Does anyone know anything about the jacobite rebellion in scotland and the battle at culloden?
Here's just a quick overview of the Jacobite rebellion: King George Hannover (Who was from Germany and didn't speak English) decided he wanted Scotland. There's a lot of political, religious and who married who stuff about why he thought he was entitled to it but what matters is that he somehow got King James (not the one who had the Bible translated but one of his decendents), the real King of Scotland exiled. So James was in france and George was trying to get Scotland under his rule. James's son, Prince Charles (Bonny Prince Charlie) took matters into his own hands and got George really pissed at him. George then started a war in earnest and kicked the Scot's butts at Culloden in 1745, mostly because he wasn't quite fair (one of his generals got nicknamed "the butcher", that should give you an idea of what the battle was like). Part of his stragety before Culloden and most of his strategy after was to make sure the Scot's didn't have weapons. In 1716 George passed the.Disarmament Act. He called it a "Disarmament Act" but disarming them was only part of it, he also forbade highland dress and almost anything particularry Scottish. If they aren't armed they can't fight back and if they can't wear kilts maybe they'll be act like the English. The Scots found sneaky ways around it, though, like saying a sgian dubh is a hunting knife, not a weapon. And all the act really acomplished was making the Scots hate the English even more. Although Scotland eventually did become part of England, the Disarmament Act of 1716 didn't help any, it only made things harder for both parties.
Who was Mary, Queen of Scots?
Her story is easy to find, but the "irony" is a tougher question. In this case you would use the situational definition of "irony" in that her life and death ended so differently that you would expect. ------- For someone who was born to royalty, and had some rights to claim the monarchy of Scotland and England, and the consort of France, she had a miserable life. She spent most of it in prison, and was executed like a criminal. -------- By all accounts she was probably a decent human being, but she was easily manipulated. She was desperate for a life of safety. However, she is often portrayed as the manipulative one. EDIT: Possibly the greatest irony was that Elizabeth was already age 35 and unmarried when Mary was first put on trial. Elizabeth was age 53 when Mary was executed. In the interim years Mary was confined to house arrest. Even at age 35 it was starting to look like Elizabeth would never marry. If she did, having a first child in your late 30's in Tudor England was highly risky. Elizabeth would eventually need an heir. If Mary had renounced her claim to the throne, other people may have been so eager to try and use her. She may have lived a comfortable life as a freewoman, and succeeded to the throne on Elizabeth's death.