Prince of Wales should admit that Bonnie Prince Charlies was king to keep the monarchy alive in Scotland, says professor
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The Prince of Wales should keep the Scots happy by finally recognising Bonnie Prince Charlie's claim to the throne and calling himself King Charles lV claims an American academic.
The Scottish folk hero – also known as the "Young Pretender" – called himself King Charles lll after his grandfather James II was deposed in the Glorious Revolution in 1688 when William and Mary [James II's daughter] decame monarchs.
Despite the Stuart claims to the throne and uprisings in 1715 with Bonnie Prince Charles's father James, and 30 years later with Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1745 when the Jacobite rebellion was roundly beaten at the famous Battle of Culloden in 1746.
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But professor Hugh Carter Donahue believes acknowledging his claim to the throne nearly 300 years later could be what's needed to protect the union and quell calls for Scottish independence.
Styling himself Charles lV rather Charles lll when he ascends the throne would be a controversial move and might even require an act of parliament.
But Professor Donahue points out there is already speculation that Prince Charles might choose the title “defender of faiths” rather than "defender of the faith" to recognise diversity in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth.
"Prince Charles would reinforce Scots ties by claiming regnal name and enumeration as Charles IV," he said.
"What better way to underscore United Kingdom national identity than to recognise Scotland and Stuart King Charles III?"
Experts have already been pondering over what Charles will call himself when he takes over from the Queen and was widely expected to adopt the title King Charles lll.
Dickie Arbiter, author of On Duty with the Queen, has already suggested he might use his middle names and be known as King Philip, Arthur or George rather than Charles.
Professor Donahue, the adjunct professor of History at Rowan University, Glassboro, New Jersey, believes acknowledging Bonnie Prince Charlie, who was the last serious Stuart claimant to the British throne when he died on January 31, 1788, could help heal any lingering rifts between the two countries.
And he concludes that it would be good for Prince William to formally recognise the union's shared history going back centuries.
The author says it's clear the Royal Family see Scotland as an indispensable part of the to the monarchy by how much time senior royals are spending there.
"Ascending the throne as Charles IV, the Prince of Wales would burnish his reputation for national unity, religious toleration, and open-mindedness by doing something fresh within existing monarchial institutions," said the professor who is from Scottish heritage.
"While Charles IV’s benefits as regnal name may initially seem not what would be expected intuitively, its originality would place the Prince of Wales as a monarchial innovator in synch with public opinion."
Charles I was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland (at the time, not a united kingdom) from March 27, 1625 until his execution in January 1649. He was the son of James Stuart (King James I or England, VI of Scotland), and heir to the throne. But he was executed in 1649 after he lost the English Civil War – or War of the Three Kingdoms – with Oliver Cromwell's parliamentarians who governed all three kingdoms (though still disunited) after the death of the king.
Charles's son, Charles II inherited the throne of Scotland upon the death of his father in 1649 but lost the Battle of Worcester in 1651 and fled to France. After the death of Cromwell in 1659, Cromwell's son Richard briefly inherited the title Lord Protector, but abdicated in 1660. Charles II returned to England and was made king of England, Scotland and Ireland until his death in 1685.
Charles II had no legitimate children and his brother James, became king, becoming James II and this is where Bonnie Prince Charles comes. Unlike his brother, James II was Catholic but his daughter Mary was Protestant, which the Protestant establishment was happy about. However, once James had a legitimate son, James (Charlie's father) who was Catholic, that and his contrary stance on the politics of the day led to civil war again.
The Protestant establishment called on Mary and her Dutch husband, King William of Orange, to invade in the 1688 Glorious Revolution and after James II lost the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland, he was deposed and he and his family went into exile in France and Italy. Mary's sister, Anne succeeded to the throne after the deaths of William and Mary but after she died her cousin George I and the Hanoverians came in as monarchs as Protestant successors under the Act of Settlement, 1701.
James II's son James Francis Edward Stuart – The Old Pretender – launched a failed uprising in 1715 with the support of Jacobite nobles in Scotland. Thirty years later, his son – James II's grandson – Bonnie Prince Charlie tried and failed to win the throne back of the United Kingdom (the Act of Union in 1707 united the three kingdoms) for the Stuarts from George ll.
Born in Italy, his full name was Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Sylvester Severino Maria Stuart he would have a few military successes – including the Battle of Prestonpans – before his army was routed by the Duke of Cumberland, son of George ll, at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. He returned to Europe but after the death of his father in 1766 "the Young Pretender" started calling himself King Charles IIl while living in exile abroad.
The Stuart claim retained support in the Scottish Highlands where the Duke of Cumberland was known as "The Butcher" for slaughtering the Jacobites and cracking down Jacobean clans afterward.
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