Charles Edward Stuart
Jacobite pretender to the thrones of England, Scotland, Ireland, and France; (1720-1788)
Charles Edward Louis John Sylvester Maria Casimir Stuart (31 December 1720 – 30 January 1788) was the elder son of James Francis Edward Stuart, making him the grandson of James VII and II, and the Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1766. He is also known as the Young Pretender, the Young Chevalier and Bonnie Prince Charlie, and to Jacobites as Charles III. He led the failed Jacobite Rising of 1745 in an attempt to restore the Stuart dynasty to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
Born in Rome to the exiled Stuart court, he spent much of his early and later life in Italy. In 1744, he travelled to France to take part in a planned invasion of England to restore the Stuart monarchy under his father. When storms partly wrecked the French fleet, Charles resolved to proceed to Scotland following discussion with leading Jacobites. This resulted in Charles landing by ship on the west coast of Scotland, leading to the Jacobite rising of 1745. The Jacobite forces under Charles initially achieved several victories in the field, including the Battle of Prestonpans in September 1745 and the Battle of Falkirk Muir in January 1746. However, by April 1746, Charles was defeated at Culloden, effectively ending the Stuart cause. Although there were subsequent attempts, such as a planned French invasion in 1759, Charles was unable to restore the Stuart monarchy.
With the Jacobite cause lost, Charles spent the remainder of his life on the continent, except for one secret visit to London.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q312581. VIAF identifies the subject as 104724217. The Library of Congress control number is n80076367. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1720, 1788, 1766 and 1745.
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This entry incorporates text from “Charles Edward Stuart” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.