Sir Charles Wogan : Jacobite, Soldier, Royal Agent & Man of Letters

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