Jacobite risings: A French fleet anchored near Fife Ness as part of a planned French invasion of Britain.

Jacobitism was a political ideology advocating the restoration of the senior line of the House of Stuart to the British throne. When James II of England chose exile after the November 1688 Glorious Revolution, the Parliament of England ruled he had "abandoned" the English throne, which was given to his Protestant daughter Mary II of England, and his nephew, her husband William III. On the same basis, in April the Scottish Convention awarded Mary and William the throne of Scotland.

Fife Ness is a headland forming the most eastern point in Fife, Scotland. Anciently the area was called Muck Ross, which is a corruption of the Scottish Gaelic Muc-Rois meaning "Headland of the Pigs". It is situated in the area of Fife known as the East Neuk, and forms the muzzle of the dog-like outline of the latter when viewed on a map. Ness is a Scots word meaning "headland".

The Planned French Invasion of Britain, took place in March 1708 during the War of the Spanish Succession. Hoping to divert British resources from Flanders, a French Navy expedition was ordered to transport 5,000–6,000 soldiers to northeast Scotland. Once landed, they would help local Jacobites restore James Francis Edward Stuart to the throne of Great Britain.