Bonnie Prince Charlie: Charles Edward Stuart (Pimlico)

by McLynn, Frank

  10 R A Stuart 434/71.

  11 R A Stuart 433/130; 434/2.

  12 R A Stuart 434/11.

  13 Ibid.

  14 R A Stuart 435/43.

  15 For confirmation see Serrant’s reports from Paris (R A Stuart 435/182; 437/84).

  16 R A Stuart 433/201.

  17 R A Stuart 434/188; 435/6,31,56.

  18 R A Stuart 435/29,31,56,75; 436/168.

  19 R A Stuart 436/90.

  20 R A Stuart 436/31.

  21 R A Stuart 437/92.

  22 ‘Deprived by the cruelty of this government of the pleasure of society, ’tis the same to His Majesty whether he is here or at Rome. He says that he is like one on shipboard; he converses only with his own little crew’ (Memoirs of Strange and Lumisden, ii, p.97).

  23 R A Stuart 437/59.

  24 R A Stuart 437/59,102,112.

  25 R A Stuart 437/172.

  26 Memoirs of Strange and Lumisden, ii, p.97; R A Stuart 437/94.

  27 La Tremoille, Une Famille royaliste, p.77.

  28 Memoirs of Strange and Lumisden, p.98; R A Stuart 438/87.

  29 R A Stuart 438/122.

  30 R A Stuart 439/58.

  31 R A Stuart 439/84.

  32 Memoirs of Strange and Lumisden, ii, p.98.

  33 Doran, Mann and Manners, ii, p. 174.

  34 H M C, III, pp.137–8.

  35 L M, iii, p.222.

  36 H M C, III, p.421.

  37 R A Stuart 440/155.

  38 R A Stuart Box 1/549.

  39 A D, Nancy, H.77 (August 1767).

  40 R A Stuart 442/17,36; 443/8.

  41 H M C, III, p.421.

  42 Memoirs of Strange and Lumisden, ii, pp.106,109.

  43 A E M D Angleterre, 93 f.155.

  44 Memoirs of Strange and Lumisden, ii, p.107.

  45 In November 1766 Charles Edward was reported by Mann to have ‘committed in the last week some great outrages against some of his own people in a drunken fit, by drawing his sword and pursuing them, so that they narrowly escaped being killed’ (Mahon, Last Stuarts, p.34).

  46 Memoirs of Strange and Lumisden, ii, pp.109–10.

  47 R A Stuart 442/140.

  48 L M, iii, p.224.

  49 R A Stuart 445/116.

  50 L M, iii, pp.222–3.

  51 Memoirs of Strange and Lumisden, ii, pp.111–13.

  52 Ibid., pp.119–20.

  53 Ibid., p.119. However, as Lumisden said: ‘But how is it possible to conceal what has been seen by so many?’

  54 L M, iii, p.232.

  55 Thomas W. Copeland, ed., Correspondence of Edmund Burke, 10 vols (Cambridge and Chicago, 1978), ii, p.283.

  56 R A Stuart 446/187.

  57 L M, iii, p.234; Mahon, Last Stuarts, pp.34–5.

  58 R A Stuart 446/188. The prince’s closing remarks seem particularly hypocritical. Claiming that he would now be king of England if he had rejected Catholicism, he went on: ‘it was proposed to me several times and thank God I always rejected it’(!!!).

  59 R A Stuart 447/9,15.

  60 ‘For God’s sake, dear brother, reflect seriously on all this and at least in the meanwhile do not put your foot in Rome, for that would blow up everything’ (R A Stuart 447/20).

  61 R A Stuart 447/9,20.

  62 See the snobbishness evinced by Dunbar on the new Pope: ‘His low birth and education give me pain’ (R A Stuart 447/40).

  63 Mahon, Last Stuarts, pp.35–6.

  64 R A Stuart 447/40.

  65 Mahon, Last Stuarts, p.36.

  66 R A Stuart 447/182.

  67 R A Stuart 448/113.

  68 R A Stuart 448/107.

  69 How bad the situation was can be inferred from the fact that in 1768 the prince ceased to take the English newspapers for reasons of economy. When Lord Caryll took over Lumisden’s duties, he received board and lodging only (Memoirs of Strange and Lumisden, ii, p.105).

  70 R A Stuart 449/5.

  71 R A Stuart 449/95,142.

  72 R A Stuart 450/33; 451/99.

  73 L M, iii, p.223.

  74 R A Stuart 449/139–41. Princess Maria Anna Sapieha (born 1728) was the second wife of Prince Johann Cajetan Jablonowski and sister-in-law of the Princesse de Talmont. She was also distantly related to Charles Edward through the Sobieskis, since her husband was grand-nephew of King John Sobieski’s wife.

  75 R A Stuart 450/110.

  76 R A Stuart 450/144.

  77 R A Stuart 450/150; S P Tuscany 75 f.108.

  78 S P Tuscany 75 f.108.

  79 Walpole Correspondence, 23, pp.225–6.

  80 There were also four servants out of livery, two ordinary footmen and two ancillary footmen (S P Tuscany 75 f.124).

  81 S P Tuscany 75 f.140.

  82 Mahon, Last Stuarts, p.39.

  83 R A Stuart 450/160,167.

  84 R A Stuart 450/204.

  85 S P 105/320 f.213.

  86 Mahon, Last Stuarts, pp.39–40.

  87 R A Stuart 451/13.

  88 R A Stuart 451/196.

  89 R A Stuart 451/99.

  90 Giulini G. Sepegni, ed., Carteggio di Pietro e Alessandro Verri (Milan, 1926), v, pp.46–8.

  91 Lady Anne Miller, Letters from Italy, 3 vols (1776), ii, pp.194–8.

  92 Ibid., p. 199.

  93 Ibid., p. 198.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  1 R A Stuart 452/107.

  2 R A Stuart Box 1/568; 452/127.

  3 R A Stuart Box 1/574.

  4 R A Stuart Box 1/573.

  5 L M, iii, pp.353–4 for these and other details of Caryll’s career.

  6 R A Stuart 452/119.

  7 H M C, 10, vi, p.224; R A Stuart 454/116.

  8 R A Stuart Box 1/569; 454/80.

  9 R A Stuart 453/117.

  10 R A Stuart 453/114; 454/119.

  11 R A Stuart 454/132,140,149.

  12 H M C, 10, vi, p.224.

  13 S P Tuscany 76 ff.147–51.

  14 Walpole Correspondence, 23, pp.318–19.

  15 cf. Mann to Walpole, 17 September 1771: ‘You will laugh at me perhaps for being solicitous about so pitiful an object as the Pretender now is, but though advanced in years, and either drunk or half asleep, he may still be made use of to do mischief’ (Walpole Correspondence, 23, p.324).

  16 S P Tuscany 76 f.160.

  17 Walpole thought that Spain had invited the prince to Madrid to launch him against Scotland. In typical Walpole fashion he could not resist a jibe at Mann’s expense over the ‘disappearance’: ‘I am sorry that so watchful a cat should have let its mouse slip at last, without knowing into what hole it has run‘ (Walpole Correspondence, 23, p.328).

  18 See Baron de Viomenil, Lettres sur les affaires de Pologne en 1771 et 1772 (Paris, 1808). For Charles Edward’s reflections on events in Poland see R A Stuart Box 1/575.

  19 Walpole Correspondence, 5, p.111.

  20 S P Tuscany 76 f.153.

  21 Du Deffand, op. cit., iii, p.111.

  22 S P Tuscany 76 f.157.

  23 H M C, 10, vi, p.223.

  24 Ibid.

  25 Hence the laments of Parisian Jacobites that they had not seen their leader during his stay in the capital (R A Stuart 445/86,135,145; 456/97).

  26 H M C, 10. vi, p.224.

  27 Ibid., p.225.

  28 Ryan’s first target was to be the Princess of Salm. If his bid proved unsuccessful, he was to proceed to other princesses (eighteen-year-old Princess Marie Isabelle de Mansfeld was mentioned), and thereafter he was to scour the Empire, in Brussels, Cologne, Mannheim and elsewhere until he found a suitable bride (H M C, 10, vi, p.223).

  29 Ibid., pp.223–5.

  30 Ibid., pp.223–4.

  31 Walpole Correspondence, 23, p.343.

  32 S P 105/295 f.133.

  33 Horace Mann, as usual, tried to make propaganda out of the most trivial incident: ‘He was in great danger … on which occasion he expressed the utmost fear and consternation’ (Mahon, Last Stuarts, p.44). It was an abiding aim of Whig propaganda to call Charles Edward’s p
hysical courage – the one attribute that could not actually be doubted – into question. Cf. the nonsense about his cowardice during the ’45 retailed by David Hume (Add. MSS 34,516 f.4).

  34 S P Tuscany 76 f.208; R A Stuart 455/136. Mann next tried to discredit the prince on the alleged ‘absurdity’ of his trip. ‘Not only by the cardinals but by the common people he was hooted at for having made so much mystery about so insignificant a journey’ (Walpole Correspondence, 23, p.343).

  35 H M C, 10, vi, p.225.

  36 Walpole Correspondence, 23, p.35l provides some pointers.

  37 H M C, 10, vi, p.225.

  38 R A Stuart 456/123–4.

  39 R A Stuart 456/14. High hopes had evidently been entertained for this marriage. Her itinerary to Marseilles and on by sea to Civitavecchia had already been worked out (H M C, 10, vi, pp.225–6).

  40 The Princess of Salm that the prince bade for was Marie-Louise de Rhingrave, daughter of Philipe-Joseph, Prince of Salm-Kyrbourg and Marie-Thérèse Josephe de Hornes. The mother of Charles Edward’s first prospective bride, in other words, was the sister of Louise of Stolberg’s mother (C. F. Jacobi, ed., Europäisches Genealogisches Handbuch (Leipzig, 1800), p.397). For Louise of Stolberg’s genealogy see H M C, 8, iii, p.7.

  41 R A Stuart 456/123,135.

  42 R A Stuart 456/168; 457/14.

  43 R A Stuart 457/15.

  44 P. Sirven, Vittorio Alfieri (Paris, 1938), iii, pp.347–72 analyses this early period of Louise’s life. Cf. also Carlo Pellegrini, La Contessa d‘Albany e il Salotto del Lungarno (Naples, 1951), p.13.

  45 H M C, 10, vi, p.226.

  46 These can be found at R A Stuart 458/18,19,33.41.

  47 H M C, 10, vi, p.229.

  48 R A Stuart 458/44.

  49 R A Stuart 457/161.

  50 H M C, 10, vi, p.229.

  51 R A Stuart 458/103.

  52 R A Stuart 458/104.

  53 H M C, 10, vi, pp.226–7.

  54 Ibid., p.228.

  55 Ibid., p.230.

  56 Ibid., pp.227–8.

  57 R A Stuart 458/157.

  58 A. Theiner, Geshichte des Pontificats Clemens XIV, 2 vols (Leipzig, 1853), ii, p.153 (also translated in Paris in the same year as Histoire du Pontificat de Clement XIV).

  59 S P Tuscany 76 ff.187–8.

  60 Bushkuhl, Great Britain and the Holy See, op. cit., pp.19–20.

  61 R A Stuart 458/122.

  62 R A Stuart 458/103.

  63 R A Stuart 458/104,123.

  64 R A Stuart 458/125,135,138.

  65 R A Stuart 458/143.

  66 Also present were the duke of Berwick and the marquis of Jamaica (Du Deffand, iii, 218; H M C, 10, vi, p.230).

  67 R A Stuart 458/150,156.

  68 It was even stipulated that, except in an emergency, no stop was to be made in Mantua (H M C, 10, vi, p.226).

  69 For Marefoschi see Charles Breton, Dictionnaire des cardinaux (Paris, 1857), p.1187.

  70 R A Stuart 458/159.

  71 R A Stuart 459/23.

  72 R A Stuart 459/40.

  73 R A Stuart 459/45.

  74 H M C, 10, vi, p.231; R A Stuart 459/66.

  75 R A Stuart 459/66.

  76 H M C, 10, vi, p.231.

  77 R A Stuart 459/67.

  78 Daily Advertiser, 14 May 1772.

  79 See the extended comments in the London Chronicle, 2–4 April 1772; St James’s Chronicle, 16–18 April 1772.

  80 Politische Correspondenz, op. cit., 32, pp.119,154,

  81 S P Tuscany 77 ff.42,44; H M C, 10, vi, p.232.

  82 S P Tuscany 77 f.48; Theiner, op. cit., ii, p.160.

  83 L M, iii, p.324.

  84 Theiner, op. cit., ii, p.161.

  85 H M C, 10, vi, p.233.

  86 R A Stuart 461/84.

  87 See below p.537.

  88 See the analysis in P. Sirven, Alfieri, op. cit., iii, pp.347–72.

  89 R A Stuart 457/115.

  90 R A Stuart 457/14.

  91 R A Stuart 458/156.

  92 R A Stuart Box 1/577.

  93 Souvenirs de Charles Victor Bonstetten (Paris, 1832), pp.61–9.

  94 G. Charvet, Une correspondance inédite de la Comtesse d’Albanie (Nîmes, 1878), p.13.

  95 R A Stuart 463/142; 464/88.

  96 Bower MSS; H M C, 10, vi, pp.232–3; R A Stuart 462/157,160; 464/151.

  97 R A Stuart 461/55; 462/66.

  98 R A Stuart 464/150.

  99 H M C, 10, vi, p.234.

  100 For the three diversions mentioned (apart from Louise) see respectively R A Stuart 462/45; 461/149; 461/159.

  101 R A Stuart 422/131–2.

  102 See H. Tayler, Prince Charlie’s Daughter (1950), p.31; F. J. A. Skeet, Charlotte Stuart, Duchess of Albany (1932), pp.31–2.

  103 R A Stuart 446/63.

  104 R A Stuart 448/51–2.

  105 A E M D Angleterre, 81 ff.97–8.

  106 R A Stuart 459/75.

  107 R A Stuart 461/57.

  108 The sequence of events can be followed in R A Stuart 462/67; 463/117.

  109 A E M D Angleterre, 81 ff.71–5.

  110 R A Stuart 467/73,106,118; 468/70–1.

  111 H M C, 10, vi, p.234.

  112 Ibid.

  113 R A Stuart 469/33.

  114 R A Stuart 467/15.

  115 Bruno Bassi, ‘Vittorio Alfieri e la Suezia’, Annali Alferiani (1943), II, p.15.

  116 Mahon, Last Stuarts, p.46.

  117 R A Stuart 470/32.

  118 L M, iii, p.281.

  119 Ernst Emmerling, Pompeo Batoni (Darmstadt, 1932), pp.35–6. There is an excellent description of the painting (this is the author’s forte) in James Lees-Milne, The Last Stuarts (1983), p.107.

  120 Walpole Correspondence, 24, p.102.

  121 Bonstetten, Souvenirs, op. cit., pp.61–9.

  122 Walpole Correspondence, 24, p.94.

  123 A considerable amount of attention has been given to Louise of Stolberg. The most scholarly work on her is by Leon G. Pelissier: Lettres et ecrits divers de la Comtesse d’Albany (Paris, 1901); Le Portefeuille de la Comtesse d’Albany (1902); Lettres inédites de la Comtesse d’Albany, 3 vols (1904–15). A. Reumont, Die Grafin von Albany (Berlin, 1860) is still useful. There are a number of works in English of varying worth: Margaret Crosland, Louise of Stolberg, Countess of Albany (1962); Margaret Michiner, No Crown for the Queen (1937); H. M. Vaughan, The Last Stuart Queen (1910); Vernon Lee, The Countess of Albany (1884). Far the best one-volume appraisal is by Carlo Pellegrini, La Contessa d’Albany e il Salotto del Lungano (Naples, 1951).

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  1 R A Stuart 473/191; 474/8.

  2 R A Stuart 474/33–4.

  3 The French court had successfully stalled Fitzjames by introducing the smokescreen of a proposed Franco-Spanish subsidy (R A Stuart 474/38).

  4 The answer from Spain, received on the eve of d’Aiguillon’s resignation, was less than encouraging (R A Stuart 474/78).

  5 Charles Edward to Maurepas, 20 July 1774, A E M D Angleterre, 81 f.89.

  6 R A Stuart 474/192. Charles Edward excused himself on the grounds that he had to act fast, and at the time no ministers had been appointed. But it was another case of his jumping the gun.

  7 R A Stuart 475/169; 476/154.

  8 A E M D Angleterre 81 f.103.

  9 R A Stuart 474/194; 475/83,132.

  10 R A Stuart 475/169.

  11 R A Stuart 474/188.

  12 R A Stuart 475/176.

  13 R A Stuart 476/24.

  14 R A Stuart 476/69.

  15 R A Stuart 477/88. Cf. R A Stuart 477/167: ‘My distress is inconceivable for lack of money.’

  16 R A Stuart 477/178.

  17 R A Stuart 477/179. Gordon replied that the only chance of getting anything was to settle for a reduced sum (R A Stuart 479/32).

  18 R A Stuart 479/24.

  19 R A Stuart 479/56.

  20 R A Stuart 479/97.

  21 R A Stuart 479/188.

  22 R A Stuart 479/99,206.

>   23 A E M D Angleterre 81 f.247.

  24 Money was probably the most cogent factor, but Mann stressed the continuing non-recognition by the Pope in a Holy Year as the crucial determinant (Mahon, Last Stuarts, p.47).

  25 R A Stuart 461/161; 471/40.

  26 R A Stuart 474/194.

  27 R A Stuart 474/188,202,205.

  28 R A Stuart 475/39,83.

  29 R A Stuart 474/178; 475/164.

  30 R A Stuart 475/175,181,197.

  31 R A Stuart 476/13,133. ‘My intention is to stay at Siena some time, as I do not think of going to Rome before a Pope is chosen’ (Charles Edward to Gordon, 1 November 1774, R A Stuart 476/155).

  32 S P Tuscany 79 f.141.

  33 Walther Limpburger, Die Gebaude von Florenz (Leipzig, 1910), p.41.

  34 R A Stuart 477/164.

  35 Mahon, Last Stuarts, p.48.

  36 For the Borgia links with Marefoschi see Vatican Library, Fondo Borgia, 812 ff.48,66–7,71–8. For Borgia links with Henry see Fondo Borgia, 792 ff.54–6.

  37 R A Stuart 477/113.

  38 For details see A E C P, Rome, 872 ff.137–46.

  39 R A Stuart 478/63.

  40 Roda to Wall, 22 January, 12 February 1761, A G N, Simancas, Legajo 4966.

  41 Bindelli, Enrico Stuart, op. cit., p.107.

  42 Pastor, History of the Popes, op. cit., 39, pp.16–17.

  43 A E C P Espagne 574 f.217.

  44 Bushkuhl, Great Britain and the Holy See, op. cit., p.22.

  45 R A Stuart 479/205,207.

  46 R A Stuart 480/77.

  47 R A Stuart 480/82.

  48 R A Stuart 481/174.

  49 R A Stuart 481/190.

  50 For further bitter protests against ‘a low submission to the Hanoverian government’ see R A Stuart 482/44–6.

  51 Mann reported that when the prince was still hopeful that his brother might become Pope, Caryll and count Spada had to attend him while he went in for some very noisy boasting in the public casino (Mahon, Last Stuarts, p.49).

  52 L M, iii, p.352.

  53 L M, iii, p.361; R A Stuart 480/73,104,110.

  54 R A Stuart 480/46.

  55 Walpole Correspondence, 24, p.94.

  56 L M, iii, p.338.

  57 Doran, Mann and Manners, op. cit., ii, p.278; Moore, Letters from Italy, ii, p.393.

  58 For Bonstetten in the Palazzo Corsini see Bonstetten, Souvenirs, op. cit., pp.61–9.

  59 R A Stuart Box 3/129.

  60 R A Stuart 481/43.

  61 L M, iii, pp.364–5.

  62 R A Stuart 481/44.

  63 Walpole Correspondence, 24, p.118.

  64 R A Stuart 481/44.