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Following the Battle of Culloden, the international influence of the
Stuarts could easily lessened but that was far from the case, even
though some indoctrinated historians would have it otherwise. In
practice, the political impact that Charles Edward made on his
contemporaries was such those 36 years after the Rising he was
considered worthy of no less than the Crown of America.
In
October 1781, General Charles Cornwallis surrendered his British force
at Yorktown Virginia, and this led to the conclusion of the American War
of Independence, thereby ending British rule in the old Colonies. But
in the winter of 1782, four American gentlemen arrived at Charles III’s
Florentine residence, the Palazzo San Clemente. They were Mr. Galloway
of Maryland, two Sylvester brothers from Pennsylvania and Mr. Fish, an
attorney from New York. On requesting a royal audience, they were
accommodated and taken to Charles by his secretary, John Stewart.
Coincidentally, King Charles had been in discussion that day with the
Honorable Charles Hervey Townshend, (Britain’s Ambassador to the
Hague). The two gentlemen had debated the pros and cons of monarchy.
Being a particularly interested party, Mr. Townshend remained present
for the American interview. witnessing the presentation of letters of
credence and listening to the details of a dilemma which existed across
the Atlantic.
The
content of this interview is well documented in the US Senate Archives,
and in the Manorwater Papers. Sir Compton Mackenzie, Sir Charles Petrie
and others have written at the time when Charles Edward,
de jure, King Charles III of
England, Scotland, France and Ireland, was asked by the George
Washington envoys to become King of the Americans. The offer came as no
great surprise to Charles, for some years earlier the men of Boston at
the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War had approached him in
Holland.
Having
defeated the Jacobites at Culloden in 1746, it would have been a great
irony for the House of Hanover to lose America to the Stuarts, and
doubtless this thought occurred to Charles on being offered the American
Crown. For a number of reasons, though, he was obliged to decline the
invitation. At this time in 1782, Charles was separated from Louise of
Stolberg, and whether or not he could obtain a formal divorce was
uncertain. His prospects of remarrying and fathering a legitimate male
heir as his successor were equally uncertain. If he had accepted the
position, he would have opened the door to the Houseof Hanover again at
his death. With this in mind, Charles was not to spoil the Americans’
future to suit his own ends…so the United States Republic was born.
After
the battles of the ‘15 and the ’45, thousands of Scots were exiled to
the colonies of Jamaica, Australia, Canada and America. The ship
passenger list of the Elizabeth and Ann, dated January 14, 1716, from
Liverpool England and arriving at Yorktown VA reveals 113 passengers
that were more than likely the progenitors of the military making the
rosters of the American Revolutionary War. The passenger list reveals
the names of those who fought profoundly against the British to gain
freedom and to live and worship without persecution. The zeal of the
canny Scots was such they were not hindered by the frontier of the new
colonies, which they found much like their homelands. With this in mind
they were able to move and adapt themselves to the environment of
Virginia. As such this settlement became “The Greenbrier” of
Virginia...a similarity of Scotland. |
