As Prince Charles Edward fought, his father, Prince James Francis Edward Stuart, worked hard to raise support in Italy. Based in Rome and Albano, he sent anxious letters to his son asking for news of the campaign. But it was to be over six weeks after the battle that he was finally to hear of his son’s defeat. This letter, written with no knowledge that it would reach the Prince, laments the failure of the rising and attempts to mollify what the ‘Old Pretender’ knew would be his son’s hurt and fury.

Stuart Papers, Royal Archives

Cat. 64