Bonnie Prince Charlie: Charles Edward Stuart (Pimlico)

by McLynn, Frank

  89 R A Stuart 307/177.

  90 R A Stuart Box 4/1/74.

  91 R A Stuart Box 2/133; Box 4/1/54.

  92 Stowe MSS 158 f.248.

  93 She often complained that he would never confide in her the secrets of his ‘great affairs’ (R A Stuart Box 4/1/55).

  94 R A Stuart 309/90–1.

  95 R A Stuart 316/98.

  96 R A Stuart Box 4/1/68, 79, 80.

  97 R A Stuart 315/105.

  98 R A Stuart Box 1/324.

  99 R A Stuart 310/30.

  100 R A Stuart Box 1/323.

  101 R A Stuart 311/32.

  102 R A Stuart 312/164; Box 4/1/78.

  103 R A Stuart Box 4/1/1.

  104 R A Stuart Box 4/1/4.

  105 R A Stuart Box 4/1/7–8.

  106 R A Stuart Box 4/1/37–9.

  107 Ferrand and Vassé found it hard to understand the prince’s violent mood swings and ascribed his behaviour to rank ingratitude (R A Stuart Box 4/1/7–8, 13).

  108 In Pickle the Spy, Andrew Lang identifies ‘le philosophe’ as Montesquieu. In The Companions of Pickle, he changes his mind and identifies him as Condillac, on the basis of Elisabeth Ferrand’s friendship with the founder of Sensationalism. Both conjectures are wrong. As R A Stuart Box 4/1/1 clearly shows, ‘le philosophe’ always denoted Helvetius.

  109 R A Stuart 316/225.

  110 Some examples of the doggerel, written in French and English:

  Hier j’ai pris un émétique sévère

  Et demain je me purge par derrière

  Pour le soir je prends un ver de bière

  Je me fou de L’univers

  Et du ciel et de la terre

  I never sit down

  But will on a throne

  To shite or to prone

  (all at R A Stuart 316/190).

  111 R A Stuart Box 2/112–13. The prince’s remarks on religion always display the utmost cynicism. Cf. ‘The only religion I know is my sword’ (Luynes, ix, p.264).

  112 R A Stuart 311/45. The quarrel was patched up in November through Goring’s mediation. For once the prince acted contrite (R A Stuart 312/151).

  113 R A Stuart Box 1/324.

  114 For details see R A Stuart Box 4/1/80–2.

  115 R A Stuart Box 4/1/79.

  116 R A Stuart 298/28, 52.

  117 R A Stuart Box 4/1/79A.

  118 Ibid.

  119 Ibid.

  120 R A Stuart 318/151.

  121 R A Stuart 319/6.

  122 R A Stuart 319/141.

  123 R A Stuart Box 4/1/83.

  124 R A Stuart Box 4/1/79A.

  125 R A Stuart 320/16, 65, 120; 321/35.

  126 R A Stuart Box 4/1/79A.

  127 Ibid.

  128 R A Stuart 316/129.

  129 R A Stuart 322/125; 323/15.

  130 Lettres de la marquise du Deffand à Horace Walpole (Paris, 1824), iii, pp.47–9.

  131 Browne, iv, pp.64–5; R A Stuart 301/63; 302/55.

  132 R A Stuart 324/124.

  133 R A Stuart 326/74.

  134 R A Stuart 326/168.

  135 R A Stuart 327/20.

  136 R A Stuart 327/142.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  1 Pelham MSS Ne.2086.

  2 For confirmation that these were the prince’s target groups see R A Stuart 300/37.

  3 Cf. Mézières to Maurepas, 29 August 1744, 3 June 1746, M P.

  4 R A Stuart 301/97.

  5 R A Stuart 308/14.

  6 A E C P, Angleterre, 429 ff.157–9.

  7 R A Stuart 306/142.

  8 R A Stuart 304/55; 306/88.

  9 H M C, 15, ii, p.250; R A Stuart 309/13; 310/13. James could not resist the opportunity of a lecture. ‘As to the new power of Regency you want, you must be sensible that you have acted towards me, for these five years past, in a manner which noways deserves so great a mark of trust and kindness, but far be it from me to act, especially towards you, by pique or resentment. It is true the treatment you give me is a continual heartbreak to me, but it excites my compassion more than my anger … if you seem to forget that you are my son, I can never forget I am your father’ (Browne, iv, p.73).

  10 This was quickly picked up by Sir Horace Mann (Mahon, The Decline of the Last Stuarts. Extracts from Despatches (1843, Roxburghe Club), p.9.

  11 R A Stuart 310/69.

  12 Lang, Pickle the Spy, op. cit., p.104.

  13 R A Stuart 308/84. For the Pelhams’ fear of a Cumberland regency see R A Stuart 320/66.

  14 R A Stuart 310/116.

  15 R A Stuart 316/221; 318/136.

  16 R A Stuart Box 3/1.

  17 Louis Dutens, Mémoires d’un voyageur qui se repose (London, 1806), 5 vols, II, pp.119–25.

  18 For Holker’s career see André Remond, John Holker, manufacturier et grand fonctionnaire en France au XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1946).

  19 R A Stuart Box 3/1.

  20 R A Stuart 310/116.

  21 J. Y. T. Greig, ed., Letters of David Hume (Oxford, 1932), ii, p.272.

  22 William King, Political and Literary Anecdotes (1819), p.196; Mahon, Last Stuarts, op. cit., p.96.

  23 R A Stuart Box 2/264A.

  24 Mahon, History, op. cit., iv, pp.7–9.

  25 Martin Haile, James Francis Edward (1907), p.372.

  26 Dutens, Mémoires, op. cit., iii, p.48.

  27 For the prince’s own statement on this point and his confirmation of the abjuration see R A Stuart Box 1/454B.

  28 Fitzmaurice, Life of Shelburne, i, p.272; Walpole Correspondence, 22, pp.324–5. The exact church in which the ceremony took place is disputed, but the most likely candidate is St Mary-le-Strand.

  29 King, Anecdotes, op. cit., p.199.

  30 Ibid., p.201.

  31 Ibid., p. 199.

  32 R A Stuart Box 3/1.

  33 R A Stuart 310/116.

  34 R A Stuart Box 3/1.

  35 For further references to the prince’s 1750 visit to London see R A Stuart 349/68 and 350/42.

  36 R A Stuart Box 1/326; 312/151; 313/65.

  37 R A Stuart 311/32.

  38 There is no direct record of the Berlin meeting in the Stuart Papers (which are very thin for this period), but for confirmation see SP France 233 f.400; 235 f.17; 240 f.126. Cf. also Edith Cuthell, The Scottish Friend of Frederick the Great. The last Earl Marischal (1915), 2 vols, i, p.241.

  39 Add. MSS 33050 f.199.

  40 R A Stuart Box 1/333.

  41 R A Stuart 321/58.

  42 R A Stuart 320/176.

  43 R A Stuart 320/171.

  44 The shrewdest observers saw that unless George II died too, the passing of Frederick alone, with five sons to succeed him, was not especially favourable for the Jacobite cause (Benedict XIV to Tencin, 28 April 1751, Morelli, ii, p.381).

  45 R A Stuart 324/61,86.

  46 S P France 242 ff.41,44.

  47 S P France 233 f.354.

  48 S P France 241 f.104; 242 f.46.

  49 William Coxe, Memoirs of the Administration of the Rt Hon. Henry Pelham (1829), 2 vols, ii, p.404.

  50 R A Stuart Box 1/337.

  51 R A Stuart Box 1/336.

  52 R A Stuart 323/37.

  53 R A Stuart 323/35.

  54 R A Stuart 325/5,17; 326/63.

  55 Romney Sedgwick, ed., The History of Parliament; the House of Commons 1715–1754 (1970), 2 vols, i, pp.287–8.

  56 R A Stuart 398/89.

  57 Add. MSS 33050 f.197.

  58 Sir Charles Petrie, ‘The Elibank Plot 1752–53’, Royal Historical Society Transactions, 4th series, 14, pp.175–96.

  59 R A Stuart 348/94.

  60 ‘Two Fragments of Autobiography of Earl Marischal Keith’, Miscellany of the Scottish History Society, V, 3rd series (1933), p.367.

  61 Sedgwick, House of Commons, op. cit., ii, pp.121–2.

  62 Add. MSS 33050 f.199.

  63 Ibid., ff.196–7, 387.

  64 A E C P, Angleterre, 431 ff.4–10; A E M D, Angleterre, 40 ff.222–37.

  65 R A Stuart 318/
123.

  66 Add. MSS 33050 f.373.

  67 Ibid., f.196.

  68 R A Stuart 347/70.

  69 H M C, 11, vii, p.44. The Irish proposed embarking their men at Dublin, Drogheda, Rush and Sherrish and either landing them in six hours in North Wales or within twenty-four hours in Scotland (Add. MSS 33050 f.389).

  70 Add. MSS 33050 f.381.

  71 R A Stuart 333/39.

  72 R A Stuart 330/141.

  73 R A Stuart 332/145.

  74 See below p.420.

  75 For Pickle’s role in the Elibank Plot see Lang, Pickle the Spy, pp.145 ets eq.

  76 R A Stuart 330/1041.

  77 R A Stuart 340/106.

  78 R A Stuart 334/49,103; 335/90; 336/3.

  79 R A Stuart 334/139,158; 335/14,18.

  80 Her letter to James on 17 March 1752 contains not a word about the plot (R A Stuart 330/89).

  81 S P France 245 f.144.

  82 Add, MSS 32,840 f.268.

  83 R A Stuart 337/31.

  84 R A Stuart 334/118,150,166; cf. S P Tuscany 58 ff.162–3.

  85 R A Stuart 340/32.

  86 Add. MSS 3050 f.199.

  87 S P France 245 f.11.

  88 Pelham MSS Ne.2097.

  89 R A Stuart 348/94.

  90 Ibid.

  91 Add. MSS 33050 ff.389–90.

  92 Pelham MSS Ne.2101.

  93 Pelham MSS Ne.2199b; 2122–3b; 2200b.

  94 Lang, Pickle the Spy, p.201.

  95 Pelham MSS Ne.2122.

  96 Stowe MSS 158 ff.204–10.

  97 Add. MSS 32,844 f.104; Daily Advertiser, 12, 17, 19 April; 1 May 1753.

  98 Gentleman’s Magazine, 1753, p.292; Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of George II, i, pp.333, 353–4.

  99 Add. MSS 33050 f.196.

  100 Pelham MSS Ne.2132–7. This is of course the famous episode immortalised in R. L. Stevenson’s Kidnapped. For confirmation of Alan Breck Stewart as the assassin (he received an increase in his Jacobite pension for the exploit), see R A Stuart Box 1/374A.

  101 Marischal to Frederick, 16 February 1753, Politische Correspondenz, ix, pp.356–7.

  102 Same to same, 7 May 1753, Politische Correspondenz, ix, pp.436–8.

  103 S P France 248 ff.273,283.

  104 Frederick to Michell, 16 June 1753, Politische Correspondenz, ix, pp.447–8.

  105 See the exhaustive Jacobite analysis at R A Stuart 341/69.

  106 S P France 240 ff.149,168,176.

  107 S P France 241 ff.220, 279.

  108 S P France 244 f.179. The rumour reached Rome where it was once again loftily dismissed by James (Morelli, ii, p.479).

  109 Add. MSS 33050 f.409.

  110 ‘Had you entered into the view I formerly gave you, you had been probably at this time the father of a family, with a wife whom it would not have been beneath you to have married had you been in England.… I could almost say I would rather see you married to a private gentlewoman than that you should not be it at all.… If this letter has the same fate with many others I have writ to you, I might have saved myself the trouble of writing it’ (James to Charles Edward, 30 December 1750, R A Stuart 314/125; Browne, iv, pp.77–8).

  111 King, Anecdotes, op. cit., p.201.

  112 L M, iii, pp.132–5; R A Stuart 341/58.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  1 R A Stuart Box 2/136.

  2 A brave but unconvincing attempt is made by Sir Compton Mackenzie in Prince Charlie’s Ladies, op. cit., pp.194–200.

  3 R A Stuart 321/109.

  4 Browne, iv, p.88; R A Stuart 323/159.

  5 R A Stuart 327/115.

  6 R A Stuart 310/116.

  7 R A Stuart 324/43.

  8 R A Stuart 326/63; 327/123.

  9 Donald MacIntosh to Edgar, 6 February 1754, R A Stuart 346/142.

  10 R A Stuart 330/61; 331/80.

  11 R A Stuart 331/105.

  12 A E M D Angleterre 81 f.94.

  13 For full details see C. Leo-Berry, The Young Pretender’s Mistress (1977).

  14 Memoirs of Strange and Lumisden, op. cit., ii, p.319.

  15 Walpole Correspondence, 10, pp.46–7.

  16 H M C, 11, vii, pp.50, 151–2.

  17 Stowe MSS 158 f.224.

  18 L M, i, pp.314–15.

  19 R A Stuart Box 1/344.

  20 A E M D Angleterre 81 f.71.

  21 R A Stuart 316/113.

  22 Some, but not all, of the subsequent correspondence can be followed in Tayler, 1745 and After (‘O’Sullivan’s account’), op. cit., pp.240–5.

  23 R A Stuart Box 1/345.

  24 R A Stuart 332/51.

  25 R A Stuart Box 1/346.

  26 R A Stuart 332/65.

  27 From 1768–72 she was a bedchamber woman at £200 p.a. See Royal Kalendar, 1768, p.90; Court and City Register, 1772, p.91.

  28 R A Stuart Box 1/349.

  29 R A Stuart 332/139.

  30 R A Stuart Box 1/347.

  31 Leo-Berry, op. cit., p.44.

  32 R A Stuart 332/139; 333/18,58.

  33 R A Stuart 333/58,80.

  34 R A Stuart 333/150.

  35 R A Stuart 333/5,17.

  36 R A Stuart 338/141.

  37 R A Stuart 334/169; 337/49,67,145.

  38 R A Stuart 337/155,174; 338/32,98.

  39 R A Stuart 340/32.

  40 R A Stuart 340/140.

  41 Browne, iv, p.111; R A Stuart 342/162.

  42 R A Stuart Box 1/355.

  43 King, Anecdotes, op. cit., p.205.

  44 Marischal, ‘Two Fragments’, loc. cit., p.368.

  45 R A Stuart 340/64.

  46 Ibid.

  47 R A Stuart 340/129.

  48 R A Stuart 340/165.

  49 R A Stuart Box 1/359; Lang, Pickle the Spy, p.187.

  50 R A Stuart 340/122.

  51 R A Stuart 340/165; 341/159.

  52 R A Stuart 341/1.

  53 R A Stuart 341/33.

  54 R A Stuart 341/52.

  55 R A Stuart 341/110.

  56 R A Stuart 341/159.

  57 R A Stuart 341/188.

  58 R A Stuart 341/151.

  59 R A Stuart Box 1/367.

  60 R A Stuart 341/87.

  61 R A Stuart 343/17.

  62 R A Stuart 343/176.

  63 A E M D Angleterre 81 f.96.

  64 A E M D Angleterre 81 ff.71–2.

  65 R A Stuart 344/161.

  66 R A Stuart 343/17.

  67 R A Stuart 344/152; Lang, Pickle the Spy, p.229.

  68 Sir Compton Mackenzie, Prince Charlie’s Ladies, p.204.

  69 Ibid.

  70 Leo-Berry, op. cit., pp.52–4.

  71 Memoirs of Strange and Lumisden, op. cit., ii, pp.214–15.

  72 Oliver MacAllester, A Series of Letters (1767), i, p.39. MacAllester’s information was later endorsed by the Abbé John Gordon (R A Stuart 403/74).

  73 Tayler, 1745 and After, op. cit., pp.252–3.

  74 R A Stuart 332/65.

  75 R A Stuart 332/145.

  76 R A Stuart 344/202.

  77 R A Stuart 346/18.

  78 R A Stuart 347/42,71.

  79 R A Stuart 347/128.

  80 R A Stuart Box 1/376.

  81 R A Stuart 348/18.

  82 Ibid.

  83 R A Stuart Box 1/388.

  84 R A Stuart 348/197.

  85 R A Stuart 348/18.

  86 R A Stuart 348/139,171.

  87 R A Stuart 348/18.

  88 R A Stuart 348/182.

  89 R A Stuart 348/19.

  90 R A Stuart Box 1/384.

  91 R A Stuart 341/17.

  92 R A Stuart 341/110,125.

  93 R A Stuart 343/2.

  94 R A Stuart 337/31.

  95 R A Stuart 337/147.

  96 R A Stuart 344/152.

  97 R A Stuart 346/46. Most of the letter is reproduced in Lang, Pickle the Spy, pp.255–62.

  98 Ibid.

  99 R A Stuart 346/65.

  100 Marischal explicitly endorsed Goring’s comments about Dumont and the money in a le
tter to the prince on 8 January (R A Stuart 346/36).

  101 R A Stuart 346/65.

  102 R A Stuart 346/89.

  103 R A Stuart 347/42.

  104 R A Stuart 347/128.

  105 Browne, iv, pp.119–20; R A Stuart 347/130.

  106 R A Stuart 348/40.

  107 R A Stuart 348/79.

  108 R A Stuart 348/51.

  109 Browne, iv, pp.120–1; R A Stuart 348/81.

  110 R A Stuart 348/80.

  111 R A Stuart 348/88.

  112 Browne, iv, p.121; R A Stuart 348/89.

  113 R A Stuart 347/31.

  114 R A Stuart 347/75.

  115 R A Stuart 347/78.

  116 R A Stuart 349/131. Cf. Charles’s similar memo to R A Stuart 349/148: ‘My courage will never fail, but my health and my body suffer from the terrible situation I am in.’

  117 R A Stuart 347/128; 348/122,143; 349/4.

  118 R A Stuart 350/58,114,192.

  119 R A Stuart 348/139,177; 349/4.

  120 For Charlotte’s progress see R A Stuart 348/171,195.

  121 R A Stuart 350/117.

  122 H M C, III, p.421; Browne, iv, p.122; R A Stuart 350/94.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  1 R A Stuart 350/192.

  2 R A Stuart 352/49,107.

  3 R A Stuart 353/59.

  4 Robinson to Villettes, 28 May 1756, S P Switzerland 35.

  5 R A Stuart 353/58.

  6 ‘I would not turn away a cat to please those scoundrels,’ MacAllester, Series of Letters, op. cit., i, p.128.

  7 R A Stuart 356/193.

  8 R A Stuart 355/15.

  9 The prince’s furious reactions can be followed at R A Stuart 351/62; 352/32,82; 353/58,133; 354/54.

  10 R A Stuart 353/59.

  11 R A Stuart 353/59D.

  12 R A Stuart 353/92.

  13 R A Stuart 355/108.

  14 R A Stuart 358/90.

  15 R A Stuart 354/55.

  16 Add. MSS 32,847 f.261; S P France 248 f.304.

  17 S P France 249 f.263.

  18 S P France 249 f.274.

  19 H M C, III, p.141.

  20 S P France 250 ff.206,312.

  21 H M C, Hastings, iii, p.108.

  22 S P France 249 f.190.

  23 H M C, III, p.141.

  24 S P France 250 f.326.

  25 R A Stuart 358/18,59,61.

  26 For details see R A Stuart 353/58,93–108; 357/85; 359/56.

  27 R A Stuart 353/59.

  28 Lady Primrose gave Mittie £150 and eagerly listened to his tales of the prince’s depravity (R A Stuart 359/190; 362/51).

  29 R A Stuart 360/12.

  30 R A Stuart 356/148.

  31 R A Stuart 357/42.

  32 R A Stuart 356/193.

  33 R A Stuart 357/70.

  34 R A Stuart 357/84.

  35 R A Stuart 357/103,158.