Description
For most people, the story of the Jacobites perished on a bitter April day in 1746 when their hopes of restoring the exiled Stuart monarchy at the battle of Culloden were crushed. Beyond this military defeat, which marked the end of the '45 rebellion, there were surviving embers who kept alive the cause for some time. For some years, Prince Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) and his exiled supporters plotted with European powers to restore his banished house and regain the British throne, but there was never again a military attempt to oust the Hanoverians who displaced his lineage. In Europe, Jacobite networks flourished in France, but also in Scandinavia and were influential in spreading Masonic ideas in the areas they operated. Exiles joined the military as far afield as Spain and even Russia, while others formerly loyal to the cause found themselves in the New World, either banished by the British state or willing emigrants hoping for a better life. Ironically, most of
