Sir Charles Wogan

Sir Charles Wogan was an Irish knight-baronet of the exiled monarch of the Three Kingdoms ofEngland, Scotland and Ireland, King James Stuart III. His intrepid life story (c1683-1754) is told herethrough his own words, based on his copious correspondence with the Stuart court in exile nowhoused among the Stuart Papers at Kew in London. Spanning the territory of seven European GreatPowers during the Eighteenth Century, his story will take you from the plains of Kildare to thefearsome cells of Newgate Gaol, from silver Silesian plains to icy Pyrenees peaks, from Vienna toRome, and from the Maghreb to Madrid. He consorted with popes and princesses, kings, ministersand cardinals. A military officer, poet, diplomat and courtier, he is most famously remembered fororganising the rescue in 1719 of Princess Maria Clementina Sobieska from her confinement inInnsbruck, helped by his companions from Dillon's Regiment then serving in France. Pope Clement XImade him a Senator of Rome: the highest civil distinction awarded by the papacy. Through his lettersto James III, we glimpse life in contemporary Spain as he settled himself in exile there, awaiting theopportunity to restore James to the Three Kingdoms. His letters offer fascinating details on hismarriage and his children; swirling rumours of international intrigue and diplomacy; cunningministers; fiscal affairs in Spain during the period; secret Masonic orders; a unique window onconditions Ireland in the eighteenth century; Jacobite strategy for a restoration; and how the twinpillars of Catholicism and Jacobite ideology sustained the Irish exiles in Europe during the period.