Prestonpans, battle of, 1745. Charles Edward Stuart's first and critically important victory in the '45 rising was gained on 21 September at Prestonpans, on the coast east of Edinburgh. The Hanoverian army of some 2,300 men, under the command of Sir John Cope, had been ferried from Inverness to Dunbar to cut off the rebels' advance south. The issue was decided within a few minutes by a fierce Highland charge at dawn. Cope, forced to flee to Coldstream and Berwick, was much ridiculed, but his dispositions were perfectly sound and he was exonerated by a court martial.

J. A. Cannon

Prestonpans, Battle of a battle in 1745 near the town of Prestonpans just east of Edinburgh, the first major engagement of the Jacobite uprising of 1745–6. The Jacobites routed the Hanoverians, leaving the way clear for Charles Edward Stuart's subsequent invasion of England.