in the first weekend in may 2022 a
couple of british citizens in ukraine
military for years find themselves
captured and cynically paraded by
russian authorities
i find myself in the northeast of
scotland reflecting on how things have
changed in 300 years and to talk about
this guy
the scotsman who amongst other things
ran ukraine for russia
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meantime
let me tell you a story
now i probably wouldn't have made this
video this weekend but i have a weekend
of stand-up shows in aberdeen a viewer
did ask me to talk about this guy and
current events in ukraine make him
relevant to us today and that's what's
brought me here to peter head and the
statue of james keith his is an
incredible story born to be a jacobite
he grew up to be so much more
in fact in this short video i can only
scratch the surface of this
extraordinary character but you can get
more detail in sam cool's book nothing
but my sword i'll leave a link in the
description
james keith was born eight short years
after the so-called glorious revolution
to oust the stewards
his parents were jack about nobility and
they named their child after the exiled
king over the water
people
often wrongly see jacobites as highland
and catholic and neither are strictly
true
this area was a perfect example of a
hotbed of episcopalian jacobites and
james was born into that
as a child he was educated by an
episcopalian bishop uncle before
appropriately coming to aberdeen
university
marshall college here in aberdeen was
founded by his ancestor george keith
fourth earl marshall
and urban and intelligent young man was
going to be a solicitor but history got
in the way
when queen anne the daughter of the
ousted james the seventh and second died
without ears the obvious solution was to
bring back her half-brother james from
the continent
but it was his birth that sparked the
whole debacle in the first place
the london elites chose 59th in lane
george elector of hanover the 19 year
old james was outraged that they would
place a german on the throne which by
the time we get to the end
will seem a wee bit ironic
james keith rose with other jacobites in
1715
but by the time james the eighth landed
from a fishing boat here at peter head
on the 22nd of december the previous
month's inconclusive battle of sheriff
muir meant that the horizon was
effectively already over
along with others james keith had to
escape to the continent it was a new
beginning you might even say that this
is where a story began
this well-born scotsman struggled to
make ends meet but eventually he was
given a gift by mary of medina the
mother of the rightful king slash old
pretender delete is appropriate
this meant that he could go to
university in paris to continue his
studies but before long military
punch-ups and jacobite subterfuges were
getting in the way of his homework he
was offered a commission to return to
scotland as a jacobite cavalry colonel
when that particular scheme fell through
he offered a sword to czar peter the
first of russia this was in june
1717.
now peter the great said they had no
need of this young lad sword which is
another irony we'll come back to
continental subterfuge seems a long way
from the seat of the keith's here at
donater castle by stonehaven but james
keith threw himself into it he and his
brother crossed from france to spain
with money messages and authority to buy
equipment
he left his brother in spain came back
to france in disguise and made his way
to paris and it was from the scene that
he set sail hooking up with his brother
and spanish ships rounded our knee and
avoided british warships for what would
become
the 1719 jacobite rising
where keith
fought alongside spanish troops and rob
roy at glenshield
after months of hiding out in the
mountains he found himself back here in
peterhead now remember this was his part
of the world it was also a heartland
episcopalian jacobitism
if you're one of those people that
thinks that jacobites were catholic
highlanders then it's worth watching my
conversation with historian and jacobi
expert murray pittig on my patreon
member page now if you're not already a
patreon member then you can sign up by
clicking the white tab up there you'll
also get access to my recent
conversation with scotland's top
archaeologist and picturish expert
gordon noble and loads more besides
anyway
from here james keith made ship to
holland from where he could travel
through france to spain again but
france and spain were involved in the
war of the quadruple alliance so he and
his brother were arrested and thrown in
jail damn it
managing to hide the letters of
commission from spain which would have
got them in even more trouble
he was broke again
but he and his brother hitchhiked around
france facing many travails until he
made it back to spain and gained the
position of colonel an irish brigade in
the spanish army he was part of the
besieging spanish forces who tried to
retrieve gibraltar so recently gained by
britain and the war of the spanish
succession
but there was only so far a protestant
could go in the spanish military and to
realize his full potential keith was
going to have to reinvent himself again
zar peter the first of russia had
rejected the young james keith but under
peter ii he set his foot on the first
rung of the ladder of russian influence
in 1728 he gained command of a regiment
of russian guards his courage
intelligence and diplomacy saw him rise
to be one of russia's most talented
generals and regional governor for the
tsar in ukraine
it was the university of saint andrews
steve murder who told us the ukrainians
said that they'd wished that they'd
never met james keith because they'd
never have known how bad they'd had it
before and once he'd been made governor
he should never have been taken away
from them
i'm not sure the canadians will be
saying that about russian people ruling
over them these days
but the russo-swedish war in 1741 meant
that skills were needed elsewhere and
for a time it was viceroy of finland
he had a reputation for treating
civilians in finland extremely well
during that russian occupation now that
might be because he fell in love with a
prisoner of war who'd been the daughter
of a local mayor her name was eva and
she became his lover indeed the love of
his life and the mother of his children
later in 1741 there was a palace coup
and elizabeth petrovna installed herself
as empress of russia with the help of a
certain gallant scotsman you may have
heard of
james keith was awarded the highest and
oldest owner in russia
the order of sin andrew that's right
sin andrew is the patron saint of russia
now they say that the empress had a bit
of a thing for our jamesy boy
maybe that's the reason that when the
jacobite asked permission for her key
general to lead bonnie prince charlie's
forces in 1745
she
refused
how different would the outcome have
been with keith and control
could it be that one of the most
significant events in british history
was decided in russia
long before it even began
that's something to ponder isn't it
it can't be easy having an all-powerful
empress take a fancy chair when you're
in love with your former prisoner at war
whether i avoid her advances or to gain
his own advancement in 1747 james keith
and his brother upped sticks and
switched allegiance to the arch enemy of
the empress frederick the great of
prussia
frederick made keith field marshal of
prussia then governor of berlin
he was a close ally confidant and
forthright advisor but also a loyal
soldier to the fourth of his royal
masters
this week
two britons were paraded as pawns and
threatened by russian authorities and
geopolitical sabre rattling because they
fought for ukraine
it did make me wonder about the
differences between then and now
the fluidity of borders professional
soldiering and a switching of loyalties
that would be questioned today with the
tracking monitoring border controls
electronic payments and loyalty demanded
by current governments
in many ways we see ourselves as having
more freedoms and yet in other ways
modern choices and expectations are far
more constrained
within 10 years it keeps moving to
berlin the seven years war had broken
out
keith was instrumental in the alliance
between prussia and great britain in
that war the man whose path from
jacobite soldier to prussian field
marshall started in aberdeen because he
wouldn't have a german parachuted onto
the british throne
had reached the summit
of mount irony that i promised earlier
he seems to have been loyal to those
that he served from the exiled james to
the king of spain russians arenas and
prussian royals
on october the 14th 1758 fighting for
frederick the great he laid down his
life at the battle of hawker and what's
now
eastern germany
in 2008 in a country that since its
flirt with nazism has been law to
celebrate military heroes
that small village near the polish
border marked the 250th anniversary of
the death of a scotsman with a memorial
stone outside its church
and yet i wonder
how many people in peter head
know who this is if you'd like another
story about a scottish hero then there's
one coming up on screen now in the
meantime
jamie and doc is going to be a llama
alive
cherry understood
you