21 September 1745 is the date of the battle of Prestonpans (east of
Edinburgh). According to popular mythology, the Scots under Bonnie
Prince Charlie, the »Young Pretender«, fought the English (under Sir
John Cope) and prevailed, which from the Scots' point of view made the
»battle« a major victory although even in 18th-century terms it should
more properly be considered a skirmish.

During the Jacobite rising of 1745, most of the British army was
engaged fighting the French on the Continent in the war of the
Austrian succession. For Charles Edward Stuart, otherwise known as
»Bonnie Prince Charlie«, this provided a welcome opportunity to try to
recover »his« kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The battle of
Prestonpans was the Jacobite army's first encounter with a
hastily-recruited Loyalist army consisting mostly of inexperienced and
badly-equipped troops, and started a campaign that at first appeared
quite victorious but found a dismal end at Culloden the year after.
