... was the first major battle of the Jacobite Rebellion.
Questions of this sort normally ask who led the victorious troops (or occasionally the defeated troops). For example, "Who led the victorious Scottish troops at the Battle of Bannockburn?" Answer: "Robert the Bruce".
Despite the less formal wording of this question (the one about Prestonpans), I would hope to have answered "Bonnie Prince Charlie" or "Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Pretender". Surely these should have been on the question sheet as alternative answers?
To accept "the Jacobite army" as a correct answer is in any case, IMHO, generous to a fault – particularly as we were given the actual date of the battle. 1745 is the year most closely associated with the Jacobite Rebellion; if a description of one of the opposing sides is to be accepted, this is at best an "either–or" question.
The defeated government troops at Prestonpans, loyal to the Hanoverian King George II, were led by Sir John Cope.
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