Prince grandson of James II King of England Charles Edward - Jacobites: a new history of the 45 rebellion

JACOBITES

After Robert Mordon, A chart wherein ... all the different rout[e]s of P[rince Charles] Edward in Great Britain, engraving, c. 1747.

( THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM)

JACOBITES

A New History of the 45 Rebellion

Jacqueline Riding

For Jack, Pat, Haworth, Tom, Florrie, Ern & Nellie

A romance of real life equal in splendour and interest to any which could be devised by fiction.

Sir Walter Scott

a noble attempt

Dr Samuel Johnson

Contents

Until September 1752, Britain was still using the Julian calendar (Old Style or OS), while continental Europe had already introduced the Gregorian calendar (New Style or NS). As a result, during the eighteenth century, Britain was eleven days behind France, the Low Countries, Italy etc. In the main, the dates in the current history follow OS or NS depending on where the action is taking place, but when letters are being sent between Flanders and Britain for example, the authors invariably gave both dates for clarity, and this habit is continued here. At times, again for clarity and also when useful, the corresponding NS or OS has been included in brackets. The additional complication of the OS year traditionally commencing on 25 March, something England continued to do in our period but not Scotland (1 January), means that dates in January, February and March were invariably written with the old and new year included. So, 1 December 1745, would be followed by 1 February 1745/6, which would be followed, in turn, by 1 April 1746. The old tradition is used here throughout.

Captain Richard Robinsons last voyage had not gone exactly to plan. His ship, the brigantine Ann, had set sail from Liverpool in late July 1745, bound for the Baltic port of Riga. The outward journey was uneventful and, having loaded his brig with a cargo of timber, the captain and his crew embarked for home. Navigating the treacherous seas around the British Isles was no simple matter. But while heading south past the west coast of Scotland, the unusually rough winds drove the Ann to seek refuge near the small Inner Hebridean island of Canna, located twelve miles off the south-west of Skye. And here she remained, until a sequence of disturbing incidents forced her captain to take his vessel back out into the open, stormy seas.

The Ann finally docked at Liverpool at around eleven oclock at night on Thursday, 15 August and, early the following morning, Captain Robinson hastened to the chambers of the mayor, Owen Prichard.onshore, Ross guards had become steadily drunk and rowdy, forcing their terrified captive at gunpoint to join them in a toast to King James VIII in Rome, the King over the Water. Sometime later, after his guards had drunk themselves into a stupor, Captain Ross made his escape and arrived back on board the Ann, as Robinson recollected, in a great freight. Both captains resolved to set sail at the first opportunity and at sunrise the two ships slipped out of their harbour, finally parting company off Kintyre at the mouth of the Clyde.

As described, Richard Robinsons time near Canna would have been eventful enough. But just after dropping anchor, and before the snow brigs arrival, a small rowing boat had come alongside the Ann carrying a passenger who urgently requested permission to board. This was a local Protestant schoolmaster who had been eagerly awaiting the arrival of a British ship. The schoolmaster informed Robinson that a foreign frigate of eighteen guns had recently arrived in the waters thereabouts, and only three days before he had seen a stranger, an uncommonly tall young man, on the mainland to the east of Skye. Since then, armed clansmen had started to gather: five thousand had already arrived and five thousand more were expected within the week. This young stranger, the schoolmaster continued, was referred to among the local Gaelic-speaking islanders as Prionnsa Terlach, Prince Charles.

As a loyal supporter of King George, the House of Hanover and the current British government, Mayor Prichard knew exactly who the tall young man was. But how long had he been lurking about Skye? Certainly long enough to gather the support of Donald MacDonald and his ruffians, plus ten thousand other Highland rebels. Whatever else was going through his mind, Mayor Prichard was certain of one thing: this was important, possibly vital intelligence and speed was of the essence. The statement was duly signed by Captain Robinson, countersigned by Mayor Prichard, enclosed with a covering letter addressed to the principal Secretary of State in London, and handed to an express rider.

Early on Sunday, 18 August Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of Newcastle and His Majestys Secretary of State for the southern department, was asleep at his London town house on Lincolns Inn Fields when the express from Liverpool arrived. His Grace was awoken by his manservant and emerged from his bedchamber unwigged and in his night shirt, housecoat and slippers as the express rider handed him the package of documents. Soon after Newcastle, now more formally dressed, arrived at his ministerial rooms in Whitehall where he hastily penned a response to Mayor Prichard. The Duke of Newcastle was one of the few government ministers to have taken the rumours seriously. So, with the arrival of this statement from an independent witness, it seemed that his worst fears were confirmed beyond reasonable doubt: Charles Edward Stuart, son of James Stuart, the exiled claimant to the British throne, was in Scotland, and a new Jacobite rising had already begun.

Sir Godfrey Kneller, Prince James Francis Edward Stuart, 1688.

(PRIVATE COLLECTION / BRIDGEMAN IMAGES)

This Rebellion took its rise chiefly in Rome

James Francis Edward Stuart, the only living legitimate son of King James II of England and VII of Scotland, resided with his small family and court in a palace in Rome rented on his behalf by the pope. Located to the east across the River Tiber from St Peters Basilica, and on the north side of the Piazza dei Santi Apostoli, the building was known locally as the Palazzo del Re (the Kings Palace) in recognition of James status in Rome since his fathers death in 1701 as King James III and VIII, de jure monarch of England, Scotland and Ireland. Here the exiled Stuart court lived and operated within a conveniently located and suitably dignified setting. The pope had also graciously allowed James use of the Palazzo Apostolico in Albano, to which he and his entourage habitually retired during the sweltering Roman summers.

James Francis Edward had been in exile since he was six months old after his father, a convert to Roman Catholicism, had fled to France in 1688 to seek the protection and support of his cousin Louis XIV during the Protestant Glorious Revolution. Long before this, attempts had been made in parliament to exclude James from the succession while he was heir apparent to his brother Charles II (the Exclusion Crisis), who had no legitimate children. Even after his accession in 1685, there was a bid to remove James by armed rebellion led in the south-west of England by Charles charismatic natural son, James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, and in Scotland by Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll. Argyll was arrested and executed in Edinburgh on 30 June. The defeat of the rebels in the south-west at Sedgemoor on 6 July, followed by the execution of Monmouth and the savagery of the so-called Bloody Assizes many of the rebels were executed or transported as indentured servants to the West Indies removed any real threat to James rule for now. But it was the birth in June 1688 of a male heir from the Kings second marriage, a child whom James was determined should be raised a Catholic, that was the pretext for his Protestant nephew and son-in-law, the Dutch prince William of Orange, to invade England at the invitation of the Immortal Seven, including the Earls of Danby, Shrewsbury and Devonshire. From Williams point of view, he needed Protestant allies in Europe to counter the might of Catholic France, not a sequence of Catholic monarchs in Britain and Ireland who were close relatives (and therefore, he would say, subordinates) of the French king. Crucially, by the birth of this prince, Williams Protestant wife and cousin Mary, James eldest daughter by his first marriage, was no longer the heir apparent, and as a result Williams influence would be dramatically reduced.