Sing Me a Song of a Lad That Is Gone

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1:50Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Menke. Listener discretion advised. If you've watched the television show Outlander, the theme song is probably very familiar to you by this point. It's a version of an old tune called The Sky Boat Song. I'll spare you my singing, but the lyrics go, Sing me a song of a lass that is gone, Say could that lass be I, Mary of soul she sailed on a day, Over the sea to sky. The entire tone of the song is extremely fitting, eerie and melancholy, and, alas, that is gone, perfect for a show about a woman who disappears 200 years through time.

2:43The actual original song was slightly modified for the television show. There have been a number of versions of The Sky Boat Song since it was composed in 1782, but the most popular lyrics come from the famous Scottish novelist Robert Louis Stevenson, the man who wrote Treasure Island and created Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. His poem from 1892 actually goes, Sing me a song of a lad that is gone. Say, could that lad be I? It makes sense that Outlander changed the pronouns given that their television show is mostly about a woman. But the lad that Stevenson was referring to wasn't just a generic character for a poem.

3:35He is a very specific lad, Charles Edward Stewart, or the Bonnie Prince Charlie. The Sky Boatsong became popular in the 19th century for evoking a particularly romantic event in Scottish history. Charles evading capture after the Battle of Culloden and sailing, yes, over the sea to the Isle of Skye. Charles Stuart was the grandson of King James II of England, who had been deposed after marrying a Catholic woman and having a son who would presumably be raised Catholic. And so in 1688, James was cast off in favor of his daughter from his first marriage, Mary, who had been raised Protestant and would rule alongside her husband, William of Orange, William and Mary.

4:31But not everyone was thrilled by that changeover, particularly Catholic people and people who believed that the divine right of kings and their hereditary right to rule was granted by God and shouldn't be messed around by anything as domestic as Parliament. Charles Stuart, the grandson that we're talking about, would have been the legitimate heir to the throne if you follow that traditional line of succession from father to son. His supporters called him the Young Chevalier. His opponents called him the Young Pretender. Nowadays, most people casually familiar with him know him as the Bonnie Prince Charlie.

5:18Charles led a rebellion to claim back the throne of Great Britain on behalf of his father, culminating in the bloody Battle of Culloden in 1746. If you've watched Outlander, then you don't need me to tell you, but the battle did not go well for Charles and his supporters, the Jacobites, named for the Latinization of James, the deposed king. It was a terrible defeat, and only because Charles' advisors pulled him away from the fray did the young prince survive. But surviving the battle wouldn't be enough. British forces were desperate to find him, traitor who might rally another uprising at any moment.

6:06Charles needed to get away, to escape the British forces and make his way to safety, at least temporarily, until he could make it all the way to the security of France. A sympathetic supporter had an idea. The supporter was a local bureaucrat who could supply papers. What if Charles took a boat to the Isle of Skye, an island to the northwest of mainland Scotland? The supporter's stepdaughter was a girl named Flora MacDonald. They would disguise Charles as Flora's maid, a risky strategy given Charles's masculine stature, but it was the best plan they had. Hearts pounding, salt leaping over the edge of the boat, Flora and the grandson of the former king of England and Scotland bobbed towards what they hoped might be salvation.

7:01If they were caught, the price would be imprisonment, death, or worse. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is Noble Blood. His grandfather might have been deposed, but young Charles Edward Stuart still grew up like a young prince. He was born in Rome on New Year's Eve in 1720, the oldest son of James Francis Edward, himself the only son of the former King James VII and II, seventh of Scotland, second of England. Perhaps given the fact that the entire trajectory of his life was changed by the conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism, there was considerable attention given to how young Charles would be raised.

7:52At one point in his childhood, his governor was Gasp, an Episcopalian, which caused so much anxiety in Charles' mother, Clementina, that she asked the Pope himself to weigh in to make sure that Charles would only ever be given a Catholic tutor. To be fair, though, it doesn't seem like it took too much to make Clementina anxious. In a sort of heartbreaking letter from Charles when he was just eight years old, written to his father, he wrote that he promised he wouldn't upset his mother by jumping near her. Clementina and her nervous disposition, alas, would not be long for this world. She died when Charles was a teenager, after telling her son to never desert his Catholic faith.

8:41The basics of Charles' childhood are pretty standard prince fare. He was taught sports and languages, dancing and music, and he certainly had the personality of an entitled young prince. When he was 13, he physically kicked one of his tutors and threatened to kill him if he tried to discipline him. But aside from that notable bout of adolescent petulance, Charles grew into an incredibly charming figure by all accounts. He was handsome and charismatic, so much so that pretty much everyone who supported the Jacobite cause realized they had something here. Someone who could serve as a figurehead for their movement, and a far more compelling one than his old father.

9:32And so Charles toured around Europe, making himself and his cause known. And England was paying attention. When Charles toured northern Italy and was celebrated with elaborate parties in Venice, King George II was so annoyed that he expelled the Venetian diplomats from London. In modern terms, Charles became a master of his own personal brand. He realized how powerful his image was, and he made sure to wield it to his full advantage. In 1741, he arrived at a ball wearing Highland dress, Scottish tartan, bedecked with jewels. It was a very clear and really compelling message, emphasizing the nobility and purity of his cause.

10:23appealing to his supporters in Scotland, and with plenty of bling to evoke the splendor and glory that a monarch should. Charles was getting impatient. He knew that there was support for him to reclaim his family's crown, support in France, certainly, who would be all too happy to see England's troops pulling back from wars on the continent if they had to fight in a civil war on their own island, and also support among Catholics in Ireland and Scotland. And there was also support in England, Jacobites there who knew that Charles' father was the rightful king. Charles just needed to consolidate that support and actually, you know, fight.

11:13In 1744, Louis XV in France was poking around England on a fact-finding mission, trying to gauge just how much Jacobite support there actually was there. If France invaded, would English Jacobites join with them in the battle? Back in Italy, Charles got word about France's support and supposed planned invasion. What he heard was that France was definitely in to back an invasion, and so he decided to take action. In January of that year, he acted like he was just leaving town on a hunting expedition. But that was just to fool the British spies who might be watching him. Really, Charles was on his way to France, acting as Prince Regent for his father, taking his first steps to restore their throne.

12:10Leaving Italy would actually be the last time Charles would ever see his father again. It was a dangerous, risky trip from Italy to France. There was first a delay because of the weather, and as Charles was sailing to Antibes, a British admiral saw his boat and gave chase. Charles only managed to escape on luck and timing. Lucky because the seas were rough, and he managed, just in a moment, to get transferred secretly to another boat by the French before the British could find him. But the ruse of his hunting party? That was up. The British knew that Charles was in France and that an invasion might be imminent, and now they were on guard.

13:00Louis XV was furious at Charles about all of this, for the record. He hadn't even actually planned an invasion, and now this impertinent, risky target just shows up demanding troops to join him in England? Well, maybe he would have invaded if Charles' little escape maneuver hadn't tipped off the British. But now that Charles was actually in France, Louis found that he had cold feet. It would be a lot less trouble for everyone, Louis thought, if Charles just went back to Italy and wasn't hanging around France racking up debts. But that wasn't Charles' style at all. Remember, he was a man of action, and he didn't understand why France wasn't just ready to go along with him.

13:51He began making grand declarations, saying,

14:00Even as intelligence came back and advisors told him that English Jacobites wouldn't really be rising up to join him unless he had the force of French support, Charles was undeterred. Despite the ambivalence of the French crown, Charles pressed forward, and he raised enough money to equip a small expedition to Scotland, using the crown jewels from his mother's ancestral line in Poland to secure loans. Nothing was going to stop Charles from acting. Even when he sent a nobleman ahead of him to try to raise as much Scottish support as he could, and then that nobleman was captured and imprisoned, it wasn't going to deter Charles.

14:48In the early summer of 1745, Charles set out with two ships, a man of war called the Elizabeth and a smaller 16-gun privateer. But this too would prove to be a challenging sea journey. A British ship, the Lion, attacked the Elizabeth, and though Charles was luckily safely on the smaller privateer, the Elizabeth had to return to port for repairs, taking a lot of Charles' artillery with it. But still, Charles made it to Scotland. And though the reception he got from local clan leaders was slightly cooler than he might have hoped for, given that they were expecting him to show up with the force of France behind him, he still managed to gather some support and manpower, especially after the public bravery of a young nobleman pledging his loyalty, named delightfully, Ranald MacDonald.

15:50Charles, a master of his personal brand, if not a master of logistics, began taking Gaelic lessons, and support slowly consolidated, especially as he and his troops made some progress against British dragoons. When Charles entered Edinburgh, it was with 2 ,400 men. He defeated the British forces led by Sir John Cope at the Battle of Prestonpans, Charles fighting alongside his men on the front lines, and morale was finally buoying in his favor. Charles spent five weeks holed up at Holyrood Palace near Edinburgh, waiting for reinforcements and organizing his counselors into a formal advisory group.

16:37He issued declarations against the British Parliament, calling it an unlawful assembly. Really, remember, Charles' main goal here was to take back the throne that he thinks belongs to his father, which means going to England to claim it. You've got to drive out the sitting monarchy in England for that to happen. But among Charles' counselors in Scotland, plenty of them were content enough to leave well enough alone, at least for the time being, and just stay put in Scotland with their consolidating power. It's a mentality sometimes referred to as, quote, Fortress Scotland. Ultimately, it wasn't that great of a long-term strategy, given the fact that England has vast reserves of money and a Royal Navy at its disposal to implement a blockade, it was winner takes all, and marching on London was the best way to win.

17:39But Charles wasn't going to make these decisions unilaterally. He put it up for a vote in his council. Either march on London or stay in Scotland. and it passed, going to England, albeit only with one vote. A force of about 6 ,000 men marched down to Carlisle, a city in England in the Cumberland region. The city surrendered and Charles got to ride high, literally through the city, on a white horse. The Jacobite force should have been buoyed by optimism, but the cracks were beginning to show. Despite early victories, by the time the Jacobite force made it down to Derby, people were losing confidence in Charles.

18:31Where were the English Jacobites that were supposed to rise up and support them? And for that matter, where were the French troops? Didn't Charles promise them that French support would be coming? When pressed, Charles was forced to admit, No, he doesn't actually have any physical evidence of that commitment. And no, he hasn't really been in touch, per se, with the English Jacobites or French recently. Still, Charles wanted to continue down on the march to London. His council insisted that, despite the fact that they haven't lost a battle, they need to retreat and march back to Scotland. And so, with no other choice, Charles acquiesced to his advisors, and the Scottish invasion force marched home.

19:27It's one of the great ironies of history that, actually at the time, London was astonishingly undefended. It was defended at that time only by about 2 ,000 regulars, and had Charles and his men marched down, there probably wouldn't have been enough time for British reinforcements to come in. If Charles and his men had done what Charles had wanted, and they had pressed ahead, would they have been able to take London? It's extremely plausible. But of course, they didn't have that intelligence at the time to know how undefended London was. And what-ifs don't matter when it comes to things that actually happened.

20:14Charles, now glum and feeling powerless and a little humiliated, drank and idled his way through the retreat. At Bannockburn, he fell ill, and for a week and a half, he was nursed by a woman named Clementine Walkinshaw. Ironically, she was named after Charles' mother. In a slightly Oedipal twist, she would become Charles' mistress. From that point, the fire of Charles' motivation began to slowly fade. His commanders told him that there was a massive desertion rate among his army, and so they retreated, although Charles will later discover that there weren't as many desertions as were reported to him.

20:59Charles feels like his council is cowardly and that they lack his conviction. He and his supporters will try to siege Sterling Castle, which is ultimately a failure, and move north. The last town they ever occupy is Inverness, and from there they would face the battle that has lived in infamy as the failure that puts an end to this entire uprising, the Battle of Culloden. As with any important historical battle, plenty of people have written about the mistakes Charles made and things he could have done differently. One big mistake was fighting on slow, boggy, flat ground, which allowed the British clear lines of fire and made the Jacobite soldiers slow on their charge.

21:53The Jacobites also had waited a while before their first charge, hoping the British would attack first. And that probably wasn't a great move, given that the British could just fire artillery at them. It really wasn't too damaging, although two of Charles' messengers did get decapitated by cannonballs one after another, which probably wasn't great for morale. By the time the Jacobites advanced, Charles almost certainly knew that it was pretty much a lost cause. Another podcast or any number of history books can give you an incredibly detailed play-by-play of exactly how the bloody battle came to be, but just know the basics.

22:43The messy Jacobite charge was thinned by British canister shot, and then the British troops closed in and sealed the deal. Charles gave a save-yourself-if-you-can order to his supporters, and though he tried to stay on the field and keep fighting, he was ultimately pulled away by his officers who managed to get him to safety. Well, safety for the time being. Charles was a wanted man, a very wanted man, and British troops were scouring Scotland trying to find him. Charles needed to get away and quickly. There was a reward for any Highlander who would turn him in. 30 ,000 pounds. Who could he trust?

23:33Where could he go? This brings us to Flora MacDonald. Though you might have expected a heroine of the Jacobite Rebellion to be Catholic, Flora's family was actually part of the Protestant minority of the area in Scotland where she lived. Her father had died when she was a baby, and her stepfather, Hugh, worked as basically a civil servant on behalf of the British government. But he was also a Jacobite sympathizer, empathizing with the romantic struggle of a valiant prince trying to evade capture. The British were closing in on Charles when Hugh emerged with an idea. Charles could sail off to the Isle of Skye, the Scottish island to the northwest of the mainland.

24:22How would he do it? Well, Hugh said the prince could sail with his stepdaughter, Flora, posing as her servant. Flora was 24 years old at this point, and her stepfather had just volunteered her for an incredibly dangerous job. When Flora first heard the plan, she was a little reluctant. Not because she was scared of danger, but because, although she was engaged, she was unmarried, and she was worried that it would be indecent for her to be traveling with a man. Flora didn't really see what she was doing as a grand act of Jacobite rebellion. She said she helped Charles because he was a human being in need.

25:06Years later, she would tell Frederick, the Prince of Wales, that she would have done the same for him. Because of Hugh's position in the local government, he was able to get the appropriate papers for Flora and for, quote, Betty Burke, Flora's female servant, an Irish seamstress. It was a pretty risky gambit, given that Charles was a fairly tall man with a stature that did not immediately read female. But the disguise served its purpose well enough. The pair landed at Trotternish and made their way to the house of their contact, Lady Margaret MacDonald, only to find something terrifying. She just happened to be entertaining a military officer in her house who just stopped by.

25:58Flora proved herself to be not only brave, but also excellent under pressure. Flora kept the officer occupied while Charles could get to safety. Few days later, Charles and Flora made it to the city of Portree-on-Sky, where they said their goodbye. Charles's escape would have a few more twists and turns before he eventually sailed to safety in France, once again disguised as a lady. Charles would sail back to the mainland and then back to Skye to evade capture, and at one point, while hiding in the hills around Glenfinnan, he fell off a cliff and only managed to survive because he was hanging onto a bush.

26:42Flora would be captured for her role in helping a traitor. She was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London, but it would be an incredibly brief captivity. Almost immediately, she was allowed to live outside the Tower under supervision, and then she was fully released after the Act of Indemnity in June 1747. Fascinatingly, despite the fact that she had aided the Jacobite rebellion, Flora became something of a cause celeb among the well-to-do in London. Aristocrats enchanted by the story of a young woman's bravery raised over 1 ,500 pounds for her. A group of aristocrats which actually included Redrick, the Prince of Wales.

27:32Remember, a royal whom Charles had been trying to overthrow. By the Victorian era, Flora MacDonald as a figure became woven into a romanticized ideal of Scotland, along with Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Bonnie Prince Charlie himself. She was a piece of folklore by that point, almost. There's a Scottish Highland dance called Flora MacDonald's Fancy, and a statue of her at Inverness Castle, which was erected in 1899, the Victorian era. Flora is a part of a story of heroic underdogs set among sweeping green glens. Not to be too cynical, but for the English, it's easier to romanticize the rebels who rose up against them when those figures are safely in the past, posing no real threat to their status quo.

28:31An Englishman could read a book or poem about Flora MacDonald, pat himself on the back for appreciating how stirring her small moment of history was in beautiful, windswept Scotland, and then continue on enjoying the cultural hegemony of England. Flora never saw Charles again in her lifetime, although it's sometimes said that before they parted ways in portrait, he gave her a locket with his image. If he did, I like to imagine her looking at it, a memento of a moment of youthful bravery on the national stage, holding it in her hand to remind herself during the drudgery of everyday life, the decades to come, that on occasion, circumstance might call upon you to become a romantic heroine.

29:26That's the story of Bonnie Prince Charlie's Escape to Sky. But keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear about Flora McDonald's incredibly eventful life after Charles.

29:53your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings. Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you? I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused. Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on me to access my subconscious. NLP, aka neurolinguistic programming, is a blend of hypnosis, linguistics, and psychology. Fans say it's like finally getting a user manual for your brain. It's about engineering consciousness. Mind Games is the story of NLP. It's crazy cast of disciples and the fake doctor who invented it at a New Age commune and sold it to guys in suits. He stood trial for murder and got acquitted.

30:35The biggest mind game of all? NLP might actually work. This is wild. Listen to Mind Games on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

30:50What do you do when the headlines don't explain what's happening inside of you? I'm Ben Higgins, and if you can hear me, it's where culture meets the soul, a place for real conversation. Each episode, I sit down with people from all walks of life, celebrities, thinkers, and everyday folks, and we go deeper than the polished story. We talk about what drives us, what shapes us, and what gives us hope. We get honest about the big stuff, identity when you don't recognize yourself anymore, loss that changes you, purpose when success isn't enough, peace when your mind won't slow down, faith when it's complicated.