Bonnie Prince Charlie: Charles Edward Stuart (Pimlico)

by McLynn, Frank

  65 R A Stuart Box 2/124. For the medical jottings and frequent requests for medical books see R A Stuart 484/18; 485/157; 489/55,88.

  66 Walpole Correspondence, 24, pp.136–7; Doran, Mann and Manners, ii, p.279.

  67 Mahon, Last Stuarts, p.54; Doran, ii, p.98.

  68 Mahon, Last Stuarts, p.52.

  69 Ibid., p.49.

  70 Walpole Correspondence, 24, pp.244–5.

  71 R A Stuart 481/43.

  72 Mahon, Last Stuarts, p.50.

  73 Emilio Bertana, Alfieri (Turin, 1904), p.171. For Bonstetten’s career see Marie L. Herking, Bonstetten 1745–1832 (Lausanne, 1921).

  74 Carlo Pellegrini, La Contessa d’Albany e il Salotto del Lungano, op. cit., p.21.

  75 R A Stuart Box 1/578.

  76 R A Stuart Box 3/128.

  77 Mahon, Last Stuarts, p.51.

  78 Ibid.

  79 Giulini G. Seregni, ed., Carteggio di Pietro a Alessandro Veri (Milan, 1926), viii, pp.147–8.

  80 Mahon, Last Stuarts, p.50.

  81 R A Stuart 481/136; 484/180; 485/83.

  82 ‘A house belonging to an Englishman who keeps three houses for English and other travellers was proposed to him … but upon further examination they did not find the house proper for them’ (S P Tuscany 80 f.143).

  83 S P Tuscany 81 f.119.

  84 Walther Limpburger, Die Gebaude von Florenz (Leipzig, 1910), p.46.

  85 Walpole Correspondence, 24, pp.244–5.

  86 Doran, ii, p.279.

  87 For the financial scurrying prior to the house purchase and the removal of effects see R A Stuart 485/5,10,25,40,84,96,102,131. Cf. also Add. MSS 34,638 ff.307–9.

  88 H M C, 15, ii, p.251.

  89 R A Stuart Box 3/130. Cf. also Archives of Douai, IL/D Stuart No.3.

  90 A. Von Reumont, Die Grafin von Albany, 2 vols (Berlin, 1860), i, p.148.

  91 Doran, ii, p.298.

  92 On Alfieri see Emilio Bertana, Vittorio Alfieri (Turin, 1904); P. Sirven, Vittorio Alfieri (Paris, 1938).

  93 Vittorio Alfieri, Vita … scitta da esso, ed. V. Branca (Milan, 1983), pp.193–5.

  94 Ibid., pp.195–7.

  95 R A Stuart Box 3/130. For other books ordered by Louise in this period see H M C, 15, ii, p.251.

  96 P. Sirven, Alfieri, op. cit., iv, pp.89 et seq.

  97 Alfieri, Vita, op. cit., p.202.

  98 R A Stuart 490/57.

  99 Vat. Lib. Fondo Borgia, 894 ff.265–8.

  100 Dutens, Mémoires d’un voyageur qui se repose, op. cit., pp.30–1.

  101 H M C, 14, App.x, 2, pp.368–9.

  102 H M C, 14, App.x, 2, p.326; Walpole Correspondence, 9, p.160.

  103 R A Stuart 481/42.

  104 R A Stuart Box 1/586.

  105 R A Stuart 491/160.

  106 R A Stuart 500/121; 501/77. Among other papers Cowley sent the prince were city plans of Boston and New York (R A Stuart 503/16).

  107 R A Stuart Box 1/590.

  108 Archives of Douai. IL/D Stuart No.6.

  109 R A Stuart 497/119.

  110 R A Stuart 307/88; 314/113.

  111 See the checklists of his reading at R A Stuart 316/175,185,275.

  112 R A Stuart 482/162.

  113 R A Stuart Box 3/113–14.

  114 Add. MSS 34,638 f.393 provides a partial catalogue.

  115 R A Stuart Box 2/122.

  116 Dutens, Mémoires, op. cit., iii, pp.32–3.

  117 For representative instances of ‘pure’ bibliophilia (i.e. an obsession with the artefact itself rather than its contents) see R A Stuart 461/171; 463/78,122; 467/209,211; 471/26.

  118 For some pointers see Freud, ‘Creative Writing and Day Dreaming’, S.E.ix, pp.143–53.

  119 R A Stuart 487/83; 494/94.

  120 Mahon, Last Stuarts, p.56.

  121 Walpole Correspondence, 24, pp.479–80. On Louise: ‘her beauty is vastly faded of late. She has paid dearly for the dregs of royalty’ (Doran, ii, p.351).

  122 Mahon, Last Stuarts, p.55.

  123 Walpole Correspondence, 25, pp.100–2.

  124 Mahon, Last Stuarts, p.56.

  125 S P Tuscany 82 f.348.

  126 Mahon, History, iii, p.xlvii.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  1 Mann refers archly on the infamous night of 30 November to the prince’s having ‘committed the most nauseous and filthy indecencies from above and below upon her’ (Walpole Correspondence, 25, pp.100–2).

  2 R A Stuart 500/154.

  3 R A Stuart 502/96.

  4 Dutens, Mémoires, op. cit., ii, pp.253–5.

  5 See her vitriolic letter to the prince (R A Stuart 500/78).

  6 Dutens, ii, p.252.

  7 Add. MSS 35,520 f.68.

  8 Ibid., f.169.

  9 S P 105/287 f.210. For confirmation cf. also Mlle Maltzam’s account given to Father Cowley (Archives of Douai, IL/D Stuart, Nos 5 and 8).

  10 Alfieri, Vita, op. cit., p.206.

  11 Dutens, ii, p.255.

  12 Egerton MSS 2641 f.115; Add MSS 35,520 ff.169–70.

  13 Dutens, ii, p.255.

  14 Add. MSS 35,520 f.170.

  15 R A Stuart 500/14.

  16 S P 105/287 f.211; Marchesa Nobili Vitelleschi, A Court in Exile, 2 vols (1902), ii, pp.438–9.

  17 For Henry’s reply (15 December 1780) see Revue des Deux Mondes, 15 January 1861 (2nd Series, 31, pp.227–9). Cf. Reumont, Die Grafin von Albany, i, pp.219–22.

  18 Reumont, Die Grafin, op. cit., i, pp.222–3.

  19 Walpole Correspondence, 25, p.115.

  20 S P 105/287 f.226.

  21 R A Stuart 500/56. This did not, however, prevent Mann from the categorical but false statement that the prince refused to send on her clothes (Mahon, Last Stuarts, p.59).

  22 R A Stuart 500/154.

  23 Walpole Correspondence, 25, p.115.

  24 Mahon, Last Stuarts, p.61.

  25 Add MSS 34,634 f.35.

  26 Ibid., ff.23–5,33.

  27 Ibid., f.29.

  28 Ibid., f.23. For Charles Edward’s hatred of Bernis see Charles Edward to Gordon, 5 August 1772, Bower MSS.

  29 R A Stuart Box 1/593; Mahon, Last Stuarts, p.60.

  30 S P 105/288 f.61.

  31 D Silvagni, La corte e la società romana nei secoli XVIII e XIX (Florence, 1885). i, p.366.

  32 R A Stuart Box 1/592.

  33 Archives of Douai, IL/D Stuart No.7. The prince claimed that his wife was a spendthrift and during her years in Florence had spent 600,000 francs without his knowledge (Sirven, Alfieri, iii, p.394).

  34 R A Stuart 501/31; 502/96; Add MSS 34,634 ff.1,5.

  35 Mahon, Last Stuarts, p.60.

  36 A Reumont, ‘Gli ultimi Stuardi, la Contessa d’Albany e V. Alfieri’, Archivio Storico Italiano, IV, vol.8 (1881), p.71.

  37 R A Stuart 502/106.

  38 Reumont, ‘Gli ultimi Stuardi’, loc. cit., pp.71–2.

  39 R A Stuart 502/149.

  40 R A Stuart 503/111.

  41 R A Stuart 503/163; 504/23.

  42 R A Stuart 502/149.

  43 R A Stuart 504/118.

  44 R A Stuart 504/6,151.

  45 R A Stuart 505/19.

  46 R A Stuart 504/6,104.

  47 R A Stuart 505/19.

  48 R A Stuart Box 1/597.

  49 R A Stuart 505/20,46.

  50 A. D. Perrero, ‘Gli ultimi Stuardi e V. Alfieri sul fondamento di documenti inediti 1782–83’, Rivista Europea, 24 (1881), p.697.

  51 Mahon, Last Stuarts, pp.62–3.

  52 Ibid., pp.63–4.

  53 R A Stuart Box 1/598.

  54 F O 79/3 f.285.

  55 Walpole Correspondence, 25, pp.394–5.

  56 Mahon, Last Stuarts, pp.65–6.

  57 F O 79/3 f.289.

  58 F O 79/3 ff.297–8.

  59 Mahon, Last Stuarts, p.67.

  60 Add. MSS 34,634 f.51.

  61 Emilio Bertana, Alfieri, op. cit., pp.195–7.

  62 Alfieri, Vita, p.218.

  63 Doran, Mann and Manners, ii, p.400.
<
br />   64 Mahon, Last Stuarts, p.68.

  65 A E M D, Angleterre, 81 f.145.

  66 For Gustav III in general see Collection des écrits politiques, littéraires et dramatiques de Gustav III (Stockholm, 1805). For his Italian journey see Baron de Nenno, Gustav III, Roi de Suède et Anckarstroem 1746–92 (Paris, 1876), p.168. The best modern study of Gustav III’s reign is in Claude Nordmann, Grandeur et liberté de la Suède 1660–1792 (Paris, 1971).

  67 F O 79/3 ff.369–71.

  68 F O 79/3 f.374.

  69 Mahon, Last Stuarts, p.73.

  70 R A Stuart 506/151,164,172.

  71 F O 79/3 f.374.

  72 Seregni, Carteggio, op. cit., v, pp.48–9; Reumont, Die Grafin, op. cit., i, p.241.

  73 R A Stuart 502/189; Walpole Correspondence, 25, ff.441–2.

  74 Doran, ii, p.402.

  75 For Chevalier de Tours and Mann’s stranglehold on him see F O 79/3 f.352.

  76 S P 105/299 f.73.

  77 F O 79/3 f.360.

  78 Ibid., f.361.

  79 Mahon, Last Stuarts, p.75.

  80 F O 79/3 f.392.

  81 The prince referred to Gustav as ‘his very dear brother’ (R A Stuart 507/49).

  82 For freemasonry in eighteenth-century France see P. Chevallier, Les ducs sous l’Acacia (Paris, 1964); La première profanation du temple maçonnique (Paris, 1968). For the Jacobite role in Spain see J. A. F. Benimeli, La masonerià española en el siglo 18 (Madrid, 1974), esp. pp.48–65. For Italy see Carlo Francovich, Storia Massoneria in Italia (Florence, 1974).

  83 S P Tuscany 42 ff.131,137–8; cf. also R. G. Gould, History of Freemasonry (1887), iii, p.300; Giuseppe Leti, Carboneria e masoneria nel risorgimento italiano (Genoa, 1925), pp.37–40; Eugen Lennhoff, Freemasons (New York, 1934), pp.139–40.

  84 Alec Mellor, La charte inconnue de la franc-maçonnerie chretienne (Tours, 1965), pp.119–20. This is also the principal thesis in Mellor’s Nos frères séparés les Francs-Maçons (Paris, 1961).

  85 S P Tuscany 46 ff.182–3.

  86 R A Stuart 198/130.

  87 Gustave Bord, La franc-maçonnerie en France (Paris, 1908).

  88 R A Stuart 203/163.

  89 D. Ligon, ed., Dictionnaire universal de la Franc-maçonnerie (Paris, 1974), i, p.74.

  90 Frankovich, op. cit., p.220.

  91 Ibid., pp.228–9,258.

  92 R A Stuart 491/123.

  93 P Maruzzi, ‘Notizie e documenti sul liberi muratori a Torino ne secolo XVIII’, Bollettino storico-bibliografico subalpino 30 (1928), pp.207–10.

  94 R A Stuart 493/19.

  95 R A Stuart 493/95,152,

  96 R A Stuart 493/179.

  97 R A Stuart 494/43; 498/189.

  98 R A Stuart 498/188.

  99 R A Stuart 498/188,248.

  100 This is confirmed by the best recent study of Gustav’s reign (Nordmann, Grandeur et liberté de la Suède, op. cit., p.424,

  101 A. Geffroy, Gustav III et la Cour de France, 2 vols (Paris, 1867), ii, p.16.

  102 R A Stuart 506/130.

  103 Walpole Correspondence, 25, pp.467–8; Doran, ii, pp.403–4.

  104 F O 79/4 f.35.

  105 Baron Sparre handled the detailed negotiations. Since he was very fond of Louise, it was easier for the Swedes to convince her. For a full survey of Louise’s relations with Gustav III and Sparre see Bruno Bassi, ‘Vittorio Alfieri y la Suezia’, Annali Alferiani, 2 (1943), pp.1–16.

  106 F O 79/4 ff.67–8.

  107 Reumont, Die Grafin, op. cit., i, pp.242–3.

  108 Bassi, loc. cit., pp.16,19; Pellegrini, op. cit., p.55.

  109 F O 79/4 f.35.

  110 R A Stuart 507/49.

  111 Mahon, Last Stuarts, pp.82–4.

  112 Henry’s reflections on Alfieri as ‘origo mali’ both in the breakdown of his brother’s marriage and his own relationship with Louise are at Add. MSS 30,478 ff.207–10.

  113 Add. MSS 34,634 ff.63,67.

  114 Ibid., f.65.

  115 Reumont, ‘Gli ultimi Stuardi’, loc. cit., pp.70–1; cf. also A. Ademollo, ‘Il Diario del Cardinale Duca di York’, Nuova Antologia, 1 July 1880, pp.27–8; Pellegrini, op. cit., pp.74–5.

  116 Here is Louise’s version of her life with Charles Edward as told to one English traveller: ‘He was constantly and madly drunk and seldom had a moment of reason. He was ever talking about his restoration or abusing the French and the Pope. He was equally covetous and extravagant. His own table was always sumptuously provided, but he would grudge the countess a little mutton broth in the morning. She acknowledged he had one good quality – he never betrayed a secret, and never disclosed who belonged to his party until after their death; nor would he listen to any ill-natured things said of people’ (Autobiography of Miss Cornelia Knight (1861), pp.79–80). Louise’s acknowledgment of his ‘one good quality’ is particularly illuminating in the light of Earl Marischal’s accusations (see pp.430–1 above).

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  1 F O 79/4 f.100.

  2 F O 79/5 f.5.

  3 Ibid., f.6.

  4 F. A. Skeet, H.R.H. Charlotte Duchess of Albany (1932), p.150.

  5 Mahon, Last Stuarts, pp.82–3.

  6 F O 79/4 f.100.

  7 F O 79/4 f.103.

  8 For Charlotte, apart from the above-cited work of hagiography by Skeet see Susan Buchan, The Funeral March of a Marionette (1933) and (best of all) H. Tayler, Prince Charlie’s Daughter (1950).

  9 R A Stuart 473/55.

  10 Archives Nationales, Series K,1303 f.105; A E M D Angleterre 81 f.109.

  11 A E M D Angleterre 81 ff.121–7; R A Stuart 473/152,162.

  12 A E M D Angleterre 81 ff.115,120.

  13 R A Stuart 474/154; 475/66.

  14 R A Stuart 475/178.

  15 R A Stuart 475/181.

  16 This is the ‘justification’ offered by the arch-hagiographer of Charles Edward, Sir Compton Mackenzie in Prince Charlie’s Ladies, op. cit.

  17 R A Stuart 480/48.

  18 R A Stuart 481/23,131; 482/20.

  19 R A Stuart 485/64,171; 496/83.

  20 H M C, 10, vi, p.235.

  21 R A Stuart 507/55.

  22 F O 79/4 ff.85–6.

  23 A E M D Angleterre 81 ff.152–92.

  24 F O 79/4 ff.100,110,112–13.

  25 Add. MSS 34,634 ff.77–8.

  26 Pelissier, Portefeuille de la Comtesse d’Albany, op. cit., pp.61,83.

  27 Add. MSS 34,634 ff.79–80.

  28 F O 79/4 ff.108–9.

  29 Walpole Correspondence, 25, p.535.

  30 Mahon, Last Stuarts, p.87.

  31 Ibid.

  32 By now the prince was having his doubts about Gustav. ‘He has doubts that the king of Sweden has complied with the promise he made to speak to His Majesty in his favour’ (F O 79/4 ff.85–6).

  33 H M C, 10, vi, pp.235–6.

  34 H M C, 10, vi, p.236; Reumont, Die Grafin von Albany, op. cit., ii, p.317.

  35 H M C, 10, vi, p.235.

  36 Add. MSS 34,638 f.341.

  37 Add. MSS 34,634, f.9. Charles Edward was very bitter about his brother’s attitude. Cf. Mann in December 1784: ‘The faculties of his mind are as weak as his body. They are always employed when awake in abusing the cardinal, his brother, for refusing to adopt his niece’ (Walpole Correspondence, 25, pp.549–50).

  38 Add. MSS 34,634 f.70. Cf. an earlier letter in the same month (December 1784) from Louise to Henry: ‘As to your brother, nothing surprises me in his behaviour. I know him so well that I consider him capable of going to any lengths of absurdity’ (ibid., f.68).

  39 Walpole Correspondence, 25, pp.552–3.

  40 F O 79/4 f.153.

  41 C. M. J. D. Dupaty, Lettres sur Italie en 1785 (Paris, 1788), i, pp.151–3.

  42 F O 79/4 f.155.

  43 See Add. MSS 34,634 ff.79–81 for the correspondence.

  44 H M C, 10, vi, p.237.

  45 Add. MSS 34,634 f.15; Mann, Last Stuarts, p.90.

  46 Add. MSS 34,634 f.15.

  47 Char
les Edward to Cowley, 7 October 1785, Archives of Douai, IL/D Stuart No.11.

  48 Add. MSS 34,638 f.345.

  49 Add. MSS 34,634 f.12.

  50 A E M D Angleterre 81 ff.192–3.

  51 Add. MSS 34,638 f.347.

  52 A E M D Angleterre 81 ff.198–200; 222–30.

  53 Archives of Douai, IL/D Stuart No.10; A E M D Angleterre 81 ff.211–12.

  54 H M C, 10, vi, p.238.

  55 Ibid., ff.237–8.

  56 Henry was not alone in making this foolish assumption. See Compton Mackenzie, Prince Charlie’s Ladies, p.279.

  57 Walpole Correspondence, 33, p.450.

  58 Tayler, Prince Charlie’s Daughter, p.79.

  59 Mahon, Last Stuarts, pp.91–2.

  60 F O 79/5 ff.5–6.

  61 A E M D Angleterre 81 ff.218–21; Add. MSS 34,638 ff.86–98.

  62 R A Stuart 507/10.

  63 Add. MSS 34,638 ff.173–4.

  64 F O 79/5 f.36.

  65 Tayler, Prince Charlie’s Daughter, pp.72,73,75,76,81,87,88,92,100

  66 N. W. Wraxall, Historical Memoirs of my own Times, 5 vols (1884), i, p.211.

  67 F. Munter, Aus den Tagebuchern Friedrich Munters wanderund lajahre eines Danisken gelehrten, 3 vols (Copenhagen and Leipzig, 1937), ii, p.232.

  68 A. Hayward, ed., Autobiography of Mrs. Piozzi, 2 vols (1861), i, p.331.

  69 Lang, Prince Charles Edward Stuart, p.449.

  70 Mahon, Last Stuarts, p.93.

  71 Annette M. Smith, The Jacobite Estates of the Forty-Five (Edinburgh, 1982). Walpole wrote at the time of the restitution: ‘If the Count [sc. Charles Edward] himself has any feelings left, he must rejoice to hear that the descendants of many of his martyrs are to be restored to their forfeited estates in Scotland by an act just now passed’ (Walpole Correspondence, 25, p.521).

  72 Mahon, Last Stuarts, p.94.

  73 There were still some Jacobites left who sincerely mourned his passing. Cf. this lament from Isabella Strange: ‘I do assure you grief has much affected me. None can feel the loss of a beloved friend more than I do that of the first man who drew my attention into actual life. My head and heart has now no more to do with vain wishes. I hope my friend is much happier now than this world could make him. He now views with a smile the littleness of all the pursuits of this world’ (Memoirs of Strange and Lumisden, ii, p.216).

  74 R A Stuart 515/70. Cf. also Henry to Walker, 9 March 1788, Archives du Nord (Lille), 18 H.67.

  75 For full details of Charles Edward’s legacies to Charlotte see Archivio di Stato (Roma), Miscellanea Famiglie, Busta 170, Nos 18–19; Busta 171 No.3. For the French monies see A E M D Angleterre 81 ff.234–6 for details.