Bonnie Prince Charlie: A Biography Read Online Free PDF

nearly twice her age, and that so far he had been unable to attain his dream of conquering England. Whether or not she looked forward to becoming his wife we don't know. But then, the honor was so great that everyone expected her to be overjoyed—and perhaps she was.
    For his part, James was once again in the throes of disappointment. Yet another invasion scheme had proved abortive, this time launched from Spain.
    Philip V had provided thirty ships and five thousand men. This force was to land at Bristol and proceed eastward toward London, while at the same time a diversionary force of three hundred men would land in Scotland. James left for Spain shortly before Clementina arrived in Rome, and planned to follow the main fleet a few days after it left Cadiz. He was on his way to the coast from Madrid when word reached him that the fleet had encountered a violent storm off" Cape Finisterre and was so scattered that it could not possibly proceed. The small diversionary force managed to arrive safely in Scotland but was shortly afterward defeated at Glenshiel by government troops. To add insult to injury the battle at Glenshiel took place on James's birthday, June 10—while Clementina was banqueting with her nuns.
    When James returned to Italy and met Clementina he was suffering all the pangs of disillusionment and must have looked it. He was aging rapidly, the lines on either side of his mouth and nose were deepening and his pale face was growing more gaunt. An admirer described him as "over-pensive and over-serious"; hostile witnesses thought he was ridiculously mournful, a tall, looming melancholic who never laughed and had the effect of squelching merriment in others.
    James was anything but an eager, hopeful bridegroom, and Clementina must have been disappointed when she met him. They were married in the cathedral of Montefiascone, near Viterbo, in a ceremony of regal splendor. James wore an expression of paternal benevolence as he and his seventeen-year-old bride knelt before the bishop to recite their vows. Afterward there were formal receptions with all the local dignitaries and some of the Roman clergy coming to offer congratulations, and then a prolonged stay in Montefiascone before the couple journeyed back to Rome to start their married life together.
    "She has surpassed all my expectations," James declared in praising his wife. "Had I asked God to give me a wife with all the qualities I could desire, I could not have hoped for another than the one He has been pleased to choose for me." He was more than content with her, he was completely satisfied. Clementina resumed her regimen of visiting Rome's churches and of calling at the Ursuline convent three or four times a week. She had her preoccupations, he had his; they got on without outward strain.
    They lived in the Palazzo Muti, rented for them by Pope Clement. The four-story palazzo, built of golden brown stone and ornamented with columns and balustrades, was squeezed into a narrow street just off the Corso, Rome's broad, busy triumphal avenue. At the far end of the street was the Church of the Apostles, and the architect of the Muti, in deference to the nearby church, had crowned the palace roof with twelve stone figures of the twelve apostles. They stood guard over the dim alleyway like holy sentinels, watching the procession of servants, visitors and petitioners who entered and left the tiny courtyard of the palace in a steady stream.
    To the hundreds of Scots and English exiles who had followed James to Rome and now lived from hand to mouth in squalid circumstances, the Muti Palace was a lodestar. They went there as often as the post reached the city, and waited for the latest news from England and elsewhere to be announced before returning to their tiny dark rooms and inadequate suppers. They watched for glimpses of King James and Queen Clementina coming and going in their coach, accompanied by a papal guard of troops, headed for an audience with the pope or a