Bonnie Prince Charlie is celebrated in Scotland as the Young Pretender, Charles Stuart, the hero whose claim to the British throne divided the kingdom and shook the opulent monarchies of continental Europe In this compelling and absorbing biography, Carolly Erickson brings all her masterly skills to bear in telling the story of the motley band of Highland rebels who challenged George III and embraced Bonnie Prince Charlie as their last hope. She tells the story of their crushing defeat, chronicling with bone-chilling accuracy the massacre at Culloden, where women wailed through the silent spring night after the battle, identifying corpses of their loved ones. Erickson follows Charles after the disaster, homeless but seldom friendless, as he lived out his picaresque life on the continent. Tormented by his own inner demons, the boy-hero gradually became an irascible, misogynistic old man, closeted with his memories of the windswept moors of Scotland, still clinging to the belief that he was meant to be king.