Maher, Richard K. Sir Charles Wogan

Jacobite, Soldier, Royal Agent & Man of Letters

Sir Charles Wogan was an Irish knight-baronet of the exiled monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, King James Stuart III. His intrepid life story (c. 16831754) is told here in his own words, based on his extensive correspondence with the Stuart court in exile, now preserved in the Stuart Papers at Kew in London. His story, which spans the territory of the seven European great powers of the 18th century, takes you from the plains of Kildare to the fearsome cells of Newgate Prison, from the silver plains of Silesia to the icy peaks of the Pyrenees, from Vienna to Rome and from the Maghreb to Madrid. He rubbed shoulders with popes and princesses, kings, ministers and cardinals. A military officer, poet, diplomat and courtier, he is best known for organising the rescue of Princess Maria Clementina Sobieska from her captivity in Innsbruck in 1719, with the help of his comrades from the Dillon Regiment, who were serving in France at the time. Pope Clement XI appointed him Senator of Rome: the highest civil honour conferred by the papacy. His letters to James III provide an insight into life in Spain at that time, where he had settled in exile and was waiting for the opportunity to restore James to the throne of the Three Kingdoms. His letters offer fascinating details about his marriage and children, swirling rumours of international intrigue and diplomacy, cunning ministers, the financial situation in Spain at the time, secret Masonic orders, a unique insight into conditions in 18th-century Ireland, the Jacobites' strategy for restoring the monarchy, and how the twin pillars of Catholicism and Jacobite ideology supported Irish exiles in Europe during this period.