BONNIE PRINCE CHARLIE44 discoverbritainmag.comALAN COPSON/AWL IMAGES/IAN DAGNALL COMPUTING/ALAMYcreated by the Callendar Estate, which
lies between Glasgow and Edinburgh,
around 25 miles from both.
Back at Bannockburn House, Charles
fell ill and was nursed by a Paterson niece,
Clementina Walkinshaw, who is thought to
have become his mistress. But there was no
respite as Charles’ generals urged him to retreat
further into the Highlands; his leadership was
crumbling and supplies were dwindling.
The final showdown at Culloden on the
outskirts of Inverness laid bare Charles’ failing
grip. A night march and planned attack on the
sleeping government Redcoats was botched but
Charles insisted against his generals’ advice
on committing his weary troops to battle
that day, 16 April 1746. Outperformed and
outnumbered (with around 7,500 Redcoats to
5,500 Jacobites) he was routed by George II’s
son, the Duke of Cumberland. The Battle ofCulloden was a bloody encounter now retold in
the Culloden visitor centre and on battlefield
tours. Subsequent government savagery would
smash clan culture.
With a price of £30,000 on his head,
Charles fled through the Highlands and
Hebrides, via Benbecula and South Uist.
Despite being in mortal danger, he enjoyed
an extraordinary, three-week interlude
hunting, shooting and drinking with clan chiefs
hidden away in Glen Corodale. History then
morphed into legend after Flora MacDonald
helped him escape “over the sea to Skye” by
disguising him as her Irish maid, “Betty Burke”
(Charles insisted on wearing his breeches
beneath his quilted petticoat).
Charles left Scotland on a ship bound for
France on 20 September 1746 – the Prince’s
Cairn marks the traditional departure point
at Loch nan Uamh, West Highlands. He was
still only 26 and would spend the next four
decades until his death in 1788 roaming
mainland Europe; a romantic hero to many but
an awkward embarrassment to the French king
and others. “What can a bird do that has not
found a right nest?” Charles remarked. “It will
always wander and never pitch on a branch.”
In 1750 Charles made a short, secret trip to
London to discuss a possible coup with English
Jacobites but it fizzled out, and back abroad
he sank into a life of disappointment and
dissipation. He fathered a daughter, Charlotte,
by Clementina, who had followed him, and
he married Princess Louise of Stolberg-Gedern,
but both relationships ended in sordid tales of
his cruelty. After his father’s death in 1766,
he styled himself King Charles III but Europe’s
rulers ignored the claim.
In later life, solaced only by reconciliation
with his daughter Charlotte, Charles regretted
he had not perished at Culloden: the effective
end of the Jacobite dream and the beginning
of the soulful legend of the Bonnie Prince that
outlived the tragic truth. nAbove: Glenfinnan
Monument at Loch
Shiel Top right:
Flora MacDonaldThe final showdown
laid bare Charles’
failing grip... TheBattle of Culloden was
a bloody encounter040-044_DB_Bonnie Prince Charlie.indd 44 26/02/2020 12:23BONNIE PRINCE CHARLIE
44 discoverbritainmag.com
ALAN COPSON/AWL IMAGES/IAN DAGNALL COMPUTING/ALAMYcreated by the Callendar Estate, which
lies between Glasgow and Edinburgh,
around 25 miles from both.
Back at Bannockburn House, Charles
fell ill and was nursed by a Paterson niece,
Clementina Walkinshaw, who is thought to
have become his mistress. But there was no
respite as Charles’ generals urged him to retreat
further into the Highlands; his leadership was
crumbling and supplies were dwindling.
The final showdown at Culloden on the
outskirts of Inverness laid bare Charles’ failing
grip. A night march and planned attack on the
sleeping government Redcoats was botched but
Charles insisted against his generals’ advice
on committing his weary troops to battle
that day, 16 April 1746. Outperformed and
outnumbered (with around 7,500 Redcoats to
5,500 Jacobites) he was routed by George II’s
son, the Duke of Cumberland. The Battle ofCulloden was a bloody encounter now retold in
the Culloden visitor centre and on battlefield
tours. Subsequent government savagery would
smash clan culture.
With a price of £30,000 on his head,
Charles fled through the Highlands and
Hebrides, via Benbecula and South Uist.
Despite being in mortal danger, he enjoyed
an extraordinary, three-week interlude
hunting, shooting and drinking with clan chiefs
hidden away in Glen Corodale. History then
morphed into legend after Flora MacDonald
helped him escape “over the sea to Skye” by
disguising him as her Irish maid, “Betty Burke”
(Charles insisted on wearing his breeches
beneath his quilted petticoat).
Charles left Scotland on a ship bound for
France on 20 September 1746 – the Prince’s
Cairn marks the traditional departure point
at Loch nan Uamh, West Highlands. He was
still only 26 and would spend the next four
decades until his death in 1788 roaming
mainland Europe; a romantic hero to many but
an awkward embarrassment to the French king
and others. “What can a bird do that has not
found a right nest?” Charles remarked. “It will
always wander and never pitch on a branch.”
In 1750 Charles made a short, secret trip to
London to discuss a possible coup with English
Jacobites but it fizzled out, and back abroad
he sank into a life of disappointment and
dissipation. He fathered a daughter, Charlotte,
by Clementina, who had followed him, and
he married Princess Louise of Stolberg-Gedern,
but both relationships ended in sordid tales of
his cruelty. After his father’s death in 1766,
he styled himself King Charles III but Europe’s
rulers ignored the claim.
In later life, solaced only by reconciliation
with his daughter Charlotte, Charles regretted
he had not perished at Culloden: the effective
end of the Jacobite dream and the beginning
of the soulful legend of the Bonnie Prince that
outlived the tragic truth. nAbove: Glenfinnan
Monument at Loch
Shiel Top right:
Flora MacDonaldThe final showdown
laid bare Charles’
failing grip... TheBattle of Culloden was
a bloody encounter