CHARLES EDWARD (CHARLES EDWARD LOUIS PHILIP CASIMIR STUART) 72o-1788), English prince, called the "Young Pretender" and also the "Young Chevalier," was born at Rome on Dec. 31, 172o. He was the grandson of King James II. of England and elder son of James, the "Old Pretender," by whom (as James III.) he was created at his birth prince of Wales, the title he bore among the English Jacobites during his father's lifetime. The young prince was educated at his father's miniature court in Rome, with James Murray, Jacobite earl of Dunbar, for his governor, and under various tutors, amongst whom were the learned Chev alier Ramsay, Sir Thomas Sheridan and the abbe Legoux. He learned the English, French and Italian languages, but his extant letters in English are singularly ill-spelt and illiterate. In 1734 he accompanied his cousin, the duke of Liria, afterwards duke of Berwick, on his expedition in aid of Don Carlos, and the boy of 13 shared with credit the dangers of the successful siege of Gaeta.
The Old Pretender calculated upon foreign aid in his attempts to restore the monarchy of the Stuarts; and the idea of rebellion unassisted by invasion or by support of any kind from abroad, was Charles Edward's own. Jacobite hopes mainly rested in France, and the warm sympathy which Cardinal Tencin, who had suc ceeded Fleury as French minister, felt for the Old Pretender re sulted in a definite scheme for an invasion of England to be timed simultaneously with a prearranged Scottish rebellion. Charles was secretly despatched to Paris in January, A squadron under Admiral Roquefeuil sailed (Feb. 6) from Brest. Transports for 7 ,000 troops, to be led by Marshal Saxe, accompanied by the young prince, were in readiness to set sail for England. Meanwhile a strong English fleet appeared in the Downs, and a series of storms provided a probably welcome excuse to the French government for the cancellation of Marshal Saxe's orders. Louis declined to surrender Charles, but no official hospitality was offered him, and he lived in retirement. Charles Edward had made at Rome the acquaintance of Lord Elcho and of John Murray of Broughton; Murray visited him in Paris, and was told that he would come to Scotland in the summer of 1i45, even though he came alone. His friends in Scotland saw no chance of success, and messengers, who do not seem to have reached him, were sent expressly to in form him. On July 13, 1745, he sailed from Nantes for Scotland on board the small brig "La Doutelle," which was accompanied by a war frigate, the "Elisabeth," provided by an Irishman at Dunkirk and laden with arms and ammunition. The latter fell in ( July 20) with an English man-of-war, the "Lion," and had to return to France ; Charles escaped during the engagement, and arrived on Aug. 3 off Erisca, a little island of the Hebrides. Re ceiving, however, but a cool reception from Macdonald of Bois dale, he set sail again and arrived at the Bay of Loch-na-nuagh on the west coast of Inverness-shire.
The Macdonalds of Clanranald and Kinloch Moidart, along with other chieftains, attempted in vain to dissuade him from the rash ness of an unaided rising, but Lochiel and other chieftains, although they had sought to dissuade Charles from coming at all, now called out the clans. On Aug. 19, in the valley of Glenfinnan, the standard of James III. and VIII. was raised. Within a week about 2,000 men, mainly from the Macdonald clan, had joined him. Sir John Cope left Stirling for Inverness on Aug. 20 with 25 com panies of foot, leaving the road to the south open to Charles. In the beginning of September the Jacobite army, reinforced by some accessions, notably by Lord George Murray, entered Perth. Crossing the Forth unopposed at the Fords of Frew and passing through Stirling and Linlithgow, he arrived within a few miles of Edinburgh, and on Sept. 16 a body of his skirmishers defeated the dragoons of Colonel Gardiner in what was known as the "Canter of Coltbrig." A few of Cameron's Highlanders having on the fol lowing morning, by a happy ruse, forced their way through the Canongate, Charles entered the city at noon. On the r8th he pub licly proclaimed James VIII. of Scotland at the Market Cross and occupied Holyrood.
Cope had by this time brought his disappointed forces by sea to Dunbar. On the loth Charles met and defeated him at Preston pans, and returned to prosecute the siege of Edinburgh Castle, which, however, he raised on Gen. Guest's threatening to lay the city in ruins. He still hoped for French assistance definitely promised on Oct. 24 by secret treaty. In the beginning of Novem ber Charles left Edinburgh to invade England. He was at the head of at least 5,00o men ; but the ranks were gradually thinned by the desertion of Highlanders, whose tradition had led them to consider war merely as a raid. Having passed through Kelso, on Nov. 9 he laid siege to Carlisle which capitulated in a week. Manchester provided the prince with recruits under Francis Towneley. On Dec. 4 he had reached Derby. Charles's officers were under no illusions about the strength of English resistance, but hoped that the advance might lead to intervention from France. When they found that the English counties did not rise they advised retreat. Two armies under English leadership were now in the field against Charles, one under Marshal Wade, whom he had evaded by enter ing England by the west, and the other under William, duke of Cumberland, who had returned from the Continent. On Dec. 6 Charles began his retreat northward. Closely pursued by Cumber land, he marched by way of Carlisle across the border, and at last stopped to invest Stirling Castle. At Falkirk, on Jan. 17, 1746, he defeated Gen. Hawley, who had marched from Edinburgh to inter cept his retreat. The Jacobite army had been strengthened by Gordons, Mackintoshes and others, but the accessions were coun ter-balanced by desertions. A fortnight later, however, Charles raised the siege of Stirling, and after a weary march rested his troops at Inverness. Having taken Forts George and Augustus, and after varying success against the supporters of the government in the north, he at last prepared to face the duke of Cumberland, who had passed the early spring at Aberdeen. On April 8 the duke marched thence to meet Charles, whose little army, exhausted with a futile night march, half-starving, and broken by desertion, was completely worsted at Culloden on April 16, 1746.
This decisive defeat sealed the fate of Charles Edward and the house of Stuart. Hunted hither and thither Charles, upon whose head a reward of £30,000 had a year before been set, was for over five months relentlessly pursued by the troops and spies of the government. Disguised in female attire and aided by a passport obtained by the devoted Flora MacDonald, he passed through Skye, and towards the end of July took refuge in the cave of Coiraghoth in the Braes of Glenmoriston. In August he joined Lochiel and Cluny Macpherson, with whom he remained in hiding until the arrival of two French ships at Loch-na-nuagh, enabled him to sail for France. He reached Roscoff, near Morlaix, on Sept. 29, 17 46. He remained in France for two years, but the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle entailed his expulsion from France. After his brother Henry's acceptance of a cardinal's hat in July 1747, he broke off communication with his father in Rome (who had ap proved the step), nor did he ever see him again. The enmity of the British government to Charles Edward made peace with France an impossibility so long as she continued to harbour the young prince. A condition of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, con cluded in October 1748, was that every member of the house of Stuart should be expelled from the French dominions. Charles de clared, he would not be bound by its provisions. But his indignation and persistent refusal to leave France were met at last with force ; he was apprehended, imprisoned for a week at Vincennes, and on Dec. 17 conducted to the French border. He lingered at Avignon; but Pope Benedict XIV., alarmed by the threat of a bombardment of Civita Vecchia, advised the prince to withdraw. Charles quietly disappeared. For years Europe watched for him in vain. It is now established, almost with certainty, that he returned to the neigh bourhood of Paris. In 1750 and again, it is thought, in 1754, he was in London, hatching futile plots and risking his safety for his hopeless cause, and even abjuring the Roman Catholic faith in order to further his political interests.
During the next ten years of his life Charles Edward's illicit connection with Miss Clementina Walkinshaw (d. 5802), whom he had first met at Bannockburn House while conducting the siege of Stirling, his imperious fretful temper, his drunken habits and debauched life, could no longer be concealed. He wandered over Europe in disguise, alienating his friends and crushing the hopes of his party ; and in 1766, on returning to Rome at the death of his father, he was treated by Pope Clement XIII. with coldness, and his title as heir to the British throne was openly repudiated by all the great Catholic powers. It was probably through the influence of the French court, still intriguing against England, that the mar riage between Charles (now self-styled count of Albany) and Princess Louise of Stolberg was arranged in 1772. The union proved childless and unhappy, and in 1780 the countess fled for refuge from her husband's drunken violence to a convent in Flor ence. Later, the countess of Albany (q.v.) threw herself on the protection of her brother-in-law Henry, Cardinal York, at Rome, and a formal separation was arranged in 1784. Charles, lonely, ill, and evidently near death, now summoned to Florence his natural daughter, Charlotte Stuart, the child of Clementina Walk inshaw, born at Liege in October 1753 and hitherto neglected by the prince. Charlotte Stuart, who was declared legitimate and created duchess of Albany, tended her father for the remaining years of his life. She contrived to reconcile the two Stuart brothers, so that in 1785 Charles returned to Rome, where he died in the old Palazzo Muti on Jan. 3o, 1788. He was buried in his brother's cathedral church at Frascati, but in 1807 his remains were removed to the Grotte Vaticane of St. Peter's. His daughter Charlotte died unmarried at Bologna in November, 1789.