A French gentleman's Jacobite Rosette

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

I understand all your statements and I'm familiar with the time period and the traditional Scot/French alliances.

I guess what I'm saying is, that the wearing of the white rosette or cockade by a French gentleman would normally show the association of that gentleman with the French royalists or Bourbon causes. If that French gentleman was in Scotland during the Jacobite uprising, would that gentleman be showing his association with the French forces that were there to support Prince Charles or was he actually showing his support of Prince Charles regardless of the gentleman's place of birth?

A gentleman would not change the cockade in his hat simply because he was moving about Europe. It would seem to be extremely unlikely that a French gentleman would be in Scotland during the rebellion of 1745-1746 under any but military circumstances.

Something that has to be remembered is that servants would inevitably wear a cockade of the livery colours of their employer, not necessarily their national colours. A gentleman might wear a cockade of national or political affiliation, but he was just as apt to wear one that matched his coat or waitscoat.

Was a Scottish Jacobite serving in the French king's forces (in France) and wearing the white rosette or cockade, showing his Jacobite sympathies or just wearing his employers colours?

He was wearing the colours of the French king.

How did the Jacobite cause take the colour white?

Surely you know the story of Prince Charles and the "White Rose"?

Did they copy the French or did the French copy them?

Neither. They occurred quite independent of each other.

There are records of Scottish mercenaries serving in armies all across Europe long before the Jacobite cause, how did they show their association to their country? Other than the kilt of course.

Generally speaking, at least in the 18th century, they didn't. They served in "Scottish" regiments, and were generally led by exiled Scottish officers, but they wore the uniform of the nation under whose flag they were fighting.

When Burns wrote "Hey Johnny Lad, Cock Up Your Beaver!" he was satirizing the young men who were willing to spout bellicose politics, but who lacked the courage of their words to "cock their beavers" (beaver being a common term for a hat, and a cocked hat being one with a cockade).