BONNIE PRINCE CHARLIE IN LOVE: THE PRIVATE PASSIONS OF PRINCE CHARLES EDWARD STUART. by Douglas, Hugh - 1995

Stroud: Alan Sutton, 1995. 242 pp, small 4to (10" H). B&w illustrations. "Starting from the inherited tendencies of his unstable mother, this book follows Charles's involvements with women, from the passionate, illicit affair with his cousin, Louise de Montbazon, following his return from the '45, which resulted in a son, and his cruel arrogance when he took a new mistress replacing her, to his rough treatment of Clementine Walkinshaw, who had nursed him in 1746, and who sacrificed herself for him. She came to live with him, and bore him a daughter, the 'bonnie lass of Albany', his comfort when the dynastic marriage he eventually made with the young Princess Louise of Stolberg came apart, leaving him an elderly cuckold. Judged the wild man of Europe as a result of his scandalous behaviour, Charles's boorishness and drunkenness had cost him the stability he craved, and in his later years he was both ill and lonely, turning to his daughter to satisfy his longing for the love that he had so easily cast aside in his earlier stormy relationships. She became the pride of his life, and when he died four years later, it was with the promise that she would be his rightful heir. (T)his timely book provides a re-examination of the Scottish hero whose flawed character and lack of success in love undoubtedly influenced his relations with the royal courts of Europe and played an important part in his role in the history of Scotland and England, perhaps contributing as much to the defeat of the Jacobite cause as 'Butcher' Cumberland's musket fire at Culloden." Samll bump at three corners, slight wrinkling at top/bottom of spine. Dust jacket has wrinkling at top/bottom of spine and flap-folds, minor rubbing. . First Edition.. Hard Cover. Very Good-/Very Good.