Jacobite Exhibition in Edinburgh

The Daily Telegraph website has a feature about an exhibition of Jacobite relics and memorabilia that is on show in Edinburgh. The display Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobites is the biggest exhibition on the subject in 70 years and is at the national Museum of Scotland until November 12th.


One of the highlights of what looks to be a wonderful display is what is believed to be a tartan coat worn by Prince Charles Edward in 1745. The illustrated article can be viewed here

The coat of Prince Charles Edward.

It is made of silk velvet, linen and wool, and needed 160 hours of conservation work

Image: National Museum of Scotland / Daily Telegraph





 

Culloden

Today is the 270th anniversary of the battle of Culloden, fought on April 16 1746.

There are online introductions to the battle at Battle of Culloden, at Culloden Feature Page on Undiscovered Scotland, and at Battle of Culloden - Jacobites, Enlightenment and the Clearances.
I have never visited the site of the battle but those who have often speak of its sinister brooding or mournful nature.

It was to prove a fateful day not just for the slain or those executed afterwards but for the Jacobite cause and for Scottish Highland life - the Hanoverian government subsequently legislated to destroy the authority of Clan Chiefs over their tenants and prevent such risings in the future. This was to lead towards the Highland clearances and the emigration of many Scots in succeeding generations.

The flight of Prince Charles Edward created part of the Jacobite and Scottish romantic myth that we know well. There is something about that here. For the Prince it was a matter of life and death and a replay of his great uncle's flight after the battle of Worcester in 1651. Both men received extraordinarily loyal and selfless support from their supporters. For the Prince it was also to prove in many ways the end of his public career - from his return to the continent until his death in 1788 he was, very largely, a shadow of the courageous and charming Prince who had swept through Scotland and into England in 1745-6.

 Prince Charles Edward

Portrait by Louis-Gabriel Blanchet

Image: anglophile.ru

However I do wonder if the Hanoverians were than anxious to actually capture him - that might have been embarrassing. Chasing him back to France may have suited them far better than a public trial and execution of someone whose family had produced effective Royal martyrs in mary Queen of Scots and King Charles I.

Battle of Falkirk Muir 1746

A friend recently referred to my inner Jacobite, who has with recent anniversaries been having something of an airing in recent weeks, and today is another such occasion. It is the 270th anniversary of the battle of Falkirk Muir in 1746, when the Jacobite Highland army defeated the Hanoverian forces. Although retreating northwards they could still beat a not very well organised regular army group. Whether it would have made any differeance if they had pursued them back to Edinburgh or had not spent time attempting to beseige Stirling Castle is open to speculation.

 

Prince Charles Edward at the Battle of Falkirk

Image:britishbattles.com

There is a detailed account of the events at the online piece Battle of Falkirk Muir. There is another useful one at Battle of Falkirk Muir 1746 - Falkirk Local History Society and there are also good articles at  On this day in Scotland: The Battle of Falkirk Muir, at The Battle of Falkirk 1746 - British Battles and at The Battle of Falkirk Muir, 1746 - Historic UK

Decision at Derby

It was on December 5th 1745, 270 years ago, that during the Jacobite Rising the Council of War at Derby presided over by Prince Charles Edward, nominal Prince of Wales and Prince Regent for his father King James III, decided, very much against the Prince's wishes, to withdraw back into Scotland.

Prince Charles Edward, by Allan Ramsay, painted at Holyrood Palace, late autumn 1745. 

Collection of the Earl of Wemyss, Gosford House.

Image:Wikipedia

There is an extensive account of the discussions that day in the online article on the Rising at Jacobite rising of 1745, and there is a history of the building where the council was held at  Exeter House.
As that explains the house itself was regrettably demolished in 1854, but some of the paneling survives in Derby Museum.

Exeter House in 1853

Image:Wikipedia

The interest of the meeting is not just as an incident in the Rising but raises the ultimately   unanswerable question - but still intriguing one - as to just how realistic were the possibilities for the Jacobites in 1745. What if the Prince had pressed on? Would the English Jacobites risen? Was there, as is sometimes claimed panic in London, or was there, as the online account suggests a more measured reaction by the Court and government? How much support would there have been for a Stuart Restoration? The online article suggests the dynasty could still count on considerable support. If the threat was not so serious why was the government so repressive afterwards? If the Jacobites had taken their march forward would the country have fallen into full scale civil war?

It remains a debate about which there is debate, and leaves a great number of "What ifs" hanging in the air.

Bonnie Prince Charlie

Today is the 225th anniversary of the death in 1788 of Bonnie Prince Charlie - to the Hanoverians and their supporters the Young Pretender, but to Jacobites, of course, King Charles III.

 The King over the water - a portrait of 1775

Image: Wikipedia

His life, with its dramatic elements of daring and romance which turned into personal tragedy as failure evermore overshadowed his life after 1746, is covered in the excellent biography by Murray G.H.Pittock in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography can be read here  and there is a shorter, illustrated online life here.

As late as 1758-9 there was a French plan to support him in another invasion, but the Duc de Choiseul thought the Prince unrealistic. Such disappointment took its toll, and he was denied the Papal recognition as King which his father had had after the latter's death in 1766.  

Too much alcohol, a failed marriage to Princess Louise of Stolbergin 1772 and melancholy over the fate of his supporters made his last years sad and meant that in many ways by 1788 he was a relic of a past era- one that was to become even more remote with the upheavels that began in France the following year, and with the impending extinction of the male line of the Stuarts with his brother.

For Scots Episcopalians praying for King Henry IX after the accession of a Cardinal to the claimant throne was too much - there were groans in their church of  Old St Pauls in Edinburgh when King George was prayed for after 1788. Similarly in England Bishop Challoner recorded how in his youth Catholics had prayed for King James, but how with the 1791 Relief Act in prospect they prayed for King George. 

Nonetheless as the Pittock ONDB life shows , using modern reassessments, the life of Charles Edward had displayed genuine qualities and his career remains one with not a few "what ifs" and will continue to excite interest.