Charlotte Stuart by Hugh Hamilton Scottish National Portrait Gallery

Charlotte Stuart, styled Duchess of Albany,^[1] (October 1753–November 17, 1789) was the illegitimate daughter of the Jacobite pretender Prince Charles Edward Stuart ('Bonnie Prince Charlie'), his only known child to survive infancy. Scottish National Portrait Gallery The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is an art gallery on Queen Street, Edinburgh, Scotland. ... 1753 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 17 November is also the name of a Marxist group in Greece, coinciding with the anniversary of the Athens Polytechnic uprising. ... 1789 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Charles Edward Stuart, Bonnie Prince Charlie, wearing the Jacobite blue bonnet Jacobitism was (and, to a very limited extent, remains) the political movement dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England and Scotland. ... A Pretender is a claimant to an abolished throne or to a throne already occupied by somebody else. ... Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Silvester Maria Stuart (December 31, 1720 – January 31, 1788), was the exiled claimant to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and was commonly known as Bonnie Prince Charlie. ...

Life

Stuart was born on October 29, 1753 at Liège to Charles and his mistress Clementina Walkinshaw. Clementina was the daughter of a Jacobite family from Lanarkshire and had met the Prince in Glasgow during the Jacobite rising of 1745. In 1752, this relationship was rekindled when she joined him in exile in the Low Countries, and became his mistress for the next eight years. The next year Charlotte, their only child, was born. October 29 is the 302nd day of the year (303rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1753 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Liège (Dutch: Luik, German: Lüttich; before 1946, the citys name was written Liége, with the acute accent) is a major city located in the Belgian province of Liège, of which it is the capital. ... Clementina Walkinshaw (1720 - 1802) was the mistress of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, She was of a Jacobite family of Lanarkshire. ... Lanarkshire (Siorrachd Lannraig in Gaelic) is a traditional county of Scotland. ... For other uses, see Glasgow (disambiguation). ... The Jacobite Risings were a series of uprisings, rebellions, and wars in the British Isles occurring between 1688 and 1746. ... // Events May 11 - War of Austrian Succession: Battle of Fontenoy - At Fontenoy, French forces defeat an Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverian army including the Black Watch June 4 – Frederick the Great destroys Austrian army at Hohenfriedberg August 19 - Beginning of the 45 Jacobite Rising at Glenfinnan September 12 - Francis I is elected... 1752 was a leap year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... The Low Countries, the historical region of de Nederlanden, are the countries (see Country) on low-lying land around the delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse (Maas) rivers. ...

The relationship was disastrous. Charles was already a disillusioned, angry alcoholic when they began living together. Often away from home, he seldom referred to his daughter, and when he did, it was as "ye cheild".^[2] In July 1760, a badly beaten Clementina fled to Paris with Charlotte and hid in the convent of the Nuns of the Visitation. An enraged Charles circulated descriptions of them both, but to no avail. However, Charles' father, James Stuart ('the Old Pretender'), did know of their location, having assisted in their flight.^[3] For the next 12 years, they continued to live in various French convents, supported by a pension of 10,000 livres granted by James Stuart. Charles himself never forgave Clemintina for depriving him of "ye cheild", and stubbornly refused to pay anything for their support. In 1766 James died, but Charles still refused to make any provision, forcing Clementina, now styling herself "Countess Alberstroff", to appeal to his brother Cardinal Henry Stuart. Henry gave them an allowance of 5,000 livres — and extracted a statement from her that she had never been married to Charles — this lower amount forced them to find cheaper lodgings in the convent of Notre Dame at Meaux-en-Brie. 1760 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... James Francis Edward Stuart, the Old Pretender Prince James Francis Edward Stuart or Stewart (June 10, 1688 – January 1, 1766) was a claimant of the thrones of Scotland and England (September 16, 1701 – January 1, 1766) and is commonly referred to as The Old Pretender. ... 1766 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Henry Benedict Cardinal Stuart (March 11, 1725 – July 13, 1807) was the fourth and last Jacobite to publicly claim the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland. ...

After the Prince married Princess Louise of Stolberg-Gedern in 1772, Clementina, now in penury, again pressed Charles to provide support, and legitimise Charlotte. In April 1772, Charlotte herself wrote a touching, yet pleading, letter to "mon Augusta Papa" via Principal Gordon of the Scots College in Rome. Charles offered to bring Charlotte to Rome (he was now resident in the Palazzo Muti), but only on condition she would abandon her mother, which she refused to do. Towards the end of 1772, Clementina and Charlotte unexpectedly arrived in Rome to press their cause in person. (The trip pushed Clementina further into debt.) However, the Prince reacted angrily, refusing to see them, forcing their helpless return to France. Three years later, Charlotte, now in her twenty second year and already in poor health, decided her only option was to marry as soon as possible. Charles, however, refused his permission, and she was left awaiting his royal pleasure.^[4] Princess Louise Maximilienne Caroline Emmanuele of Stolberg-Gedern (September 20, 1752 - January 29, 1824) was the wife of the Jacobite claimant to the English and Scottish thrones Charles Edward Stuart. ... Scotch College is the name of several schools affiliated with either the Uniting Church or Presbyterian Church in Australia: Scotch College, Adelaide in Torrens Park and Mitcham, South Australia Scotch College, Melbourne in Hawthorn, Victoria Scotch College, Perth in Swanbourne, Western Australia Scotch College, Launceston in Launceston, Tasmania amalgamated with...

Unable to marry, Charlotte, unbeknown to Charles, became the mistress of Ferdinand Maximilien Mériadec de Rohan, Archbishop of Bordeaux and Cambrai. By him, she had three children: two daughters, Aglaë and Marie Victoire, and finally a son Charles Edward. Her children were kept secret, and remained largely unknown until the twentieth century. When Charlotte eventually left France for Florence, she entrusted the children — and she was only just recovering from her son's birth^[5] — into the care of her mother, and it appears that few, and certainly not her father, knew of their existence. The archdiocese of Bordeaux comprises the entire départment of the Gironde and was established conformably to the Concordat of 1802 by combining the ancient Diocese of Bordeaux (diminished by the cession of Born to the Bishopric of Aire) with the greater part of the suppressed Diocese of Bazas. ...

Reconciliation

Charlotte Stuart

Only after his childless marriage to Louise was over, and Charles had fallen seriously ill, did Charles take an interest in Charlotte. She was now thirty, and she had not seen her father since she was seven. On March 23, 1783, he altered his will to make her his heir and signed an act of legitimisation. In July 1784, having granted Louise a legal separation, he summoned Charlotte to Florence, where he was now resident, and installed her in the Palazzo Guadagni as Duchess of Albany, styling her "Her Royal Highness" — and in November appointing her to the Order of the Thistle. The legitimisation made it easier for Charlotte to inherit Charles' estate. Nevertheless, being illegitimate at birth, Charlotte still had no right of succession to the Stuart claims to the British throne. However, by this stage the Jacobite pretensions were farcical anyway. European rulers had long since ceased to take Charles seriously, and even the Pope refused to recognise his royal title. He was reduced to styling himself the 'Count d'Albany'. March 23 is the 82nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (83rd in leap years). ... 1783 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Duke of Albany is a peerage title that has occasionally been bestowed on the youngers sons in the Scottish and later the British Royal Family, particularly in the Houses of Stuart and Hanover. ... Royal Highness (abbreviation HRH) is a style His Royal Highness or Her Royal Highness. ... James VII ordained the modern Order. ... The British Monarchy is a shared monarchy. ... The current Pope is Benedict XVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger), who was elected at the age of 78 on 19 April 2005. ...

When Charlotte arrived to live with her father in October 1784, he was an ailing, senile alcoholic. She became his carer and companion, and did her best to make his miserable end more bearable. Charlotte sorely missed her mother (whom she vainly hoped Charles would allow to come to Rome) and her children; she also feared that Rohan would take another lover; all this is revealed in her dispirited letters home, as she awaited Charles' death. In December 1785, she accompanied her father back to Rome and remained with him there until his eventual death nearly three years later, in January 1788. Her sacrifice for him was considerable, she was torn between an evident affection for him, and the mother and three children left behind in Paris.^[6] Nickname: The Eternal City Motto: SPQR: Senatus PopulusQue Romanus Location of the city of Rome (yellow) within the Province of Rome (red) and region of Lazio (grey) Coordinates: Region Lazio Province Province of Rome Founded 21 April 753 BC  - Mayor Walter Veltroni Area    - City 1285 km²  (580 sq mi)  - Urban... 1788 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

Sadly Charlotte survived her father only twenty-two months, and never did see her children again. She died of liver cancer, age 36, on November 17 1789 at the Palazzo Vizzani Sanguinetti, now Palazzo Ranuzzi in Bologna. In her will, Charlotte left her mother a sum of 50,000 livres and an annuity of 15,000.^[7] However, it was two years before Cardinal Henry Stuart would release the money. Charlotte was buried in the Church of San Biagio, in the same neighbourhood where she died. When the church was pulled down by the French in 1797, Charlotte's remains were moved to the Oratorio della Santissima Trinità and then in 1961 to the nearby Chiesa della Santissima Trinità. 17 November is also the name of a Marxist group in Greece, coinciding with the anniversary of the Athens Polytechnic uprising. ... Bologna (IPA , from Latin Bononia, BulÃ¥ggna in the local dialect) is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy, in the Pianura Padana, between the Po River and the Apennines, exactly between the Reno River and the Sàvena River. ...

Descendents

Marie-Victoire, Princess de Rohan Charles's secret granddaughter

Clementina lived on, a miserable existence, in Switzerland till her death in 1802, and it was she that raised Charlotte's children. They were brought up in anonymity, their identities concealed by a variety of alias and ruses, not even being mentioned in Charlotte’s detailed will.^[8]

Aglae Charlotte (born 1780) and Marie Victoire (born 1782) appear to have been placed in the care of Thomas Coutts, the London banker, a distant relative of the Walkinshaws. They remained in anonymity and were most probably simply absorbed into English society.^[9] Her son, Charles Edward, born in Paris in 1784, followed a different path. Calling himself 'Count Roehenstart' (Rohan+Stuart),^[10] he travelled widely, visiting Germany Austria, India, America and the West Indies, before coming to England and Scotland. He told such tall tales of his origins and adventures that few believed his claims to royal descent.^[11] He died in Scotland in 1854 as the result of a coach accident near Stirling Castle, and was buried at Dunkeld Cathedral, where his grave can still be seen. He married twice, but had no issue.^[12] Thomas Coutts (September 7, 1735 - February 22, 1822), Anglo-Scottish banker was the founder of the banking house of Coutts & Co. ... Stirling Castle (southwest aspect) For ships named after the castle, see Stirling Castle (disambiguation) Stirling Castle is a castle in Stirling, one of the largest and most important, both historically and architecturally, in Scotland and indeed Western Europe. ... Dunkeld Cathedral Dunkeld Cathedral stands on the north bank of the River Tay in Dunkeld, Perthshire, Scotland. ...

Occasionally it has been suggested that Prince Charles married Clementina Walkinshaw, and thus that Charlotte was, in fact, legitimate and could legally claim to be her father's successor. However, there are no records to substantiate this claim, and indeed the sworn affidavit signed by Clementina on March 9, 1767 explicitly disavows the idea. Further, Charles' initial disavowal of Charlotte speaks against legitimacy. March 9 is the 68th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (69th in Leap years). ...

It is generally believed that Charlotte's daughters also died without issue. However, according to Peter Pininski,^[13] Charlotte's younger daughter, Marie Victoire, married Paul Anthony Louis Bertrand de Nikorowicz, a Polish nobleman. Their granddaughter, Julia de Nikorowicz, married Count Leonard Pininski and was Pininski's great-great-grandmother.

Notes and references