WI: Charlotte Stuart born Male

The Charlotte Stuart of the title is the daughter of Bonnie Prince Charlie and Clementina Walkinshaw. She had quite an eventful life. She was born to the couple and baptised in Ghent, I think. Because of her gender, Charlie dove even deeper into the "nasty bottle" and became abusive towards not only Clementina but "ye child" (as he referred to Charlotte) as well. With permission and a pension from James III (10000 livres per year - no small sum), Clementina left Charles and took up residence with Charlotte in a convent.

Of course, Charlie railed and ranted and cried and begged, but Clementina stayed just where she was. So Charlie wrote her off. Charlotte grew up, and chafed at the convent restrictions (Clementina wrote to Charlie several times about his daughter, but he refused all contact). So, without a proper title or even legitimacy or recognition as a royal bastard (we'll get to that in a moment), Charlotte was in a sort of limbo. She drifted into an affair with a member of the Rohan family and begot three bastard kids with him (which she kept so well hidden from Charlie and the Stuart court - by sending them to the Comtesse d'Albestroff (a title Clementina Walkinshaw had adopted) in Switzerland - that until recently, they were forgotten about).

When Charlie finally agreed to see Charlotte, he was old, heirless (his wife had abandoned him) and a drunk. Charlotte had a soothing effect on him, managed to get him to restrain his drinking, and tidied him up some. Managed to get him to make peace with her uncle, the Cardinal-Duke of York, as well as the pope. Charlie created her duchess of Albany, but never bothered or never got around to legitimating her before he died.

Charlie died and left Charlotte (who was already suffering from a liver ailment IIRC) as an "heiress" of sorts. Charlotte decided that a good idea for marriage would be with the duke of Berwick or Fitz-James (ICR which, although I think it was Berwick), but unfortunately died before anything concrete was agreed on.

Now for the legitimacy problem. Henry IX (Cardinal-Duke of York) made his continuing/re-issuing of Clementina's pension conditional on that she sign a document that she and Charlie had never been married, and that Charlotte was uncontestably a bastard. However, Clementina renegged on this when her pension was stopped and began claiming that Charlotte was legitimate (although, here, her problem was financial, she was old, and had her three grandchildren to support since Charlotte, who had been sending her money, was dead, and had left her "not even a teaspoon" according to one source). When Clementina died, the question of whether Charlotte was legitimate or not died with her.

So, my what-if is what if Charlotte had been born male (can we name her Edward or something? There's a Charles, James, and a Henry already, so it'd be confusing) and more than that, survive?
 
I’m interested, but when it comes to Charlotte and her line in not as knowledgeable as I am on other aspects of Jacobitsm. I’d be interested in what others have too say. Maybe @VVD0D95 has some thoughts.
 
Oh now that could be quite interesting, I imagine Charlie would be happy that he has a son, he might even get around to legitimising him. I also think he might just about avoid falling right into the bottle.
 
Oh now that could be quite interesting, I imagine Charlie would be happy that he has a son, he might even get around to legitimising him. I also think he might just about avoid falling right into the bottle.

If Charlie did marry Clementina (like was claimed by the lady, and was feared by James III), then the legitimating is a moot point. It's not as though England had laws regulating who the king could and couldn't marry (like in Germany).

Agreed that it might prevent his diving into the bottle and never really emerging. In fact, a son (plus less drinking) might embolden him to try for another child - AIUI, he and Clementina didn't do much bed-sharing while they were cohabiting, and by the time he wed Luise, he'd been drinking too long and was suffering from...ahem...problems - but considering this is based on a (very dated) bio of Luise, I'd take it with a generous helping of salt.
 
In OTL Charles had an illegitimate child with Marie Louis D’auvergne in 1748 who was named Charles Godfrey, but he died soon after birth.
 
What was the English laws regarding legitimization? I mean I seem to remember that, under Scottish law, if the parents of a bastard child married, then the child became legitimate (though only if both were free to marry at the time of birth), so in theory "Charles" would inherit the rights to Scotland if Charles and Clementina married, but I don't know the laws for England. Though I suppose that the Stuarts could use the Henry VIII precedent (Mary and Elizabeth were legally declared bastards but regained their inheritance rights under the Third Succession act) as part and parcel for a legitimized son's inheritance
 
What was the English laws regarding legitimization? I mean I seem to remember that, under Scottish law, if the parents of a bastard child married, then the child became legitimate (though only if both were free to marry at the time of birth), so in theory "Charles" would inherit the rights to Scotland if Charles and Clementina married, but I don't know the laws for England. Though I suppose that the Stuarts could use the Henry VIII precedent (Mary and Elizabeth were legally declared bastards but regained their inheritance rights under the Third Succession act) as part and parcel for a legitimized son's inheritance

I suspect that Charles will produce witnesses that say he and Clementina did marry in Ghent (or wherever) "but we didn't come forward before now cause we were afraid of the King [James]" if it's in his interests to do so. I read that this was partially the reason that Charles II never revealed a "marriage" to Lucy Walter - despite there being a lot of circumstantial evidence suggesting that he did - was that it was in Charles II's interests to be single at the Restoration, rather than tied to a common-law wife. Charlie might do the opposite. He's foolhardy and bullheaded enough to do this IMO.
 
In OTL Charles had an illegitimate child with Marie Louis D’auvergne in 1748 who was named Charles Godfrey, but he died soon after birth.

Yeah, but with Charles Godefroi the problem crops up that the boy is legally Marie Louise's husband's child (and IIRC, said husband acknowledged the child as his), even if it is an open secret that he isn't. So, there will always be a stain over his cradle - as opposed to Clementina, whose name was never tied to anyone but Charlie's AFAIK.
 
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