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| Charlie is my right ugly Italian
alcoholic |
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The romantic myth of the "Young
Pretender" as a heroic and wronged Prince, adventuring
against the evil usurpers to claim the throne that was rightfully
his Father's, is frankly a lot of bollocks and belongs on
the side of oatcake tins rather than in the annals of history.
The Jacobite Rebellion
of 1745 that was sparked by his arrival on these shores
was doomed to fail from the start and would never have happened
had our Charlie not been so pig-headed and arrogant in his
belief that "his people" wanted him.
The simple truth was
that most people, including "his" people, did
not.
The
Stuarts were Catholic. By now, most of the country, with
the exception of the Highlands, was Protestant.
Nearly 60 years had passed since the overthrow of the Stuart dynasty and the expulsion of Charles' grandfather, King James, by the Protestant Prince William of Orange. For the first time in a
long time, the country was at peace. Nobody wanted another
CivilWar. Especially one they could never hope to win.
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| Flora McDonald - helped Charlie
to escape to prevent the English using him to
embarrass the Scots if they captured him |
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Charlie ignored all the
warnings and all the evidence and pressed on regardless.
That
he was able to gain the support of the Clans was more a
matter of honour and loyalty than of common sense or any
real belief in his cause. The Chiefs knew that they were
committing suicide, but, unable to convince the Prince of
his folly, rallied to his Standard regardless.
The end result of his
arrogance was ,
and the extermination of the clan system forever.
If
you've ever seen the David Niven movie version of Bonnie
Prince Charlie, forget it. Charles was an effeminate ponce
who spoke not a word of his native Scots. He spoke and behaved
Italian, which is to say that he was more suited to mincing
around the masked balls of Milan than marching the mountains
of Moidart.
He
threw childish tantrums when his Generals disagreed with
him, which was often.
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| Another English thesp does
"Jock" |
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He was a spoilt brat,
used to getting his own way, and who, dangerously, believed
in the Divine Right of Kings, even though he wasn't one
yet.
In
spite of the fact that a reward of £30,000, a lottery-winning
sum of money in those days, was offered for information
leading to his capture, not one Highlander ever came forward
to betray their Prince. Nearly all who helped in his escape
were either imprisoned or executed. And "his"
people would be persecuted thenceforth to virtual extinction.
Charles'
thanks for such unwavering loyalty and sacrifice was to
blame his treacherous "mountaineers" for the failure
of the rebellion until his dying day.
He
died in Rome in 1788, a fat, shambling, bloated and bitter
alcoholic.
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