Jacobite letters go on display at castle
Bonnie Prince Charlie‘idiot’correspondence revealed
A stunning piece of Scottish history that provides personal accounts on 60 years of the Jacobite uprisings is now on show for the very first time in an iconic Highland Perthshire castle.
Hundreds of letters written to and from the Murray family during the early 18th century until now are on display in Blair Castle having been stored previously in its archive.
The letters shed a clear spotlight on the tension between Bonnie Prince Charlie and his ally and commander, and reveal an intense family drama - which pitted father against son and brother against brother.
One astonishing account even saw the Young Pretender call his loyal supporter and acknowledged military strategist Lord George Murray, brother to the Duke of Atholl, an “idiot” for his advice amidst the conflicts of the Jacobite Rebellions.
The surprisingly candid and rather boorish accusation was made in a letter recently uncovered, in which the prince dismisses George’s call for a war council.
Not dissuaded by Bonnie Prince Charlie’s refusal to follow his advice (nor his rudeness), in another letter, Lord George
Murray goes on to tell his brother William that he is preparing to storm the castle and demolish the family home, where the king’s troops were camped, threatening all its rich artworks for the sake of the Jacobite cause.
William, the eldest son who had been disinherited for his Jacobite leanings had fled to France with the Young Pretender, wrote back saying he had no qualms about destroying the family pictures in the face of public service.
Alongside personal letters, it includes a pardon obtained by the Duke for his son George after the first Jacobite Rebellion of 1715, a compass said to have been used by Bonnie Prince Charlie and canon ball kept after the siege in 1746.
The collection is part of the castle’s ‘Jacobite Exhibition: A Family at Divided – The Atholls and the Jacobite Risings’ which opened to the public on Wednesday, April 28.
Castle archivist Keren Guthrie said: “When I discovered the letter from Bonnie Prince Charlie, I just went ‘wow’!
“Here is a letter of the 1740s that could have been written now.
“It gives that sense of a disagreement between real people, which we can all understand.
“So much is romanticised about Bonnie Prince Charles, but this letter catches him in a moment of utter frustration – and perhaps misguided in the belief in his own abilities. George was very loyal to the Jacobite cause and his brother William was a close confidant of the Young Pretender, so the tone is all the more remarkable.
“An amazing story unfolds through the letters.
“The first Duke of Atholl was involved in drawing up the Act of Union and his wife Katherine Hamilton Murray wrote passionately about the matter to her friends. Yet, while the second duke remained loyal to the king, as his father, the three rather wilder brothers, George, William and Charles who clearly wanted to make a name for themselves in the world, believed fervently in the Stuart line.
“Keeping these family disputes in check and holding the family together would have been an exceptional feat.”