Edward had on his side, as a matter of course, all Scottish Roman Catholics, and nearly as a matter of course the bulk of the Scottish Episcopalians. To a large portion of the gallant highlanders, whose forefathers had detested Charles's ancestors as the types of order, the heir of the Stuarts now appeared in the novel and attractive guise of the champion of disorder. But the Protestant sober commercial lowlander, so important an element in the nation, could be influenced in favour of the papist feudal house only by his hatred of the union which had touched to the quick the patriotism of a nation than which none is more patriotic. In this sense the union operated unfavourably for the Government. But on the other hand, if at this crisis Scotland had remained a separate kingdom, and Charles Edward could have summoned to Edinburgh a convention however informal which should have proclaimed the independence of Scotland under the heir of the Bruce, then had perhaps (to speak for one moment with the tongues of a Scotch Jacobite) "From Fate's dark book a leaf been torn," But during the space of nearly forty years which had elapsed since the union, the notion of summoning a Scotch Parliament had become obsolete, and the forms of doing it forgotten, and the traditions leaves ber 31; Derby, De cember 4. retreat De of its power had passed to the Parliament of Great Britain. Charles Edward, too, was burning to strike at his foe in the English capital. On the last day of October 1745 he left Holyrood on his Charles march to England. On the 4th of December he Edinburgh, entered Derby, destined to be the farthest point 1745, Octoof his romantic expedition. On the 6th of Decem- enters ber, sorely against his own inclination, he began his retreat northwards. Historians generally Begins his appear to regard the retreat from Derby as a cember 6. mistake, whilst military critics have pronounced it to have been imperatively required by strategic considerations. Whether or not Charles Edward had failed to take his tide at the flood, certainly the after "voyage of his life" was "bound in shallows and in miseries." On the 16th of April Battle of Culloden, 1746 the sun of the House of Stuart set for ever 1746, on the plain of Culloden. It set indeed, but April 16. amid a splendour of heroism and fidelity not unbefitting the eclipse of "A line so long beloved and feared." The cause of the parliamentary dynasty of the Guelphs, which has stood the searching test of success, was that sober but all important one of "the greatest happiness for the greatest number." The cause of the Stuarts, preserved by failure from the chance of showing a worse aspect, and lit up by the last gorgeous rays of feudalism, has always Charles's escape. Death of James Edward, 1765. Charles marries Stohlberg, Death of been and will always remain the delight of ro mance. "Victrix causa diis placuit sed victa" poetis. Charles Edward was not fortunate enough to fall on the field of Culloden. After a long series of adventures, rivalling those of his great uncle Charles II., after the battle of Worcester, he escaped to the continent, to pass the rest of his life in that "hope deferred" that "maketh the heart sick." In 1765 his father died, and Charles became titular King of England, France, Scotland, and Ireland. In 1772 he married the Princess Louise of Stohlberg, but had no child by her. Louisa of He died on the 31st (or as some say the 30th) 1772. of January 1788, that memorable year in which, Charles, a century after the English revolution was comchildless, pleted, the French one began. The contrast January 31 between the two revolutions may suggest the reflection that there are some debts which it is not prudent to let run on at compound interest. Charles Edward's only brother, Henry, the titular Duke of York, had, with the approval of their cardinal, father, but to the great annoyance of Charles Edward, taken orders in the Church of Rome about a year after the cause of his family had received its death blow at Culloden. He was Assumes admitted into the sacred college in July 1747, the kingly title on his and took the title of Cardinal of York. On his brother's brother's death he assumed indeed the kingly 1788, or 30. Henry Stuart becomes a 1747, July. death. fortunes of Venice, title, but showed that he had no expectation of regaining the throne of his ancestors by causing medals to be struck which bore on one side the title he claimed, "Henricus. IX. Angliæ Rex," and on the other, the inscription "Gratiâ Dei sed non voluntate hominum." The evil fortune that The misdogged his race overtook him in the decline of his closing life. He lived to see his kinsman, the King of years. France, deprived of his throne and life by a revolution more terrible than that which had rendered his own family exiles. In 1796 he stripped himself of wealth to enable the Pope to satisfy the rapacious demands of Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1798 he was driven by French Driven to revolutionary banditti from his bishopric of 1798. Frascati to Venice, and was reduced to extreme poverty. At this crisis, his kinsman and successful Assisted by rival, George III., stepped in, and offered with George III. much delicacy assistance which was accepted with a corresponding frankness. The cardinal, in gratitude for the kindness thus shown to him, bequeathed to George III. that collection of Stuart papers whose contents form the best justification for the exclusion of the cardinal's family from the British throne. Prince Henry, His death, last descendant of the male stock of James I., died 1807. in 1807. It is pleasant to reflect that, when the long line of the Stuart princes ended, it did so in the person of this high-bred amiable and estimable gentleman. I have thought it advisable to conclude the story of the descendants of James II. after mentioning the last battle which was fought for them in Great Britain, and now reMarriage turn to the history of the royal family. of Frederic, 1736, April 27. In April Prince of 1736 Frederic, Prince of Wales, married Augusta, Wales, with daughter of Frederick, Duke of Saxe Gotha, one Augusta of Saxe Gotha, of those numerous Saxon duchies in Thuringia, whose princes are descended from the elder or Ernestine branch of the dukes of Saxony, through John the Steadfast, that patron of Luther and great champion of the Reformation whom Charles V. treacherously and ungratefully deprived of the electoral dominions of Saxony. The representation of the dukes of Saxe Gotha afterwards devolved upon their kinsmen of the House of Saxe Cobourg, which was destined to be connected with the royal family of Great Britain by two most important marriages, of which the latter has fulfilled the hopes which were raised by the former, only to be cruelly disappointed by the stroke of death. The first born child of Frederic and Augusta, George III., afterwards George III., was born in 1737, on the 24th of May. This mention of May as George the style of III.'s natal month may startle some Etonians who the year in have been accustomed to regard the 4th of June 1752, made the 4th of as the undoubted birthday of the king to whose fostering care their celebrated college owes so much. In fact, Prince George's birth took place Birth of 1737, May 24. Change of June his birthday. |