Charlie Zahm sings ’Hey Johnnie Cope!’

October 1745: This was the song the Jacobites were singing in the taverns of Edinburgh’s Old Town, as they celebrated their victory over the government forces of Lieutenant General Sir John Cope (pictured) at Prestonpans on September 21st, and prepared for greater challenges ahead. Modern scholarship suggests that Sir John Cope was not as incompetent as the song implies, although he was caught napping (literally as well as metaphorically) by the Jacobites’ flanking movement before dawn on September 21st. Gen Cope’s military career was ended by his defeat, but it was reported that, before Falkirk Muir, when senior officers and government officials were confidently predicting that the Jacobites would be routed, he took bets on the outcome of the battle in London coffee houses, and cleaned up when news of the Jacobite victory came through – so at least he was able to retire in some comfort!