Prince
Charles Edward Stuart
'Prince of Wales'
(1720–88)
Other names: Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Silvester Severino Maria,
Charles III,
the Young Pretender,
Bonnie Prince Charlie
Biographical
Titular Prince of Wales 1720
'Prince-Regent' 1745
'Count of Albany' 1746
Claimant to the throne of Great Britain and Ireland 1766–88†
Charles was the
grandson of King James II of England and elder son of James, the 'Old
Pretender', by whom (as James III) he was declared at his birth
(but never created)
prince of Wales, the title he bore among the English Jacobites during
his father’s lifetime. The young prince was educated at his father’s
miniature court in Rome, with James Murray, Jacobite earl of Dunbar, for
his governor, and under various tutors, amongst whom were the learned
Chevalier Ramsay, Sir Thomas Sheridan and the abbé Légoux.
He quickly became conversant with the English, French and Italian languages,
but all his extant letters written in English appear singularly ill-spelt
and illiterate. In 1734 his cousin, the duke of Liria, afterwards duke
of Berwick, who was proceeding to join Don Carlos in his struggle for
the crown of Naples, passed through Rome. He offered to take Charles on
his expedition, and the boy of thirteen, having been appointed general
of artillery by Don Carlos, shared with credit the dangers of the successful
siege of Gaeta.
The handsome and accomplished youth, whose doings were eagerly reported
by the English ambassador at Florence and by the spy, John Walton, at
Rome, was now introduced by his father and the pope to the highest Italian
society, which he fascinated by the frankness of his manner and the grace
and dignity of his bearing. In 1737 James despatched his son on a tour
through the chief Italian cities, that his education as a prince and man
of the world might be completed. The distinction with which he was received
on his journey, the royal honours paid to him in Venice, and the jealous
interference of the English ambassador in regard to his reception by the
grand duke of Tuscany, show how great was the respect in which the exiled
house was held at this period by foreign Catholic powers, as well as the
watchful policy of England in regard to its fortunes. The Old Pretender
himself calculated upon foreign aid in his attempts to restore the monarchy
of the Stuarts; and the idea of rebellion unassisted by invasion or by
support of any kind from abroad was one which it was left for Charles
Edward to endeavour to realise. Of all the European nations France was
the one on which Jacobite hopes mainly rested, and the warm sympathy which
Cardinal Tencin, who had succeeded Fleury as French minister, felt for
the Old Pretender resulted in a definite scheme for an invasion of England
to be timed simultaneously with a prearranged Scottish rebellion. Charles
was secretly despatched to Paris in January 1744. A squadron under Admiral
Roquefeuil sailed from the coast of France. Transports containing 7000
troops, to be led by Marshal Saxe, accompanied by the young prince, were
in readiness to set sail for England. A severe storm effected, however,
a complete disaster without any actual engagement taking place.
The loss in ships of the line, in transports, and in lives was a crushing
blow to the hopes of Charles, who remained in France for over a year in
a retirement which he keenly felt. He had at Rome already made the acquaintance
of Lord Elcho and of John Murray of Broughton; at Paris he had seen many
supporters of the Stuart cause; he was aware that in every European court
the Jacobites were represented in earnest intrigue; and he had now taken
a considerable share in correspondence and other actual work connected
with the promotion of his own and his father’s interests. Although
dissuaded by all his friends, on the 13th of July 1745 he sailed from
Nantes for Scotland on board the small brig La Doutelle, which
was accompanied by a French man-of-war, the Elisabeth, laden
with arms and ammunition. The latter fell in with an English man-of-war,
the Lion, and had to return to France; Charles escaped during
the engagement, and at length arrived on the 2nd of August off Erisca,
a little island of the Hebrides. Receiving, however, but a cool reception
from Macdonald of Boisdale, he set sail again and arrived at the bay of
Lochnanuagh on the west coast of Inverness-shire.
The Macdonalds of Clanranald and Kinloch Moidart, along with other chieftains,
again attempted to dissuade him from the rashness of an unaided rising,
but they yielded at last to the enthusiasm and charm of his manner, and
Charles landed on Scottish soil in the company of the 'Seven Men of Moidart'
who had come with him from France. Everywhere, however, he met with discouragement
among the chiefs, whose adherence he wished to secure; but at last, by
enlisting the support of Cameron of Lochiel, he gained a footing for a
serious rebellion. With secrecy and speed communications were entered
into with the known leaders of the Highland clans, and on the 19th of
August, in the valley of Glenfinnan, the standard of James III and VIII
was raised in the midst of a motley but increasing crowd. On the same
day Sir John Cope at the head of 1500 men left Edinburgh in search of
Charles; but, fearing an attack in the Pass of Corryarrick, he changed
his proposed route to Inverness, and Charles thus had the undefended south
country before him. In the beginning of September he entered Perth, having
gained numerous accessions to his forces on his march. Crossing the Forth
unopposed at the Fords of Frew and passing through Stirling and Linlithgow,
he arrived within a few miles of the astonished metropolis, and on the
16th of September a body of his skirmishers defeated the dragoons of Colonel
Gardiner in what was known as the 'Canter of Coltbrig'. His success was
still further augmented by his being enabled to enter the city, a few
of Cameron’s Highlanders having on the following morning, by a happy
ruse, forced their way through the Canon-gate. On the 18th he publicly
proclaimed James VIII of Scotland at the Market Cross and occupied Holyrood.
Cope had by this time brought his disappointed forces by sea to Dunbar.
On the 20th Charles met and defeated him at Prestonpans, and returned
to prosecute the siege of Edinburgh Castle, which, however, he raised
on General Guest’s threatening to lay the city in ruins. In the
beginning of November Charles left Edinburgh, never to return. He was
at the head of at least 6000 men; but the ranks were being gradually thinned
by the desertion of Highlanders, whose traditions had led them to consider
war merely as a raid and an immediate return with plunder. Having passed
through Kelso, on the 9th of November he laid siege to Carlisle, which
capitulated in a week. Manchester received the prince with a warm welcome
and with 150 recruits under Francis Towneley. On the 4th of December he
had reached Derby and was within ten days’ march of London, where
the inhabitants were terror-struck and a commercial panic immediately
ensued. Two armies under English leadership were now in the field against
him, one under Marshal Wade, whom he had evaded by entering England by
the west, and the other under William, duke of Cumberland, who had returned
from the continent. London was not to be supposed helpless in such an
emergency; Manchester, Glasgow and Dumfries, rid of his presence, had
risen against him, and Charles paused. There was division among his advisers
and desertion among his men, and on the 6th of December he reluctantly
was forced to begin his retreat northward. Closely pursued by Cumberland,
he marched by way of Carlisle across the border, and at last stopped to
invest Stirling Castle. At Falkirk, on the 17th of January 1746, he defeated
General Hawley, who had marched from Edinburgh to intercept his retreat.
A fortnight later, however, Charles raised the siege of Stirling, and
after a weary though successful march rested his troops at Inverness.
Having taken Forts George and Augustus, and after varying success against
the supporters of the government in the north, he at last prepared to
face the duke of Cumberland, who had passed the early spring at Aberdeen.
On the 8th of April the duke marched thence to meet Charles, whose little
army, exhausted with a futile night march, half-starving, and broken by
desertion, was completely worsted at Culloden on the 16th of April 1746.
This decisive and cruel defeat sealed the fate of Charles Edward and the
house of Stuart. Accompanied by the faithful Ned Burke and a few other
followers, Charles at last gained the wild western coast. Hunted hither
and thither, he wandered on foot or cruised restlessly in open boats among
the many barren isles of the Scottish shore, enduring the greatest hardships
with marvellous courage and cheerfulness. Charles, upon whose head a reward
£30,000 had a year before been set, was thus for over five months
relentlessly pursued by the troops and spies of the government. Disguised
in female attire and aided by a passport obtained by the devoted Flora
Macdonald, he passed through Skye and parted from his gallant conductress
at Portree. Towards the end of July he took refuge in the cave of Coiraghoth
in the Braes of Glenmoriston, and in August he joined Lochiel and Cluny
Macpherson, with whom he remained in hiding until the news was brought
that two French ships were in waiting for him at the place of his first
arrival in Scotland—Lochnanuagh. He embarked with speed and sailed
for France, reaching the little port of Roscoff, near Morlaix, on the
29th of September 1746. He was warmly welcomed by Louis XV, and before
long he was again vigorously intriguing in Paris, and even in Madrid.
So far as political assistance was concerned, his efforts proved fruitless,
but he became at once the popular hero and idol of the people of Paris.
So enraged was he with his brother Henry’s acceptance of a cardinal’s
hat in July 1747, that he deliberately broke off communication with his
father in Rome (who had approved the step), nor did he ever see him again.
The enmity of the British government to Charles Edward made peace with
France an impossibility so long as she continued to harbour the young
prince. A condition of the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, concluded in October
1748, was that every member of the house of Stuart should be expelled
from the French dominions. Charles had forestalled the proclamation of
the treaty by an indignant protest against its injustice, and a declaration
that he would not be bound by its provisions. But his indignation and
persistent refusal to comply with the request that he should voluntarily
leave France had to be met at last with force: he was apprehended, imprisoned
for a week at Vincennes, and on the 17th of December conducted to the
French border. He lingered at Avignon; but the French, compelled to hard
measures by the English, refused to be satisfied; and Pope Benedict XIV,
alarmed by the threat of a bombardment of Civita Vecchia, advised the
prince to withdraw. Charles quietly disappeared; for years Europe watched
for him in vain. It is now established, almost with certainty, that he
returned to the neighbourhood of Paris; and it is supposed that his residence
was known to the French ministers, who, however, firmly proclaimed their
ignorance. In 1750, and again, it is thought, in 1754, he was in London,
hatching futile plots and risking his safety for his hopeless cause, and
even abjuring the Roman Catholic faith in order to further his political
interests.
During the next ten years of his life Charles Edward’s illicit connexion
with Miss Clementina Walkinshaw (d. 1802), whom he had first met at Bannockburn
House while conducting the siege of Stirling, his imperious fretful temper,
his drunken habits and debauched life, could no longer be concealed. He
wandered over Europe in disguise, alienating the friends and crushing
the hopes of his party; and in 1766, on returning to Rome at the death
of his father
(when Charles Edward became 'Charles III, according to his adherents),
he was treated by Pope Clement XIII with coldness, and his title as heir
to the British throne was openly repudiated by all the great Catholic
powers. It was probably through the influence of the French court, still
intriguing against England, that the marriage between Charles (now self-styled
count of Albany) and Princess Louise of Stolberg was arranged in 1772.
The union proved childless and unhappy, and in 1780 the countess fled
for refuge from her husband’s drunken violence to a convent in Florence,
where Charles had been residing since 1774. Later, the countess of Albany
threw herself on the protection of her brother-in-law Henry, Cardinal
York, at Rome, and the formal separation between the ill-matched pair
was finally brought about in 1784, chiefly through the kind offices of
King Gustavus III of Sweden. Charles, lonely, ill, and evidently near
death, now summoned to Florence his natural daughter, Charlotte Stuart,
the child of Clementina Walkinshaw, born at Liége in October 1753
and hitherto neglected by the prince. Charlotte Stuart, who was declared
legitimate and created duchess of Albany, tended her father for the remaining
years of his life, during which she contrived to reconcile the two Stuart
brothers, so that in 1785 Charles returned to Rome, where he died in the
old Palazzo Muti on the 30th of January 1788.
Place of birth: Palazzo Muti, Rome
Place of marriage: Macerata, Italy
Place of death: Rome
Place of burial: Frascati cathedral church; transferred to the Grotte
Vaticane, St Peter's Basilica, 1807
Son of James, Prince of Wales (Stuart) and Princess Maria Casimira Sobieska.
He married Princess Louise von Stolberg-Gedern, and no issue. He had illegitimate
issue by Clementina Walkinshaw.
|