Charles Edward Stuart: The Life and Times of Bonnie Prince Charlie

by David Daiches

Why did Charles Edward Stuart become one of the great romantic figures of history, a familiar name even to those who know nothing of his curious career? His ambitious project was frustrated, his accomplishment nil. The whole adventure lasted fourteen months from 1745 to 1746, and was followed by forty years of restless exile and degeneration, during which Charles wandered from one Continental place of exile to another. He is the prime example of a hero of a lost cause, a personality virtually created by Scottish nostalgia for a kingdom that had vanished, for a past that had been romanticized, for a leader to re-establish a nationalist sense of identity, unity and power.

Genres: History, Biography

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

David Daiches was a Scottish literary historian and literary critic, scholar and writer. He wrote extensively on English literature, Scottish literature and Scottish culture.

He was born in Sunderland, into a Jewish family with a Lithuanian background - the subject of his 1956 memoir, Two Worlds: An Edinburgh Jewish Childhood. He moved to Edinburgh while still a young child, about the end of World War I, where his father, Rev. Dr. Salis Daiches was rabbi to Edinburgh's Jewish community. He studied at George Watson's College and won a scholarship to University of Edinburgh where he won the Elliot prize. He went to Oxford where he became the Elton exhibitioner, and was elected Fellow of Balliol College in 1936.

During World War II, he worked for the British Embassy in Washington, DC, producing pamphlets for the British Information Service and drafting speeches on British institutions and foreign policy.

Daiches' first published work was The Place of Meaning in Poetry, published in 1935. He was a prolific writer, producing works on English literature, Scottish literature, literary history and criticism as well as the broader role of literature in society and culture.

Daiches was the father of Jenni Calder, also a Scottish literary historian.

Reviews

[₵oincidental Ðandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the depth of research is undeniably admirable, it does not make it the liveliest of books. The most interesting part of the book is that which relates to Charles Edward's years of exile on the Continent. Still, those whose interest lies in (the minutiae of) military history will surely find it livelier than I have.

[Jud Barry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daiches renders a clear portrait of the Young Pretender. He threw caution to the winds only to be crushed, but he engraved himself on the Scottish memory by his daring and his embrace of his followers, particularly those who had the most to lose (he sang to them to lighten the shared misery of the flight after Culloden; later, in Rome, at the end of his life, a recollection of those who had sacrificed on his behalf caused him to collapse in a fit). Notes: "Charlie" is not the diminutive of "Charles" but the pronunciation of its Gaelic equivalent "Tearlach;" he played both cello and bagpipes; tunes of his career: "The king shall enjoy his own again" and "Lochaber no more."

[Ken Sampson · Rating 4 out of 5]

[27 Nov 1998] An interesting and informative read.

[Kevin Baird · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daiches offers an elegantly-written biography of the legendary Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobite movement more broadly. Drawing throughout on primary sources, Daiches recounts the (mis)fortunes of the Stuarts from the Glorious Revolution to the end of the line. Appropriately, he spends the bulk of the book recounting the events of the Forty-Five, by far the most adventurous period in Charles' life and the source of the fascination many retain for him. The accounts of pivotal events such as Culloden are clear and gripping; the portraits of characters such as Lord George Murray and the Young Pretender himself are discerning.