This song is about the Rising of the Scots - mainly the Highland clans - against the English King Edward, while the Scots King Edward and his heir, Prince Charles, lived in exile in France. The French King and other supporters helped with several abortive attempts to return Scotland's rightful king to his throne. All failed and thousands of Scots died on battlefields, in their homes, in the Highlands, all killed by English soldiers. The brave Scots warriors were the Flower of Scots manhood, fierce, strong, supreme fighters in hand-to-hand combat, and willing to die for their country, king, neighbor, friend, and kin. It was a different age. It was the end of the clan system of loyalty sworn to chiefs, replaced by the feudal system of kings, lords and peasants. This song is not about "Bonnie Prince Charlie" who was never a king or a leader of men in battle. It is about the best of the Highlanders who died at Culloden and elsewhere in Scotland during those years (1705-1745), when Scots tried to reclaim their own king and their own nation. They died for a cause that was lost before it began and that was the sorrow of it.