The course of English, and later British, history could have been changed on several occasions by fleets setting out from southern European countries if it hadn’t been for a number of weather events which have come to be known, collectively, as the ‘Protestant Wind’. Maggie Craig explains. The Protestant Wind is the name given to […]
The Honours of Scotland
On 5 July, 2023, King Charles and Queen Camilla will be in Scotland for a series of events to mark his coronation. At the high point he will be presented with the Honours of Scotland at a National Service of Thanksgiving and Dedication at St Giles’ Cathedral. The historian Maggie Craig looks back at the […]
George IV’s visit to Edinburgh in 1822
Exactly 200 years ago, on Thursday 15 August, 2022, George IV landed at Leith, near Edinburgh, for a three-week ‘jaunt’. Arriving, he was dressed in naval uniform, but displayed himself to the Scottish capital dressed in tartan, and it’s that image of his visit that has remained in popular imagination. To mark the bicentenary, Maggie […]
The Scottish Radical Rising of 1820
Two hundred years ago, a wave of political protest swept through Central Scotland and Ayrshire, part of unrest throughout Britain following the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Maggie Craig is the author of a new history of the events, One Week In April: The Scottish Radical Rising of 1820. By 1820, living and working conditions […]
The Battle of Killiecrankie
To mark the 330th anniversary of the Battle of Killiecrankie, historian and author Maggie Craig considers why this violent confrontation still evokes memories as well as enthusiastic public interest. The Battle of Killiecrankie was fought on 27 July 1689. This bloody clash of arms in a mountain pass a few miles north of Pitlochry in […]
1719: the forgotten Jacobite rising
The Jacobite Rising of 1719: historian and novelist Maggie Craig tells Historia magazine why this ‘forgotten rising’ and the Battle of Glen Shiel in June 1719 deserve to be remembered.
Damn’ Rebel Bitches: Research Then and Now
On the 20th anniversary of her first book about the 1745 Jacobite Rising, Maggie Craig reflects on the research process, then and now. Twenty years ago this month I published my first book, Damn’ Rebel Bitches: The Women of the ’45. It’s never been out of print since and has been described as a modern classic. […]