Scotland's true bloodline. These Stuart supporters became known as the Jacobites.

When James VII died in France in 1701, the Jacobites felt his son, James VIII, the old Pretender, was rightful heir to the crown. When King William III of Great Britain died a year later, the crown fell to his daughter, Queen Anne, who had no heirs.

Back in France, James VIII's son, Charles Edward Stuart, also known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, decided it was time to lay claim to the Scottish crown. Supported by France (or so he believed), he journeyed to Scotland's Highlands and recruited an army of Jacobite followers. The first Jacobite uprising had taken place years earlier, ending in defeat. The second uprising gained more support, and soon Bonnie Prince Charlie and his followers were marching south to Edinburgh, where his troops easily defeated Britain's opposing forces.

News spread quickly in England that, once again, an army of Highlanders was on the march. The British King, George II, sent British, Dutch, and German troops to intercept, under the command of General Wade and William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland.

Meanwhile, the French decided not to back Charlie, leaving him to fight these masses with only his Jacobite troops. The prince closed within 120 miles of London, then retreated when he heard (false) rumors that Cumberland had amassed a force of thirty thousand men and was heading his way.

Fearing a massacre, Charlie led his rebels on a long, exhausting retreat back through snow-covered hills and up through the Highlands. Upon reaching Inverness, the Jacobites learned that Cumberland's army had made camp in Nairn, fifteen miles away.

On April 16th, 1746, Bonnie Prince Charlie and his exhausted Jacobites faced Cumberland's heavily armed veteran force on Drummossie Moor, near Culloden.

The massacre took a mere thirty minutes.

Upwards of two thousand Jacobites died that day, some Highlanders losing entire clans. But the worst was yet to come.

After the fight, the Duke of Cumberland rode into Inverness, brandishing his bloody sword, shouting out orders, "No quarter given," meaning none should live. By the end of the day, the bloodied bodies of men, women, and children lined the roads into town. Hundreds of innocent Highlanders were butchered, and for months, Cumberland's forces continued to search the countryside for Jacobites, refusing to stop until the ethnic cleansing was completed.