Battle of Glen Shiel

Battle of Glen Shiel
Part of the Jacobite Rising War of the Quadruple Alliance
The Battle of Glenshiel 1719 by Peter Tillemans. Spanish troops can be seen in the mid-ground. (1719)
Date 10 June 1719 Location Glen Shiel, west Scotland grid reference NG99441325 Coordinates: 57°9′59″N 5°19′2″W / 57.16639°N 5.31722°W / 57.16639; -5.31722 Result British government victory (House of Hanover)
Belligerents
Kingdom of Great Britain	Jacobites  Spain
Commanders and leaders
Joseph Wightman Colonel Clayton George Munro, 1st of Culcairn (WIA)	Lord George Murray (WIA) William Mackenzie, 5th Earl of Seaforth (WIA) Robert Roy MacGregor (WIA) Mackintosh of Borlum
Strength
850 infantry 120 dragoons 4 mortar batteries	1,150 troops
Casualties and losses
21 dead 121 wounded	100 dead, many more wounded, 274 Spanish prisoners
Location within Scotland

The Battle of Glen Shiel (Scottish Gaelic: Blàr Ghleann Seile) was a battle in Glen Shiel, in the West Highlands of Scotland on 10 June 1719, between British Government troops (mostly Scots) and an alliance of Jacobites and Spanish, resulting in a victory for the Government forces. It was the last close engagement of British and foreign troops in Great Britain. The Battle of Glen Shiel is sometimes considered an extension of the Jacobite rising of 1715, but is more correctly a separate rebellion and was the only rising to be extinguished by a single military action. It is sometimes known as the Nineteen. This battlefield has been included in the Inventory of Historic Battlefields in Scotland and is protected by Historic Scotland under the Historic Environment (Amendment) Act 2011.

After the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, Philip V was accepted as King of Spain in exchange for several concessions. Great Britain received control over Spanish possessions, such as Menorca and Gibraltar, which it could defend, as Britain possessed by far the largest navy in the world at that time.

Philip's plans to restore Spanish power would lead to a violent clash with Britain. Philip and his Italian counsellor, Cardinal Giulio Alberoni, carried out a campaign in the western Mediterranean. In 1717, 8,500 infantrymen and 500 cavalrymen sailed from Barcelona and occupied Sardinia without difficulty. The next year, 38,000 troops did the same with Sicily.

The British Government responded on 11 August; declaring a violation of the Utrecht Treaty, the Royal Navy intercepted and destroyed the fleet of José Antonio de Gaztañeta in the region of Cape Passaro, near Syracuse. Spain then declared war, with Alberoni deciding to take the initiative and stir up trouble in Britain to forestall an attack on the Iberian Peninsula.