Find out how the Jacobite cause went from riches to ruin with the National Museum of Scotland
Words DAVID FORSYTH
Pettie’s Portrait
This portrait is perhaps the archetypal image of the dashing, romantic figure of Bonnie Prince Charlie, depicted here entering the ballroom at Holyrood Palace for a grand function. Bonnie Prince Charlie has become the charismatic historic symbol and figurehead of the Jacobite movement, but, in fact, Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Sylvester Maria Stuart – to give him his full name – was born and died in Rome. He spent less than 14 months in Scotland.
This painting was created more than 100 years after Charles’ death and the ball in question never happened – the scene is actually from Sir Walter Scott’s 1848 novel, Waverley. The way in which the Jacobite movement was romanticised, even from the late 18th century and certainly through the Victorian era, continues to colour the way we think about it today, inspiring as it has numerous representations in art and fiction from Scott’s writings through to Outlander.
The story is often seen solely through the prism of Charles Edward Stuart and the events of 1745-46, and is often (wrongly) characterised as a fight between the Scots and the English, the Catholics and the Protestants. The truth is far more complex and layered – the ’45 was, in fact, the last of five Jacobite challenges for the throne over a 70-year period from 1689.
The thing about calling Charles ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’ is not that he wasn’t ‘bonnie’ – by all accounts, he was – but that you lose that key word: Stuart. Charles came in 1745 not for Scotland and not for himself. He came to reclaim the thrones of Scotland, England and Ireland for his father, James Francis Stuart – or James VIII & III, as he was recognised by France, Spain and the Papacy.
Our exhibition starts with the Pettie painting in order to present the visitor with that ‘shortbread tin’ image before we go back to where it all began to establish the roots of the Stuart claim.
Charles I’s coronation ampulla
The Stuarts were divine right monarchs, believing themselves appointed by and answerable only to God. This ampulla was used to pour the holy oil at the Scottish coronation of Charles I. Famously and somewhat brutally, Charles discovered the limits of his divine mandate when he was executed at the end of the English Civil War.
The Restoration of the Monarchy and the return of the Stuarts to the throne after the Commonwealth in 1660 saw the accession of Charles II, who died without a legitimate male heir in 1685 and so was succeeded by his younger brother, James VII & II.
James VI & I portrait
When the crowns of Scotland and England were united in 1603, it was under a
