The Hebrides were the scene for an episode in Scottish history which combined both drama and romance. It revolved around the "Young Pretender" Charles Edward Stuart, also affectionately known to
Scots as "Bonnie Prince Charlie". As a descendent of Mary Stuart he sought to reclaim the throne that his grandfather James II had lost. The handsome, Italian educated prince described by his contemporaries as
warm hearted and bold, resolved to do battle for the Stuarts and win back the lost throne. After repeated setbacks Charles Edward Stuart finally disembarked from the French frigate "Du Tellay" onto the stony shores of
the Hebridean island of Eriskay on July 23rd 1745. Within a few weeks the blond haired charismatic pretender had mobilised the Scottish clans into an army which was to challenge and defeat the English at Prestonpans on
September 21st 1745. A little later "Bonnie Prince Charlie", who was proclaimed by his father as James VIII the king of Scotland, triumphantly entered Edinburgh wearing a kilt, while cockade and star of St.Andrew. To
the jubilation of the Highlanders, Scotland was back under Jacobite rule. In November of the same year the Prince Regent set off with his supporters to march on London. But shortly before reaching his destination his
luck ran out. Desertions, home sickness and the desire of many clansmen to be home for the harvest depleted the Jacobite army and they were obliged to return to Scotland. The escapade ended in disaster on the marshy
soil of Drumossie Moors near Culloden on April 16th 1746.
Charles Edward, now with a price of 30.000 pounds on his head he was forced to flee and wandered for months through the tough terrain of the Scottish Highlands. The popular hero
only survived this period thanks to the loyalty of his supporters and many legends have sprung up surrounding their acts of bravery. He eventually reached South Uist, an island in the
Outer Hebrides. He would almost certainly have been captured there had it not been for a 24 year old farmers daughter by the name of Flora MacDonald. She disguised him as Betty Burke
her servant girl and managed to smuggle him through the English lines and onto a French boat at Skye. Whether this was done out of love or compassion is not clear. The end of the adventure
took place in Portree on July 1st 1746 and the event was marked by the gift of a lock of hair to his savior, to whom he uttered these oft-quoted parting words "For all that has happened,
I hope, Madam, we shall meet at St.James' (Palace in London). I will reward you there for what you have done". Sadly the prince was not able to fulfill his promise and in the same year
was forced to exile in Rome where he died with his ambitions unfulfilled. In the meantime Flora MacDonald was imprisoned for eight months in the Tower of London
for high treason. After her release she returned to Skye but in 1773 emigrated to North Carolina with her husband Alan MacDonald and their seven children. She returned to Skye
five years before her death. Wrapped in the sheet on which the fleeing pretender had once rested, Flora was buried in the graveyard at Kilmuir on March 4th 1790. Her much visited
gravestone bears the words of Dr Samuel Johnston: "Her name will be mentioned in history and, if courage and loyalty are virtues, held in high esteem".
This romantic but sad tale lives on in Scotland - mainly on the island of Skye where part of this tale was enacted - in songs and ballads, and those places where the famous events took
place are assured of a long lasting place in history books. The same is true of South Uist where Flora MacDonald was born, the small island of Eriskay a little further south where
Bonnie Prince Charlie first set foot on Scottish soil and Loch nan Uamh Bay near Arisaig where the defeated prince escaped to France on the inappropriately named "L'Heureux" on September 20th 1746. |
