0:00:05 > 0:00:09It was the last day of December, 1720,
0:00:09 > 0:00:14and there was one place that everyone in Rome wanted to be.
0:00:14 > 0:00:16It was the hottest ticket in town.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26Cardinals, ambassadors and dignitaries
0:00:26 > 0:00:29assembled in a gilded private chapel...
0:00:31 > 0:00:34..to pay their tributes to the new-born heir
0:00:34 > 0:00:36of an ancient dynasty.
0:00:40 > 0:00:42Son of James, Pretender to the British throne,
0:00:42 > 0:00:47and Clementina, the daughter of a Polish prince.
0:00:47 > 0:00:53A child baptised on the day of his birth as Charles Edward Stuart.
0:00:54 > 0:00:59A boy that would come to be known by many different names...
0:01:00 > 0:01:02.."The Young Pretender"...
0:01:03 > 0:01:05.."The Prince Over The Water"...
0:01:07 > 0:01:10..and, of course, "Bonnie Prince Charlie".
0:01:12 > 0:01:17The man who, at the age of 24, raised a legendary Highland army...
0:01:17 > 0:01:20And God defend Scotland!
0:01:20 > 0:01:22CHEERING
0:01:22 > 0:01:26..an army that captured Carlisle, Preston and Manchester,
0:01:26 > 0:01:28and terrified London.
0:01:30 > 0:01:34And the legacy of Charles, "The Young Chevalier",
0:01:34 > 0:01:35is still with us.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38270 years afterwards,
0:01:38 > 0:01:40people are still laying wreaths...
0:01:41 > 0:01:43..in loving memory.
0:01:43 > 0:01:45But of his 67 years,
0:01:45 > 0:01:50Charles spent only 11 months in Scotland.
0:01:54 > 0:01:56So, this is not a Scottish story,
0:01:56 > 0:01:58not a British story,
0:01:58 > 0:01:59but a European story...
0:02:01 > 0:02:03..of kings, popes and princes,
0:02:03 > 0:02:07of great military and diplomatic alliances.
0:02:10 > 0:02:12How the exiled Stuarts used,
0:02:12 > 0:02:16and were used, by the most powerful European dynasties.
0:02:28 > 0:02:33In the 1720s, the Stuarts were among the most illustrious
0:02:33 > 0:02:35and notorious families in Rome.
0:02:37 > 0:02:42They were, if nothing else, something of an upmarket tourist attraction.
0:02:42 > 0:02:46James and his wife Clementina would be driven through this,
0:02:46 > 0:02:47the Piazza Navona,
0:02:47 > 0:02:49in an open carriage.
0:02:53 > 0:02:56Visitors from Britain were fascinated at the chance to see
0:02:56 > 0:02:58their exiled royal family.
0:02:59 > 0:03:03One account describes their child, the infant Charles,
0:03:03 > 0:03:08being carried aloft and shooting at onlookers with his toy crossbow.
0:03:11 > 0:03:14The fascination with weaponry - well, it was not hard to fathom.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19Stuart history had been bloody.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22The boy's grandfather, King James VII of Scotland
0:03:22 > 0:03:24and II of England and Ireland,
0:03:24 > 0:03:27had been driven from power and into exile,
0:03:27 > 0:03:31seen as too aggressively Catholic and too close to the French.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36His son, also James, had attempted to reclaim his crowns
0:03:36 > 0:03:41in the failed Jacobite Uprisings of 1708, 1715
0:03:41 > 0:03:44and, finally, in 1719.
0:03:44 > 0:03:48That same year, James escaped to the Continent
0:03:48 > 0:03:50and married Clementina.
0:03:51 > 0:03:53They settled here, in Rome.
0:03:55 > 0:03:57CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:03:59 > 0:04:01The Pope, Clement XI,
0:04:01 > 0:04:05recognised the Catholic James as the rightful king of England, Scotland
0:04:05 > 0:04:09and Ireland. He gave the young couple two palaces, an allowance
0:04:09 > 0:04:11and a papal guard.
0:04:13 > 0:04:16Five years later, James and Clementina brought their
0:04:16 > 0:04:19four-year-old son Charles to the Papal Palace.
0:04:20 > 0:04:23As was the custom, both parents kissed the Pope's feet.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26Charles did not fancy the idea,
0:04:26 > 0:04:27and refused, point blank.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31You can make too much of one childish moment,
0:04:31 > 0:04:35but this seems to have been a young boy confident in his own skin
0:04:35 > 0:04:37and no shrinking violet.
0:04:44 > 0:04:46The life of the exiled Stuarts
0:04:46 > 0:04:49is hidden deep within the workings of this city.
0:04:51 > 0:04:56These are the Rome headquarters of a multinational construction company.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00On the surface, there is absolutely nothing remarkable
0:05:00 > 0:05:02about these offices. Nothing special...
0:05:04 > 0:05:06..until you look up.
0:05:06 > 0:05:08The ceilings are very special indeed.
0:05:14 > 0:05:18These interiors have never been filmed before.
0:05:18 > 0:05:22The oldest examples were commissioned by Pope Clement XI,
0:05:22 > 0:05:26to decorate the home he had chosen for King James.
0:05:27 > 0:05:32Clement renamed the building the Palazzo del Re -
0:05:32 > 0:05:33The King's Palace.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38The furnishings were extremely lavish and expensive.
0:05:38 > 0:05:40We have the accounts. An awful lot of money was spent
0:05:40 > 0:05:44producing a sequence of state apartments, building up to
0:05:44 > 0:05:47the King's apartment, and then into this gallery,
0:05:47 > 0:05:49which is just beyond the King's bedchamber.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53Do we have any sense of how these buildings and these new decorations
0:05:53 > 0:05:55were received at the time?
0:05:55 > 0:05:57Oh, they were well received.
0:05:57 > 0:05:59I mean, this became an important social centre in Rome.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02You have to remember that, because the Pope did,
0:06:02 > 0:06:06Roman society recognised James as King.
0:06:08 > 0:06:12Therefore, the princes and the cardinals of Rome came always to
0:06:12 > 0:06:14this building to pay their court to James.
0:06:16 > 0:06:20Living amid such opulence did not come cheap.
0:06:20 > 0:06:25The Stuart Palace employed upwards of 100 servants,
0:06:25 > 0:06:28paid for by the pension James received annually from the Pope -
0:06:28 > 0:06:31today worth around £750,000.
0:06:33 > 0:06:36James's rooms were here, on the first floor.
0:06:36 > 0:06:40His wife Clementina occupied the floor above.
0:06:40 > 0:06:44Her household took charge of baby Charles
0:06:44 > 0:06:45and, four years later,
0:06:45 > 0:06:47his younger brother Henry.
0:06:53 > 0:06:55Outside the palace would have been a very visible sign
0:06:55 > 0:06:58- that this was an exiled court? - Yes, indeed.
0:06:58 > 0:07:00Up there, above the doorway,
0:07:00 > 0:07:03there would have been the English royal coat of arms,
0:07:03 > 0:07:06placed there at the request of the Pope, to recognise
0:07:06 > 0:07:10that this was the palace of the legitimate King of England.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14He is the only king in Rome and, consequently,
0:07:14 > 0:07:18his status is second only to that of the Pope.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21Queen Clementina is, of course, the First Lady of Rome.
0:07:21 > 0:07:25And so this gives them immense social status among the cardinals
0:07:25 > 0:07:29and princes and people of Rome. This can be particularly interestingly
0:07:29 > 0:07:33seen when they go to the opera, because they have certain privileges
0:07:33 > 0:07:36when they go to the opera. The most interesting of all
0:07:36 > 0:07:39is that James is given three boxes, because he is the king
0:07:39 > 0:07:41of three kingdoms.
0:07:42 > 0:07:45And you have one box for your kingdom.
0:07:45 > 0:07:48The Holy Roman Emperor had two, because he claimed to be
0:07:48 > 0:07:50the King of Spain, but James had three.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58Directly across the square from the Palazzo del Re
0:07:58 > 0:08:03is the magnificent church of Santi Apostili.
0:08:03 > 0:08:09From their arrival in 1719, the Stuarts would come here to worship.
0:08:09 > 0:08:15The exiled king, James, commissioned the singing of a special mass
0:08:15 > 0:08:19for his son every year, on January 31.
0:08:25 > 0:08:30While most of his British subjects were Protestant, James was Catholic,
0:08:30 > 0:08:33but he did not want his Catholicism to stand in the way
0:08:33 > 0:08:35of his restoration to the throne.
0:08:37 > 0:08:42James had said many times that he would respect the different
0:08:42 > 0:08:46religious beliefs of his people. James's vision was also
0:08:46 > 0:08:49a Britain of three kingdoms - England, Scotland and Ireland.
0:08:52 > 0:08:56That vision was seen as a grave threat to the new British state
0:08:56 > 0:09:01that was determined to exclude his family from power.
0:09:01 > 0:09:05James and his Jacobite supporters were continually monitored.
0:09:05 > 0:09:09- My trick, I think.- Yes, my son. No-one is to approach
0:09:09 > 0:09:11- within earshot. - Your Majesty, not a black beetle
0:09:11 > 0:09:14shall show its nose, though faith, they might be English spies,
0:09:14 > 0:09:16the way they encroach on us.
0:09:18 > 0:09:23Into the story comes a gentleman called Philipp von Stosch...
0:09:24 > 0:09:28..who arrived in Rome in January 1722.
0:09:30 > 0:09:33Outwardly, he was known as a dealer in antiques.
0:09:35 > 0:09:37But Stosch had another job.
0:09:37 > 0:09:41He was a spy, operating under the pen-name
0:09:41 > 0:09:43of Mr Walton.
0:09:44 > 0:09:48Every week, he would write back to England with intelligence
0:09:48 > 0:09:50gleaned from a mole within the Stuart court.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53Those letters, written in coded French,
0:09:53 > 0:09:56revealed that the exiled Stuart king and queen
0:09:56 > 0:09:59were having major marital difficulties.
0:10:01 > 0:10:05Walton described how, in November 1725,
0:10:05 > 0:10:08James gave voice to what Walton described as
0:10:08 > 0:10:12"paroles fortes" - very angry words against his wife.
0:10:12 > 0:10:15Controversially, James had decided to remove infant Charles
0:10:15 > 0:10:19from the queen's household and place him in the hands
0:10:19 > 0:10:20of six male appointees.
0:10:23 > 0:10:29Walton described how Clementina wrote to the abbess of a Rome convent,
0:10:29 > 0:10:35asking for the main door to be left open at a pre-determined time.
0:10:35 > 0:10:42And on November 15 1725, Clementina slipped through the door
0:10:42 > 0:10:43and into sanctuary.
0:10:45 > 0:10:49Walton recorded her saying, "I would rather suffer death
0:10:49 > 0:10:54"than live in the king's palace with persons who have no religion,
0:10:54 > 0:10:56"honour nor conscience."
0:11:01 > 0:11:05The separation of the Stuart king and queen shocked Europe.
0:11:05 > 0:11:08What hope for the dynasty returning to Britain
0:11:08 > 0:11:11if they genuinely despised each other?
0:11:11 > 0:11:16James and Clementina would remain separated for two years.
0:11:19 > 0:11:23It would take almost a decade for the Stuarts to get their reputation
0:11:23 > 0:11:25back on track.
0:11:25 > 0:11:29And it would not be James or Clementina who would achieve this.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32It would be their eldest son, Charles.
0:11:34 > 0:11:37What we now call Italy was,
0:11:37 > 0:11:41in the 18th century, a collection of independent kingdoms
0:11:41 > 0:11:43and city states.
0:11:44 > 0:11:50In 1734, the 14-year-old Charles was given permission by the Pope
0:11:50 > 0:11:51to leave the city of Rome...
0:11:53 > 0:11:57..to accompany his cousin, the Duke of Berwick,
0:11:57 > 0:12:00serving with the Spanish army, then at war with the Austrian-occupied
0:12:00 > 0:12:02Kingdom of Naples.
0:12:04 > 0:12:06100 miles south of Rome,
0:12:06 > 0:12:08the Spanish army began to lay siege here,
0:12:08 > 0:12:11in the fortified harbour town of Gaeta.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18Close to the city walls, the fighting was ferocious.
0:12:19 > 0:12:23The Spanish were anxious to keep the young prince at a safe distance
0:12:23 > 0:12:24from the front line,
0:12:24 > 0:12:28but Charles wanted to witness the battle first-hand.
0:12:30 > 0:12:34He impressed his older soldier cousin, who reported,
0:12:34 > 0:12:37"Neither the noise of cannon, nor the hiss of bullet
0:12:37 > 0:12:39"could produce any sign of fear in him."
0:12:39 > 0:12:45Despite his years, Charles was every inch the noble warrior prince.
0:12:47 > 0:12:49After a four-month siege,
0:12:49 > 0:12:55the town of Gaeta surrendered and the young prince basked
0:12:55 > 0:12:56in reflected glory.
0:12:56 > 0:13:00Charles departed Gaeta bedecked in jewellery,
0:13:00 > 0:13:04with two fine horses - all gifts from the Spanish.
0:13:04 > 0:13:09Back in Rome, the Pope himself provided Charles with an honour guard
0:13:09 > 0:13:10of 50 men.
0:13:12 > 0:13:15The physical actions of the young prince
0:13:15 > 0:13:18eclipsed the domestic melodramas of his parents.
0:13:18 > 0:13:23The Stuarts were back, in the handsome, glamorous form
0:13:23 > 0:13:27of this most plausible young prince.
0:13:27 > 0:13:30The spy Walton warned that the Stuarts had re-emerged
0:13:30 > 0:13:32as "a dangerous enemy".
0:13:32 > 0:13:35But dangerous to whom?
0:13:45 > 0:13:48Standing in the way of a Stuart restoration
0:13:48 > 0:13:52to the British throne was a family with its roots here,
0:13:52 > 0:13:55in the tiny German state of Hanover.
0:13:58 > 0:14:02The dynasty that would become known as the Hanoverians
0:14:02 > 0:14:05came to prominence in 1714.
0:14:05 > 0:14:09Back then, the elector, or prince, of Hanover,
0:14:09 > 0:14:12was 52nd in line to the British throne.
0:14:12 > 0:14:14His name was George
0:14:14 > 0:14:17and he was the king at the very bottom of the pack.
0:14:17 > 0:14:22But there was a problem with the 51 above him - they were Catholic.
0:14:22 > 0:14:26The English Act of Settlement had ruled against a Catholic monarch.
0:14:29 > 0:14:34So, aged 54, and unable to speak a word of English,
0:14:34 > 0:14:37the Protestant George came up trumps
0:14:37 > 0:14:40and became King George I of Great Britain.
0:14:42 > 0:14:47George took the crown the Stuarts claimed as their own.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51But just a year after his coronation,
0:14:51 > 0:14:54he faced a 10,000-strong Jacobite rising.
0:14:56 > 0:15:02George needed to advertise the power and potential of his new dynasty
0:15:02 > 0:15:05and with the help of two English engineers,
0:15:05 > 0:15:09he shaped the royal gardens here at Herrenhausen
0:15:09 > 0:15:13into a potent symbol of Hanoverian ambitions.
0:15:13 > 0:15:14"I want to show the world
0:15:14 > 0:15:16"what we can do."
0:15:16 > 0:15:19And so he started to lay out the waterworks.
0:15:19 > 0:15:20And it took another six years
0:15:20 > 0:15:24until the Great Fountain started, at up to 35 metres,
0:15:24 > 0:15:26and was, in those days, the highest fountain in Europe.
0:15:26 > 0:15:31And there were some British... English engineers,
0:15:31 > 0:15:34Burns and Holland. They had a very complicated technique,
0:15:34 > 0:15:35but it works,
0:15:35 > 0:15:40with five waterwheels and pumps, and they just manage to do it
0:15:40 > 0:15:41for up to 35 metres.
0:15:46 > 0:15:50And this was amazing. He could show his power.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03And what do you think that was aiming to say?
0:16:03 > 0:16:06What do you think George's vision was?
0:16:06 > 0:16:10I think it was saying, "We do not have the biggest garden,
0:16:10 > 0:16:12"we don't have the biggest country or the biggest state,
0:16:12 > 0:16:15"but we can have the highest fountain.
0:16:15 > 0:16:17"So, I am worthy of being king of England."
0:16:19 > 0:16:21Yet behind the hydraulic wizardry,
0:16:21 > 0:16:26behind the horticultural splendour, the Hanoverians, like the Stuarts,
0:16:26 > 0:16:28were not a happy family.
0:16:29 > 0:16:34In London, King George faced sexual and financial scandals
0:16:34 > 0:16:38and was frequently accused of diverting money and armies
0:16:38 > 0:16:40from Britain to Hanover.
0:16:44 > 0:16:47George died in 1727
0:16:47 > 0:16:51and his son, also called George, took the British throne.
0:16:53 > 0:16:57He and his supporters would portray their Stuart rivals
0:16:57 > 0:17:00as dangerous Catholics and backward-looking relics -
0:17:00 > 0:17:04the very opposite of his progressive, Protestant monarchy.
0:17:07 > 0:17:10The Hanoverians were a dynasty on the make.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13They were now major players on the European stage -
0:17:13 > 0:17:16ambitious, keen to make their mark.
0:17:26 > 0:17:3018th-century politics were bitterly partisan.
0:17:30 > 0:17:31On the one hand,
0:17:31 > 0:17:33there were the Tories.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36They had opposed the Hanoverians.
0:17:36 > 0:17:39They were said to be riddled with covert Jacobites,
0:17:39 > 0:17:44so, unsurprisingly, King George banished them from government...
0:17:46 > 0:17:48..leaving power in the hands of the Whig Party,
0:17:48 > 0:17:51who had secured the Hanoverian succession.
0:17:53 > 0:17:55In charge of the Whigs,
0:17:55 > 0:17:57and Britain's first Prime Minister,
0:17:57 > 0:17:59was Robert Walpole.
0:18:01 > 0:18:05Walpole had spent much time and effort cultivating the Hanoverians,
0:18:05 > 0:18:08so he protected them - sometimes from themselves,
0:18:08 > 0:18:11but mostly from the Jacobites.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14And Walpole saw Jacobites everywhere.
0:18:19 > 0:18:21To counter that threat,
0:18:21 > 0:18:26Walpole established Britain's first state-sponsored intelligence agency.
0:18:26 > 0:18:32He saw the Jacobites as the reds under the bed -
0:18:32 > 0:18:37the 18th-century equivalent of Philby, Burgess and Maclean,
0:18:37 > 0:18:40the notorious Cambridge spy ring.
0:18:40 > 0:18:44I think it is very accurate to think of the whole situation between the
0:18:44 > 0:18:46Jacobites and the British government
0:18:46 > 0:18:48as a kind of long-running Cold War.
0:18:48 > 0:18:55It involved agents and a vast amount of interception of communications,
0:18:55 > 0:18:59which the British government did shamelessly, on a vast scale,
0:18:59 > 0:19:02regularly opening the correspondence,
0:19:02 > 0:19:04not just of suspected Jacobites,
0:19:04 > 0:19:08but of everyone who was sending mail overseas.
0:19:08 > 0:19:14They would stop the mail in London or at the Channel ports and then
0:19:14 > 0:19:20send hastily made copies of letters to deciphering teams
0:19:20 > 0:19:26- back in London or nearby.- How worthwhile was this huge investment
0:19:26 > 0:19:30in surveillance, code-breaking, reporting, vigilance?
0:19:30 > 0:19:34I mean, it is rather like the CIA operation to spy on
0:19:34 > 0:19:36the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
0:19:36 > 0:19:38Um...
0:19:38 > 0:19:44they invested billions in it, erm, over decades,
0:19:44 > 0:19:45and yet at the end of it,
0:19:45 > 0:19:50despite having acquired a huge amount of information, a huge amount
0:19:50 > 0:19:53of data, they couldn't predict the fall of the Soviet Union.
0:19:57 > 0:20:01Walpole spent fortunes hunting Jacobites all across Europe.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06But there was a very real threat much closer to home.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09The Tories.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13Exclusion from power had fuelled their resentment
0:20:13 > 0:20:17and their hatred of George and his devoted servant, Robert Walpole.
0:20:18 > 0:20:23Often when we think of Jacobites the word itself conjures up
0:20:23 > 0:20:27Hollywood images of swashbuckling, fearless Scottish Highlanders.
0:20:29 > 0:20:33But the man who lived on this fine country estate
0:20:33 > 0:20:38just west of Cambridge was a Jacobite of a very different stamp.
0:20:39 > 0:20:43A man called Sir John Hynde Cotton,
0:20:43 > 0:20:49an old-school English Tory who'd lost his lucrative government job.
0:20:49 > 0:20:51By the early 1740s he was broke
0:20:51 > 0:20:56and his estate here at Madingley was heavily mortgaged.
0:20:57 > 0:21:02And the flamboyant Hynde Cotton was no great friend of the Hanoverians.
0:21:03 > 0:21:07He's an extremely charismatic, even rather bombastic figure.
0:21:07 > 0:21:11He's a famously brilliant parliamentary speaker,
0:21:11 > 0:21:14patron of poets and playwrights.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17He's extremely proud of his, erm,
0:21:17 > 0:21:20boasted ability to get through six bottles of claret in an evening
0:21:20 > 0:21:23while remaining, as he claimed, perfectly sober.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26He makes an unsuccessful attempt to introduce
0:21:26 > 0:21:30the kilt as an English fashion accessory.
0:21:30 > 0:21:31So a very colourful figure.
0:21:31 > 0:21:33And what makes English Jacobitism
0:21:33 > 0:21:37different from Scottish Jacobitism or Irish Jacobitism?
0:21:37 > 0:21:42They want to bring back the glory of England under Queen Elizabeth I,
0:21:42 > 0:21:44under Charles II,
0:21:44 > 0:21:47and so it's partly about recovering an England that's been lost
0:21:47 > 0:21:51but it's partly also about making England a great power in the world.
0:21:51 > 0:21:54So how did someone like John Hynde Cotton
0:21:54 > 0:21:58set about making his support for the exiled Stuarts known?
0:21:58 > 0:22:02A lot of that is really centred here, at Madingley Hall.
0:22:02 > 0:22:07He brings paid agents of the exiled Jacobite court
0:22:07 > 0:22:11into his residence, he wines and dines them, he promises his support,
0:22:11 > 0:22:17he sends messages via these agents back to the exiled court in Rome.
0:22:17 > 0:22:19For much of the 1720s and '30s,
0:22:19 > 0:22:24the English Jacobites had posed little real threat.
0:22:25 > 0:22:30But that all changed in 1740, when Britain went to war with France
0:22:30 > 0:22:32in the War of the Austrian Succession.
0:22:34 > 0:22:36And from his rooms here in Madingley
0:22:36 > 0:22:41Hynde Cotton passed British state secrets to the French government,
0:22:41 > 0:22:47offering support for a French invasion scheduled for 1744.
0:22:47 > 0:22:53An invasion that was intended to lead not only to a Stuart restoration
0:22:53 > 0:22:56but to a Tory one as well.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07On 8 February, 1744,
0:23:07 > 0:23:12a young man on horseback arrived on this Paris street.
0:23:12 > 0:23:15He was beyond exhaustion.
0:23:15 > 0:23:21Travelling in disguise, his journey from Rome had taken an entire month.
0:23:21 > 0:23:23That man was Charles Stuart.
0:23:23 > 0:23:27Now 23, he had grown into a true warrior prince.
0:23:29 > 0:23:34He was handsome, strong and a brilliant marksman.
0:23:34 > 0:23:38News that the French were secretly planning to invade Southern England
0:23:38 > 0:23:40had brought him here.
0:23:40 > 0:23:44A force of 15,000 was to capture London to reinstall
0:23:44 > 0:23:49the Stuarts on the throne, but all had not gone according to plan.
0:23:49 > 0:23:54From England, Hynde Cotton had written to the French king, Louis XV,
0:23:54 > 0:23:57demanding a delay to the invasion.
0:23:57 > 0:24:03His letter had been intercepted and Cotton was placed under surveillance.
0:24:03 > 0:24:04And worse followed.
0:24:05 > 0:24:08A month after Charles arrived in Paris,
0:24:08 > 0:24:13the French invasion fleet was blown apart by a Channel storm.
0:24:17 > 0:24:21Charles crossly damned the storm as a Protestant wind,
0:24:21 > 0:24:23but he wasn't about to give up.
0:24:24 > 0:24:28Charles remained in Paris and appealed to the French king
0:24:28 > 0:24:31to put together plans for a new invasion.
0:24:32 > 0:24:36But the notoriously indecisive King Louis made no promises
0:24:36 > 0:24:39and fell short of backing the Stuart cause.
0:24:43 > 0:24:4555 years before,
0:24:45 > 0:24:49Louis's great-grandfather had given the exiled Stuarts sanctuary
0:24:49 > 0:24:53in the magnificent palace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58Now, in the summer of 1744,
0:24:58 > 0:25:02Charles found more humble Parisian lodgings here,
0:25:02 > 0:25:06in what's now the artists' quarter of Montmartre.
0:25:06 > 0:25:10Charles had been ordered by Louis to remain incognito,
0:25:10 > 0:25:14to keep his head down and stay out of the public eye.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17But he refused, point blank.
0:25:18 > 0:25:23In fact, the glamorous young prince traded on his celebrity,
0:25:23 > 0:25:28seeking popular support for a French-backed Stuart restoration.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32And portraits of James and Charles were widely circulated
0:25:32 > 0:25:36as part of a propaganda campaign to remind the French public that
0:25:36 > 0:25:40the Stuarts were the legitimate kings of England, Scotland and Ireland,
0:25:40 > 0:25:44and that they would be a staunch ally to the French.
0:25:53 > 0:25:54- Voila!- Bravo!
0:25:56 > 0:25:58Voila!
0:25:58 > 0:26:01- Merci beaucoup.- Merci, ah? - Et bonne journee.- Merci beaucoup.
0:26:01 > 0:26:02- Voila, bonne chance.- Au revoir.
0:26:05 > 0:26:09By the spring of 1745, and still in Paris,
0:26:09 > 0:26:13Charles offered King Louis a new plan.
0:26:13 > 0:26:17Instead of invading England, Charles proposed that the French
0:26:17 > 0:26:20give military support to a rising of the Scottish clans.
0:26:23 > 0:26:28Scottish clans that had supported his father in the 1715 rebellion.
0:26:28 > 0:26:34The Scottish chiefs had a high reputation in Europe.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38And they are considered as remarkable warriors.
0:26:38 > 0:26:43Such an enterprise did not need much money.
0:26:43 > 0:26:47Did not need much soldiers.
0:26:47 > 0:26:52Such an enterprise needed a charismatic man,
0:26:52 > 0:26:55and Charles was a right man in such a struggle, in fact,
0:26:55 > 0:27:00for he was a young man, he was an impressive man, he was...
0:27:00 > 0:27:03he had a great courage and...
0:27:05 > 0:27:10..he had already the behaviour of a hero.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15But in the end, King Louis wasn't persuaded.
0:27:15 > 0:27:20He refused Charles's request for a 3,000-strong French army.
0:27:22 > 0:27:24And Charles left Paris.
0:27:27 > 0:27:32In late June, 1745, he headed southwest,
0:27:32 > 0:27:36towards the city of Nantes, and then on to the mouth of the River Loire.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41He'd assembled a secret arsenal of 20 cannons,
0:27:41 > 0:27:4611,000 guns and 2,000 broadswords.
0:27:46 > 0:27:50He'd also put together a war chest of 4,000 gold coins.
0:27:53 > 0:27:55Charles was heavily in debt.
0:27:55 > 0:27:59He needed funds not just to finance his invasion
0:27:59 > 0:28:01but also to pay off his loans.
0:28:04 > 0:28:08Back in Rome, his father pawned the family silver
0:28:08 > 0:28:13as security on a loan of 120,000 crowns.
0:28:13 > 0:28:16With no foreign power offering support, the Stuarts were
0:28:16 > 0:28:19acting alone and at great speed,
0:28:19 > 0:28:21but with very good reason.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26The English Jacobites had advised Charles
0:28:26 > 0:28:29that this was a good time to invade.
0:28:29 > 0:28:32King George II was out of the country.
0:28:32 > 0:28:35So too was the Duke of Cumberland's army.
0:28:35 > 0:28:38The door to London wasn't exactly wide open,
0:28:38 > 0:28:41but it had been left a little ajar.
0:28:43 > 0:28:48Charles assembled a tiny invasion force of 700 Irish mercenaries
0:28:48 > 0:28:54here on Belle Ile, a small island 15 miles off the Brittany coast.
0:28:55 > 0:28:59He chartered two ships, both privateers,
0:28:59 > 0:29:02operated by French-backed pirates.
0:29:03 > 0:29:08They set sail on 16 July, 1745,
0:29:08 > 0:29:11bound for Scotland.
0:29:12 > 0:29:14Things did not begin well.
0:29:14 > 0:29:16CANNON FIRE
0:29:16 > 0:29:20Four days out, his larger ship, the Elisabeth,
0:29:20 > 0:29:24was gravely damaged by a British warship and limped back to port.
0:29:25 > 0:29:30Charles lost his small mercenary army. He lost his cannons.
0:29:31 > 0:29:36He and his seven officers pressed on in the smaller ship, the Doutelle.
0:29:43 > 0:29:45Two weeks after leaving Belle Ile,
0:29:45 > 0:29:51on 3 August, 1745, she anchored off the Hebridean island of Eriskay.
0:29:51 > 0:29:53Look! Look over there!
0:29:54 > 0:29:56Scotland!
0:29:56 > 0:29:59His great Scottish adventure had begun.
0:30:03 > 0:30:07The reaction of the clan chiefs was mixed.
0:30:07 > 0:30:10What have you brought us here for if you cannot honour your promises?
0:30:10 > 0:30:12Where's your 10,000 French troops?
0:30:12 > 0:30:14But on the afternoon of Monday 19 August
0:30:14 > 0:30:20the 24-year-old Charles raised the Stuart colours at Glenfinnan.
0:30:22 > 0:30:271,000 clansmen, Macdonalds and Camerons, looked on.
0:30:27 > 0:30:32And two days later the Jacobite rebels set out for Edinburgh.
0:30:35 > 0:30:38They avoided General Cope's government army.
0:30:40 > 0:30:43And attracted hundreds of new recruits.
0:30:45 > 0:30:49Six weeks after landing on Eriskay, Charles arrived, unchallenged,
0:30:49 > 0:30:51in Scotland's capital.
0:30:55 > 0:30:57His appearance divided opinion.
0:30:57 > 0:31:00The city's political leaders hedged their bets,
0:31:00 > 0:31:05but Edinburgh's women were said to be captivated by the young prince.
0:31:07 > 0:31:10But Charles's focus was unwavering.
0:31:11 > 0:31:13And 400 miles to the south,
0:31:13 > 0:31:17the Hanoverian government was becoming increasingly anxious.
0:31:18 > 0:31:21The army commanded by George II's youngest son,
0:31:21 > 0:31:24the Duke of Cumberland, was recalled from Flanders.
0:31:26 > 0:31:29General Wade's army was ordered to Newcastle.
0:31:30 > 0:31:34And finally, General Cope's 2,500-man army
0:31:34 > 0:31:40sailed from Aberdeen to the east of Edinburgh and camped at Prestonpans.
0:31:41 > 0:31:44And early on the morning of 21 September, Cope's men
0:31:44 > 0:31:49were surprised by an almost equal number of Jacobite soldiers.
0:31:51 > 0:31:53300 government troops were killed
0:31:53 > 0:31:57in less than ten minutes of ferocious fighting.
0:31:59 > 0:32:03Here was proof that Charles Stuart and his Jacobite followers
0:32:03 > 0:32:07were a serious and deadly threat to the British government.
0:32:16 > 0:32:19Six weeks after their victory at Prestonpans,
0:32:19 > 0:32:25the Jacobite troops headed south, into England.
0:32:25 > 0:32:30They arrived on the outskirts of Derby on 4 December, 1745.
0:32:31 > 0:32:34They had made spectacular progress.
0:32:34 > 0:32:38They'd left Edinburgh just over a month before.
0:32:38 > 0:32:40They'd captured Carlisle,
0:32:40 > 0:32:45which Charles had entered on a white horse flanked by bagpipers.
0:32:46 > 0:32:50Next they travelled on to Preston and Manchester.
0:32:51 > 0:32:55A government spy, a man named Eliezer Birch,
0:32:55 > 0:32:58was waiting for them as they approached Derby.
0:33:00 > 0:33:04Birch had the rather clever idea of using peas to count
0:33:04 > 0:33:06the size of the Jacobite force.
0:33:06 > 0:33:11For every hundred men he placed a single pea in his pouch.
0:33:11 > 0:33:14He watched as the Jacobite cavalry approached first,
0:33:14 > 0:33:19then the foot soldiers, six or eight abreast, with bagpipes
0:33:19 > 0:33:23and men carrying the cross of St George to attract English followers.
0:33:26 > 0:33:28Birch would have needed 55 peas
0:33:28 > 0:33:32to count a force of 500 cavalry and 5,000 infantry.
0:33:34 > 0:33:38An army almost entirely composed of well-drilled
0:33:38 > 0:33:40and ferocious Highlanders.
0:33:42 > 0:33:45Charles's men had encountered little resistance,
0:33:45 > 0:33:50but had attracted almost no English recruits, and as they arrived
0:33:50 > 0:33:53in Derby on the evening of 4 December
0:33:53 > 0:33:57they were closing in on England's capital.
0:33:59 > 0:34:01This was their southern outpost,
0:34:01 > 0:34:05Swarkestone Bridge on the River Trent,
0:34:05 > 0:34:09just four or five days' march from Westminster.
0:34:09 > 0:34:13- SAT-NAV:- Distance to London, 110 miles.
0:34:14 > 0:34:19In Cambridge, Hynde Cotton buried three portraits of the Stuarts
0:34:19 > 0:34:21in case they fell into the wrong hands.
0:34:21 > 0:34:26In London there was rioting, a run on the Bank of England.
0:34:26 > 0:34:29The Hanoverian regime was in genuine danger.
0:34:32 > 0:34:34The next morning,
0:34:34 > 0:34:38Charles attended church at what's now Derby Cathedral.
0:34:38 > 0:34:42Immediately after, he and his generals held a council of war.
0:34:44 > 0:34:48Time and again, Charles was asked for evidence that English
0:34:48 > 0:34:50or French armies were on their way.
0:34:50 > 0:34:52There was none.
0:34:52 > 0:34:58Charles's military commander, Lord George Murray, was pessimistic.
0:34:58 > 0:35:01Protecting the capital, a force of 4,000 men,
0:35:01 > 0:35:05including the Grenadier Guards, was stationed at Finchley.
0:35:06 > 0:35:0980 miles north of Charles's army,
0:35:09 > 0:35:12General Wade had 6,000 men in Wetherby.
0:35:15 > 0:35:19Closer still, the Duke of Cumberland had 9,000 men in Lichfield,
0:35:19 > 0:35:22just 25 miles to the southwest.
0:35:23 > 0:35:28In total, Charles's army was outnumbered by almost four to one.
0:35:35 > 0:35:39That afternoon, Charles rode out of Derby.
0:35:39 > 0:35:43His aim was to persuade local landowners
0:35:43 > 0:35:47to pledge support, soldiers or weapons.
0:35:48 > 0:35:51The man who wanted to be Britain's king
0:35:51 > 0:35:55was reduced to cold-calling the local nobility.
0:35:57 > 0:36:00He visited the Burdetts of Foremarke Hall.
0:36:00 > 0:36:03Nothing.
0:36:03 > 0:36:06Next, the Poles of Radbourne Hall.
0:36:06 > 0:36:08Again, nothing.
0:36:10 > 0:36:14And finally the Harpurs of Calke Abbey.
0:36:14 > 0:36:15Nothing.
0:36:16 > 0:36:19Everywhere Charles was treated politely,
0:36:19 > 0:36:24but nowhere did he attract any sign of support.
0:36:25 > 0:36:29And it begs the question, what help could the landowners have given?
0:36:29 > 0:36:35100 years before, the families might have dispatched the local yeomanry,
0:36:35 > 0:36:40but now, what use gardeners, footmen, stable boys,
0:36:40 > 0:36:42against a standing professional army?
0:36:44 > 0:36:47That night, Charles returned to Derby.
0:36:47 > 0:36:50He met again with his military advisers
0:36:50 > 0:36:54and Lord George Murray spoke plainly.
0:36:54 > 0:36:57Sir, it is your council's recommendation,
0:36:57 > 0:37:01endorsed by me, that the army should retreat.
0:37:02 > 0:37:03Retreat?
0:37:04 > 0:37:06Clan Ranald.
0:37:09 > 0:37:11MacLeod.
0:37:11 > 0:37:14Will not one of you march with me on London?
0:37:16 > 0:37:19Things could have been very different.
0:37:19 > 0:37:23Charles and the clan chiefs didn't know that the French King Louis
0:37:23 > 0:37:28was planning his own 15,000-strong invasion of England
0:37:28 > 0:37:30in support of the Jacobites.
0:37:32 > 0:37:35But when Charles and his army turned back to the north,
0:37:35 > 0:37:38Louis abandoned his plans.
0:37:40 > 0:37:44The Jacobites returned the way they had come, through Manchester
0:37:44 > 0:37:47and Preston and back into Scotland,
0:37:47 > 0:37:52pursued all the way by the Duke of Cumberland's army.
0:37:52 > 0:37:56With Edinburgh now in government hands, Charles made for Glasgow.
0:37:59 > 0:38:03His army arrived on Boxing Day 1745.
0:38:04 > 0:38:08The city gates were left open and he reviewed his troops here,
0:38:08 > 0:38:11on Glasgow Green.
0:38:12 > 0:38:16When we tell the story of the Jacobites, there are certain places
0:38:16 > 0:38:19that seem woven into the fabric of that narrative.
0:38:19 > 0:38:23There's Glenfinnan, where Charles raised his standard,
0:38:23 > 0:38:26marching into Edinburgh, capturing Carlisle.
0:38:26 > 0:38:31Glasgow doesn't normally get much of a look-in. But it's important,
0:38:31 > 0:38:34because Glasgow frankly didn't care much for the Jacobites.
0:38:37 > 0:38:42The Presbyterians of 18th-century Glasgow had no religious affinity
0:38:42 > 0:38:45with the largely Episcopalian or Catholic Scottish Jacobites.
0:38:47 > 0:38:50And Glasgow wasn't looking back to a Stuart past
0:38:50 > 0:38:54when the city's tobacco lords and ship owners
0:38:54 > 0:38:58were busy making their fortunes in the Hanoverian present.
0:38:58 > 0:39:02One of the biggest misconceptions about the Jacobites in 1745
0:39:02 > 0:39:05is the extreme popularity with which they were met.
0:39:05 > 0:39:07They were not.
0:39:07 > 0:39:11In fact, there was great resistance throughout all towns,
0:39:11 > 0:39:16and especially those with... something to lose.
0:39:16 > 0:39:19Economy was booming in Glasgow.
0:39:19 > 0:39:23And the Jacobite threat was something that would unseat
0:39:23 > 0:39:24everything that they had built.
0:39:26 > 0:39:29Most people didn't want to be bothered.
0:39:29 > 0:39:31They were settling into the Union,
0:39:31 > 0:39:34they were happier than they had been in many, many years.
0:39:36 > 0:39:40Charles left Glasgow on 3rd January 1746.
0:39:40 > 0:39:44Two weeks later, his troops defeated a Hanoverian army at Falkirk,
0:39:44 > 0:39:46and then withdrew further north.
0:39:48 > 0:39:52The Duke of Cumberland continued the pursuit.
0:39:52 > 0:39:57His British government army contained three Scottish infantry regiments.
0:39:57 > 0:40:00And on 16th April, at Culloden,
0:40:00 > 0:40:07Cumberland's troops put the exhausted Jacobite army to the sword.
0:40:07 > 0:40:121,500 of Charles's 5,000 men were killed or wounded.
0:40:14 > 0:40:19The bells of Glasgow Cathedral rang out in celebration.
0:40:19 > 0:40:21The Jacobites had been defeated.
0:40:21 > 0:40:25Contemporary accounts talked of the general drinking of health
0:40:25 > 0:40:27and bonfires in every street.
0:40:27 > 0:40:30BELLS TOLL
0:40:30 > 0:40:34Reaction to the battle divided Scotland.
0:40:34 > 0:40:39The Highlanders paid a heavy price for Charles's rebellion.
0:40:39 > 0:40:44Their language, their culture, even their kilts were outlawed.
0:40:44 > 0:40:48As for Charles, he disappeared into the heather.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52He spent five months in the wilds of northwest Scotland,
0:40:52 > 0:40:57hunted by government forces, then rescued by a French warship.
0:41:01 > 0:41:05Charles arrived back in France as quite possibly the most famous man
0:41:05 > 0:41:11in Europe. He had tried to regain the Stuarts' crown, and he'd failed.
0:41:11 > 0:41:14But he was only 25 - he could always try again.
0:41:15 > 0:41:19In Paris, Charles was reunited with
0:41:19 > 0:41:22his younger, deeply religious brother - Henry.
0:41:26 > 0:41:30The pair were lavishly entertained by King Louis,
0:41:30 > 0:41:34who proposed that they should live here, at the Chateau de Vincennes.
0:41:34 > 0:41:36And straight away,
0:41:36 > 0:41:42Charles wrote to Louis asking for military support. 18-20,000 men.
0:41:43 > 0:41:48Charles described his recent Scottish adventures as "a setback".
0:41:48 > 0:41:50It couldn't be clearer - he wanted to try again.
0:41:52 > 0:41:54OPERATIC SINGING
0:41:55 > 0:41:59And to succeed, he needed French popular support.
0:42:01 > 0:42:06On the 28th October 1746, he came to the Paris Opera.
0:42:11 > 0:42:15The audience expected arias and sopranos.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18Instead, they got The Young Pretender.
0:42:20 > 0:42:22APPLAUSE
0:42:23 > 0:42:28The audience erupted into rapturous, wild cheering.
0:42:28 > 0:42:32Charles found himself making more bows than any of the performers.
0:42:32 > 0:42:36For the young prince, this was a magical moment of appreciation.
0:42:40 > 0:42:44He distributed medals and maps of his British exploits.
0:42:44 > 0:42:47Again, he won over the French public,
0:42:47 > 0:42:53but his relationship with the French king steadily withered.
0:42:53 > 0:42:57Louis reneged on his offer of a palace.
0:42:57 > 0:42:59And when the French king
0:42:59 > 0:43:03offered Charles a royal pension, he refused it.
0:43:03 > 0:43:07Charles was losing the favour of his most important ally.
0:43:08 > 0:43:12And he was about to lose someone closer still.
0:43:13 > 0:43:18In April 1747, Charles was invited to dinner by his brother.
0:43:18 > 0:43:22He arrived to find Henry's servants ready to serve the meal,
0:43:22 > 0:43:25but of Henry, there was no sign.
0:43:25 > 0:43:28Charles waited and waited.
0:43:31 > 0:43:34For three whole days, he heard nothing.
0:43:36 > 0:43:39Until a letter from Henry arrived.
0:43:41 > 0:43:44The dinner invitation had been a ruse.
0:43:44 > 0:43:48His younger brother had secretly departed from Paris.
0:43:48 > 0:43:50He was travelling back to Rome.
0:43:52 > 0:43:56Henry Stuart, supported by his father James,
0:43:56 > 0:44:01was giving up the Stuart cause to become a cardinal.
0:44:01 > 0:44:05Charles' brother had never seemed likely to have children,
0:44:05 > 0:44:10to preserve the Stuart line. But here was the final word.
0:44:10 > 0:44:15Charles was furious, and severed all contact with his father and brother.
0:44:15 > 0:44:20The future of the Stuart dynasty now rested entirely on him.
0:44:20 > 0:44:24A single assassin's bullet could end everything.
0:44:27 > 0:44:29Worse was to follow.
0:44:29 > 0:44:34The War of the Austrian Succession ended in 1740,
0:44:34 > 0:44:37with the peace treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.
0:44:37 > 0:44:41The terms of that treaty obliged the French state
0:44:41 > 0:44:44to evict Charles Stuart from their territory.
0:44:44 > 0:44:47Increasingly drunken, promiscuous,
0:44:47 > 0:44:51Charles ignored King Louis's repeated demands to leave France.
0:44:54 > 0:44:57He knew he was in genuine danger.
0:44:59 > 0:45:03On 10th December, he headed once again to the opera,
0:45:03 > 0:45:06the scene of his great popular acclaim just over a year earlier.
0:45:10 > 0:45:13His carriage approached the gates of the opera house...
0:45:15 > 0:45:18..as an army of 1,200 men prepared to receive him.
0:45:20 > 0:45:22A sergeant came up to Charles and kneed him...
0:45:24 > 0:45:25..in the back.
0:45:25 > 0:45:30He was disarmed, he was arrested, his hands and feet were bound.
0:45:30 > 0:45:33Just like a common criminal.
0:45:33 > 0:45:38He was transported back to familiar ground - the Chateau des Vincennes.
0:45:40 > 0:45:43This was part of the palace that Louis had offered him
0:45:43 > 0:45:45as a residence just two years earlier.
0:45:45 > 0:45:49Then, Charles had been the darling of France and feted across Europe.
0:45:49 > 0:45:52Now, he was heading for the palace dungeon
0:45:52 > 0:45:54as a prisoner of the French state.
0:45:54 > 0:45:56CELL DOOR SLAMS
0:45:56 > 0:45:57KEYS JINGLE
0:46:01 > 0:46:05So this is the cell to which Charles was brought.
0:46:05 > 0:46:08Just a simple bed and chair, and very small.
0:46:08 > 0:46:11"Ce n'est pas magnifique," he said.
0:46:11 > 0:46:13It was far from magnificent.
0:46:13 > 0:46:15He wasn't the first occupant.
0:46:18 > 0:46:21There had clearly been a priest incarcerated here before.
0:46:26 > 0:46:29It was all a far cry from what he was used to.
0:46:32 > 0:46:36Brought up in the gracious splendour of Roman palazzi,
0:46:36 > 0:46:40this small cell was the nadir of his fortunes.
0:46:43 > 0:46:47The next morning, Charles agreed to leave France.
0:46:50 > 0:46:54What followed was the start of Charles's slow descent into
0:46:54 > 0:46:58drink, debauchery and political obscurity.
0:46:58 > 0:47:03He flitted around different European cities, but no-one wanted him.
0:47:03 > 0:47:05Then, in the summer of 1750,
0:47:05 > 0:47:10he showed once again that he had not lost the power to surprise.
0:47:10 > 0:47:14He travelled, in disguise, to London.
0:47:24 > 0:47:27The 29-year-old Charles paid his first visit
0:47:27 > 0:47:31to England's capital in September 1750.
0:47:32 > 0:47:34The trip was shrouded in secrecy,
0:47:34 > 0:47:38but included a spying mission to the Tower of London.
0:47:41 > 0:47:47Five years after his march on London, Charles was now clutching at straws.
0:47:47 > 0:47:50He became central to a series of plots, involving -
0:47:50 > 0:47:51as each unfolded -
0:47:51 > 0:47:57French, Swedish, Prussian and Scottish Highland troops.
0:47:57 > 0:48:02It was all rather far-flung, desperate...sad, even.
0:48:04 > 0:48:08Charles met a group of English Jacobites.
0:48:08 > 0:48:12Hynde Cotton had died the year before.
0:48:12 > 0:48:16Charles attempted to win the support of those who remained.
0:48:16 > 0:48:17But he didn't.
0:48:17 > 0:48:20The English Jacobites said that they had no money,
0:48:20 > 0:48:24that they were spied upon, that they couldn't raise men.
0:48:24 > 0:48:27Just what they had told him five years before.
0:48:27 > 0:48:29Nothing had changed.
0:48:29 > 0:48:33But Charles himself was about to make a seismic change.
0:48:35 > 0:48:38The man who had been brought up in the heart of Catholic Rome,
0:48:38 > 0:48:42who'd been given an honour guard by the Pope...
0:48:42 > 0:48:44had decided to become a Protestant.
0:48:46 > 0:48:50Can we tell anything about Charles's religiosity
0:48:50 > 0:48:55or Charles the man in connection with this decision to convert?
0:48:55 > 0:48:57I think not very much.
0:48:57 > 0:48:59All the evidence suggests that
0:48:59 > 0:49:02Charles was essentially a freethinker,
0:49:02 > 0:49:06someone who had very little in the way of religious belief.
0:49:06 > 0:49:10Has debauchery was the topic of a lot of conversation
0:49:10 > 0:49:14in Catholic circles. It was a concern in Catholic circles.
0:49:14 > 0:49:17The general view is that Charles was engaged in
0:49:17 > 0:49:20a very cynical publicity exercise that therefore
0:49:20 > 0:49:22actually brought him no benefit at all.
0:49:24 > 0:49:28Charles left London after just one week.
0:49:28 > 0:49:32Any lingering hopes of the Stuart restoration faded as the months
0:49:32 > 0:49:38and years went by. But he and his family would have one last chance.
0:49:38 > 0:49:42In 1756, Britain declared war on France.
0:49:51 > 0:49:55Three years into what would come to be called The Seven Years' War,
0:49:55 > 0:49:56the French were losing.
0:49:58 > 0:50:01They needed a new plan.
0:50:01 > 0:50:05The French Foreign Minister, Etienne du Choiseul,
0:50:05 > 0:50:07proposed an invasion of England.
0:50:10 > 0:50:13100,000 French troops would be carried across the Channel
0:50:13 > 0:50:15in a fleet of flat-bottomed boats.
0:50:17 > 0:50:21De Choiseul invited Charles Stuart to talk about this project
0:50:21 > 0:50:23here at his home in central Paris.
0:50:23 > 0:50:27This meeting gave Charles
0:50:27 > 0:50:31and the Jacobite cause a chance to piggyback the French invasion.
0:50:31 > 0:50:35Charles was broke, an alcoholic,
0:50:35 > 0:50:39flitting between cheap houses with his mistress Clementina.
0:50:39 > 0:50:42They had one child, Charlotte.
0:50:45 > 0:50:48But now, here was the prospect of the French army
0:50:48 > 0:50:52he had longed for in the winter of 1745.
0:50:53 > 0:50:58Charles arrived for the meeting on 5th February, 1759.
0:50:58 > 0:51:01He was late, he was drunk.
0:51:01 > 0:51:05He was asked to lead the supporting invasion of Scotland,
0:51:05 > 0:51:07or Ireland if he preferred.
0:51:07 > 0:51:10Charles refused. It was England or nothing.
0:51:14 > 0:51:19De Choiseul was not best pleased.
0:51:21 > 0:51:25The French fleet of flat-bottomed boats intended to carry
0:51:25 > 0:51:29the invasion force was brought together here, at Quiberon Bay.
0:51:31 > 0:51:34Charles had no guarantees.
0:51:34 > 0:51:38He had a profound and not unreasonable distrust of the French.
0:51:39 > 0:51:43Yet it was a great chance, probably his best ever chance,
0:51:43 > 0:51:45and probably also his last chance.
0:51:46 > 0:51:48Yet he didn't show up.
0:51:51 > 0:51:54In the end, it hardly mattered.
0:51:54 > 0:51:56The French warships that were to
0:51:56 > 0:51:57escort the invasion fleet
0:51:57 > 0:52:00set sail from Brest on 14th November,
0:52:00 > 0:52:02bound for Quiberon Bay.
0:52:04 > 0:52:06Six days later, they were attacked
0:52:06 > 0:52:09and defeated by a Royal Navy fleet
0:52:09 > 0:52:11under the command of Admiral Edward Hawke.
0:52:13 > 0:52:19The Jacobite cause hadn't died at Culloden in 1746.
0:52:19 > 0:52:23It died 13 years later, somewhere over there,
0:52:23 > 0:52:27at the Battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759.
0:52:28 > 0:52:33Charles's life continued along the same sad trajectory.
0:52:35 > 0:52:40His mistress, Clementina, sought sanctuary in a Paris convent,
0:52:40 > 0:52:42just as his mother had done.
0:52:42 > 0:52:48And in December 1765, news arrived from Rome that his father,
0:52:48 > 0:52:51James, was gravely ill.
0:52:59 > 0:53:02James Stuart, The Old Pretender,
0:53:02 > 0:53:05died on 1st January, 1756.
0:53:06 > 0:53:11Charles arrived in Rome three weeks later, after a 22-year absence.
0:53:14 > 0:53:18When he reached the Piazza dei Santi Apostoli,
0:53:18 > 0:53:21his brother had choreographed a crowd to chant "viva il Re!" -
0:53:21 > 0:53:24"long live the King!"
0:53:24 > 0:53:25But he wasn't the king.
0:53:25 > 0:53:27After long consideration,
0:53:27 > 0:53:30Pope Clement XIII had refused to recognise Charles
0:53:30 > 0:53:32as his father's successor.
0:53:35 > 0:53:40Across the square, the Stuart family home had once been bedecked with
0:53:40 > 0:53:41the English royal coat of arms.
0:53:43 > 0:53:45It was gone.
0:53:46 > 0:53:50Charles was not a king and this was no longer a king's palace.
0:53:55 > 0:53:58Charles sought consolation with a daily diet
0:53:58 > 0:54:00of six bottles of Cyprus wine.
0:54:02 > 0:54:05He married the young Princess Louise, who like his mother
0:54:05 > 0:54:08and mistress before would escape to a convent.
0:54:15 > 0:54:18The final years were truly dreadful.
0:54:18 > 0:54:23The man who had once been Bonnie Prince Charlie now had elephantiasis
0:54:23 > 0:54:27in his leg, which was hideously swollen with sores and open wounds.
0:54:27 > 0:54:30He also had terrible piles and ulcers
0:54:30 > 0:54:32and was in permanent pain.
0:54:37 > 0:54:42He died on 31st January, 1788,
0:54:42 > 0:54:48in the very palace where he had been born 67 years before.
0:54:53 > 0:54:56Charles had no legitimate children.
0:54:56 > 0:54:58His one illegitimate daughter, Charlotte,
0:54:58 > 0:55:01outlived her father by only a year.
0:55:03 > 0:55:07The direct Stuart line continued on until 1807
0:55:07 > 0:55:10in the form of Cardinal Henry Stuart.
0:55:10 > 0:55:13This was his church.
0:55:15 > 0:55:19Like his elder brother, Henry's life ended in turmoil.
0:55:20 > 0:55:24At the age of 72, he lost his fortune and income
0:55:24 > 0:55:28when Napoleon's French army sacked Rome.
0:55:30 > 0:55:35In his final years, he was awarded a pension by the Hanoverian king,
0:55:35 > 0:55:36George III.
0:55:40 > 0:55:43Of the many memorials to the Stuarts,
0:55:43 > 0:55:46the most important is here...
0:55:46 > 0:55:49in the very heart of the Catholic world.
0:55:49 > 0:55:52St Peter's Basilica, in the Vatican.
0:56:03 > 0:56:07In death and in exile, James, Charles and Henry
0:56:07 > 0:56:13were granted the regal status they were denied in life.
0:56:13 > 0:56:18Their fate had always been in the hands of Europe's great powers,
0:56:18 > 0:56:22but their legacy would be strongest in the country
0:56:22 > 0:56:25they had fought for but hardly knew.
0:56:34 > 0:56:37Lot number three,
0:56:37 > 0:56:40a finely presented lock of Bonnie Prince Charlie's hair.
0:56:40 > 0:56:44£4,200.
0:56:44 > 0:56:49Relics of The Young Pretender up for sale to the highest bidder.
0:56:49 > 0:56:5431, 32 is back in, next bid is 34,000.
0:56:54 > 0:56:55At 32,000...
0:56:59 > 0:57:03For two-and-a-half centuries, Scotland has been fascinated by
0:57:03 > 0:57:06the rise and fall of the Stuarts
0:57:06 > 0:57:09and their dashing and much-lamented prince.
0:57:10 > 0:57:15# Will ye no' come back again
0:57:15 > 0:57:20# Will ye no' come back again? #
0:57:21 > 0:57:26From Walter Scott to Kenneth McKellar, and on to the present day,
0:57:26 > 0:57:30the powerful and romantic image of the Stuarts
0:57:30 > 0:57:33presents a Scotland that never quite happened.
0:57:35 > 0:57:37Charles didn't come back again.
0:57:37 > 0:57:40And there's little doubt about who actually won
0:57:40 > 0:57:44the great dynastic battle of the 18th century.
0:57:45 > 0:57:48The success of the Hanoverian Dynasty
0:57:48 > 0:57:51is written large in Edinburgh's New Town.
0:57:52 > 0:57:55In the end, the Hanoverians gave Scotland
0:57:55 > 0:57:58and Britain what most people wanted.
0:57:58 > 0:58:02Industry, empire, stability and money.
0:58:04 > 0:58:06But a lot of what-ifs remain.
0:58:06 > 0:58:10Not just, "What if the Jacobite army had marched south from Derby?"
0:58:12 > 0:58:15Exactly how different would a Jacobite Britain have been?
0:58:17 > 0:58:23What of Britain's empire? Of its religion? Of its government?
0:58:25 > 0:58:30Three centuries later, these questions of how we are ruled
0:58:30 > 0:58:34and from where still haven't quite gone away.