1/4 The Lost Portrait of Bonnie Prince Charlie: A Culture Show Special

2014 the year of a referendum on whether Scotland should remain part of the United Kingdom when with the eyes of Europe and indeed the world last so intently focused on Scotland and Scottish politics when was the Union last so threatened possibly not since the Jacobite rebellion of 1745 and back in 1745 portraits of this man Bonnie Prince Charlie had a huge role to play I'm dr. Ben door Grosvenor I'm an art detective and a historian and in this program I'm setting out to unravel one of the greatest mysteries in Scottish art I want to find a lost portrait of Bonnie Prince Charlie one that might have been painted in Scotland during his doomed attempt to regain the crown in 1745 the report traits of Charles Edward Stuart as a young boy there are portraits of him as an old man too when he cuts quite a sad figure broken by drink and disappointment you but no portraits of Bonnie Prince Charlie from 1745 unknown to survive when he was a determined 24 year old leading the Jacobite uprising when he was the warrior prince it's always been thought that no portrait of Bonnie Prince Charlie was ever painted while he was here in Scotland leading the Jacobite rebellion but I suspect that at least one picture of him was painted while he was here and I'm determined to find it in this program I will travel the length and breadth of Britain in search of the real Bonnie Prince Charlie and in search of what I believe is his lost portrait gods really occurred his net this is an exploration of one of Scotland's most fascinating and enigmatic heroes using art to tell his incredible story after leaving exile in Italy traveling to France and then to the Western Isles on the 25th of July 1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie set foot on the Scottish mainland for the first time in his life when Charles landed here at Borradaile in the western highlands he came with great hope and determination but not really much else he left France with two ships but the one carrying all the troops and the money and the weapons had been intercepted by the Royal Navy and forced to flee so when Charles came ashore on this beach with his invasion force it consisted of just 12 men and one of those was a priest it wasn't exactly what you would call a promising start this though is why a Charles is one of my heroes because he thought nothing of such a setback in fact he sent away is one remaining ship so he had no choice but to proceed and when the first Highland Chief he met here told him rather bluntly to go home he replied simply home I am coming Bonnie Prince Charlie 's whole life had been designed for this very moment mounting a campaign to finally regain the throne for the stewards and his father but why am I looking for a lost portrait of Bonnie Prince Charlie I'm not Scottish I do love investigating art of course but there's more to it than that you could say I have a debt to pay I have a confession to make I have a bit of history with the painting that used to hang in this gallery a picture that used to be known as Scotland's best love portrait at Bonnie Prince Charlie back in 2008 I discovered that it wasn't in fact him but his younger brother Henry now Henry's not even on display at Scotland anymore I've had to ask for him to be brought out of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery's stores so I can see him face to face and I feel a bit bad for him consigned to the stores for unwittingly impersonating his elder brother the two brothers look quite similar and over the years the identities have been muddled up the main reason is that Henry our man here later became a Catholic Cardinal and so was normally shown in his red Cardinals robes but here he's painted in armor and because Henry was the slightly better looking at the two brothers and because this picture was painted shortly after the Jacobite rebellion it fitted the bill perfectly for a heroic dashing image of Bonnie Prince Charlie leading his troops into battle now in its artistic quality it's actually one of the best pictures that the National Portrait Gallery here Scotland owns it's a beautiful pestle by the French artist maurice quentin de la tour in fact it's one of his finest works i think however it just isn't Polly Prince Charlie it's the wrong man when everyone thought that the pastel portrait of Prince Henry and armor was Bonnie Prince Charlie it hung in pride of place in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery it appeared in historical exhibitions adorned shortbread tins and book covers when I raised the sticky issue that the portrait wasn't Bonnie Prince Charlie Scotland lost its most iconic image of her warrior Prince back in 1688 Charles's grandfather James ii had been deposed essentially for being a Catholic and was replaced by his Protestant daughters Mary and then later Queen Anne but when it was realized that neither marry nor Anne would have any surviving heirs there was something of a crisis who would succeed to the throne as the Protestant ruling classes unfurl their royal family tree in the search for an heir it realized that they had a bit of a problem in Strictly genealogical terms that's the way a hereditary monarchy normally works the next in line to the throne was the son of James the second James the third our Bonnie Prince Charlie is dad however he was a Catholic and of course that wouldn't do so to exclude James the third from the throne the English Parliament coming here declared that you could only be monarch if you were a Protestant but to find their Protestant heir the Parliament first had to exclude quite a few Catholic one's grandchildren of James the first John Louie Catholic Charles Louie the second Catholic princes of Denmark Catholic Duke of Orleans Catholic another Duke of Orleans Catholic Catholic Catholic Catholic in fact the first 57 individuals in mind to the throne were all Catholic and carefully calculate Catholic Catholic until eventually they found their Protestant heir in the person of Prince George of Hanover in Germany now he'd never been to a NAT before and of course didn't speak a word of English but because he said his prayers in the right way he was in and the Catholic Stewart's were out and that's how we ended up with the Hanoverians and all these German George's but the exiled Stewart's in Rome hadn't given up on the British crown and one of the biggest weapons in their armory was portraiture they went a huge effort and expense distributing portraits of their young princes across Europe it was their way of reminding the world that although the Stuart Kings had been expelled from Britain they refused to be out of sight and out of mind the Stewart PR campaign was surprisingly successful and by 1745 it could still rely on the support of people across Europe these supporters were known as Jacobites which comes from the latin name for james jaqobis and it was King James the Third's two sons Bonnie Prince Charlie and Prince Henry who was still keeping the Stuart claim to the throne very much alive so I'm going to mount my own campaign I want to follow in Bonnie Prince Charlie 's footsteps through Scotland in the hope of finding a lost portrait of the Prince for clues as to where one might be and my first point of call is a Glenfinnan where Bonnie Prince Charlie raised his standard on the 19th of August 1745 where he gathered the clans today the Glenfinnan gathering still takes place on the saturday closest of the 19th of august representatives of the clans that turned up to swear allegiance to Bonnie Prince Charlie still take part in a procession with clan standards held aloft in 1745 this gathering marked the start of Bonnie Prince Charlie smilla tere campaign to regain the throne for the Stuart Kings 1200 Klansmen turned out that day to pledge their support after Charles raised the Jacobites standard a simple red banner with the white square in the middle possibly on this very spot it was ceremoniously blessed and then his father King James's manifesto was read out that promised three crucial things first to recall the Scottish Parliament second to end punitive taxation and third to restore Scottish independence now all this please the gather Klansmen so much that it's reported that they threw their bonnets in the air and hazard three times crying out loud long live King James Charles Prince of Wales prosperity to Scotland and no Union the Highlanders wanted a better deal the Prince wanted a throne everyone was looking out for their own interests Charles became known as Bonnie Prince Charlie while he was in Scotland in 1745 he was described as being a good-looking man about five feet ten inches with dark red hair and black eyes it was also noted that the princes features were regular his Vizag long and his countenance thoughtful and melancholy where the good-looking or not it strikes me that Charles must have been a very charismatic individual after all if he was able to persuade Wylie clan chiefs and 1200 Klansmen to come to his support just days after landing on the beach with absolutely nothing then that must be evidence that he was a very persuasive person in fact it was said around these parts in 1745 that if this Prince once set eyes upon you he would make you do whatever he pleased what I wouldn't give to see that face that inspired so many but where to start looking if there is a loss poor trader Bonnie Prince Charlie hidden somewhere in Scotland I think it could be with one of the ancient families who stood with the prince from the start of his campaign I've come to visit the current chief of Clan Cameron Cameron of La keel who still lives in the ancestral home quite close to Glenfinnan along with McDonald's the Cameron's were the main clan who turned up to pledged their support to Bonnie Prince Charlie at Glenfinnan in 1745 so you were ancestor the 19th camera rocío who I spy over your shoulder here was one of Bonnie Prince Charlie 's first supporters that's true he actually went to persuade him that he hadn't got a hope from having landed in arishka with seven men but he was slung over I think because Bonnie Prince Charlie was alone age 24 in what was nearly Cameron country and he felt he couldn't desert him just like that so against his better judgment he joined at Glenfinnan with about 700 Cameron's right and if they hadn't some people say they would never have been a Jacobite uprising that year so it's an icy so do you but the benefit of hindsight as business is easy to say but do you think he should have gone to help him or stayed out of it I thought it was a mistake I think we let our heart rule ahead Cameron is an anagram of romance and not a lot of clans can say that assuming if Cameron of lakeil number 19 was one of Bonnie Prince Charlie 's most fervent supporters perhaps he might have had a picture of him well regardless Lee got this little miniature a little richer which is supposedly given to the gentle oculars he was named by Bonnie Prince Charlie right so now this little label here says miniature Prince Charles Edward Stuart given by him to

Channel: Art Documentaries

Views: 113,686

Rating: 4.8768473 out of 5

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Id: ZhUwLReQrlc

Length: 15min 0sec (900 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 24 2016