When Jacobite enthusiast Michael Nevin successfully bid for a handwritten letter and memorandum by Bonnie Prince Charlie at an auction, little did he realise he had come into possession of material that would change our view of history.

Written in France following his defeat at Culloden in 1746 and addressed to Louis XV, the story that emerges from these documents is more complex than that suggested by conventional histories of the time. In addition to revealing the prince as a far more charismatic and courageous figure than that portrayed in popular fiction, they  show that, far from abandoning Scotland after Culloden, he was committed to return and did not finally give up his dream of  Stuart resoration until the failure of the Elibank Plot.

In this book, Michael Nevin tells the story of the Rising of 1745-46, its genesis and consequences. It looks at the motivations of the leading players, examines crucial but neglected battles of the Jacobite wars and sheds new light on the mystery of what led to Bonnie Prince’s Charlie’s psychological disintegration after 1752.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Stuart Family Tree
• To Begin at the Beginning . . .
• Part 1: Genesis of a Revolution
  • 1 The Rise and Fall of the House of Stuart
  • 2 Remembering Dunkeld
  • 3 The Tragedy of Queen Anne
  • 4 Glen Shiel: the Forgotten Battle
  • 5 Queen Clementina’s Cavinet
  • 6 Keeping the Flame Alive
• Part 2: The Rising of 1745
  • 7 The Road to Prestonpans: the Quartermaster’s Story
  • 8 Decision at Derby
  • 9 Return to Scotland
  • 10 Falkirk Muir: the Last Jacobite Victory
  • 11 Financing the Revolution
  • 12 Was the Rising of 1745 a Just War?
• Part 3: The Aftermath
  • 13 The Prince in the Heather
  • 14 The Execution of the Jacobite Lords
  • 15 John Roy Stuart: The Bard of Culloden
  • 16 John Roy’s ‘The Day of Culloden’
  • 17 Lament for Lord Lovat
  • 18 The Last Hopeful Epistle of Bonnie Prince Charlie
• A Final Toast
• Appendices
  • 1. A Note on the Conversion of 1745 Prices into 2020 Values
  • 2. The Fourteen Land Battles of the Jacobite Wars
  • 3. Timeline of the Rising of 1745
  • 4. Poems and Songs of John Roy Stuart
  • 5. 1745 Association Memorials
• Sources and References
• Index
• The 1745 Association
• Plates