The 1745 Jacobite Rebellion was a turning point in British history. It continues to be obscured by fiction and myth, as personified by the heroic, gallant but doomed 'Bonnie Prince Charlie' pitted against the heartless victor, 'Butcher' Cumberland. In the years 1745-46 nothing was certain. While utilising past and recent scholarship, this account draws extensively on a wealth of contemporary sources, revealing the thoughts and feelings of the most important participants and local eyewitnesses as these extraordinary events played out.