After the failed Jacobite rebellion of 1715 in Scotland and England against the reigning monarch, George I, heavy reprisals were handed down on those perpetrators who were captured alive. Lords Derwentwater and Kenmure were beheaded, and Lord Nithsdale would have suffered the same fate, were it not for his wife:
But there were also escapes. Lord Nithsdale, another Catholic, who had proclaimed James VIII at Dumfries and had been captured at Preston, was due to suffer [execution] with Derwentwater and Kenmure. However, his wife (the Duke of Powis's daughter, Lady Winifred Herbert) was unusually resourceful. After [King] George refused to reprieve him, having dragged her along the floor as he walked away when she clung to his coat-tails after flinging herself at his feet - she changed her tactics.
Visiting her husband at the Tower on the night before the execution, Lady Nithsdale framed his face with false curls, rouged and powdered it, dressed him in a cloak and hood, and then led him out, pretending he was her maid. Disguised as a footman, he hid at the Venetian embassy before leaving for France with the ambassador, who was unaware of his presence. During the voyage, he heard the ship's captain say 'the wind could not have served better if his passengers had been flying for their lives'. His wife joined him later.
On learning of Nithsdale's escape, George flew into a frenzy, shouting that traitors were at work, and sent messengers to the Tower with instructions to see other prisoners were strictly guarded.
- Desmond Seward, The King Over the Water, Edinburgh, 2019, p.156
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| Lord Nithsdale, Escape from the Tower, by Emily Mary Osborn (source) |
See also:
Scotland: The Grand Vizier o' Kirkaldy, 5 October 2018
Scotland: Crusader Kings 2: House of Dunkeld, 5 May 2013
Scotland: The character & attachments of a Scotchman, 3 November 2012
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