Charles Edward Stuart, Count Roehenstart facts for kids

Charles Edward Augustus Maximilian Stuart, Baron Korff, Count Roehenstart (c. May 1784 – 28 October 1854) was the son of Prince Ferdinand of Rohan. His mother was Charlotte Stuart, Duchess of Albany, who was the daughter of Charles Edward Stuart, also known as the "Young Pretender." Charlotte was later officially recognized by her father. Roehenstart was a quiet Jacobite pretender to the British throne.

The name "Roehenstart" was created from parts of his parents' names, Rohan and Stuart. This helped keep their identities private at the time.

He retired from the army as a lieutenant colonel. However, he is sometimes called "General" Charles Edward Stuart. This title is even on his gravestone at Dunkeld.

Life of Charles Edward Stuart

Roehenstart was baptised into the Roman Catholic faith on 13 May 1784. This happened at the parish church of Saint-Merry in Paris. At his baptism, he was listed as the son of Maximilian Roehenstart and Clementine Ruthven. He was named Charles Edward after his royal grandfather.

Letters from Roehenstart's mother, Charlotte, to her own mother, Clementina Walkinshaw, confirm he was one of her children. Charlotte had two daughters and one son with Ferdinand de Rohan. Her pregnancy with Roehenstart delayed her plans to join her father in Florence. Her father did not know about any of her three children.

On 23 March 1783, Prince Charles Edward officially recognized Charlotte. He made her Duchess of Albany in the Jacobite Peerage. She also became the heir to some of his personal property. However, she did not inherit his claim to the throne. Charlotte traveled to join her father soon after Roehenstart was born. She left her children with her own mother. Charlotte then took care of her father until he died on 31 January 1788. Less than two years later, on 17 November 1789, Charlotte herself died from cancer in Bologna.

Roehenstart's grandmother, Clementina Walkinshaw, lived until 1802. In her later years, she lived in Switzerland. Roehenstart was raised in the Protestant faith. During the French Revolution, his father paid for his education in Germany.

Roehenstart should have received a large amount of money from his grandmother. Much of it was invested in London, but the company went bankrupt in August 1802. Most of his remaining money, one hundred thousand roubles, was invested with a Russian banker.

Roehenstart later said that in 1800, he became an artillery officer in the Imperial Russian Army. By 1803, he had been promoted. On 8 August 1804, in Paris, he was a witness at his sister Charlotte's marriage. By 1806, he had left the army as a lieutenant colonel. He then worked for Duke Alexander of Wurttemberg. Duke Alexander was Tsar Alexander I's Governor of White Ruthenia. In Saint Petersburg, Roehenstart met the Tsarina, who was impressed by him.

In 1811, he was offered the chance to marry a wealthy heiress, Marianna Hurko. However, he fell in love with her sister, Evelina, who was already promised to someone else. Around the same time, Roehenstart's banker failed. He was told he would only get back about five thousand roubles. To the sadness of the Wurttembergs, he left Russia. He sailed from Kronstadt and arrived in London by November 1811. From there, he sailed to North America. He was looking for John Forbes, a partner in the company that went bankrupt. Roehenstart believed Forbes had taken his money. He lived in Philadelphia from 1811 to 1813. He stayed in America until 1814. In 1822, Forbes was living in Demerara, British Guiana. He successfully defended himself against the claim related to his firm's bankruptcy.

In 1816, after the Napoleonic Wars, Roehenstart visited Scotland and England. He tried again to get back the money that was part of the dowry of Queen Mary Beatrice of Modena. This was his great-great-grandmother.

Around 1820, Roehenstart married Maria Antonietta Sofia Barberini. She was the daughter of an Italian nobleman who was living in exile. She died the next year. On 20 July 1821, she was buried as "Countess Roehenstart" at Marylebone, London. She was said to be thirty years old. On 13 December 1826, at St Pancras, London, he married a second time. His second wife was Louisa Constance Bouchier Smith, an Englishwoman with some money. She was the daughter of Joseph Bouchier Smith, who was once the lord of the manor of Kidlington in Oxfordshire. Louisa Constance lived until 20 October 1853, dying in Paris. Neither of Roehenstart's marriages had children.

After his second marriage, Roehenstart returned to Europe. He spent much of the next twenty-five years traveling, often without his wife. They eventually settled permanently in his hometown of Paris. Later in life, Roehenstart spoke openly about his royal family background. However, he became so boastful that few people believed him.

In 1853, Roehenstart's wife died. In 1854, he visited Scotland again. While there, he was badly hurt in a road accident when his carriage overturned. He was buried in the graveyard of Dunkeld Cathedral. His friends placed a simple headstone with the words: "Sacred to the memory of General Charles Edward Stuart Count Roehenstart who died at Dunkeld on the 28th October 1854 Sic transit gloria mundi".

In the 1900s, Roehenstart's personal papers were found by an American scholar named George Sherburn. He used these papers to write a detailed story about Roehenstart's life.

Claims to the Throne

Roehenstart claimed the British throne for himself. He always said that his grandfather, Prince Charles Edward, had married his grandmother, Clementina Walkinshaw. He also claimed that his mother, the Duchess of Albany, had married a Swedish nobleman named Maximilian Roehenstart.

It is unlikely that his grandfather married Clementina, though it's not impossible. However, there is no proof. There is also no evidence to support the claim about his mother's marriage. Maximilian Roehenstart was named as his father at his baptism in Paris. But there is no Swedish noble family called Roehenstart. Instead, there is strong evidence that Charlotte's father was Ferdinand de Rohan.

Even though he claimed the Jacobite succession, Roehenstart did not try to take the throne of his Stuart ancestors. He did try to stay in touch with important Scottish people. When he died, he was returning from a visit to the Duke of Atholl at Blair Castle in Perthshire.

See also

• Alternative successions of the English and British crown

Images for kids

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  Roehenstart's grandmother, Clementina Walkinshaw, around 1760.

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  Roehenstart's mother, Charlotte Stuart, Duchess of Albany.

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  Roehenstart's grandfather, Charles Edward Stuart.