Bonnie Prince Charlie: Charles Edward Stuart (Pimlico)

by McLynn, Frank

  17 R A Stuart 247/43.

  18 Here is a typical report from Edgar in May: ‘The Prince, that he might not lose a whole day’s shooting, after supper on Sunday night put on his garters, and in his riding coat slept in a chair till after one o’clock and went away at 2 a.m. to Palo’ (R A Stuart 249/134).

  19 Padre Giulio Cesare Cordara, Commentary on the Expedition to Scotland made by Charles Edward Stewart, Prince of Wales, Sir Bruce Seton, ed., Miscellany of the Scottish History Society, 3rd series, IX (1926), p.25.

  20 Jean Sareil, Les Tencin (Geneva, 1969), p.343.

  21 Colin, op. cit., p.46.

  22 R A Stuart 257/164.

  23 Cordara, op. cit., pp.27–8. Two days before Christmas, James sent a supplementary note to Louis XV and Amelot, informing them that his son would be departing on 12 January. Meanwhile he was sending the requested declarations with Balhaldy (Murray of Broughton, op. cit., pp.493–5).

  24 R A Stuart Box 1/188.

  25 R A Stuart 256/43.

  26 S P Tuscany 48 f.48; Tayler, Jacobite Miscellany, p.15; Amelia C. M. MacGregor, History of the Clan Gregor (Edinburgh, 1901), ii, p.361.

  27 Tayler, Jacobite Miscellany, p.18.

  28 This consisted of M. Gaudine, steward to the Bailli de Tencin, and Duncan Buchanan, clerk to the banker Aeneas MacDonald.

  29 Tayler, Jacobite Miscellany, p.16.

  30 S P Tuscany 48 ff.47–8; S P Tuscany 49 f.20.

  31 For this nephew of Cardinal Tencin see Repertorium der diplomatischen Vertreter aller Lander, ed. Friedrich Hausmann (Zurich, 1950), ii, p.16.

  32 Cordara, p.32.

  33 S P Tuscany 48 f.47.

  34 S P Tuscany 49 ff.24, 48.

  35 S P Tuscany 49 f.24.

  36 S P Tuscany 49 f.37.

  37 The Gaetani were not in on the secret. S P Tuscany 49 f.48.

  38 Tayler, Jacobite Miscellany, p.24.

  39 R A Stuart Box 1/190–3.

  40 Tayler, Jacobite Miscellany, pp.28–30; R A Stuart 255/80.

  41 Cordara, p.41.

  42 The deception held Mann’s network at bay for eleven days. After that his agents were in full cry on the prince’s track (Walpole Correspondence, 18, pp.373–9).

  43 Cordara, p.42.

  44 R A Stuart M.11 (O’Heguerty’s account), p.22.

  45 Cordara, p.42.

  46 Tayler, Jacobite Miscellany, p.30; Cordara, p.42.

  47 This consequence had been foreseen by James. In a letter to Sempill on 16 January he wrote: ‘I hope the French Court will have dispatched immediately to Antibes upon Balhaldy’s arrival, for if that governor is not prepared for the Prince’s coming, it may be of inconvenience on account of nobody’s being even admitted to make a quarantine there’ (R A Stuart 255/60).

  48 Tayler, Jacobite Miscellany, p.32; Cordara, p.43.

  49 R A Stuart 255/93.

  50 Murray of Broughton, op. cit., pp.495–6.

  51 Cordara, p.43.

  52 R A Stuart 255/91.

  53 R A Stuart 255/92; Tayler, Jacobite Miscellany, p.32.

  54 AEMD, Angleterre 86 f.337; 87 f.20.

  55 Murray of Broughton, pp.497–8.

  56 Ibid.

  57 R A Stuart 255/127.

  58 Cordara, p.44.

  59 R A Stuart 255/134.

  60 AEMD, Angleterre, 91 f.299; R A Stuart 255/163.

  61 For day-by-day details see AEMD, Angleterre, 87 ff.7–19.

  62 Mann to Walpole, 4 February 1744, Walpole Correspondence, 18, p.385.

  63 S P Tuscany 48 ff.25, 48,53; cf. also Walpole Correspondence, 18, pp.378–9.

  64 S P Tuscany 48 f.61; Walpole Correspondence, 18, p.396. This was a wild inference based on the fact that Charles Edward had met the Imperial Minister Baron Scarlatti in Rome on a number of occasions since 1742 (S P Tuscany 48 f.53).

  65 S P Tuscany 48 f.61.

  66 S P Tuscany 48 f.106; Walpole Correspondence, 18, p.427.

  67 R A Stuart 255/30; Morelli, op. cit., i, pp.144–7. Benedict XIV added that even if he had known, he would not have tried to stop the prince (Morelli, i, p.146).

  68 Benedict XIV to Tencin, 8 August 1744, Morelli, i, p.187.

  69 Canilliac to Amelot, 25 January 1744, AECP, Rome, 794 f.44.

  70 ASV, Francia 483 ff.579,584.

  71 R A Stuart 255/163.

  72 So strict was French concern for security that an embargo was placed on all English shipping in the Pas de Calais, under the pretext of an anti-smuggling drive (Archives de la Guerre, A1/3034 f.43).

  73 Archives Nationales, Marine, B3/421 ff.71–2.

  74 Cruickshanks, Political Untouchables, p.53.

  75 Guerre Al/3034 f.19.

  76 AEMD, Angleterre, 90 f.324.

  77 Cruickshanks, p.57.

  78 S P Tuscany 48 f.381; S P Tuscany 49 f.41; Walpole Correspondence, 18, ff.374–5, 404.

  79 Cruickshanks, pp.57–8.

  80 Walpole Correspondence, 18, pp.415–16.

  81 Tencin to Canilliac, 11 February 1744, AECP, Rome, 794 f.46.

  82 S P France 229 ff. 143,155–60.

  83 This decision had been taken by the French court as soon as it was known that the prince was definitely en route to France. Cf. James to Sempill, 13 February 1744: ‘Your letter of the 27th January gives me no small astonishment and concern, for how can I reconcile all that has been advanced to me of late with the neglect and indifference which now appears in relation to the Prince’s coming into France?’ (R A Stuart 255/177).

  84 Tayler, Jacobite Miscellany (Elcho’s Diary), p.132.

  85 Guerre Al/3034 f.19.

  86 Murray of Broughton, p.69.

  87 Add. MSS 34,522 f.65; AEMD, Angleterre, 87 f.275; 88 f.73.

  88 HMC II, p.88.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  1 See, for example S P Tuscany 49 f.41.

  2 A S V, Francia 483 f.598; Add. MSS 23,816 ff.196–7.

  3 Cruickshanks, Political Untouchables, pp.59–61.

  4 Murray of Broughton, pp.498–9.

  5 A E M D, Angleterre, 83 f.176.

  6 As Sempill later wrote: ‘The stupidity of Read’s coming over or being suffered to without knowing how to address himself or to whom is inconceivable but like a madman … he wrote to the Comte de Saxe for Mr. MacGregor through Dunkirk. His whole letter is of a piece, equally nonsense and contradictory. I should not be surprised if he has hanged himself instead of returning’ (A E M D, Angleterre, 83 ff.179–80).

  7 Lettres et mémoires du marechal de Saxe, ed. P. H. Grimoard, 5 vols (Paris, 1794), i, p.64.

  8 For Prussian alarm at Louis XV’s efforts on behalf of the Stuarts see Politische Correspondenz. Friedrich’s der Grosser (Berlin, 1882), iii, pp.60–1,74,219.

  9 Add MSS 33,004 ff.59–61.

  10 A S V, Francia 483 ff.570–1; R A Stuart 256/135.

  11 For details see Duc de Luynes, Mémoires sur la cour de Louis XV (Paris, 1862), v, pp.325–6; Colin, Louis XV et les Jacobites, op. cit., pp.147–51; Admiral Sir H. W. Richmond, The Navy in the War of 1739–1748 (1920), 3 vols, ii, pp.75–8; Albert, duc de Broglie, Frederic II et Louis XV (Paris, 1885), ii, p.199.

  12 Saxe to Charles Edward, 9 March 1744, R A Stuart 256/104.

  13 Guerre Al/3034 f.91.

  14 A E M D, Angleterre, 83 f.175.

  15 Guerre Al/3034 f.113.

  16 R A Stuart 256/63–71.

  17 A E M D, Angleterre, 83 f.174.

  18 R A Stuart 256/93.

  19 R A Stuart 256/96.

  20 Charles Edward to Saxe, 11 March, R A Stuart 256/121.

  21 Charles Edward to Marischal, 11 March, R A Stuart 256/119.

  22 ‘I cannot but own to you my vexation that they should have so sillily let Norris slip them from Portsmouth without the least resistance’ (ibid.).

  23 Saxe to Charles Edward, 13 March, R A Stuart 256/122.

  24 Charles Edward to Saxe, 13 March, R A Stuart 256/124.

  25 Saxe to Charles Edward, 16 March, R A Stuart 256/125.

  26 ‘All the world complain
s that an expedition so well conducted hitherto should have been endangered by Roquefeuil’s failing in what was so long and so easily in his power’ (Charles Edward to James, 13 March, R A Stuart 256/127).

  27 Marischal to Charles Edward, 5 March 1744, A E M D, Angleterre, 91 f.306; Charles Edward to Marischal, 5 March 1744, R A Stuart 256/93; R A Stuart 256/94.

  28 ‘I shall be glad that M. de Roquefeuil judge proper to attack Norris, but what influence is it possible I can have to engage him to it? The Comte de Saxe, as well as others, knows that I am so little in the secret or concert, that I have not so much as had the least answer from the Minister to my demands. I am no seaman, I do not know the force of Norris’ (Marischal to Charles Edward, 13 March, R A Stuart 256/126; cf. also A E M D, Angleterre, 91 f.309).

  29 A E M D, Angleterre, 83 f.172.

  30 R A Stuart 256/132; A E M D, Angleterre, 91 f.315; R A Stuart 256/134.

  31 A E M D, Angleterre, 91 f.306.

  32 This story can be followed at A E M D, Angleterre, 83 ff.l72,178,181,185; 91 ff.302,306.

  33 A E M D, Angleterre, 83 f.181.

  34 A E M D, Angleterre, 91 ff.311–14.

  35 Plus 80,000 livres for pay and a quantity of broadswords with which to arm the Highlanders (R A Stuart 256/131).

  36 Marischal said that he had heard from Amelot that the French meant to persist in a Scottish expedition ‘but I am most fully convinced that none can be made at present into that country but for its destruction, though perhaps it might make a useful diversion for the interest of France, I am resolved immediately to leave this place’ (R A Stuart 256/139).

  37 For Buchanan’s mission see A E M D, Angleterre, 83 ff.189,192,196–7.

  38 R A Stuart 256/185.

  39 R A Stuart 302/130–1. Cf. also R A Stuart 345/162.

  40 Add. MSS 34,522 f.53.

  41 R A Stuart 256/141,155,175.

  42 Benedict XIV to Tencin, 8 April 1744, Morelli, i, p.161. Significantly the Pope added that not only had the French expedition not succeeded; according to his intelligence, it never could have.

  43 ‘I have learned from you how to bear with disappointment, and I see it is the only way, which is to submit oneself to the will of God and never to be discouraged’ (Charles Edward to James, 25 March, R A Stuart 256/169). This was formulaic pap. Not only did the prince never learn to deal with disappointment, but nothing could have been more alien to his true temperament than the sentiments expressed.

  44 R A Stuart 256/180.

  45 Murray of Broughton, op. cit., pp.500–1.

  46 Ibid., p.501.

  47 Colin, op. cit., p.182.

  48 H M C 14, ix, p.92.

  49 S P France 229 ff.165–6,169,171.

  50 R A Stuart 256/185.

  51 Ibid.

  52 R A Stuart 256/186.

  53 ‘What has happened is a misfortune, it is true, but I am far from thinking it an irretrievable one, except we should make it so ourselves by pursuing precipitate and desperate measures, and undertake some rash and ill-concerted project, which would only end in your ruin and that of those who would join you in it’ (James to Charles Edward, 15 April, R A Stuart 256/194).

  54 R A Stuart 256/189.

  55 A E M D, Angleterre, 83 f.185; A S V, Francia 483 f.611.

  56 Charles Edward to James, 16 April, R A Stuart 256/197.

  57 R A Stuart 256/201; 257/13,22.

  58 R A Stuart 257/29.

  59 Charles Edward to James, 11 May, R A Stuart 257/34.

  60 R A Stuart 257/34,48,95.

  61 R A Stuart 257/116,120.

  62 A E M D, Angleterre, 83 f.204; R A Stuart 257/131.

  63 As James remarked (19 June 1744): ‘His preferring his present confinement to his going to the Prince of Conti’s army was the choice of a wise more than a young man and is much approved by me’ (R A Stuart 257/128).

  64 R A Stuart 257/165.

  65 R A Stuart 258/19,71,85.

  66 R A Stuart 258/122.

  67 R A Stuart 258/146.

  68 R A Stuart 258/22,71,87,116.

  69 R A Stuart 258/165.

  70 R A Stuart 259/145.

  71 R A Stuart 259/127.

  72 R A Stuart 259/148.

  73 R A Stuart 260/1.

  74 R A Stuart 260/2.

  75 For James’s attitude see R A Stuart 258/13.31 and especially 258/133 (August 1744): ‘I don’t see what end this incognito answers that can be for our advantage, for it cannot be supposed but that all the world knows that the Prince is somewhere in the French dominions … the Prince has manifestly been made a sacrifice of on this occasion.’

  76 R A Stuart 257/106; 258/6.

  77 R A Stuart 257/58. ‘I cannot but remark that the Prince’s being actually sent for from Gravelines was just after M. Amelot’s removal and that the Prince arrived at Paris immediately after the king set out for the army’ (R A Stuart 257/76).

  78 R A Stuart 257/58.

  79 R A Stuart 258/118.

  80 R A Stuart 258/170.

  81 R A Stuart 261/11.

  82 Ibid.

  83 R A Stuart 261/30.

  84 R A Stuart 258/150. Cf. Sempill to James, 7 December 1744 (R A Stuart 260/11) on France’s German allies: ‘the most part of whom would probably be pleased to see the duke of Hanover destroyed, but will not venture to concur in the attempt nor even seem to countenance it, because the head of their people would be scandalised at it on account of religion.’

  85 Murray of Broughton, pp.373–4.

  86 ‘I have taken a house within a league of this town where I am like a hermit. It is situated upon a hill and has an admirable prospect with a little garden, so that I enjoy at least the fresh air of the country’ (Charles Edward to James, 1 June, R A Stuart 257/68).

  87 R A Stuart 257/166.

  88 R A Stuart 259/45,87.

  89 Murray of Broughton, pp.374–5.

  90 R A Stuart 259/141.

  91 R A Stuart 260/18.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  1 R A Stuart 259/75.

  2 R A Stuart, 257/114; 258/13.

  3 R A Stuart 258/155.

  4 R A Stuart 261/12.

  5 R A Stuart 260/149.

  6 H M C, 10, vi, p.218.

  7 For the Monte di Pietà see David Silvagni, La corte e la societa romana nei secoli xviii e xix (Florence and Rome, 1885), i, p.340. Cf. also Joseph-Jerome le Français de Lalande, Voyage d’un Français en Italie (Venice, 1769), iv, pp.172–4.

  8 H M C, 10, vi, p.221.

  9 Ibid., p.219.

  10 There is a complete list of the jewels and effects pledged at the Monte di Pieta in the Denys Bower MSS (Year 1742).

  11 Murray of Broughton, op. cit., pp.371–3.

  12 R A Stuart 257/68.

  13 R A Stuart 257/95.

  14 Cf. Sempill to James, 29 June: ‘I have already told you how much the Prince has received from the French Court, which is such an inconsiderable sum that the Court ought to be ashamed of it, but though the Prince has to do with the most tenacious cashier that ever was entrusted by any dealer of spirit, yet this cashier is forced to own that he is directed to supply all the Prince’s occasions, so that there is no reason to believe that the Prince will be under the necessity of troubling you’ (R A Stuart 257/170).

  15 R A Stuart 258/44; 259/77.

  16 S P Dom, 106 f.12.

  17 R A Stuart 258/107.

  18 R A Stuart 259/157.

  19 R A Stuart 261/11.

  20 ‘You may imagine how I must be out of humour at all these proceedings, when, for comfort, I am plagued out of my life with tracasseries from our own people who, as it seems, would rather sacrifice me and my affairs than fail in any private view of their own’ (Charles Edward to James, 30 November 1744, Lord Mahon, History of England 1713–1783 (1838), iii, p.ix).

  21 R A Stuart 259/118; 260/75.

  22 R A Stuart 259/36.

  23 Cf. Mézières to Maurepas, 29 August 1744, Maurepas Papers.

  24 R A Stuart 257/103,164.

  25 R A
Stuart 259/145,148.

  26 R A Stuart 259/58.

  27 R A Stuart 257/34; 258/16.

  28 R A Stuart 257/34; 258/85.

  29 R A Stuart 257/105.

  30 R A Stuart 257/86.

  31 S P Tuscany 48 f.120; 49 f.63.

  32 R A Cumberland Box 1/253. In view of later bibulous developments, it is ironical to note that the prince’s diet sheet is virtually a disguised temperance tract.

  33 R A Stuart 257/103.

  34 R A Stuart 258/13.

  35 R A Stuart 258/16,27.

  36 R A Stuart 258/16,86.

  37 R A Stuart Box 1/194; 258/96,116.

  38 Add. MSS 34,523 f.77.

  39 R A Cumberland 2/302. He suffered from fainting fits and headaches as a result.

  40 R A Stuart 259/111.

  41 R A Stuart 259/127.

  42 R A Stuart 259/144; 260/1–2.

  43 Charles Edward to James, 1 November, R A Stuart 260/34.

  44 R A Stuart 257/41.

  45 For Kelly’s meteoric rise see R A Stuart 258/16,27; 259/87,145.

  46 Murray of Broughton, pp.375–6; R A Stuart 259/88,127.

  47 R A Stuart 259/171.

  48 R A Stuart 258/132,134,150. Marischal’s strictures on the pair also influenced James (R A Stuart 259/142).

  49 R A Stuart 258/22,41,160.

  50 R A Stuart 258/87.

  51 A E M D, Angleterre, 85 ff.111–13; 86 f.344; R A Stuart 258/122,165; 259/145.

  52 R A Stuart 257/164. Cf. also James Browne, A History of the Highlands (Edinburgh, 1853), ii, p.465.

  53 R A Stuart 259/98.

  54 Murray of Broughton, pp.88–91; R A Stuart 259/101. Murray of Broughton’s mission had its moments of high comedy, with Murray revealing the extent of Balhaldy’s and Sempill’s double-dealing to the prince, while Balhaldy was in the next room trying to overhear the conversation (Murray of Broughton, pp.94–5).

  55 A E M D, Angleterre, 86 f.341.

  56 R A Stuart 258/78.

  57 The news of the final settlement of the French pension was greatly welcomed in Rome. Benedict XIV reported that for the first time, James, who had sunk daily in spirits ever since his son left, showed signs of an emergence from melancholia (Benedict to Tencin, 23 January, 13 March 1745, Morelli, i, pp.222,232).

  CHAPTER NINE

  1 Blaikie, Origins, op. cit., pp.xliv–xlvi; R A Stuart 258/164.

  2 Murray of Broughton, op. cit., p.90.

  3 S P Dom, 86/69. Sheridan on arrival in France found the prince taller than he remembered him in Rome. He attributed this to his now wearing shoes of normal size instead of with artificially low heels (Tayler, Stuart Papers, p.112).