Bonnie Prince Charlie: Charles Edward Stuart (Pimlico) (30 page)

This consciousness of being in a permanent minority on his own council was a source of great irritation to Charles Edward. It seemed like the Palazzo Muti all over again, with Lord George playing his father. Here was revealed one of James’s most fatal legacies. If he had inculcated the virtues of collegiate decision-making into the prince, he would have prepared him for the ordeal by council in Edinburgh. But James’s own natural autocratic bent (in reality a mulishness born of insecurity) had been spectacularly displayed in the wrangles with his wife. This, plus an unconscious resentment and sense of competition with his son, had led him to preach the virtues of ‘he who is not with me is against me’. Elcho and others frequently accused the prince of autocratic behaviour on the council.
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They could not understand the frustration of the young man who, at last out of the orbit of his father’s constraints, found in Lord George
merely
another stern taskmaster, for ever opposing notions of ‘duty’ to the prince’s will. To Charles Lord George was another James.
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There were times when Murray seemed to see glimpses of the truth, occasions when he would play courtier and humour the prince. But always that cold, aloof, haughty temperament supervened. Lord George’s patience would snap and his own overheated personality would take over.
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The uneasy atmosphere on the council was made worse by the prince’s obvious distaste for anyone who disagreed with him publicly. He showed some political skill by forcing the opposition to declare itself. He made a practice of saying what he favoured before asking the opinion of the others in turn, thus flushing out contrary views and forcing his critics to go public.
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In his clashes with Lord George Murray the prince was secretly encouraged by Murray of Broughton, who seems to have harboured the ambition of becoming Fleury to Charles Edward’s Louis XV – a prime minister in all but name. The evil genius of the Jacobite council, Murray of Broughton did most of his Machiavellian work behind Lord George’s back, insinuating to the prince that his namesake was a traitor and had joined the Jacobite army with the sole purpose of betraying it when the right occasion presented itself.
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These absurd accusations fell on fertile soil.

Lord George heard of the crazed accusations made against him by the other Murray, by O’Sullivan, by the drunken Sir John MacDonald. As a man who had been ‘out’ in the ’15 and the ’19 and was now risking life and property a third time for the Stuarts, Lord George treated the whispering campaign against him with the contempt it deserved.
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But his lofty disdain served only to infuriate the prince further. He became convinced that Lord George’s chief goal in life was to dictate to him and to humiliate him.

A divided council was the last thing the Jacobites needed, for even during the period of ‘phoney war’ in October 1745, they confronted serious problems. The most pressing was what to do about the castle garrison. On its return from the victory over Cope, the Jacobite army marched into Edinburgh and was billeted in the city and its suburbs. The role of Provost Marshal was given to Lochiel. He placed his Camerons on guard in the Cornmarket to prevent any sally from the castle. This meant a permanent bivouac in the Parliament House.
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Having sealed off the castle, the Jacobites next tried to starve out the garrison. But General Preston, commanding the castle, was one of those fire-eating octogenarians that earlier eras seemed to throw up. As soon as Charles Edward threw a ring of steel around the
castle
, Preston issued a threat that he would reduce the city to rubble with his big guns if the blockade was not lifted.
⁵⁵

Charles Edward mocked Preston’s pretensions. Surely he could not be serious when he claimed to have only six weeks’ provisions in the castle? Was this the treatment the Elector of Hanover meted out to his soldiers: ‘if he looked upon you as his subjects, he would never exact from you what he knows it is not in your power to do.’
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Sensing a bluff, the prince ended his message to Preston with a threat of severe reprisals once he was restored if any damage was done to the city.

To general incredulity Preston thereupon opened fire. The cannonade did a lot of damage and bade fair to do more. Some people were killed in the main street.
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Panic spread through the city as the big guns blew away the sides of houses. Angered by this breach of all accepted rules of warfare, Charles Edward next threatened the confiscation of the estates of all officers in the castle if they did not desist. Preston replied with another salvo.
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The crisis with the castle escalated. On 3 October a party of General Guest’s men climbed down on ropes for a commando raid and killed a Highlander.
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Next day there was another cannonade followed by a further sortie in which some civilians were killed.
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Preston sent an insolent message that if a single fence at his Fife house ‘Valleyfield’ was harmed, Wemyss castle (Elcho’s seat) would be bombarded from the sea by an 80 gun man o’ war.
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On the 5th there was a further fusillade from the castle.
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The prince faced a dilemma. He could climb down in face of this barbarity and lose face. Or, in the interests of credibility, he could sacrifice further innocent lives to the castle cannon. Charles did not agonise over the choice. He sent word to the castle that the blockade would be lifted provided there was no more shelling of the city. Access to the castle for supply waggons would be by special pass.

In reply, Preston still reserved his right to open fire whenever he saw clansmen in the streets.
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And even after the road blocks to the castle were removed, he continued intermittent shelling. If Charles Edward had only known it, he was getting his first exposure to the Cumberland touch. There were to be many more Prestons: ‘Hangman Hawley’, Captains Scott and Fergusson, the ‘Butcher’ himself. The Stuart prince consistently behaved to his enemies in a humane and courteous way. His chivalry was almost never reciprocated. The Hanoverian officers in general betrayed a frightening, sickening callousness in pursuit of their aims.
⁶⁴
They
did not believe in sparing civilians, pardoning deserters, conniving at insolent townsfolk or
treating
enemy wounded. They regarded the Scots in general as an inferior race, and the Highlanders in particular as benighted savages. For them the ’45 was always a grim and bloody war to the death. When the moral balance sheet of the rising is drawn up, the prince’s civilised and humane behaviour should always be remembered.

This remarkable quality of compassion and mercy manifested itself in two other ways during the prince’s sojourn in Edinburgh. It was put to him that he ought to send an envoy to London to try to negotiate a cartel for prisoners of war. The advantages of such an arrangement for the Jacobites would be considerable. Their men would know that if taken captive they would be treated as prisoners of war, not traitors. Recruitment would burgeon, for the main deterrent to joining Jacobite ranks would have been removed.
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The prince listened intently. What if the Whigs refused to deal with ‘traitors’, as was very likely? In that case, said his advisers, it should be made clear that the Jacobites would give no quarter, take no prisoners. The prince refused outright. He had no intention either of committing such barbarity or even of threatening it. If London called his bluff, he would either lose credibility or be reduced to becoming a cold-blooded murderer. Neither option was acceptable.

The prince’s merciful nature was soon revealed in another context. On 9 October Strickland presided over a court-martial at Holyrood on six deserters from Lochiel’s regiment. Condemned to die by firing squad at dawn on the 10th, they were reprieved and given a free pardon by the prince in consideration of their behaviour at Prestonpans. The only stipulation he made was that they should not desert again.
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Yet another instance in which the prince sacrificed his own best interests to his merciful nature occurred during the raid on Duncan Forbes’s home by the Frasers on the night of 15–16 October.
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Although the Frasers were beaten off, their chief Lord Lovat claimed that the raid would have succeeded if only Charles Edward’s warrant contained the words ‘dead or alive’. Again, such ruthlessness was foreign to the prince. And the seizure of Forbes at this moment could have had important consequences, as it would have prevented Norman Macleod from joining with the northern clans.
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Compassion was not the only positive quality in evidence during this brief period of success in the prince’s life. He displayed a pleasing fondness for humour too. An English Whig in Edinburgh was asked if he wished to kiss the prince’s hand and replied that he would rather kiss the Pope’s toe. The prince was hugely taken with this, sought the man out and joshed him about the Pope’s toe. The Whig
became
a reluctant admirer and penned a useful portrait of Charles Edward at this time:

He is handsome, he is manly, sedate and quick, he has a good deal of cheerfulness but not many words, he likes better to hear others talk than … to engross the conversation to himself, he cares not for eating above once a day or for more than three hours sleep of a night. He does all his business and writes his letters while others are asleep. He is capable of any fatigue and is the first to wade through a river and get wet sho’ed all the day.
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While Charles Edward won golden opinions for his compassion, humanity and moderation, his life in Edinburgh settled into a busy and active routine. Preparations were made for an invasion of England on the assumption that French aid was on its way. Messengers were sent again to summon the Skye chiefs. The third and lesser chieftain, Mackinnon of Mackinnon, heeded the call. Sir Alexander MacDonald confessed himself sorely tempted after Prestonpans, but an opportune letter from Duncan Forbes kept him in the Hanoverian fold.
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In general, the response from the clans who had earlier held aloof was disappointing. The rich dividends expected from Cope’s defeat did not materialise. Lovat was still playing a double game. Kinlochmoidart and Barisdale were therefore sent north with urgent appeals to him from the prince.
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Along with the shortage of men went scarcity of money. Hay of Restalrig was sent to Glasgow to enforce the previous demand for £15,000.
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Everywhere Jacobite agents were scattered in search of funds: loans, exactions, excise, the land tax.
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Lord Ogilvy, who came in with a regiment of Lowlanders in early October, was sent to collect the excise in Angus.
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But the great unsung hero of October 1745 was certainly the twenty-one-year-old Lord Lewis Gordon. His importance came from his senior position in the Gordon family. It was thought possible that he could act as a counterweight to the duke of Gordon and raise the feudal levies.
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Seeing clearly the key role that Lord Lewis could play in the north-east, Charles Edward appointed him lord-lieutenant of Aberdeen and Banffshire.
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His orders were to levy the public monies, borrow other funds and raise a second Jacobite army in the north.
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The first army, meanwhile, was not proving easy to administer. It was essential that enemy spies be prevented from discovering the true numbers in the Jacobite force. It was therefore necessary to keep the army constantly on the move, from billet to bivouac. The prince
could
never review it as a whole, only in discrete portions.
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A few days after the occupation of Edinburgh, all Jacobite troops, except the guards on the castle and at Holyrood palace, were removed to a camp at Duddingston, with outposts in some of the villages. Every day the prince went out to review and encourage the clansmen. Occasionally he spent a night among them.
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In the middle of October, because of the cold, the camp at Duddingston was wound up, the tents struck, and the men billeted in Musselburgh and other villages around Edinburgh.
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In this way the prince and Lochiel, another tireless worker, kept the men’s morale high.
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More importantly, they successfully camouflaged their small numbers, with the result that Marshal Wade, the new Hanoverian Commander in Chief, did not dare to enter Scotland and the Jacobites had ample time in which to build up their strength.
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The prince’s sojourn at Edinburgh in October was in many ways the high point of his life. These were the great days, the ones he looked back on ever afterwards through a nostalgic mist. A typical day would see a council at Holyrood at 10 a.m., followed by a public dinner with his officers, where the crowds would be encouraged to come and view him. In the afternoon, escorted by Elcho’s blue-coated Lifeguards, he would ride out to review his army, again watched by crowds. Then it was back to receive his hordes of female admirers before a public supper, followed by a ball or musical soirée.
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The great ladies of Edinburgh were in thrall to him, to a woman, it seemed. All Jacobite sources, even those hostile to Charles Edward (such as Elcho’s) are in agreement on this. Lest it be thought this is simply an effect of Stuart hagiography, here is the prince’s most formidable enemy, Duncan Forbes, on the subject: ‘All the fine ladies, if you will except one or two, became passionately fond of the young adventurer and used all their arts and industry for him in the most intemperate manner.’
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But the more the women of Edinburgh set their caps at him, the more the prince remained aloof. He consented to have the most sumptuous dances put on, but declined to dance himself. When remonstrated with, he replied: ‘I have now another air to dance, and until that be finished, I’ll dance no other.’
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His was the posture of chaste Galahad pursuing the Holy Grail. His decision to sublimate all his energies in order to attain his goal was sometimes misinterpreted. The well-known incident when he stroked the beard of one of his Highland guards, saying: ‘These are the beautiful girls I must court now,’
⁸⁶
has sometimes been interpreted as evidence of latent or repressed homosexuality. All conquerors are supposed to be rampant
womanisers
, but this proposition is simple-minded. And we shall see later, there was a clear-cut correlation in the prince’s mind between sexual abstinence and success (and the reverse). He is only one of dozens of historical figures who have taken the same view. Nevertheless, the combination of regal authority, magical charisma and unavailability – making him a kind of priest-king – was an infallible formula for attracting an ardent female following.