Few historic figures have been romanticized as much as Charles Edward Stuart, commonly known as “Bonnie Prince Charlie”. He led the last Jacobite rebellion against Britain’s Hanoverian Dynasty, lost, and got away through a dramatic escape that made him an icon to many. In real life, as seen below, Bonnie Prince Charlie wasn’t that Bonnie. In many ways, in fact, he was quite an unsavory figure.
The Real Life Bonnie Prince Charlie Wasn’t That Bonnie
As grandson of Britain’s last Catholic king, the exiled James II, Charles Edward Stuart (1720 – 1788) was the last serious Stuart Dynasty claimant to the British crown. Stuart supporters, known as Jacobites, frequently rebelled against Britain’s new ruling dynasty, the Hanoverians. The last such rebellion in 1745 – 1746, led by Charles himself as a young man in his mid-twenties, culminated in catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. His dramatic escape afterwards cemented Charlie as a romantic figure of heroic failure.
Thousands had eagerly risked and willingly gave their lives for Charles, but the Bonnie Prince probably deserved neither their admiration nor sacrifice. The real life Charles Edward Stuart, as opposed to the romanticized Bonnie Prince Charlie, was not a nice guy. Indeed, he was often a seedy and slimy character. Charles was known for his grace and charm as a youth, but that only masked many dark facets of his personality. Among other things, he liked to beat up women. Most notoriously, he often beat up his wife, Princess Louise of Stolberg-Gedern.
Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Woman Beater
Charles married Louise of Stolberg-Gedern when she was nineteen years old, and he was fifty one. Driven by an uncontrollable need to control her, controlling, he set up a system of alarm bells around Louise’s bed at night to alert him whenever she left the bed – which presumed would be in order to sneak off and see a lover. Charles beat her up so often, that she begged the pope for help. Louise was finally freed of his clutches when they separated after twelve years of marriage.
To complement his woman beating, Bonnie Prince Charlie was also an alcoholic. His love of the bottle got worse after his defeat at Culloden, and wrecked what was left of his career and prospects. It was right around that time that he seduced and a young and innocent girl, Marie Louise de la Tour d’Auvergne. He got her pregnant, then immediately broke her heart by callously ditching her for another mistress. As seen below, he went out of his way to rub it in the poor girl’s face.
Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Terrible Treatment of His Daughter
Bonnie Prince Charlie showed up at an opera with his new mistress, because he knew that his previous mistress Marie Louise, whom he had ditched after impregnating, would be there. Distraught, she left in tears. She gave birth to a son, who died two years later. Charles’ wife was not the only woman he beat up. Before, there had been his mistress Clementina Walkinshaw, who bore him a daughter, Charlotte, in 1753. Charles routinely beat up Clementina, until she fled with Charlotte in 1760.
For years, Clementina and Charlotte sheltered from Charles in convents, while he lived in palaces and refused to support them. When Charlotte grew up, Charles refused to let her marry. So she took up a secret lover: the Archbishop of Bordeaux, whom she bore three illegitimate children. Despite his mistreatment of Charlotte, Charles expected her loyalty. When he suffered a stroke, he summoned her to Italy to take care of him. She had to leave her children behind in France, and spent years taking care of her dying father. She died at age thirty six, shortly after Charles, without ever seeing her children again.
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Some Sources & Further Reading
McLynn, Frank – Charles Edward Stuart: A Tragedy in Many Acts (1988)
Royle, Trevor – Culloden: Scotland’s Last Battle and the Forging of the British Empire (2016)
