Charles Edward Stuart, Count Roehenstart, 1784-1854
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The last male descendent of Bonnie Prince Charlie.
Charles Edward Stuart, Count Roehenstart was the youngest grandson of Prince Charles Edward Stuart. His mother was Charlotte Stuart, Duchess of Albany, the only child of Bonnie Prince Charlie. Baptismal Certificate "Thursday May 13th, 1784 was baptised Auguste Maximilien, born the same day, son of the noble Maximilien Roehenstart and the noble Clementine Ruthven, his wife, of this parish, the Cul de Sac des Anglois. The godfather Thibault Etienne Lauvertjat, master in surgery, of the same house, the godmother Anne Victoire Lauverjat, under-age daughter of the godfather, of the same adode, the father absent on business." The Stuarts' Last Secret. The Missing Heirs of Bonnie Prince Charlie by Peter Pininski, page 155 The following edited extracts regarding Count Roehenstart were taken from:- The Stuarts' Last Secret. The Missing Heirs of Bonnie Prince Charlie by Peter Pininski He could also be terribly hurt and become enraged by the smallest insult. In 1833, having been badly treated by custom officials, he complained to the Prince of Monaco. But the latter's response seemed arrogant and he demanded satisfaction, contemptuously informing him that he was 'heir to a House far superior to that of Monaco'. Then in 1838 he was turned away from the Paris home of Alexander Wurttemberg's son. Charles sent him a bitter letter in which he said: 'I used to know several members of your family' then called Wurttemburg ' the littlest Kingdom in Europe, the dignity of which was only granted by the grace of Napoleon'. The final humiliation came with the appearance of the Manning-Allen brothers who posed as 'Sobieski-Stuarts' who posed at Prince Charles' grandsons. Charles wrote to his wife in 1836: My Dear Constance, I saw in Galignani's a paragraph copied from a Scotch paper, giving an account of a visit paid to Scotland by two young men, brothers, one Charles Edward, the other John Sobieski, represented in glowing colours etc etc. I felt certainly ruffled, having made up my mind not to stir anymore in this melancholy business. Charles was killed in a coaching accident near Dunkeld in Perthshire. A wheel broke off, the coach overturned and he was thrown. Badly injured in the fall. He held on for a couple of days but died on October 28th, 1854. He was seventy. Though twice married he left no children. Dunkeld: It's Straths and Glens, A McLean and Son, 1865 & Dunkeld - An Ancient City by Eliz. Stewart, 1926, page 58 In these two books there are references to Inverness, (where the 'Sobieski-Stuarts' brothers were housed by Lord Lovat) to the coaching inn at Inver and the accident. The journey and accident are probably correct as two quite independent books make reference to them. However the references to the 'fortune' and the observers of the medical attention are not really corroborated. I am told that there was an elderly lady living in Inver in recent times who saw the accident happen when she was a girl. She died aged 100+ so can not verify the story now, but relayed it on many occasions. B. M. Simpson, Archivist, Dunkeld Cathedral |
Gravestone of Count Roehenstart in Dunkeld Cathedral. Repairs to the inside of the cathedral, where the grave stone lies, prohibits entry.
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