Let's Pretend

Download Subtitles

Transcript

0:00:07 > 0:00:11In December of 1688, the British King James

0:00:11 > 0:00:14arrived in Paris at the Court of Louis XIV.

0:00:20 > 0:00:21He was a fugitive.

0:00:24 > 0:00:28James had been kicked off his throne by the Dutch usurper,

0:00:28 > 0:00:29William of Orange.

0:00:35 > 0:00:39Of his vast fortunes as King of England, Scotland and Ireland,

0:00:39 > 0:00:42James had managed to escape with just £23,000.

0:00:42 > 0:00:46His wife, Mary of Modena, had brought her jewels.

0:00:46 > 0:00:50Third and last from the wreckage, but far from least, they had managed

0:00:50 > 0:00:53to save their son and heir, little James Francis Edward.

0:00:53 > 0:00:58He was just six months old. He was the future.

0:00:58 > 0:01:02Louis XIV was generous to a fault.

0:01:02 > 0:01:07He gave them a home, his second best palace at Saint-Germain-en-Laye just outside Paris.

0:01:11 > 0:01:13It was anything but small.

0:01:13 > 0:01:17It was the opposite.

0:01:17 > 0:01:22A place in which elegance was magnified, stretched, extended

0:01:22 > 0:01:27to levels at which the mind of a mere mortal might easily freeze.

0:01:27 > 0:01:31It was a place in which illusions could sustain themselves.

0:01:31 > 0:01:36It was a place in which a man who had once been king could pretend that he still was.

0:02:21 > 0:02:25King James VII and II had lost his job.

0:02:25 > 0:02:29His redundancy had cost several other people their careers,

0:02:29 > 0:02:35men with their families, many of them Catholics like James himself.

0:02:37 > 0:02:42These Jacobites came to live in France to share his borrowed palace.

0:02:44 > 0:02:46He gave them tasks and titles.

0:02:46 > 0:02:50In his French court, he built a shadow government.

0:02:55 > 0:03:03The shadow court settled down to a rhythm of impoverished display, all paid for by Louis XIV.

0:03:03 > 0:03:09And Louis sent daily deliveries of flowers from his greenhouses at Versailles to cheer the Queen.

0:03:09 > 0:03:12Chilly blossoms, cold comfort.

0:03:12 > 0:03:20James could only watch from France as William of Orange settled into his powers in his palaces

0:03:20 > 0:03:24and started telling stories, started spinning.

0:03:24 > 0:03:29The invasion that had cost James his kingdom was given a name -

0:03:29 > 0:03:31the Glorious Revolution.

0:03:33 > 0:03:39Shorthand for a longer myth - William, conquering Protestant hero,

0:03:39 > 0:03:46champion of liberty and limited monarchy had come to oust the tyrant, James VII and II,

0:03:46 > 0:03:52a Catholic king who rode roughshod over the treasured civil liberties of his freedom-loving subjects.

0:03:54 > 0:03:57Spin. Old spin now.

0:03:58 > 0:04:00More than three centuries old.

0:04:00 > 0:04:04But that doesn't make it any truer.

0:04:04 > 0:04:07William of Orange wasn't interested in liberties.

0:04:07 > 0:04:09He was interested in war.

0:04:09 > 0:04:15The whole point of his invasion had been to prevent a Catholic alliance between England and France.

0:04:16 > 0:04:21Once the dust had settled and the blood had dried, William's plans were simple.

0:04:21 > 0:04:27He wanted to make war on France and England could do that on its own.

0:04:27 > 0:04:29Scotland's job? Keep quiet.

0:04:29 > 0:04:32Don't get in the way.

0:04:44 > 0:04:49So in Scotland, William's glorious revolution was about management, not liberty.

0:04:54 > 0:04:57There were no elections. William allowed the emergency

0:04:57 > 0:05:01meeting that had decreed him king to stay on as Scotland's parliament.

0:05:05 > 0:05:07And the last ingredient in the recipe was someone to

0:05:07 > 0:05:12manage that parliament so that he could ignore it...completely.

0:05:14 > 0:05:21It was a job for someone reliable, someone reliably self-interested.

0:05:21 > 0:05:25William eventually found his man in the Duke of Queensberry,

0:05:25 > 0:05:28who soon erected around himself a clique, the Court Party,

0:05:28 > 0:05:32which cheerfully enacted the King's wishes in Scotland.

0:05:34 > 0:05:35And that was that.

0:05:35 > 0:05:39The Glorious Revolution, not very glorious at all.

0:05:39 > 0:05:40But like all good spin,

0:05:40 > 0:05:44it contained a solid grain of truth that James could not deny.

0:05:44 > 0:05:47As a king, he HAD been authoritarian,

0:05:47 > 0:05:50he HAD shown favour towards Catholics.

0:05:50 > 0:05:52So he spun back.

0:05:52 > 0:05:54Return of service.

0:05:54 > 0:06:00In 1693, he dispensed with his Catholic advisers and produced a decree.

0:06:01 > 0:06:07The shadow king promised that when he was, once again, the true king, there would be no more absolutism,

0:06:07 > 0:06:10nor more religious intolerance and inequity.

0:06:10 > 0:06:15Parliament's rights would be protected, the religious settlement would not be tampered with

0:06:15 > 0:06:22and there would be no revenge taken, no punishments at all for those who had fought against him.

0:06:27 > 0:06:29He remained, of course, a Catholic himself,

0:06:29 > 0:06:34for which the supporters of William of Orange can only have been profoundly grateful.

0:06:34 > 0:06:38After 1693, there was nothing else to choose between them.

0:06:38 > 0:06:41The proclamation ticked every box.

0:06:41 > 0:06:45It raised the ghost of a Stuart restoration.

0:06:56 > 0:07:01But in the 1690s, Scots were more worried about what to eat.

0:07:04 > 0:07:07Thousands had died in the revolution.

0:07:07 > 0:07:10The famines that followed killed thousands more.

0:07:10 > 0:07:14Scotland desperately needed money for food.

0:07:14 > 0:07:16But England was in the way.

0:07:19 > 0:07:21Trade with the French was impossible

0:07:21 > 0:07:23because the English were fighting them.

0:07:23 > 0:07:28Trade with England's juicy colonies in America would have been nice

0:07:28 > 0:07:30but the English refused to allow it.

0:07:30 > 0:07:34God helps those who help themselves.

0:07:34 > 0:07:37In 1695, some of Edinburgh's merchants founded

0:07:37 > 0:07:41The Company Of Scotland Trading To Africa And The Indies.

0:07:41 > 0:07:45And better still, a financial genius had come to town.

0:07:48 > 0:07:50William Paterson.

0:07:50 > 0:07:52He talked a good game.

0:07:52 > 0:07:57The year before, Paterson had been involved in the foundation of the Bank Of England.

0:07:57 > 0:08:02He was sacked from its board shortly afterwards, but Paterson rarely mentioned that.

0:08:02 > 0:08:06Now he was in Scotland and had helped to found the Bank Of Scotland, too.

0:08:09 > 0:08:13He had an air about him of mysterious financial knowledge.

0:08:13 > 0:08:16He knew that if you rubbed the numbers the right way,

0:08:16 > 0:08:20that a company could almost magically grow in size.

0:08:20 > 0:08:25Trade will increase trade, he said, and money will beget money.

0:08:31 > 0:08:35The Company Of Scotland had originally planned to trade to West Africa.

0:08:35 > 0:08:38The risks would be slight and the profits would be small.

0:08:38 > 0:08:40Paterson had another plan.

0:08:40 > 0:08:44He knew exactly where the best basket was for all of Scotland's eggs.

0:08:44 > 0:08:50They should set up a massive port on the land bridge between the Americas in a place called Darien.

0:08:50 > 0:08:55There they would become the middle man in all the trades of the New World.

0:08:55 > 0:08:57They would make a mint.

0:09:01 > 0:09:05All that optimism ended up on the front page of the company's minute book.

0:09:07 > 0:09:11It's a fantastically grand and optimistic cover, isn't it?

0:09:11 > 0:09:15Absolutely and it shows that the people who were doing this

0:09:15 > 0:09:19had an eye to the fact that they were making history, to put

0:09:19 > 0:09:22that right on the front page of your first volume of minutes.

0:09:22 > 0:09:27- It stood out amongst the collection of similar documents at the time. - Absolutely.

0:09:27 > 0:09:33You wouldn't expect something this glamorous on the front of what is essentially a working document.

0:09:33 > 0:09:38The rising sun symbol, this glamorous and exotic native American and African.

0:09:38 > 0:09:41This is a native American supposedly?

0:09:41 > 0:09:44Their idea of what one would have looked like,

0:09:44 > 0:09:46and they're carrying these horns of plenty

0:09:46 > 0:09:49with this fantastic glamorous golden fruit.

0:09:59 > 0:10:02Paterson's scheme was a runaway success.

0:10:02 > 0:10:06Scotland's nobles, merchants, boroughs and cities all went home

0:10:06 > 0:10:10and dug money from under mattresses, emptied strong boxes and socks.

0:10:10 > 0:10:14By some estimates, fully a quarter of Scotland's liquid cash

0:10:14 > 0:10:17ended up in the coffers of the Company Of Scotland.

0:10:17 > 0:10:21Even the Duke of Queensberry punted 3K on Darien.

0:10:21 > 0:10:24This was money that the Scots could ill-afford.

0:10:24 > 0:10:27But what could possibly go wrong?

0:10:27 > 0:10:32"The bank has the benefit of all monies which it creates out of nothing,"

0:10:32 > 0:10:36Paterson is reputed to have said about banking practice and principle.

0:10:36 > 0:10:41These days, phrases like that have a hollow ring and in the 1690s,

0:10:41 > 0:10:46Paterson was every bit as much of a banker as our current crop.

0:10:46 > 0:10:52In the Darien scheme, Paterson would take a substantial slice of Scotland's money

0:10:52 > 0:10:57and make it, as if by magic, disappear.

0:10:59 > 0:11:01Darien never stood a chance.

0:11:01 > 0:11:04The King had told the Scots he didn't want them trading

0:11:04 > 0:11:07on the toes of his English interests in the Americas

0:11:07 > 0:11:09or on the toes of his Spanish allies.

0:11:09 > 0:11:13He told bankers in England and Holland not to invest in Darien.

0:11:13 > 0:11:17The colony collapsed and within five years it was clear

0:11:17 > 0:11:21that of over £150,000 sterling, there was nothing left at all.

0:11:23 > 0:11:25Not a brass farthing.

0:11:25 > 0:11:29No doubloons, no ducats, no dosh, no nothing.

0:11:29 > 0:11:32William Paterson did the sensible thing.

0:11:32 > 0:11:34He moved to London.

0:11:36 > 0:11:38Darien left a double legacy.

0:11:38 > 0:11:42A Scottish governing class who blamed King William for their poverty

0:11:42 > 0:11:46and a King William who could not trust Scotland to keep his peace.

0:11:47 > 0:11:50He had taken steps to secure his revolution.

0:11:50 > 0:11:55The English parliament had passed laws to exclude Catholics from the throne.

0:11:55 > 0:11:57But he had no heir.

0:11:57 > 0:12:01His sister-in-law Anne was a Protestant but after her,

0:12:01 > 0:12:06the nearest Protestant with a claim were a German family, the Hanoverians.

0:12:06 > 0:12:11William secured their agreement to take their throne once Anne was dead.

0:12:13 > 0:12:20As for Scotland, in 1603, James VI and I had become king of both countries.

0:12:20 > 0:12:22Two kings had become one.

0:12:22 > 0:12:29For William it was now a matter of the highest urgency, the kingdoms must do likewise.

0:12:29 > 0:12:30He must have union.

0:12:42 > 0:12:49In September of 1701, James VII and II, the king in exile, breathed his last.

0:12:50 > 0:12:53He was buried here in the church at St Germain.

0:12:55 > 0:12:59The shadow king was still warm when Louis XIV proclaimed his

0:12:59 > 0:13:03teenage son James King of England, Scotland and Ireland.

0:13:09 > 0:13:13And the Pope and the King of Spain added their similar declarations at once.

0:13:16 > 0:13:19William of Orange was still warm too.

0:13:19 > 0:13:23And these declarations made him positively hot.

0:13:23 > 0:13:25He broke off relations with France

0:13:25 > 0:13:30and set about all the preparations necessary for a full-scale war.

0:13:30 > 0:13:34In the midst of this entirely characteristic flurry of activity,

0:13:34 > 0:13:37William decided to take a brief rest.

0:13:37 > 0:13:43He had a new horse and he took it for a ride in the grounds of his favourite residence, Hampton Court.

0:13:43 > 0:13:46The horse stepped on a molehill and fell.

0:13:46 > 0:13:50William broke his collarbone and infection set in.

0:13:58 > 0:14:03Almost at once, the mole responsible became the subject of a Jacobite toast.

0:14:03 > 0:14:06To the little gentleman in black velvet.

0:14:09 > 0:14:12William died two weeks later.

0:14:12 > 0:14:18His place on the throne was taken by his sister-in-law, the last Protestant Stuart, Anne.

0:14:19 > 0:14:24Anne was dangerously overweight. 17 pregnancies had left their mark.

0:14:24 > 0:14:28But, ill-health aside, she knew her duty as a Protestant.

0:14:28 > 0:14:33At the head of her to do list was William's priority number one.

0:14:33 > 0:14:35Union.

0:14:37 > 0:14:41She ordered her parliaments north and south of the border to make it happen, quickly.

0:14:46 > 0:14:50A new party had formed in Scotland's parliament, the Cavaliers,

0:14:50 > 0:14:52loyal to the exiled Stuarts.

0:14:52 > 0:14:56George Lockhart of Carnwath was one of its backbenchers.

0:14:56 > 0:15:00Lockhart kept a journal and served as a doormat to the acknowledged

0:15:00 > 0:15:05leader of this dissident tendency, James Douglas, the Duke of Hamilton.

0:15:05 > 0:15:08The Hamiltons were closely related to the Stuarts

0:15:08 > 0:15:13and traditionally regarded as Scotland's most senior nobles.

0:15:13 > 0:15:20This entitled them to grace and favour apartments rent free in the Palace of Holyrood House,

0:15:20 > 0:15:26which was fortunate because the Duke of Hamilton, not to put too fine a point on it, was poor.

0:15:26 > 0:15:28All the poorer since Darien.

0:15:28 > 0:15:30He had invested £1,000.

0:15:31 > 0:15:36In Parliament, Hamilton locked horns with the Crown's representative,

0:15:36 > 0:15:39the Duke of Queensberry.

0:15:39 > 0:15:43It looked like a life-and-death struggle for Scotland's political independence.

0:15:43 > 0:15:48It was actually professional wrestling. Pure theatre.

0:15:48 > 0:15:52A leading supporter of the Union later revealed that Hamilton

0:15:52 > 0:15:55made several visits to Queensberry's apartments by night.

0:15:55 > 0:15:59These were not social calls - he was looking for an income.

0:15:59 > 0:16:03Various letters that survive describe his desperate need for money.

0:16:03 > 0:16:05"He must have his debts paid," said one.

0:16:05 > 0:16:08Another one described him as "a room for rent."

0:16:11 > 0:16:15First on the agenda - the committee to discuss the terms of union.

0:16:15 > 0:16:21It was vital that the Scots retained the right to make their own nominations to this committee.

0:16:21 > 0:16:26But the rentable Duke of Hamilton called a vote when most of his party had gone home for dinner,

0:16:26 > 0:16:32with the result that the right to name the committee was placed entirely in the hands of the Crown.

0:16:32 > 0:16:35Everything that followed was bitter farce.

0:16:35 > 0:16:40Hamilton had opened the door, the English stuck their foot in it.

0:16:40 > 0:16:43They would keep it open until their business had been done.

0:16:54 > 0:16:59The following summer, the commission to negotiate the terms of the Union got under way.

0:16:59 > 0:17:06To the astonishment of none, the nominated commissioners were overwhelmingly pro-Union.

0:17:06 > 0:17:11Apart from George Lockhart, who got a place on the committee entirely by mistake.

0:17:14 > 0:17:18The commission met in London, in Whitehall.

0:17:18 > 0:17:22The Scots sat in one room, the English in another.

0:17:22 > 0:17:26And the two parties communicated with each other only in writing.

0:17:28 > 0:17:32The committee soon reached the heart of the matter - money.

0:17:32 > 0:17:36Union would subject the Scots to higher English taxes.

0:17:36 > 0:17:42The English proposed to pay something called an Equivalent, a sum of money to help the Scots cope.

0:17:42 > 0:17:44Lockhart raised a question.

0:17:44 > 0:17:49How could this money be given to the poor? They would need it most.

0:17:51 > 0:17:52Nobody answered.

0:17:57 > 0:18:03In due course, the size of the Equivalent was agreed and of its £400,000,

0:18:03 > 0:18:09£217,000 was to go directly to those who had invested in Darien.

0:18:09 > 0:18:13Lockhart finally got what the Equivalent was.

0:18:13 > 0:18:16It was a bribe, payable to the Scottish elite

0:18:16 > 0:18:20whose losses in Darien and had turned them against the English.

0:18:20 > 0:18:23Now they would get their money back, with interest,

0:18:23 > 0:18:26and their anti-English hearts would soften accordingly.

0:18:26 > 0:18:32For Lockhart it was the last straw. He refused to sign the final treaty.

0:18:34 > 0:18:37Nobody minded or even noticed.

0:18:37 > 0:18:42The treaty was sent to the Scottish and English parliaments for approval.

0:18:43 > 0:18:47When the terms of the treaty were published, they proved unpopular.

0:18:47 > 0:18:51"The whole nation appears against the Union," wrote Lockhart.

0:18:51 > 0:18:54"Ministers roar against it from the pulpits."

0:18:54 > 0:19:00He was writing to Hamilton who had somehow re-established himself as the figurehead of resistance.

0:19:00 > 0:19:03Lockhart was touchingly trusting.

0:19:09 > 0:19:13Outside Parliament, the Union was indeed hugely unpopular.

0:19:13 > 0:19:16But inside Parliament, it was not.

0:19:16 > 0:19:19Queensberry and his henchmen, John Erskine, the Earl of Mar,

0:19:19 > 0:19:23found the fellow Scottish nobles quite biddable.

0:19:23 > 0:19:26More than any other class, Scotland's nobles had had to deal

0:19:26 > 0:19:30with the fact that in 1603, their king had simply disappeared.

0:19:35 > 0:19:37The King of Scotland was a memory,

0:19:37 > 0:19:41he was buried inside the King of England.

0:19:41 > 0:19:44The Union was a chance to have a king again.

0:19:44 > 0:19:50So the nobles voted consistently for bread with English butter, by a factor of 2-1.

0:19:50 > 0:19:54Queensberry and Mar brokered a deal with the Church as well,

0:19:54 > 0:19:58promising it to the Presbyterians for evermore.

0:19:58 > 0:20:01Clause-by-clause, the Act of Union slowly passed.

0:20:04 > 0:20:09The pulpits that had roared quite recently began to purr instead.

0:20:09 > 0:20:12George Lockhart became increasingly depressed.

0:20:12 > 0:20:15It was time for the last resort.

0:20:15 > 0:20:22The anti-Unionists would call a vote and accept the Hanoverians as an independent Scotland.

0:20:22 > 0:20:25Hey presto, no Union necessary.

0:20:25 > 0:20:30It was universally agreed that the man to call the vote should be the Duke of Hamilton.

0:20:30 > 0:20:34The vote was planned for 9th January and on that morning,

0:20:34 > 0:20:37Hamilton's supporters eagerly awaited his arrival.

0:20:37 > 0:20:39A note arrived instead.

0:20:39 > 0:20:44"I have a toothache," it said, "and cannot attend Parliament today."

0:20:44 > 0:20:47As long as Hamilton was there, whenever one door closed...

0:20:49 > 0:20:50..another one would shut.

0:20:53 > 0:20:57Six days later, the Act of Union passed in its entirety.

0:20:57 > 0:21:00The Duke of Queensberry touched the Act with the sceptre.

0:21:04 > 0:21:05It was law.

0:21:16 > 0:21:22On 28th April, 1707, the Scottish parliament dissolved itself,

0:21:22 > 0:21:27apparently forever. Certainly, this room would never see another.

0:21:27 > 0:21:32The Chancellor signed a shortened version of the Act and said as he did so,

0:21:32 > 0:21:35"Now there is an end of an old song."

0:21:36 > 0:21:42The Chancellor had worked assiduously with Queensberry and Mar to see the Act through Parliament

0:21:42 > 0:21:45and must have spoken with a certain amount of satisfaction.

0:21:45 > 0:21:47Lockhart disapproved, of course.

0:21:47 > 0:21:51"Here was a day never to be forgotten," he wrote, "a day on which Scots were stripped

0:21:51 > 0:21:57"of something they had maintained gallantly for centuries - their independence and their sovereignty."

0:22:12 > 0:22:16It is hard not to admire the professionalism, the sheer slickness

0:22:16 > 0:22:19of the process by which Scotland was groomed for Union.

0:22:21 > 0:22:25But there it was, Lockhart's unpleasant truth.

0:22:25 > 0:22:30The Glorious Revolution had been at last and irrevocably secured.

0:22:30 > 0:22:35Scottish independence had been sold for the sake of English security.

0:22:42 > 0:22:45The wounds of the Union were fresh.

0:22:45 > 0:22:48Louis XIV decided it was time to apply the salt.

0:22:49 > 0:22:52He was losing his war with Britain,

0:22:52 > 0:22:57but the shadow king, James the VIII and III, was 19 years old.

0:22:57 > 0:22:59A card ripe for playing.

0:22:59 > 0:23:06Louis set the date for invasion to restore his throne - spring of the next year.

0:23:06 > 0:23:09James had waited all his life for this.

0:23:09 > 0:23:12He had become a restrained, focused, methodical young man.

0:23:12 > 0:23:16Too methodical. James had a talent for administration.

0:23:16 > 0:23:23While the French set about preparing an invasion fleet, James prepared his pitch to the Scottish people.

0:23:25 > 0:23:28The Union was deeply unpopular.

0:23:28 > 0:23:32He would offer himself as the King of Scots, first and foremost.

0:23:32 > 0:23:34He would dissolve the Union.

0:23:34 > 0:23:37He would leave the settlement of the Church in Parliament's hands

0:23:37 > 0:23:42and he promised that Parliament itself would be free of any interference on his part.

0:23:42 > 0:23:46Once again, the exiled Stuarts were offering their people greater freedom,

0:23:46 > 0:23:49more, at least, than they currently enjoyed.

0:23:53 > 0:23:55In Scotland, George Lockhart calculated,

0:23:55 > 0:24:00there were 30,000 or 40,000 men who would rise if James should land.

0:24:00 > 0:24:03Most of the government's troops were at war abroad.

0:24:03 > 0:24:10There were only 2,500 regulars left in Scotland, 5,000 in England.

0:24:10 > 0:24:12It was going to be a walkover.

0:24:14 > 0:24:16The French fleet set sail on March 17th,

0:24:16 > 0:24:20followed by a British fleet from the very first.

0:24:20 > 0:24:22The weather was appalling.

0:24:22 > 0:24:26For James, the experience was unpleasantly novel.

0:24:26 > 0:24:29The French fleet anchored off Crail in Fife.

0:24:29 > 0:24:32It was James's first sight of Scotland.

0:24:32 > 0:24:34His feet itched to walk there.

0:24:35 > 0:24:38And then the British fleet appeared astern.

0:24:38 > 0:24:43James begged the French admiral to put him ashore, but the Admiral refused.

0:24:43 > 0:24:45He had been briefed by Louis.

0:24:45 > 0:24:48Whatever else, James must return alive.

0:24:51 > 0:24:56They sailed north and anchored off Slains Castle, north of Aberdeen.

0:24:56 > 0:24:59James begged once again to be set ashore

0:24:59 > 0:25:04and was once again refused as the British fleet hove into view.

0:25:04 > 0:25:05The chance to land was gone.

0:25:05 > 0:25:10The French fleet sailed round the north of Scotland and struggled back to Dunkirk.

0:25:26 > 0:25:27Lockhart despaired.

0:25:27 > 0:25:31Had the weather been better or the French admiral less fearful

0:25:31 > 0:25:34of Louis' wrath, James would have landed.

0:25:34 > 0:25:37Ordinary Scots hated the Union.

0:25:37 > 0:25:41Surely they would have risen for their king?

0:25:41 > 0:25:45But the chance was lost. The Union stood.

0:25:47 > 0:25:50And the Union disappointed.

0:25:57 > 0:26:01It disappointed even those who had helped bring it about.

0:26:01 > 0:26:05Free trade had been one of the promised perks of Union,

0:26:05 > 0:26:09but the benefits of free trade spread with excruciating slowness.

0:26:10 > 0:26:16In the summer of 1711, the Earl of Mar wrote a letter of complaint to the Crown's leading minister.

0:26:18 > 0:26:21"I have not yet grown weary of the Union myself,"

0:26:21 > 0:26:27wrote Mar, "but the attitude of the English parliament is beyond all sense, reason and fair dealing.

0:26:27 > 0:26:32"If nothing is done to encourage our trade it will be more than flesh and blood can bear,

0:26:32 > 0:26:37"and what Scotsman will not grow weary of the Union and do all he can to end it?"

0:26:40 > 0:26:44And that was a letter from one of the Union's friends.

0:26:48 > 0:26:52As the Union grew less popular, the Queen gained weight.

0:26:54 > 0:26:56Her health was failing.

0:26:56 > 0:27:01It would soon be time to see if the British north and south of the border could really

0:27:01 > 0:27:05hand the Crown to the Hanoverians with their distant claim.

0:27:06 > 0:27:09James wrote Anne a letter.

0:27:09 > 0:27:11"God and nature call you, Madam.

0:27:11 > 0:27:14"Settle the succession in the right line once again.

0:27:14 > 0:27:17"Make ME your heir."

0:27:18 > 0:27:22It was worth a try, but Anne never wrote back.

0:27:22 > 0:27:26She sent another sort of answer.

0:27:26 > 0:27:2912 years of war between Britain and France were coming to an end.

0:27:29 > 0:27:32The British negotiators made it a condition

0:27:32 > 0:27:36of the peace treaty that James should be expelled from France.

0:27:36 > 0:27:41Louis XIV was tired, old and on the losing side.

0:27:41 > 0:27:45Early in 1713, he agreed.

0:27:47 > 0:27:52The treaty was concluded in April and James became a wanderer.

0:27:52 > 0:27:57He had lived with his shadow court in the Palace of St Germain for 23 years.

0:27:57 > 0:27:59It had sustained all of his illusions.

0:27:59 > 0:28:04Now his court was to be allowed to stay, but he would have to leave.

0:28:04 > 0:28:09It would be harder in the absence of this palace to pretend.

0:28:22 > 0:28:25He was offered asylum in Lorraine, a small dukedom

0:28:25 > 0:28:29sandwiched uncomfortably between Germany and France.

0:28:29 > 0:28:32The home of quiche, the land of cakes,

0:28:32 > 0:28:35birthplace of rum babas, macaroons and madeleines.

0:28:35 > 0:28:38It was agonising. James was no tourist.

0:28:38 > 0:28:44He was a painfully serious young man whose reason for living was across the English Channel.

0:28:46 > 0:28:49But then the English broke a promise.

0:28:49 > 0:28:55At the Union, they had guaranteed the Scots a permanent holiday from certain taxes, but in 1713,

0:28:55 > 0:28:59they ordered the Scots to pay a tax on malt, and at the English rate.

0:28:59 > 0:29:06There were riots, there were strikes. The Scots in the House of Lords moved to dissolve the Union

0:29:06 > 0:29:08and lost by just four votes.

0:29:09 > 0:29:13And Queen Anne at last fell properly ill.

0:29:16 > 0:29:20Soon, the Hanoverian George would be king.

0:29:20 > 0:29:26It was known that George felt the recent treaty with France had been criminally kind to the French.

0:29:29 > 0:29:35While Anne was breathing, the jobs in government of those who had made it were safe.

0:29:35 > 0:29:38As soon as she stopped, those jobs were history.

0:29:42 > 0:29:46Anne died in August of 1714.

0:29:47 > 0:29:50The coffin she was buried in was square.

0:29:55 > 0:29:57The new king arrived a month later.

0:29:57 > 0:30:02He was a stereotype, humourless, stolid, unimaginative.

0:30:07 > 0:30:11His reshuffle was even more thorough than expected.

0:30:11 > 0:30:19The Earl of Mar was one of those who found himself without a job, so he went back home to Scotland.

0:30:19 > 0:30:22And he arrived there an instant revolutionary.

0:30:22 > 0:30:29He spread malicious rumours that the English planned taxes on land, corn, cattle, meal,

0:30:29 > 0:30:34malt, horses, sheep, cocks and hens.

0:30:34 > 0:30:38And then he raised the standard of the Jacobites on September 6th.

0:30:40 > 0:30:46The reliably pro-Stuart Louis XIV had died five days before he did so.

0:30:46 > 0:30:48Perhaps Mar should have waited,

0:30:48 > 0:30:51perhaps he should have changed his plans.

0:30:54 > 0:30:59But the word "plan" does not belong in any sentence describing what Mar did.

0:30:59 > 0:31:04All historians agree, when they write their accounts of the Jacobite rising of 1715,

0:31:04 > 0:31:06their vocabularies converge on words like

0:31:06 > 0:31:11"farce", "buffoon", "idiocy", "incompetent",

0:31:11 > 0:31:15"worst possible time", "disintegrate", "pathetic",

0:31:15 > 0:31:18"half-cocked", "botched up", "monstrous", "bumbling",

0:31:18 > 0:31:22"damp squib", "stupid", "fatuous..."

0:31:26 > 0:31:31But the cause, unlike the Union, was popular.

0:31:31 > 0:31:3610,000 men rallied to Mar from Scotland's north-east and the Highlands.

0:31:36 > 0:31:41In the north of England, a small group of Jacobite aristocrats gathered.

0:31:41 > 0:31:44James set forth from France, bringing money.

0:31:44 > 0:31:47But Mar was no general.

0:31:47 > 0:31:54At Sheriffmuir near Stirling, he met a government army less than half the size of his and failed to beat it.

0:31:54 > 0:31:58The next day, the English Jacobites were captured almost to a man.

0:31:58 > 0:32:02Now, only a dramatic entrance could save the rebellion.

0:32:02 > 0:32:08The arrival of a Catholic Stuart on the mainland for the first time in 26 years.

0:32:08 > 0:32:12The shadow king, trailing clouds of glory.

0:32:17 > 0:32:21James arrived late in December near Aberdeen.

0:32:21 > 0:32:25Always a bad sailor, he was carried ashore by the captain.

0:32:25 > 0:32:31There were no clouds of glory, there was just James, two attendants and a chest full of money.

0:32:31 > 0:32:34Ordinary, on the beach at Peterhead.

0:32:46 > 0:32:50James rendezvoused with Mar, who had returned to Perth.

0:32:50 > 0:32:51The army had shrunk.

0:32:51 > 0:32:55James estimated their total at 4,000.

0:32:57 > 0:33:00There were many things they might have done.

0:33:00 > 0:33:05Scone, where the kings of Scotland were traditionally crowned, was hardly far away.

0:33:05 > 0:33:10It would have been a moment of great resonance if James had come here.

0:33:10 > 0:33:14If the crown, or a reasonable substitute,

0:33:14 > 0:33:19had been placed on his head, it might have lit a fire, set the heather burning.

0:33:21 > 0:33:23It never happened.

0:33:23 > 0:33:25Reality got in the way.

0:33:25 > 0:33:32James was, by all unbiased accounts, a fine man, but he was not a charismatic leader.

0:33:32 > 0:33:36He was a bureaucrat, he buckled no swash.

0:33:36 > 0:33:39The rebellion evaporated like the morning dew.

0:33:46 > 0:33:51A little more than three weeks later, James embarked on a ship in Montrose.

0:33:51 > 0:33:55Mar was with him, so was his sense of failure.

0:33:55 > 0:34:00And Mar's nickname, Bobbing John, was with them too.

0:34:00 > 0:34:05James left Scotland a note of apology, together with a large amount of money

0:34:05 > 0:34:10for distribution among some of the villages he had been obliged to damage during his retreat.

0:34:10 > 0:34:14For two months, James had trod the earth of his ancestral kingdom.

0:34:14 > 0:34:16It had shown him up.

0:34:16 > 0:34:18He would never return.

0:34:23 > 0:34:27In May of 1716, with the recent comedy of the rising as an excuse,

0:34:27 > 0:34:33Parliament passed an act reducing the frequency of elections to once every seven years.

0:34:33 > 0:34:37The great freedoms of the Glorious Revolution continued to shrink.

0:34:42 > 0:34:43James had not given up.

0:34:43 > 0:34:46He began looking for two things.

0:34:46 > 0:34:50A wife - it was time to secure the future of the dynasty.

0:34:50 > 0:34:54And a military sponsor, to replace France.

0:34:55 > 0:34:59It was his quest for a wife that bore real fruit,

0:34:59 > 0:35:02in the shape of Princess Clementina Sobieski,

0:35:02 > 0:35:07a Polish noblewoman whose father certainly couldn't afford a real king.

0:35:07 > 0:35:14According to reports, she was a fragile beauty, of gentle temperament and fabulous wealth.

0:35:14 > 0:35:17Her jewels were legendary.

0:35:22 > 0:35:24The Pope was delighted with the marriage.

0:35:24 > 0:35:27He declared them king and queen of Great Britain

0:35:27 > 0:35:30and awarded them a generous pension.

0:35:30 > 0:35:32They moved to Rome.

0:35:32 > 0:35:37British diplomacy had effectively closed every other country's doors.

0:35:37 > 0:35:41Being in Rome was bad for James' career.

0:35:41 > 0:35:45His future crown depended on him convincing his somewhat bigoted subjects

0:35:45 > 0:35:48that his association with the Roman Catholic Church

0:35:48 > 0:35:51was anything but close, but here he was at last, cornered in Rome,

0:35:51 > 0:35:59with all its bells and smells, its cardinals, monks and nuns, tarred with the brush of popery.

0:36:03 > 0:36:09The Pope made a still more generous gift, one that it was churlish to refuse.

0:36:09 > 0:36:14So James made his court here, in the Palazzo Del Rei,

0:36:14 > 0:36:16the Palace of the King.

0:36:18 > 0:36:25After six years of wandering, James once again had a place upon which to build a better future -

0:36:25 > 0:36:32substantial, suited to his status, with courtyards and saloons where he could hide from the Roman heat.

0:36:32 > 0:36:34A shadow palace.

0:36:38 > 0:36:43James and Clementina got down to the pressing business of making babies.

0:36:43 > 0:36:50On the last day of 1720, the air of the palace was split by the cries of a very young pretender.

0:36:51 > 0:36:58Charles Edward Louis Philippe Casimir Sylvester Maria Stuart.

0:37:00 > 0:37:03He was a remarkably bonny baby.

0:37:03 > 0:37:05James called him Carluccio,

0:37:05 > 0:37:07Italian for "little Charles."

0:37:07 > 0:37:11His mother stuck to her native Polish.

0:37:11 > 0:37:12She called him Karleusu.

0:37:15 > 0:37:16He grew.

0:37:25 > 0:37:28Charles was a source of intense satisfaction for his father.

0:37:28 > 0:37:32His very existence was proof that the shadow dynasty was real,

0:37:32 > 0:37:36that its fortunes would improve, that it would become a reality.

0:37:36 > 0:37:39Charles' upbringing was carefully English.

0:37:39 > 0:37:43As a young boy, he was taught to speak English. He ate English.

0:37:43 > 0:37:45Roast beef was often on the menu.

0:37:45 > 0:37:47James brooded over him.

0:37:47 > 0:37:53When the time came for him to take the throne, he would not be, as the Hanoverians were, a foreigner.

0:37:53 > 0:37:55He would be going home.

0:38:00 > 0:38:05In 1725, two things happened for the second time.

0:38:05 > 0:38:10James and Clementina had a second child, Henry.

0:38:10 > 0:38:15And in Scotland, the government tried once more to introduce a malt tax.

0:38:17 > 0:38:21The riots that followed were predictable and violent.

0:38:21 > 0:38:24They had almost nothing to do with Jacobitism.

0:38:24 > 0:38:29But George I's government decided to behave as though they did.

0:38:29 > 0:38:32They sent one General Wade to Scotland,

0:38:32 > 0:38:36with a brief to secure the Highlands against Jacobite insurgents.

0:38:40 > 0:38:47The Highlands had remained a nest of Jacobite vipers for so long, because of their inaccessibility.

0:38:48 > 0:38:55Wade's job was to tame the Highlands by subjecting them to bridges and roads.

0:38:59 > 0:39:06Between 1726 and 1737, Wade would construct 260 miles of roads across the Highlands,

0:39:06 > 0:39:10studded every few miles with barracks and forts.

0:39:10 > 0:39:13It was a massive demonstration of the Union's power

0:39:13 > 0:39:17and an indispensable first step in taming the landscape.

0:39:28 > 0:39:33The year after Wade began building his roads, George I died.

0:39:33 > 0:39:39His son, George II, succeeded to the throne without a hitch.

0:39:39 > 0:39:43And in Montrose, the foundations of a house were laid.

0:39:43 > 0:39:49When finished, it would be home to David Erskine, the 13th Laird of Dun -

0:39:49 > 0:39:53a close relation of "Bobbing" John Mar.

0:39:53 > 0:39:56Erskine was a pillar of the Scottish legal establishment,

0:39:56 > 0:40:02best remembered for a legal tome known as Lord Dun's Friendly And Familiar Advices,

0:40:02 > 0:40:07a handy-dandy book of tips for dealing with all of life's little legal emergencies.

0:40:07 > 0:40:10David Erskine was hardly a threatening figure.

0:40:10 > 0:40:15But his heart, like the hearts of many still in Scotland's north-east,

0:40:15 > 0:40:21belonged to James Stewart and his infant heir, Charles Edward, who was now five years old.

0:40:24 > 0:40:29And at the heart of his house, he allowed himself an expression of his true sympathies.

0:40:39 > 0:40:42On one wall, a plea to the sea god Neptune.

0:40:42 > 0:40:47Storms had provided the most reliable defence against Jacobite invasion.

0:40:47 > 0:40:52"Next time, Neptune, give us a calm and prosperous voyage."

0:40:52 > 0:40:56And over the fireplace, Mars, the god of war.

0:40:56 > 0:40:58A cunning reference to the Mar family itself.

0:40:58 > 0:41:02The pile he's crushing beneath his feet consists of the Crown,

0:41:02 > 0:41:06the Union Jack and at the bottom of the heap, the British Lion.

0:41:09 > 0:41:15These elaborately violent carvings were commissioned at the last stages of the house's construction in 1740.

0:41:16 > 0:41:20They depended entirely on the language of myth, which was what

0:41:20 > 0:41:23the dream of Stuart restoration seemed increasingly to be.

0:41:23 > 0:41:27The Stuarts had been in exile for over 50 years.

0:41:47 > 0:41:50But in fact, the ice was melting.

0:41:55 > 0:42:01The French had decided, after 27 years of peace, to make war on Britain once again,

0:42:01 > 0:42:06and Charles Edward had matured into the sort of leader his father could never have been,

0:42:06 > 0:42:09an athlete of stunning charisma.

0:42:11 > 0:42:16In November of 1743, a request arrived at the Palazzo Del Rei,

0:42:16 > 0:42:22a request from the King of France for the pleasure of the company of Prince Charles Edward

0:42:22 > 0:42:26on an invasion of Britain.

0:42:26 > 0:42:29Charles left a month later, incognito.

0:42:30 > 0:42:33He took two documents with him.

0:42:33 > 0:42:38The first, in James' name, declared him sole regent of England, Scotland and Ireland.

0:42:38 > 0:42:42His father had decided, sensibly, to recede into the background.

0:42:42 > 0:42:47The other document promised religious liberty, regular parliaments,

0:42:47 > 0:42:50a limit on Crown servants in Parliament itself,

0:42:50 > 0:42:55all the freedoms that the Glorious Revolution had still not provided.

0:42:58 > 0:43:00Everything he needed, bar the weather.

0:43:00 > 0:43:06A storm damaged the invasion fleet and the French cancelled the expedition.

0:43:06 > 0:43:10Charles Edward, however, did not.

0:43:10 > 0:43:13He bought weapons with borrowed money, took with him

0:43:13 > 0:43:19seven chosen companions, and sailed for Scotland in July of 1745.

0:43:30 > 0:43:34By the second week of August, he had landed on Scotland's west coast.

0:43:38 > 0:43:41A week later, he was here in Glenfinnan,

0:43:41 > 0:43:46raising the Stuart colours, addressing the faithful Highlanders.

0:43:48 > 0:43:49It was like a dream.

0:43:49 > 0:43:52A dream he had dreamed all of his life.

0:43:52 > 0:43:54"I've not come out of divine right,"

0:43:54 > 0:43:58he told the Camerons, the Keppochs, the men of Clanranald.

0:43:58 > 0:44:01"I have come to make my beloved subjects happy."

0:44:01 > 0:44:04The glen resounded.

0:44:06 > 0:44:10The army he addressed was far from large.

0:44:10 > 0:44:15Many clans that had once favoured the Jacobites had switched to the Hanoverians.

0:44:15 > 0:44:18Much less than half the country would support him.

0:44:18 > 0:44:21But much less than half the country would oppose.

0:44:21 > 0:44:27By the 1740s, one note was dominant in the minds of most Scots, where the Union was concerned...

0:44:28 > 0:44:31..indecision.

0:44:34 > 0:44:36But no matter.

0:44:36 > 0:44:40As the echoes died away in Glenfinnan, Charles was happy,

0:44:40 > 0:44:42and full-to-bursting with hope.

0:44:42 > 0:44:45More than those few would rise and follow him.

0:44:45 > 0:44:46He was sure of it.

0:44:48 > 0:44:51As they marched, some people joined.

0:44:51 > 0:44:54Most people simply let them pass.

0:44:54 > 0:44:59So the army was small but quite possibly big enough.

0:44:59 > 0:45:05In Perth, they were joined by Lord George Murray, who'd fought for James in 1715.

0:45:05 > 0:45:10Charles disliked him but Murray was a seasoned soldier.

0:45:10 > 0:45:11He became the army's general.

0:45:11 > 0:45:13They marched on Edinburgh.

0:45:17 > 0:45:21They entered Edinburgh here, in the early hours of 17th September,

0:45:21 > 0:45:24through where the city's Netherbow Gate once stood.

0:45:26 > 0:45:30The government garrison fled to the castle,

0:45:30 > 0:45:31and stayed there.

0:45:33 > 0:45:39Charles' officers went to the market square to proclaim the reign of James VIII and III,

0:45:39 > 0:45:42King of Scotland, England and Ireland,

0:45:42 > 0:45:46leaving Charles free to go to Holyrood, the palace of his ancestors.

0:45:57 > 0:46:02Charles' entry to Holyrood Palace was triumphant.

0:46:05 > 0:46:10Afterwards, with the crowds still cheering outside,

0:46:10 > 0:46:13perhaps he wandered through its empty rooms,

0:46:13 > 0:46:15rejoicing amongst the dustsheets.

0:46:23 > 0:46:28For a few days, the shadow monarchy and the real world agreed.

0:46:28 > 0:46:32Agreed with Charles' vision of himself as well.

0:46:32 > 0:46:35See, the conquering hero comes.

0:46:39 > 0:46:46There was a Stuart in Holyrood of the true senior line for the first time in almost 60 years.

0:46:46 > 0:46:51One fit for purpose, destined for this, fated for this.

0:46:51 > 0:46:52Or so it seemed.

0:46:54 > 0:46:55He couldn't stay long.

0:46:55 > 0:47:01The government's forces had finally concentrated east of Edinburgh at Prestonpans.

0:47:01 > 0:47:04Once more, Charles addressed his troops.

0:47:04 > 0:47:09Once more, his address was efficient, stirring, short and sharp.

0:47:09 > 0:47:12"Gentlemen, I have flung away the scabbard," he said.

0:47:12 > 0:47:17"With God's help, I will make you a free and happy people."

0:47:17 > 0:47:19God's help wasn't needed.

0:47:19 > 0:47:23A local showed them a path through the marshes that defended the government position.

0:47:23 > 0:47:26The slaughter was awful, but brief.

0:47:26 > 0:47:31Charles called a halt to it, appalled, and ordered his surgeon to attend to the government wounded.

0:47:31 > 0:47:35"They are my father's subjects" he said.

0:47:37 > 0:47:44After Prestonpans, Lord George Murray told Charles that they should simply take Scotland and keep it.

0:47:44 > 0:47:49After all, ending the Union had been a Stuart promise since 1708.

0:47:50 > 0:47:56But Charles persuaded his supporters that victory awaited them in London.

0:48:02 > 0:48:05They marched south, hugging the west coast.

0:48:05 > 0:48:08Two government armies had been deployed against them.

0:48:08 > 0:48:11General Wade marched down the other side of the country

0:48:11 > 0:48:14and there was a second force somewhere ahead,

0:48:14 > 0:48:18led by the son of King George, the Duke of Cumberland.

0:48:18 > 0:48:24Charles dragged his army and his increasingly unwilling general as far as Derby.

0:48:24 > 0:48:28And there, Murray insisted on a council of war.

0:48:28 > 0:48:30Charles urged attack.

0:48:30 > 0:48:32London was so close.

0:48:32 > 0:48:34But Murray was unmoveable.

0:48:34 > 0:48:40There was Wade to the east, the Duke of Cumberland to the south, 10,000 men apiece.

0:48:40 > 0:48:42And there was a third force.

0:48:42 > 0:48:46Murray had a witness, a man called Dudley Bradstreet.

0:48:46 > 0:48:49"Yes," said Bradstreet, "there was a third force."

0:48:49 > 0:48:54It was large - 9,000 men, in Northampton.

0:48:54 > 0:48:57Charles had Bradstreet ejected from the meeting.

0:48:57 > 0:49:00It was too late.

0:49:00 > 0:49:03The Jacobite leaders voted to fight another day.

0:49:05 > 0:49:08Charles could only watch in horror.

0:49:08 > 0:49:11They were voting to make his life meaningless.

0:49:19 > 0:49:21But Charles had been right.

0:49:21 > 0:49:26Wade was indeed too old and too cautious to engage the Jacobites.

0:49:26 > 0:49:30And the Duke of Cumberland's force was only the size of their own.

0:49:30 > 0:49:34As for Dudley Bradstreet, he was an English spy.

0:49:34 > 0:49:35There was no third force.

0:49:35 > 0:49:41There were only nine men ready to resist in Northampton, as Bradstreet later cheerfully confessed.

0:49:41 > 0:49:45To make matters worse, on the day they met in Derby,

0:49:45 > 0:49:49a French army of 15,000 men was preparing to embark in Boulogne.

0:49:49 > 0:49:52Charles could very easily have taken London.

0:49:56 > 0:50:00What if Dudley Bradstreet had missed that meeting in Derby?

0:50:00 > 0:50:04Charles might have prevailed, taken London and set about

0:50:04 > 0:50:09making good on the promises his family had been making since 1693.

0:50:09 > 0:50:14Britain would have been a very different place.

0:50:14 > 0:50:20In the real world, the freedoms and reforms that the Stuarts promised wouldn't come for almost a century.

0:50:24 > 0:50:30But now they were marching north to Charles's appointment with real history,

0:50:30 > 0:50:34his true destiny, his fate on Culloden Moor.

0:50:51 > 0:50:55By the day of the battle, 16th April, 1746,

0:50:55 > 0:50:59Charles's relationship with Murray was one of mutual loathing.

0:50:59 > 0:51:04There was virtually no communication between them, so the Jacobites were effectively uncommanded,

0:51:04 > 0:51:08left at one point to stand immobile for minutes on end

0:51:08 > 0:51:11under a rain of government cannonballs and grapeshot,

0:51:11 > 0:51:14as though it was simply weather,

0:51:14 > 0:51:17the very heaviest of rain, a mortal downpour.

0:51:21 > 0:51:23The defeat was total.

0:51:23 > 0:51:26And as the clansmen melted under his superior firepower,

0:51:26 > 0:51:33Cumberland let it be known that any of his officers who showed mercy would be severely punished.

0:51:33 > 0:51:35No punishments proved necessary.

0:51:35 > 0:51:37Charles fled the field.

0:51:44 > 0:51:48The remnant of the Jacobite army gathered at the nearby Ruthven Barracks.

0:51:48 > 0:51:554,000 men, enough to try again, enough to need a leader.

0:51:55 > 0:51:57Charles never came.

0:51:57 > 0:51:59He sent a message instead.

0:51:59 > 0:52:01He was going to France.

0:52:01 > 0:52:03He would return with an army.

0:52:03 > 0:52:07Let each man seek his safety how he will.

0:52:07 > 0:52:11For Charles's followers, the message was easily decoded.

0:52:11 > 0:52:13"I'm leaving you to your fate."

0:52:13 > 0:52:16"There you go," said one of Charles's generals.

0:52:16 > 0:52:18"There you go for a damned Italian."

0:52:18 > 0:52:24The Prince was gone, vanished into the heather like an embarrassed shadow.

0:52:27 > 0:52:31"All flesh is grass."

0:52:31 > 0:52:32It said so in the Bible.

0:52:32 > 0:52:37The government applied the phrase to the flesh of any Jacobites that it could capture.

0:52:37 > 0:52:41The King's son, the Duke of Cumberland, came north for the harvest.

0:52:44 > 0:52:51Reports of the horrendous bloodshed must have come to Charles as he fled in the heather, dressed as a woman,

0:52:51 > 0:52:55rowed by a woman over the sea to Skye.

0:52:55 > 0:52:59The news must have caused him pain and guilt.

0:52:59 > 0:53:02But he hid the pain and guilt away.

0:53:04 > 0:53:06Charles went AWOL.

0:53:06 > 0:53:09He returned to France, but not to Rome.

0:53:09 > 0:53:13James wrote him letters, increasingly desperate letters.

0:53:13 > 0:53:16"Come home, Carluccio." He was still a father.

0:53:16 > 0:53:18Charles was still a son.

0:53:20 > 0:53:25They could sit in Rome in a hospitable restaurant and talk about their might-have-beens,

0:53:25 > 0:53:30their near misses, their barely averted collisions with real power,

0:53:30 > 0:53:32a real throne, a real kingdom.

0:53:35 > 0:53:39Perhaps that was why Charles stayed away.

0:53:39 > 0:53:42His father had learnt to accept failure.

0:53:42 > 0:53:46He would only remind Charles of how real this wrong world was.

0:54:00 > 0:54:05In Scotland, the reality of Hanoverian rule was putting down roots.

0:54:05 > 0:54:09Wade's roads had made the Highlands reachable.

0:54:09 > 0:54:12Now Cumberland ordered the Highlands mapped.

0:54:15 > 0:54:20And within ten years, the rugged grandeur, their dim valleys,

0:54:20 > 0:54:25their secret places were flattened, tamed and known forever.

0:54:29 > 0:54:35As the maps were made, a massive fort was under construction at the top of the Great Glen.

0:54:35 > 0:54:43Fort George nailed the Highlands to the Union, almost the last step in the pacification.

0:54:45 > 0:54:50That last step required blood and bone for the mortar in the walls.

0:54:56 > 0:55:02In the European wars of the 1750s, Highlanders died for Britain in their thousands.

0:55:11 > 0:55:14Hanoverian reality grew stronger

0:55:14 > 0:55:19and the shadow kings became, at last, impossible.

0:55:19 > 0:55:22In 1766, James died.

0:55:22 > 0:55:28His reign, had it been real, would have lasted 64 years.

0:55:28 > 0:55:31He was laid here, in the crypt of St Peter's.

0:55:33 > 0:55:36Charles returned at last to Rome.

0:55:36 > 0:55:41He applied for recognition as king of Scotland, England and Ireland.

0:55:41 > 0:55:42The Pope refused.

0:55:45 > 0:55:52For the rest of his life, Charles devoted himself to desperate schemes for restoration.

0:55:52 > 0:55:56He steeped the athlete he'd once been in alcohol.

0:55:57 > 0:56:01He never ceased to hate the version of reality he'd been condemned to.

0:56:03 > 0:56:06But there was no room in history for Charles,

0:56:06 > 0:56:08not since Culloden Moor.

0:56:10 > 0:56:14The only place there was room for him was in the realm of myth.

0:56:14 > 0:56:18The golden boy, the flight through the heather, over the sea to Skye.

0:56:18 > 0:56:22The myth was glorious and it still is.

0:56:22 > 0:56:28Not like the real, unreal king, who died in Rome on 31st December, 1788,

0:56:28 > 0:56:33when his family had been throneless for just a few months short of a century.

0:56:42 > 0:56:45After his death, the Pope relented.

0:56:45 > 0:56:50He recognised dead Charles as King of England, Scotland, Ireland.

0:56:50 > 0:56:55A monument was given pride of place near the entrance of St Peter's,

0:56:55 > 0:57:03dedicated to the Stuarts of Rome, James VIII, his sons Henry and Charles III.

0:57:03 > 0:57:06It drew a veil over Charles's real death.

0:57:11 > 0:57:18Overweight, stroke-ridden, abscessed, alcoholic, unhappy

0:57:18 > 0:57:20and still dreaming

0:57:20 > 0:57:25till the moment that his mind fell silent of what might have been.

0:57:25 > 0:57:28The shadow king was dead.

0:57:28 > 0:57:31The Union was real.

0:57:31 > 0:57:35The Scots had learnt long since

0:57:35 > 0:57:36to live with it.

0:58:14 > 0:58:17Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd