Frank Randall Black Jack
Where: Scotland, England and France
I don’t believe she tells frank about the likeness, I believe all she tells him is that she met his ancestor and that he is a pervert. This next part relates to season 3, and Your flair says season 2 i don’t think she told frank that black jack Randall wasn’t actually is direct ancestor either, but it was his brother Alex. In Outlander Season 2, we learned Frank wasn’t a direct descendant of Black Jack Randall after all. However, Mary and BJR did marry, but it wasn’t valid. In Outlander Season 2, we found out that Black Jack Randall wasn’t a direct ancestor of Frank Randall, despite Frank’s beliefs.
When: 1745-6
Who (Major Actors): Charles Edward Stuart (“Bonnie Prince Charlie), James Francis Edward Stuart (“The Old Pretender”), King George II, and Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland
Why (Goals): Overthrow the Hanoverian dynasty and restore the Stuarts as Great Britain’s royal family
The “Resurgence” of Scottish Nationalism
Though the Scottish have long exhibited a strong sense of national pride, the referendum on national independence in 2014 and the release of Starz’s television dramaOutlander has sparked a renewed interest in Scotland’s Jacobite Rebellion. The efforts of Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Highlanders mark one of the most important—and ultimately tragic—moments in Scottish history. Nevertheless, many Americans are unfamiliar with the event. Here’s what you need to know about the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745.
Background to the Jacobite Rebellions
The origins of the Rebellion date back to 1603, with the ascension of James I to the English throne. Formerly the king of Scotland, the Stuart monarch traveled south to London to rule over the newly-united Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland after the death of the childless Queen Elizabeth—known as the “Virgin Queen” for her life-long chastity. Unfortunately for many of James I’s Scottish supporters, the king turned his attentions away from his homeland once he reached London. He assumed the title “King of Great Britain” and pushed for the complete unification of three realms. James I—and after his death in 1625, his son King Charles I—even sought to force the English Anglican episcopacy’s hierarchy on the Scottish Presbyterian Church. Anger in Scotland over such reforms resulted in armed conflict in the 1640s. The Stuart Kings, it seemed, had abandoned their Scottish roots.
The next stop on the road towards the Jacobite Rebellion took place after the English Civil War and the restoration of the monarchy. When Charles II died in 1685 without a legitimate heir (though the “Merry Monarch” reportedly bore 12 illegitimate children!), his brother, James II, took the throne. James II, however, was a converted Catholic, and the English Parliament would not allow a “popish” monarch to rule over Protestant England. After a mere three years as king, Parliament and a group of Protestant nobles overthrew James II and awarded the crown to his protestant daughter, Mary. Alongside her husband, William of Orange, Mary ruled until 1702. For his part, James II fled to France; yet he held onto his claim to the English throne until his death in 1701. Those who supported his claim became known as Jacobites—from Jacobus, the Renaissance Latin spelling of James.
After William’s death in 1702, Mary’s sister, Anne, took the crown. Queen Anne oversaw the Acts of Union in 1707: an agreement that completely combined England and Scotland—theretofore separate states with the same monarch—into one country, Great Britain. For many Scots (much like James I and Charles I’s “abandonment” of their homeland a century prior) the Acts of Union were yet another attack on Scottish self-rule. Not only did the Acts merge the Scottish Kingdom into Great Britain, they also dissolved the Scottish Parliament and transferred all legislative power to London.
Queen Anne died without an heir in 1714. Due to a prior act of Parliament denying the throne to any Catholic, the protestant Sophia of the Palatinate (modern-day Germany) was predetermined to become the next queen of Great Britain. Sophia, however, died shortly before Anne, and the throne went to her son, George, Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg and Elector of Hanover. King George I became the first of the Hanoverian kings—the reign of the Stuarts was over.
The First Jacobite Rebellion: the “Fifteen”
Across the Channel in France, James II’s son and heir apparent, James (who became known as the Old Pretender), was not pleased to hear about King George I’s ascension—George never even bothered to learn the English language! The Old Pretender was certainly not alone in his discontent: many Scottish Highlanders, English Catholics and noble families devoted to the Stuart cause were unhappy to see a foreigner ruling over Great Britain. In 1715, the Earl of Mar—a Scottish nobleman—led a hasty insurrection meant to overthrow the monarchy. In what became known as the “fifteen,” the Earl and his followers took Inverness (for youOutlander fans, where Frank and Claire Randall take their second honeymoon after the War) and most of northern Scotland. When news of the Jacobite successes reached the Old Pretender in France, he traveled to Scotland to take part in the uprising. By that time, however, the Jacobites had been soundly defeated at the Battle of Preston as they marched south to London. Many of the rebels were tried for treason and executed after the battle—the Jacobite cause was down, but certainly not out.
The Bonnie Prince and the Rebellion of 1745
The Jacobite dream of ruling Great Britain flared up again a generation later, under the leadership of the Old Pretender’s son, Charles. Known as “Bonnie Prince Charlie” or simply “the Bonnie Prince,” the young Stuart claimant began plotting an invasion of Great Britain in 1743. In his eyes, the time was ripe for rebellion. England had recently become embroiled in a global conflict known today as the War of the Austrian Succession; British forces were deployed on the European continent, while colonists took up arms in faraway places like the North America, the Caribbean and the Indian subcontinent. With all of Great Britain’s concerns overseas, the Bonnie Prince reasoned, they would never expect an uprising at home.
Charles cultivated long-distance relations in the Scottish highlands (with the real-life versions Outlander’s Jamie Fraser and Clan Mackenzie) and amongst England’s Catholic nobility. In July 1745, he sailed to the Scottish Isle of Eriskay, from which he rallied more clan chieftains to his cause. By August he had traveled to Glenfinnan in the Highlands and raised the Jacobite standard—the last of the Jacobite rebellions had begun.
On September 15th, 20,000 cheering citizens greeted the Jacobite army in Edinburgh. The Old Pretender was declared King James VIII of Scotland, and Charles planned his invasion of England. Meanwhile, in London, the British government put a £30,000 bounty on the Young Pretender’s head. The invasion began in early-November, when the Bonnie Prince led his army into northern England. Charles laid siege to Carlisle in mid-November and later entered the city with 5,000 infantry and 500 cavalry troops. After gathering all the ammunition, arms and horses they could from Carlisle, the Jacobites continued south. Charles then took Manchester with ease. Moral inside the Jacobite ranks swelled, and the English throne seemed within grasp.
The Hanoverians, however, would not go down without a fight. King George II (the son of George I) recalled his brother, the Duke of Cumberland, from the front lines in France to quell the rebellion. With ample men and resources, the Duke pursued the Jacobite invaders. The army of Field Marshal George Wade, who joined the pursuit from the Midlands, aided the Duke’s forces. Charles, who had recently taken Derby, found himself being converged upon by two armies. The Bonnie Prince decided to flee north to the safety of Scotland.
Pursuing English soldiers harried Charles and his troops all the way back to Scotland. The Jacobite army reached Glasgow on Christmas Day. Once re-provisioned and rearmed, they were able to defeat a British army at the Battle of Falkirk Muir. Yet the British pursuit continued. The Duke of Cumberland and his army landed in Edinburgh in January 1746 and marched on the Jacobites. An already exhausted Jacobite army was forced to retreat into the Highlands towards Inverness. The Jacobites made their last stand at Culloden Moor on April 16th. Superior British artillery battered the Jacobite lines for nearly an hour. The Bonnie Prince ordered one last desperate charge, and his Jacobite clansmen—armed with flintlock muskets, blades and daggers—were cut down.
The Aftermath of Culloden
The Jacobites lost around 2,000 men at Culloden, while the British suffered a mere 300 casualties. The Duke of Cumberland’s dragoons (think of the Outlandercharacter Jonathan “Black Jack” Randall) chased fleeing Jacobite clansmen into the Western Highlands, executing many of those they caught. Those clansmen who were not executed were often transported to the colonies, ushering in the first wave of large-scale Scottish immigration to North America. The British government also banned the tartan and kilt. The clan system—the social order that had existed in the Scottish Highlands since before the days of William Wallace—was lost to history.
Bonnie Prince Charlie fled to the safety of Scotland’s rugged western coast after the defeat. He spent the following months evading capture in the Highlands and the Hebrides. Always able to stay one step ahead of his pursuers, Charles’ flight from Culloden has become the stuff of legend and is commemorated in the popular folk tune, “The Skye Boat Song.” In September 1746, the Young Pretender abandoned the rebellion and set sail for France aboard the frigate L’Heureux—which, ironically, means “the happy one” in French. Charles contemplated another invasion in 1759 during the Seven Year’s War, but the Jacobite dreams were dashed. The Bonnie Prince would never step foot in his ancestral home of Scotland again. He spent the rest of his life in exile, dying on January 31st, 1788 in Rome, Italy. Ever the good Catholic, Charles Edward Stuart was laid to rest in St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.
Waaaaay back at Comic Con 2015, I was one of the few reporters allowed into the Starz pressroom for their new historical-fantasy-drama series Outlander, based on the world wide best selling novels by Diana Gabaldon. The series recently was likened to Battlestar Galactica, which just happens to be one of my top five shows of all time.
Here is the EW article pointing these things out, and you’ll see what I mean. But Ron D. Moore tackling an epic series again? Not to say that Helix isn’t awesome, but I hear rumblings that he isn’t more than a producer on it. As a fan of the book series, I KNEW we’d be in good hands with Mr. Cylon himself. And, as of this morning, Outlander has been officially picked up for a second season before the second episode of season one even plays. That’s pretty awesome.
We weren’t allowed to take photos or video in this pressroom, which was odd, and I was sad I couldn’t take height comparison photos standing next to Sam Heughan (Jamie Fraser), Caitriona Balfe (Claire Fraser), Tobias Menzies (Frank Randall/Black Jack Randall), Graham McTavish (Dougal MacKenzie), Lotte Verbeek (Gellis Duncan), and of course Ron. I should also inform you readers that for these roundtable interviews, I was dressed as Rocket Raccoon from Guardians Of The Galaxy. Not kidding; ears, tail, black nose and whiskers, making everyone I spoke to smile and regarded me with amused ease. (This, aside from being a fan of the things I cosplay, is why I continue to wear my characters to interviews.)
Q: So how has your con been so far?
Tobias: I’ve enjoyed it, I’ve not been here before, it’s been a whirlwind 24 hours. We had the premiere last night, and I got to meet many of the fantastic fans. It’s wonderful to have it out there, finally, after plugging away on it all these months in Scotland. It’s quite nice to share it now. There are a lot of people with a lot of affection and care about these stories, there is a tremendous amount of responsibility on us for it.
Q: SO when you first started creating the character of Frank, what was the goal in conveying him to the audience?
Tobias: I think within the structure of the piece, I think it’s quite important that the relationship between Frank and Claire has real depth, and that the audience cares. Because going forward, she has to make the choice after going back in time and losing him, making that choice to stay in that time, it means something to everyone. And there’s actually more of Frank in the series than there is in the book, Ron has built that up.
Q: Honestly in the book, I never really thought much about Frank, so, I was impressed with how you played it, because I’m sure it can get confusing between Frank and Black Jack, but you did it perfectly, and I totally bought into their marriage.
Tobias: Oh, thank you. And I agree that Frank is rather thinly drawn in the book, I felt it was important from the beginning to give him some weight and some structure. That there was indeed a proper relationship, that there was love and sexuality, so that when she (Claire) had the choice between two very different men, they were two complete relationships. I’m so glad that it’s something that’s reading to the audience.
Q: The jumping on the bed scene was just….perfect.
Tobias: Yeah, it just sort of gives it humor and light. And it’s such a different relationship than what she finds and has with Jamie, but it’s no less important to her.
Q: How did you prepare to do the duality between the characters you’re playing? I mean even that first moment of seeing Jack on the screen, we can see the complete change, how did you prepare for that?
Tobias: The usual I guess, some reading, some research into the different periods. The similarities and differences. When I first met Ron, he found it interesting that both men were shapped by their experiences in war, albeit different outcomes. Frank, with the love of a good woman has survived and is in ok shape, marked by it but not lost by it. Whereas Jack has gone to a very dark place, through his experiences with the British army in Scotland in that time, which was very brutal. And that helped a great deal to sort of delineate who they were. And the costumes helped alot, the sets helped a lot, the writing, all the things the show gives you helps with the interesting challenge of trying to render two different people. And you sort of have to keep your fingers crossed as well, that people buy it.
Q: Did you get to talk to any of the fans after the showing of the pilot?
Tobias: Oh after last nights? No, not afterwards. We did have that Comic Con Q & A during the day, and that was very relealing. A lot of people in that room who know the stories much better than I do, and that was interesting. And some of them were at the screening last night, there was lots of excitement, which is encouraging. But I didn’t stay around after the screening, I was mainly jet lagged and looking for a drink. (everyone laughs) I couldn’t care less about the fans right then, KIDDING!
Me:….but drinks matter more.
Tobias: (laughing) Yes! Sometimes drinks matter more, well said Raccoon, I agree. (more laughing)
Me: But yeah, it’s a BIG part of the series, though-
Tobias: What, raccoons?
Me: No, whisky!
Tobias: Because I haven’t seen or read any raccoons yet.
Me: Well, no, but there are later!
Tobias: A raccoon that turns up in the story?
Me: Yes, there are.
Tobias: Well see, you can say that, because I haven’t read any of the second or third yet at all.
Me: That’s why, because it’s later on. But the whisky-
Tobias: So in a couple of years time, I’m going to be reading it, and going ‘she LIED TO ME’, aren’t I? And yell out ‘THERE ARE NO RACCOONS HERE”!
Me: No, no, it’s gonna happen, and you’re gonna laugh and go “GOD THAT RACCOON WAS RIGHT!” (everyone laughs)
Tobias: Well what time period does the raccoon show up in?
THIS IS A SPOILER WARNING FOR THE BOOKS PAST NOVEL 2. IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW, DON’T CONTINUE READING.
Me: It’s when they are in America.
Tobias: Oh of course. Wait, they go to America?
Me: …you really HAVEN’T read any more of these, have you?
Tobias: I’ve read the first one, and maybe 200 pages of the second one. The first season is the first book, the second the second and so on. But the whisky-
Me: Yes, the whisky. It’s such an interesting and at times important part of the world Diana writes about. Were you a whisky drinker before the series? Are you now?
Frank Randall Black Jack Jones
Tobias: Whisky? But in which period, though?
Frank Randall Black Jack Book
Me: In all of them, but specifically in Jack’s. He detests it in the beginning we see in the book.
Tobias: Oh really, yeah, I’d forgotten that bit. I do like some whiskey, actually. A good single malt. And we’re obviously shooting in Scotland, the home of good whisky, so in fact as I walked in, Graham was trying to get me to agree to go to a whisky tasting tomorrow morning at 11am!
Me: Do it.
Tobias: I mean I like whisky, but maybe not at 11 o’clock in the morning. YEAH, pour it over my cereal, who needs milk?
Q: In the last two years, you’ve been involved with 2 massive fan favorite tv series based on book series, can you talk a little bit about the differences?
Tobias: Oh, I guess there haven’t been differences, really. With Game Of Thrones, I was coming in the 3rd season, it was already established. I was fitting into something already alive and kcikcing, I enjoyed that a lot. Both David Benioff and Dan Wiess are very dedicated, very clever, great storytellers. The way they are putting those books on the screen is very sophisticated, very bold, those worlds are so peopled and huge they’ve had to pick their fights, and done a good job of their adaptaion. And this one, I’ve been in it from the beginning, from the ground up really, and you have a little more imput. The creators need you to get invovled, and you’re party to costume desicions, and I’m nosey like that. I think the two books are very different, Thrones is very much a fantasy world, and Diana’s world is a real place, with more an element of sci fi, even with the time travel, but it’s to a real place, a real time. And there are no dragons.
Frank Randall Black Jack Actor
Interviewer: Yet!
Tobias: Yet, as long as the raccoon is coming as well, why not? Which raccoon are you being, anyway, it’s not from our show.
Me: No, I’m Rocket from Guardians Of The Galaxy.
Tobias: ….should I know that one?
Me: It’s the next Marvel big movie, it’s not out yet. But on to the fantasy you mentioned, there is a scene in the books, that I know they’re not doing in the show, that is one of the few times we get a bit of the fantastical element of things. And it’s the Loch Ness Monster scene-
Tobias: You think it’s not in the show?
Me:….Ron said it’s not. He said twice, and so did Diana.
Tobias: Huh. I’m pretty sure I read a script where that scene is in it.
Frank Randall Black Jack Russell
(At this point everyone at the table starts laughing gleefully, because before our session started, we all chatted about the one ‘big question’ we wanted to ask, and mine was of course The Water Horse, because I’m a dork. And they were enjoying the look of awe on my face.)
Tobias: I mean far beit for me to contradict the mighty mighty man, but maybe it didn’t make the cut or something. Maybe it got niped out or something, but yeah, certainly there was a script with that in it, where she (Claire) sees it.
Me: It was one of the things I really wanted to see in the show, because it’s that bridge between the mythical and the real.
Tobias: Oh yeah, definitely, the Loch Ness monster is one of those magical things, isn’t it.
Handler: I’m sorry everyone, I have to steal him away now.
Tobias: Oh why? I’m having such a nice time with Raccoon here, and I have wine, I could be here for ages. I’m sorry I didn’t bring more wine for the group, I didn’t know if you guys would be cool with wine in the morning like this. Oh here, you want some? (offers me some) Oh farewell, Raccoon.
Outlander airs on Saturdays on the Starz network, episode two on 8-16-14.