The Cumberland Tankard, 1746-1747
The Last Battle
NAM 1970-11-12
This silver tankard commemorates William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland’s victory over Charles Edward Stuart, ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’, grandson of the exiled King James II, and his Jacobite army at Culloden in Scotland on 16 April 1746.
Culloden ended the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745-46. Convinced that harsh measures were required to suppress the rising, Cumberland’s treatment of his beaten enemy was ruthless. His men searched cottages for rebels, seized livestock and burned homesteads, earning their commander the nickname ‘Butcher’.
Culloden was the last pitched battle fought on British soil and a key moment in the ‘Making of Britain’. It brought long-lasting stability to British politics.
By depriving the French of the opportunity of causing trouble for the Government in its own back yard, it paved the way for global conquest. It also safeguarded the succession of the Protestant House of Hanover, the ancestors of our present Queen.
Purchased with the aid of grants from the Art Fund, the Pilgrim Trust and the Society of Friends of the National Army Museum
The Battle of Lexington, 1775
Revolutionary spark
NAM 1959-11-302
The Battle of Lexington on 19 April 1775, the famous ‘shot heard round the world,’ marked the start of the American War of Independence (1775-83). While marching from Boston to seize military stores at Concord, Massachusetts, a British force encountered a group of ‘minute men’ (militia-men who had undertaken to turn out at a minute’s notice) gathered on the green at nearby Lexington. After a brief skirmish, with few casualties on either side, the Americans withdrew.
The British then pressed on to Concord Bridge where a larger engagement was fought that led to a fighting retreat to Boston. Within two days, 15,000 men from across New England had assembled and surrounded the British troops in Boston. The war for independence, or American Revolution, had begun in earnest and the Continental Congress (a body representing the North American Colonies’ opposition to British policy) would soon adopt and sponsor these men into the beginnings of the Continental Army. The skirmishes at Lexington and Concord turned a colonial revolt against British economic policy into a fight for political independence and they have taken on an almost mythical quality in the American consciousness.
The Siege of Gibraltar, September 1782
Resistance on the Rock
NAM 1996-07-107
Britain first captured Gibraltar in 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-13). Despite attempts by Spain to recapture the town, it has remained British ever since. When Spain joined in the American War of Independence in 1779, it set about besieging the British garrison on Gibraltar, commanded by General George Augustus Eliott. The siege reached crisis point in September 1782, when the weakened garrison was bombarded by a number of specially designed floating batteries.
In a daring and dangerous move, British gunners fired back with red-hot shot, setting the batteries on fire and causing some to explode. The Spanish fleet retreated and the garrison was able to keep up its resistance until the end of hostilities in 1783. For many years afterwards Gibraltar was an important base for the Royal Navy. Today, the issue of sovereignty over the Rock remains a source of tension in Anglo-Spanish relations. All local political parties are opposed to any transfer of sovereignty to Spain, instead supporting self-determination for the Rock.
