Bonnie Prince Charlie

by Fitzroy Maclean

This biography portrays the Young Pretender's struggle to rally the clans and restore a Stuart monarch to the British throne. How he nearly succeeded in changing the course of British history is told, as are the accounts of the 1745 Rising and the massacre at Culloden. Prince Charlie's subsequent adventures in France and Italy, until his eventual death in Rome over 40 years later, are also covered. Sir Fitzroy MacLean is the author of "Eastern Approaches".

Genres: History, Scotland, Biography, Nonfiction

386 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1988

About the author

Major General Fitzroy Hew Royle Maclean, Bt, KT, CBE.

Graduate of Eton and subsequently King's College, University of Cambridge. Joined the Diplomatic Service in 1932. Posted to Paris from 1933-1937 and then the British Embassy to Moscow from 1937-1941.

Veteran of WWII. In 1941, he chose to enlist as a private in the Cameron Highlanders, but was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant the same year. He was one of the earliest members of the elite SAS. By the end of the war, had risen to the rank of Brigadier. Maclean wrote several books, including Eastern Approaches, in which he recounted three extraordinary series of adventures: traveling, often incognito, in Soviet Central Asia; fighting in the Western Desert Campaign (1941-1943), where he specialized in commando raids (with the Special Air Service Regiment) behind enemy lines; and living rough with Josip Broz Tito and his Yugoslav Partisans. It has been widely speculated that Ian Fleming used Maclean as one of his inspirations for James Bond.

Unionist Party (Scotland) member of Parliament (MP) from 1941-1974.

Awarded a baronetcy, becoming 1st Baronet, Maclean of Strachur and Glensluain. Invested a Knight of the Order of the Thistle (KT). Appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). Recipient of the Croix de Guerre (France), the Order of Kutuzov (Soviet Union), the Order of the Partisan Star (Yugoslavia), and, posthumously, the Order of Prince Branimir (Croatia).

Reviews

[Czarny Pies · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Bonnie Prince Charlie” is rather humdrum book about a non-entity written by a much greater man than its subject matter. Despite the thorough research and great intelligence of the author it is likely to disappoint most readers. Fitzroy MacLean’s book is strictly a biography with no exposition or detail on eighteenth-century European diplomacy, the social base of the Jacobite movement or politics in the British Isles which is a serious problem for the North American reader. It does not glorify Bonnie Prince Charlie which will offend another class of reader. Its criticisms of the pretender of the crown of England however persistent are very muted which will annoy those like Diana Gabaldon who view him as a profoundly negative figure.
Bonnie Prince Charlie was an alcoholic, a philanderer and a wife-beater. He was vain, arrogant, spendthrift, intellectually shallow and profoundly self-centered. As a leader, however, he was daring and courageous. His great problem was that he did not know which individuals and what information to trust. Obsessed with recovering the throne of England, he was indifferent to the wishes of the Jacobite clan leaders who would have been happy with an independent Scotland with a Stuart king. Blessed by a series of incompetent British commanders, he won all his battles until Culloden. Unfortunately, at Culloden, the British finally had a competent leader. Bonnie Prince Charlie’s one defeat proved to be so catastrophic that it wiped out his army and political base.
MacLean, a very proud Scot, notes in his introduction that some of his ancestors had supported the Jacobite cause. It is not, however, his birthplace but his career that makes MacLean such a great biographer of Bonnie Prince Charlie. Most notably, during World War II Maclean travelled with Joseph Broz (a.k.a. Tito) two years behind enemy lines co-ordinating British aid to the Yugoslavian partisans in their fight with the Germans. This experience perhaps allowed MacLean to so vividly recreate the atmosphere of a war fought on the run, in hostile territory. It likely also affected MacLean’s view of Bonnie Prince Charlie as it gave MacLean the view of a truly outstanding leader. In his other writings, MacLean has described Tito as a man who inspired loyalty, was able to compromise, knew what could be believed and who could be trusted. MacLean makes it very clear that these were qualities that Bonne Prince Charlie emphatically did not have.
MacLean never states that Bonnie Prince Charlie was wrong to try to restore the Stuart monarchy or that he was doomed to fail in advance. Garibaldi took a huge risk in invading Sicily with 1000 men but he still toppled the Bourbon monarchy of Naples nonetheless. Mussolini’s march on Rome was a risky endeavour. Napoleon III made a foolish attempt to invade France from England but survived and later restored the Bonaparte empire. Bonnie Prince Charlie failed not because reckless men always fail but because he lacked the brains, mortal fortitude and luck needed to pull his daring project off.
MacLean provides a thorough and carefully pondered view of Bonnie Prince Charlie. I personally prefer the lurid and inaccurate version of Diana Gabaldon but feel nonetheless that MacLean’s opinion deserves a hearing.

[Bernard Madsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderfully written - a great book - a great read.

[Grizzly Lumberjacks · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book the more surprising because it was written not by an academic/historian but a soldier and true hero.

[Sean Helms · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good informative book about the prince. Overall, I consider it a better version with more nuggets of information that others did not possess. It seemed as though this author did more research on his subject and it was obvious for me to see.

[Susan Grimshaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent biography of the Young Pretender, well researched, straightforward and readable and by no means glossing over Charles's faults and failings.