Prince Charles Edward Stuart, the ‘Young Pretender’, or as he is perhaps better known to posterity, ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’ was the son of James Stuart, the ‘Old Pretender’, and grandson of the exiled King James II. As such he was heir to the Jacobite claim to the thrones of Britain, and his ambition to try and recover these for his family, and latterly himself, were to dominate his life.

He was born Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Silvester Maria Stuart on December 31st 1720 in the Italian city of Bologna. He was the son of James Stuart and Princess Maria Clementina Sobieska, a Polish princess who had married James by proxy the preceding year whilst he was away trying to orchestrate the 1719 Rising, and it seemed the consolation she offered on his return after the defeat led to the conception of a child and the raising of Jacobite hopes for the future.

As the future of the Jacobite cause, from his being born Charles was the focus of plots, intrigue and possible kidnap or assassination. As such he was always well guarded, whilst at the same time he was taught to defend himself - he was a dead shot crossbows and pistols by the age of six.

He was educated by private tutors in Italy where his family were now exiled, but apart from the history of his family - in which he showed a fierce pride, military matters and the practice of music, he showed little aptitude as a student. As he grew older his interest in warfare developed, he spent his early teens building model fortifications, and in 1734 the 14 year old prince was taken by his tutor to visit the Spanish forces besieging the city of Gaeta. He managed to slip away from his guides and spent time in the trenches around the town under direct artillery fire, arousing the admiration of both the officers and men for his courage. This courage would remain with him for the rest of his life, although none of the military good sense and skill he was taught as a young man seems particularly to have rubbed off on him. He was a reasonable strategist - as the concept of the ‘45 and its initial success showed, and claimed to wage war by the ‘thought of making war in terms of the chase: rapidity of movement, lightning thrusts, economy, sudden death’. He was not a gifted tactician though, as the events of the ‘45 would show.

Charles was very charming, possessing a magnetism that made men want to follow him and women find him attractive. He also was convinced of his own cause and would devolve into the typical Stuart characteristics of stubbornness and petulance if he was crossed. Despite his charm, Charles is recorded as having only a limited sense of humour and even less intelligence, he seems to have fallen back on his charisma and powers of persuasion to achieve what he wanted. Whilst he has also been portrayed as being a Scots hero, it should be said that less than 10% of his blood line was actually British - he was predominantly Polish and Italian by descent, and he spoke English with an Italian accent.

In 1735 his mother died, having a profound effect on the young man, Charles from this point immersing himself in the Jacobite cause to cover his loss. He pushed hard with the Spanish for an invasion attempt in 1739, but this came to nothing, so he waited, fretting in Rome until such time as an opportunity presented itself. he reacted with some fury to the news of the British victory at Dettingen in 1743 by George II.

His opportunity to act came in 1744 with the planned French invasion in support of a Jacobite restoration. Charles took his leave of his father for the last time, then with a commission to act in the Old Pretender’s name as Regent and General he rushed to France, only to hear of the fleet being destroyed. His hopes seemed to have been crushed. By this time, so obsessed with his cause he raised the money by loans to get two ships and a store of arms, then headed for Scotland. The result of this can be read about on our 1745 Rising page, but suffice it to say that whilst it was Charles’ personality that made the rising possible; his charm and persuasion really emotionally blackmailed the Clan Chiefs into supporting him initially when they counselled him to return home, it was also his personality which lost the campaign. The council of war at Derby, which forced him into retreat - wisely given Charles had not bothered to court English Jacobite support as he had claimed - convinced him to ignore the wiser advice of Murray and the others in future, and Stuart obstinacy took over. From then on Charles operated on his own or by the council of those few trusted confidants he had left - such as the incompetent O’Sullivan. By such means was the disaster at Culloden made.

After Culloden Charles fled, refusing to contemplate carrying on, as Murray believed they could. Instead Charles gave orders to ‘Let every man seek his own safety the best way he can’. The Highland army dispersed, whilst Charles and a few supporters fled to Arisaig. There he bade his supporters farewell, and then spent the next 5 months wandering the Highlands and Islands, trying to evade capture. He went via Benbecula, then on to Stornoway, and then South Uist. It was here he was famously helped past government troops by Flora Macdonald, with Charles discovered as a woman, and she got him to Skye. Charles moved on from here to Rassay, then to the mainland. Eventually on 19th September 1746 he was picked up at Borrodale by two small French ships and taken back into exile.