Charles Edward Stuart is the son of…
August 1744 CE
James II had been deposed as the King of England in 1688 in favor of his daughter, Mary, and her husband the Protestant Prince of Orange—William III of the house of Orange-Nassau.
There remains a significant element of the population of the British Isles that hops for the return of the Stuart family as monarchs.
King Louis XIV of France had shown great support for Stuart cause.
Indeed, in 1715, France had sponsored an uprising in Scotland, which the pretender James had joined, but it was defeated.
Forbidden to return to France by the new king, Louis XV, James had sought sanctuary elsewhere.
Finally, Pope Clement XI had offered James and his family the use of Palazzo Muti and a lifetime annuity of eight thousand Roman scudi.
It was here, in the Palazzo Muti, that Charles Edward Stuart, was born and had lived his whole life.
Charles has much more charisma than his father James, and now Louis XV is favorably disposed toward helping him create another uprising in Scotland.
Charles had sent Drummond of Balhaldy, who Louis XV had sent as an emissary to the Stuart "court" in Rome, to England in spring 1744 on an intelligence mission.
Balhaldy had reported that the English Tory Jacobites wish for Charles to come as soon as possible.
Charles had written to Louis XV, his second cousin, on July 24, saying he had been informed that England could be retaken without civil war as it is stripped of soldiers.
In August, he meets Murray of Broughton at Tuileries Palace, who tells him he will not get the support of more than four thousand Highlanders and that he must drop his plans to come to Scotland.
When Murray says French backing is extremely unlikely given their defensive position in Flanders, Charles replies that he is "determined to come the following summer to Scotland, though with a single footman".