The King Over the Water: A Complete History of the Jacobites

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However, with help from the excellent ODNB article, written by Dr Paul Seaward, of the History of Parliament Trust (I am sure that we have Antonia Fraser’s Charles II somewhere in the house, but in my current befuddled state, I can’t find it), I learn (among much else) that in March 1646 he left from Pendennis Castle in Cornwall for the Scilly Isles, after the advance of the Parliamentarian army into the West Country. World English rights in Desmond Seward’s history of the Jacobite Movement have been bought by Birlinn. After his death in 1625, this was continued by his son Charles I, who lacked his political sensitivity; by the late 1630s, instituting Personal Rule in 1629, enforcing Laudian reforms on the Church of England, and ruling without Parliament led to a political crisis. James II and VII, a Roman Catholic, was deposed, in what became known as the Glorious Revolution, when his Protestant opponents forced him to flee from England in 1688.

The Parliament of England first barred Roman Catholics and James's descendants from inheriting the throne through the Bill of Rights 1689. Among the more visible elements of the Jacobite community were drinking clubs established in the early 18th century, such as the Scottish Bucks Club or the "Cycle of the White Rose", led by Welsh Tory Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn. After various negotiations, both overt and covert, Charles moved to Breda in the Netherlands in April 1660, and the rest is Restoration. This meant that following victory at Prestonpans in September, they preferred to negotiate, rather than invade England as Charles wanted. His younger brother, Henry, Cardinal of York, died in 1807 and the Royal House of Stuart thereby became extinct.

Charles continued to explore options for a rising in England, including his conversion to Anglicanism, a proposal that had outraged his father James when previously suggested.

The Dutch, fighting the English from 1652, did not want another complication in their politics, so he could expect no help in that quarter (and indeed the peace treaty the two parties signed in 1654 included a clause whereby they would not offer help to Charles or any of his supporters).As early as 1745, the French were struggling with the costs of the War of the Austrian Succession, and in June 1746, they began peace negotiations with Britain at Breda.

The original dispute had long been forgotten by most of the British king’s subjects, who had since come to terms with the Hanoverian usurpers. Too often history books just say ‘ He took refuge in the Netherlands’ without stating where or giving any idea of his surroundings.Ireland retained a separate Parliament until 1800, but the 1707 Union combined England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain. Opposition was boosted by measures imposed by the post-1707 Parliament of Great Britain, including the Treason Act 1708, the 1711 ruling that barred Scots peers with English or British peerages from their seats in the House of Lords, and tax increases.

Others argue riots were common in 18th-century urban areas and see them as a "series of ritualised clashes". Instead, they created organisations like the Catholic Convention, which worked within the existing state for redress of Catholic grievances. Charles’s fortunes finally improved when England and France signed the treaty of Westminster in October 1655 – this was an alliance primarily against Spain, and Philip IV promptly committed himself to the restoration of Charles, who went to Brussels to begin negotiations with the viceroy of the Spanish Netherlands, and (at last!Despite this, many Jacobites were Protestant Lowlanders, rather than the Catholic, Gaelic-speaking Highlanders of legend. But perhaps the best tribute Charles paid to the city can be seen on the plaque itself: ‘The Flemings are the most honest and true-hearted race of people I have met with. Meanwhile, France gave formal recognition to the Cromwellian Commonwealth, and Charles, anxious for his own safety, travelled to the German lands, spending time in Cologne after the Imperial Diet at Regensburg had offered him support and a pension.