The Royal Stuarts: A History of the Family That Shaped Britain

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The Royal Stuarts: A History of the Family That Shaped Britain Page 39

by Allan Massie


  18 The story of Charles’s miserable marriage is well told by Maclean, op. cit., unsympathetically by Kybett, op. cit.

  19 Hamilton would have his own matrimonial troubles when his wife Emma became Admiral Nelson’s mistress. He was however a more accommodating cuckold than Charles Edward.

  Envoi

  1 Queen Victoria, Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands, quoted by Eric Linklater, The Royal House of Scotland (Macmillan, London, 1970; Sphere Books, 1972).

  2 Compton Mackenzie, The Four Winds of Love (Chatto & Windus).

  3 Ian Mortimer, Edward III: The Perfect King (Jonathan Cape, 2006).

  4 Collins Encyclopedia of Scotland (HarperCollins, 1994).

  Notes on Further Reading

  This book has been a long time in the making, for I have been reading about the Stuarts since I was a child. My introduction to Stuart history was by way of Scott’s Tales of a Grandfather, cited in the text, and by various of the Waverley novels in which members of the family feature. Among them are The Fair Maid of Perth, The Fortunes of Nigel, The Tales of Old Mortality, Waverley itself and my own favourite, Redgauntlet. If anything in this book sends readers back to Scott’s novels and to his narrative poem Marmion, with its splendid description of the Flodden campaign, they will be well rewarded and I shall be satisfied. Scott is the greatest of historical novelists and all who write about seventeenth-and eighteenth-century Scottish history are in his debt.

  As readers will have recognised, this book makes no pretence to be a work of academic history, though I am grateful to many academic historians, and many of the books I have used are listed in the Notes and Sources section. Agnes Mure Mackenzie’s The Rise of the Stewarts has been superseded by modern historians. It remains, however, a mine of information and entertainment, while her portraits of the Stewart kings are intelligently sympathetic. There are modern academic biographies of all the Jameses, one of the best of which is Norman MacDougall’s James IV. For a briefer and sometimes highly critical survey, I would refer readers to Gordon Donaldson’s Scottish Kings.

  Mary, Queen of Scots, has been the subject of innumerable biographies, besides novels, plays and films. Among the novels, I remember as a boy enjoying Margaret Irwin’s The Gay Galliard, which takes an unusually generous view of its hero, Mary’s third husband, Bothwell. Some recent writers, notably Professor Jenny Wormald, have been sharply critical to the point of outright hostility. However, Antonia Fraser’s life of the queen, though now forty years old, remains to my mind the fullest, most sympathetic and intelligent book about, in the words of her publisher’s advertisement, ‘the most tragic and romantic figure in British history’. In general, I think she gets Mary right, and I owe much to her work.

  Readers will realise that I take a warmer view of James VI and I than many who have written about that odd but able character; indeed, this is one subject on which I part company with Scott, even while relishing his portrait of the king in The Fortunes of Nigel. There is also a very good biography of James by David Harris Wilson.

  I have named many of the books I have used for Charles I and the Civil War in my notes. Modern historians have covered the ground thoroughly, but for the general reader I would still recommend C. V. Wedgewood’s three volumes: The King’s Peace, The King’s War and The Trial of Charles I. I would also draw attention to my friend Trevor Royle’s The War of the Three Kingdoms as an excellent survey intended also for the common reader. The best contemporary source remains Clarendon’s History of the Great Rebellion, rich in perceptive character sketches.

  As a boy, I was once given Arthur Bryant’s Charles II as a history prize. It is doubtless far too indulgent and uncritical, but I revelled in it, and so remain grateful to him. Anyone who wishes to come to a fuller understanding of that charming but shifty character should read Hester W. Chapman’s The Tragedy of Charles II. Concentrating on the years of exile, it is the story of the education of a cynic.

  Macaulay is harsh and unfair to James VII and II, but remains incomparable in his detailed, if biased, treatment of his reign – as he does, of course, in his portrait of his hero, William III. Nobody before Macaulay brought history to his readers as a living thing, and very few have matched him since. The Penguin abridgement of his History of England, edited by Hugh Trevor-Roper, offers an excellent introduction, or taste of the work, for those who fear they couldn’t stomach the whole.

  Another great historian, G. M. Trevelyan, following in his great-uncle Macaulay’s wake, gives a marvellously rich picture of the early seventeenth century in his three-volume history of the reign of Queen Anne, though inevitably the poor woman rarely steps out of the background. Nothing gives a more vivid picture of the politics of the reign than Swift’s Journal to Stella. For a fictional treatment of the time, readers can turn to Thackeray’s The History of Henry Esmond.

  The vast quantity of Jacobite literature is doubtless out of all proportion to the importance of the exiled Stuarts, but offers evidence of the fascination that Prince Charles Edward and the rising of 1745 continue to hold for writers and readers alike. The essence of partisan Jacobite history is still to be found in Bishop Forbes’s compilation The Lyon in Mourning. The best and most complete modern survey is offered by Bruce Lenman’s The Jacobite Risings in Britain. It punctures many myths.

  Index

  The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

  Abbott, Dr, Archbishop of Canterbury

  Abercorn Castle

  Aberdeen

  Aberdeen University

  Act of Indemnity and Oblivion (1660)

  Act of Security (1704)

  Act of Settlement (1701)

  Act of Union (1607)

  Agincourt, Battle of (1415)

  ‘Ainslie bond’

  Aix-la-Chapelle, Treaty of (1748)

  Alan, son of Flaald

  Alasdair (commander)

  Albano

  Albany, Alexander Stewart, Duke of

  Albany, Charlotte Stuart, Duchess of

  Albany, John Stewart, Duke of

  Albany, Murdoch Stewart, Duke of

  as Murdoch Stewart

  as Duke of Albany

  Albany, Robert Stewart, Earl of Fife, Duke of Albany

  Albemarle, Arnold Joost van Keppel, Earl of

  Albermarle, General Monk, Duke of see Monk, General, later Duke of Albemarle

  Albemarle, Henry Fitzjames, Duke of

  Alberoni, Cardinal

  Alexander III, King of Scotland

  Alexander, Lord of the Isles

  Alexander, Steward-Co-Regent of Scotland

  Alfieri, Vittorio

  Alfred the Great

  Almanza, Battle of (1707)

  Amsterdam

  Anglican Church see Church of England Angus

  Angus, Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of (‘Bell-the-Cat’)

  Angus, Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of

  Angus, George Douglas, 4th Earl of

  Anjou, Philippe, Duc d’

  Annandale

  Anne, Queen of France

  Anne, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland

  as Princess

  Anne of Austria

  Anne of Denmark (wife of James VI and I)

  Antrim, Earl of

  Argyll

  Argyll, Archibald Campbell, 5th Earl of

  Argyll, Archibald Campbell, 8th Earl and 1st Marquis of

  Argyll, Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of

  Argyll, Bishop of

  Argyll, Colin Campbell, 6th Earl of

  Argyll, Duke of (present-day)

  Argyll, John, 2nd Duke of

  Arkinholm, Battle of (1455)

  Arlington, Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of

  Armagnac, Bernard d’

  Armagnacs (or Orléanists)

  Arminianism
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  Armstrong, Archie

  Armstrong, Johnnie, of Gilknockie

  Army Plot

  Arran, James Hamilton, 1st Earl of

  Arran, James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of, Duke of Châtelherault

  Arran, James Hamilton, 3rd Earl of (previously Master of Hamilton)

  Arran, Thomas Boyd, Earl of

  Ascot

  Ashley, Anthony, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury see Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley, 1st Earl of

  Atholl, Duke of (present-day)

  Atholl, 1st Duke of

  Atholl, Walter, Earl of

  Aubrey, John

  Avignon

  Ayala, Pedro de

  Babington, Anthony

  Bacon, Francis

  Baillie, Reverend Robert

  Balfour, Sir James

  Balfour, Robert

  Balliol, Edward

  Balliol, John

  Bambriefe

  Bank of England

  Bank of Scotland

  Bannockburn, Battle of (1314)

  Banquo

  Barillon (French ambassador)

  Bass Rock

  Bastien (servant of Mary, Queen of Scots)

  Bath

  Bauge, Battle of (1421)

  Beaton, Cardinal James, Archbishop of St Andrews

  Beaufort, Duke of

  Beaufort, Henry, Bishop of Winchester

  Beaufort, Joan see Joan, Queen Beaufort, Thomas, Duke of Exeter

  Bedford, Earl of

  Bedford, John, Duke of

  Bellay, Joachim du

  Bennet, Henry, 1st Duke of Arlington

  Bentinck, William, Earl of Portland

  Berwick

  Berwick, 2nd Duke of (Duke of Liria)

  Berwick, James Fitzjames, 1st Duke of

  Berwick Castle

  Bess of Hardwick

  Beza, Theodore

  Bible, Authorised Version of

  Bill of Rights (1689)

  Bishops’ Wars

  Black Death

  Black Douglases, see also names of individuals

  Blackfriars Wynd, Edinburgh

  Blair, Robert

  Blandford, Marquis of

  Blantyre, Walter Stewart, Lord

  Blenheim, Battle of (1704)

  ‘Bloody Assizes’

  Boece, Hector

  Boethius

  Boisdale, MacDonald of

  Boleyn, Anne

  Bolingbroke, Henry St John, Viscount

  Bordeaux

  Borders

  Boswell, James

  Bosworth Field, Battle of (1485)

  Bothwell, 3rd Earl of

  Bothwell, Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of

  Bothwell, James Hepburn, 4th Earl of

  Bower (chronicler)

  Boyd, Sir Alexander

  Boyd, Thomas, Earl of Arran

  Boyle, Robert, Earl of Cork

  Boyne, Battle of the (1690)

  Bradshaw, John

  Braehead

  Braemar

  Brahe, Tycho

  Brantôme, Sieur de

  Branxton Hill

  Brest

  Bridport

  Brighton

  Brissac, Marshal de

  Bristol

  Brittany

  Bruce, Edward

  Bruce, Marjorie

  Bruce, Mary

  Bruce, Nigel

  Bruce, Robert the see Robert the Bruce Buccleuch, Duke of

  Buccleuch and Queensberry, Duke of (present-day)

  Buchan, Alexander Stewart, Earl of, ‘the Wolf of Badenoch’

  Buchan, Countess of

  Buchan, John

  Buchan, John Stewart, Earl of

  Buchanan, George

  Buckingham, George Villiers, 1st Duke of

  Buckingham, George Villiers, 2nd Duke of

  Bulkeley, Henry

  Burgh, Egidia de

  Burgundians

  Burgundy, Dukes of

  Burke, Ned

  Burnet, Bishop

  Bute, Isle of

  Cabal, the

  Cadogan, General

  Calais

  Calvin, John

  Calvinism

  Cambridge, Richard, Earl of

  Cameron, Donald, of Lochiel (Jacobite)

  Cameron, Donald, of Lochiel (in Queen Victoria’s reign)

  Cameron, John

  Camerons, the, see also names of individuals

  Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall

  Campbell, Lady Anne

  Campbell, Archibald, 5th Earl of Argyll see Argyll, Archibald Cameron, 5th Earl of

  Campbell, Archibald, 8th Earl and 1st Marquis of Argyll see Argyll, Archibald Campbell, 8th Earl and 1st Marquis of

  Campbell, Archibald, 9th Earl of Argyll see Argyll, Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of

  Campbell, Colin, 6th Earl of

  Campbell clan, see also names of individuals

  Canterbury

  Carberry Hill

  Carey, Sir Robert

  Carisbrooke Castle

  Carlinrig

  Carlisle

  Carlos, Don (son of Philip II)

  Carlos, Don (later Charles III, King of the Two Sicilies)

  Carmichael, Patrick

  Carrick, John, Earl of see Robert II, King of Scotland (formerly John, Earl of Carrick)

  Carstares, William

  Casket Letters

  Castle Cary

  Castlemaine, Barbara Palmer, Lady, later Duchess of Cleveland

  Catherine of Aragon (wife of Henry VIII)

  Catherine of Braganza (wife of Charles II)

  Catherine de Medici

  Catherine of Valois (wife of Henry V)

  Catholics/Catholicism

  and Anne

  and Charles II

  and Darnley

  and Elizabeth I

  in France

  and Henry VIII

  in Ireland

  and James V

  and James VI and I

  and James VII and II, formerly Duke of York

  and James Edward, the Old Pretender

  and Mary, Queen of Scots

  and Mary Tudor

  in Scotland

  and William III

  calls for repeal of Act of Settlement to end discrimation against

  obstinate attachment of Stuarts to

  see also Counter-Reformation

  Catholic League

  Cavendish, Elizabeth

  Cavers

  Cecil, Robert, Earl of Salisbury

  Cecil, William

  Cecily, Princess (daughter of Edward IV)

  Cerdic

  Chambers, Robert

  Charlemagne

  Charles I, King of England, Scotland and Ireland

  as Prince

  Charles II, King of England, Scotland and Ireland

  as Prince

  Charles II, King of Spain

  Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

  Charles VI, King of France

  Charles VIII, King of France

  Charles IX, King of France

  Charles XII, King of Sweden

  Charles, Archduke of Austria

  Charles, Prince of Wales (present-day)

  Charles Edward, the Young Pretender (‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’)

  Charles Louis, Elector Palatine

  Charles Martel

  Charlotte, Queen (wife of George III)

  Chase-about-Raid

  Châtelherault, James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran see Arran, James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of, Duke of Châtelherault Chatillon, Battle of (1453)

  Chattan clan

  Chaucer, Geoffrey

  Chesterton, G. K.

  Christ Church, Oxford

  Christian IV, King of Denmark

  Churchill, Arabella

  Churchill, John, Duke of Marlborough see Marlborough, John Churchill, Duke of

  Churchill, Sarah

  Churchill, Sir Winston (father of John

  Churchill)

  Churchill, Sir Winston: Life of Marlborough
>
  Church of England and Anne

  and Charles I

  and Charles II

  and Charles Edward, the Young Pretender

  and Churchill

  and James VI and I

  and James VII and II

  and Laud

  and Mary II

  Church of the Holy Rood, Stirling

  Church of the Holy Trinity, Edinburgh

  Cirencester

  City of London

  Civitavecchia

  Clarendon, Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of see Hyde, Edward, 1st Earl of Clarendon

  Clarendon, 2nd Earl of

  Clarendon Code

  Clark, Arthur Melville

  ‘Cleanse the Causeway’

  Clement XIV, Pope

  Clerk, Sir John, of Penicuik

  Clifford, Sir Thomas

  Cochrane, Robert

  Coke, Sir Edward

  Coldingham

  Coldstream

  Coleman, Father

  Commons, House of

  Company of Archers

  ‘Company of Scotland’

  Comyn, John

  Constantinople

  Convention Parliament

  Cope, Sir John

  Copenhagen

  Cork, Robert Boyle, Earl of

  Cornbury, Lord

  Cornwall, Camilla, Duchess of

  Council of the North

  Counter-Reformation

  Court of Session

  Covenanters

  Covent Garden

  Craigmillar Castle

  Cramond

  Cranstoun, Thomas

  Craven, Lord

  Crawford, Earl of (in reign of James II)

  Crawford, Earl of (in reign of James VI and I)

  Crécy, Battle of (1346)

  Crichton, Sir William

  Cromwell, Oliver

  Cromwell, Richard

  Cromwell, Thomas

  Culloden Moor, Battle of (1746)

  Cumberland, Duke of

  Cunningham, John

  Cunyngham, Alexander

  Dalgleish, George

  Damian, John

  Danby, Lord

  Darien Scheme

  Darnaway

  Darnaway Castle

  Darnley, Henry Stewart, Lord

  David I, King of Scotland

  David II, King of Scotland

  David, Prince, Duke of Rothesay see Rothesay, Prince

  David, Duke of Davis, Moll (Mary)

  Declaration of Arbroath (1320)

  Declaration of Indulgence (1672)

  Declaration of Indulgence (1687)

 

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