When Jacobite enthusiast Michael Nevin successfully bid for a handwritten letter and memorandum by Bonnie Prince Charlie at an auction, little did he realise he had come into possession of material that would change our view of history. Written in France following his defeat at Culloden in 1746 and addressed to Louis XV, the story that emerges from these documents is more complex than that suggested by conventional histories of the time. In addition to revealing the prince as a far more charismatic and courageous figure than that portrayed in popular fiction, they show that, far from abandoning Scotland after Culloden, he was committed to return and did not finally give up his dream of Stuart resoration until the failure of the Elibank Plot.
In this book, Michael Nevin tells the story of the Rising of 1745–46, its genesis and consequences. It looks at the motivations of the leading players, examines crucial but neglected battles of the Jacobite wars and sheds new light on the mystery of what led to Bonnie Prince’s Charlie’s psychological disintegration after 1752.
