Culloden moor lies near Inverness in northern Scotland, and on April 16, 1746 it was the scene of a decisive battle between Hanoverian Royalists and Jacobite forces led by Charles Edward Stuart, nicknamed Bonnie Prince Charlie. The Hanoverian forces led by William, Duke of Cumberland outnumbered the Jacobites by about 9,000 to 5,000, and the forty-minute battle led to the deaths of about 1,000 of weary, hungry, Scots.
The defeat for the Jacobites effectively meant the end of the rebellion which had begun in 1745. Cumberland also gained the nickname of 'Butcher' Cumberland, both for the massacre and for his brutal reprisals against the Highlanders in the aftermath of the battle. Charles on the battlefield was described by his own bodyguard, Lord Elcho, as a "damned Italian coward", as he fled quickly from the field. He later escaped to exile in France.
Sources:
The Oxford Companion to Scottish History, ed. Michael Lynch, Oxford University Press, 2001
The Hutchinson Encyclopedia, 1997 edition, Helicon Publishing, 1996
Chronicle of Britain, Chronicle Communications Ltd, 1992
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc, 1994-2000