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Prince Charles Edward Stuart, also known as Bonnie Prince Charlie
or the ‘Young Pretender’, was the grandson of the Stuart King James
II of England, and a claimant to the throne. After James II, a
Catholic ruler, was deposed in favour of his Protestant daughter
and son-in-law, Prince Charles and his father, Prince James
were excluded from the line of succession.
However, Prince Charles, like his father before him, actively
participated in the Jacobite Movement to restore James II and his
heirs to the throne. He led the Jacobite Uprising of 1745, but
the rebellion was quashed by the Redcoats. After being defeated in
the Battle of Culloden in 1746, Prince Charles fled to
France.
The letter to Louis XV was written on November 15, 1746, six weeks
after Bonnie Prince Charlie was exiled from Great Britain. In it,
he gave his account of the Jacobite Uprising, and asked for help
with another campaign to defeat The King and put himself
on the throne. The Prince believed that the reason for his
defeat was not a lack of Scottish subjects who supported his cause,
but the absence of money and equipment to form a strong army.
The letter was an indication that Prince Charles had not yet
given up on his cause. But The King of France had just
defeated the British at Fontenoy, and did not agree to help.
With his refusal, the cause of the Jacobites was lost
forever.
King Louis XV gave the letter to his minister of war, Marquis
d’Argenson, in whose family it remained for over 200 years. The
letter was sold in 2002, and went under the hammer once again this
month, at Bonhams auction house in Edinburgh. It
fetched £25,000, more than double the initial estimate
of £12,000.
Photo credit: katybird
via photopin cc]]>
