If BPC had not invaded England right then (in the winter??) would it have turned out better for him?

Agree with luzula that the element of speed and surprise was key. If he had any chance of winning, I'm not convinced it would have been starting a drawn out civil war by hanging out in Scotland and hoping for more support. (Admittedly, it's been 20 years since I was fluent with the military situation, but firm in my memory is the discrepancy in numbers between what he could command and what G2 could command. And that the English still had garrisons, like Edinburgh Castle, which the Jacobites never captured. And I have no reason to believe that enthusiasm for the Stuarts was strong enough that he could have made up the difference. That said, a number of his supporters disagreed, and they were actually there!)

What's interesting is the question of whether pushing on from Derby would have worked or not. The consensus of the authors I read 20 years ago was that it wouldn't have, they just would have gotten slaughtered some time before April of 1746. That the royal family wasn't really preparing to flee, that that was a rumor based on wishful thinking. But Horowski and other, more recent authors I've read since then have espoused the opinion that pushing on would likely have worked in the same way that 1688 worked for William.

I haven't read enough primary sources to have a well-informed opinion, but I can tell you that pushing on from Derby was the turning point in my long-ago fic for a reason. ;)

The Butcher of Cumberland!

Small nitpick: he's "Butcher Cumberland", in the same way that I'm "Detective Mildred" and not "Detective of Mildred". Because Cumberland was his name (he was the Duke of Cumberland) and not the place he butchered. (Cumberland being in England.)

Also called "Butcher Billy."

because at a council the Jacobites decided to turn around, possibly affected by the testimony of the Hanoverian spy Dudley Bradstreet who told them there was yet another army between them and London.

See, this is when a time traveler from the 23rd century shows up and tells them, "Don't believe him, it's a trick!" and for some reason, people listen to her and next thing you know, she's leading armies and defeating her enemies in a way that would make Alexander the Great turn green.

(The research for this fic was an extremely useful way to spend the time, even if the writing was...we'll call it good practice for a teenager. ;))

What books/articles have you read on the topic? *curious*

Well, none intentionally, due to my desire to avoid getting sucked back in. ;) I only ran into mentions of this while reading up on other topics, which is why I'm not going to remember which ones they were, unfortunately. I'm *reasonable* sure one was Horowski's Europa der Könige (highly recommended if your German's up to it), but as for the other mentions, I don't remember.

so much of what authors refer to is inaccessible material from archives. So I don't feel like I'd be able to inform myself enough that way.

Ah, too bad. We're definitely impeded in the Fritz fandom by lack of archive access and lack of necessary skills to make good use of archives, but so much has been digitized or at least published that we're doing fairly well on the primary source front. Orders of magnitude better than I was as a high school student circa 2000!

BTW, if you need any help with Swedish while reading up on Charles XII, let me know.

Oh, neat! Thanks, I will. (You don't happen to know any Russian, do you? Because while I might have a prayer at making heads or tails of Swedish, Russian is way out of my league.)

my main association is that unfortunately he has been adopted as a mascot by Nazis over here.

Ugh. This is what in the Fritz fandom we call "The Worst Fanboys."

It was a long shot! (There's a Russian Peter III fan on DW/A03 I keep trying to get to join salon, or at least recommend me some books about Russian history, but she hasn't been inclined to do either.)

Oh, okay, I've seen it both ways in previous salon posts and just picked one at semi-random.

My search function tells me Selena has said "Butcher Cumberland" 3 times and "Butcher of Cumberland" 1 time. I only have memories of seeing "Butcher Cumberland" in my reading, though it's possible reputable sources do use "Butcher of Cumberland" and I either haven't encountered them or my memory is failing me.

(But wouldn't the proper analogy be "Detective of Midgard" rather than "Detective of Mildred"? ;) )

Ha! I knew you were going to say that. ;) They feel different to me, because the "of" in "Duke of X" isn't the same as the "of" in "Mildred of X": one is "[title] [over] [domain]" and the other "[person] [from] [place]". My impression has always been that "Duke of Cumberland" was like "Prince of Wales," in the sense that it was granted to members of the royal family who were of the appropriate rank and needed a title to go with their rank. I don't think William was associated with Cumberland much more than Frederick was with Wales. I mean, maybe he was granted an estate and some income from the region? but I don't think he spent time there when not crushing a Jacobite rebellion. Saying "of" to mean "from" would feel weird to me in his case.

Wikipedia says:

Duke of Cumberland is a peerage title that was conferred upon junior members of the British Royal Family, named after the historic county of Cumberland.

The dukedom was created in the Peerage of England in 1644 for Prince Rupert of the Rhine, nephew of King Charles I. When he died without male heirs, the title was created again in the Peerage of England in 1689 for Prince George of Denmark, husband of Princess Anne, younger daughter of King James II. He also died without heirs, in 1708. Neither of these men, however, was usually known by his peerage title.

The third creation, in the Peerage of Great Britain, was for Prince William, the third son of King George II. Other titles granted to Prince William were Marquess of Berkhampstead, Earl of Kennington, Viscount Trematon and Baron Alderney. Since the Prince died unmarried and without children, his titles became extinct at his death.

I agree that if we're talking about like the Duke of Brunswick, I would have a different reaction to "of", since the dukes actually lived there and/or came from there, in addition to having the title. Though that's almost entirely because I would be able to say "Ferdinand of Brunswick" (just like Rupert of the Rhine, George of Denmark) in a way that "William of Cumberland," without the "Duke".

I am open to counterevidence, though! I'm not a hundred percent sure here. (Except that I've definitely seen "Butcher Cumberland" way more than "Butcher of Cumberland," even if someone proves the latter does exist.)