King James II's eldest legitimate grandson, Prince Charles Edward Stuart, known everywhere as `Bonnie Prince Charlie', achieved international fame at the age of twenty-five as the man who by his charisma, daring and energy led the Rising of 1745 against George II which all but succeeded in restoring his exiled royal family - the Stuarts - to their thrones of Scotland, England and Ireland. The romance of this dramatic military episode and the legend of the prince's extraordinary months on the run in the Western Highlands after his defeat at Culloden in 1746, eclipse the deeply human story of a brilliant but flawed man. Biographies of Bonnie Prince Charlie often focus on the 1745 Rising. But this new biography charts his early life and also vividly relates the story of the prince's only child and heir and three hidden grandchildren whose previously untold lives were described by the Daily Mail as `one of the best kept secrets in Scottish history'.
