Series 1 > Miscellany of the Scottish History Society (Second volume)

INTRODUCTION
437
declaration that such a report was ‘ void of all foundation,’
signed by her at Paris on March 9th, 1767, but she wrote
to recall this declaration the very same day.
The mother and daughter lived first at the Convent of the
Visitation, then at that of the Holy Sacrament in Paris, and
then at the Abbey of Notre Dame at Meaux-en-Brie, under
the titles of Comtesse d’Albestroff and Lady Charlotte Stuart,
until after the marriage of Prince Charles Edward (now the
titular King Charles m.) in 1772 to the Princess Louise of
Stolberg. Lady Charlotte then sent her father a long letter
of appeal, and at last received a proposal from him that he
should admit her (alone) into his household. This proposi¬
tion could not have been agreeable, and next year Charlotte
and her mother came to Rome to urge their suit, which was
unpleasant enough to the newly married ‘ king.’ By hints
that their position might become worse, they were compelled
to return to France, and Charlotte then in despair proposed
to marry. This her father would not hear of, although she
was ‘ one of the most accomplished young women,’ and
although she offered as an alternative to enter a religious
mendicant order. She was forced to remain patiently in a
convent until 1783, when the separation which followed
upon the elopement of Louise of Stolberg left her father
solitary.
He at once thought of his daughter, and summoned her to
Florence. At first he even wished to fetch her himself, and
applied to the King of Sweden for a passport to Paris in the
name of Comte de Bielk. He had to send his Major-domo
Stuart to bring her later, and she was accompanied by a
Dame d’honneur, Mme. O’Donnell, a Frenchwoman, and an
ecuyer ‘ Lord ’ Nairn. Her father could not show sufficient
interest in her now. He adopted her formally, legitimated
and created her Duchess of Albany, with the approval of the
King of France,1 and obtained a French pension for her.
1 Hist. MSS. Com. Report, Lord Braye’s mss. 236.