The Young Pretender
A visitor to the 18th-century Stuart court in exile in Rome, Italy, gave a glowing report of Charles Edward Stuart as tall, handsome and with the finest eyes ever seen. “But that which shines most in him… is the dignity that accompanies his every gesture; there is such an unspeakable majesty diffused through his whole mien.”
To this day the popular image prevails of “Bonnie Prince Charlie” as the dashing hero who sought to reclaim the Stuart Crown; “the lad that’s born to be king” who, immortalised in traditional Scottish folk song
Bonnie Prince Charlie was a lively, athletic yet headstrong young man convinced of his royal birthright
, escaped “over the sea” after his dreams were shattered at Culloden in 1746. But how did a half-Polish prince born in Rome who
