Charles Stuart, 1st Baron Stuart de Rothesay

Charles Stuart. After a painting by George Hayter , around 1825

Coat of arms of Charles Stuart, 1st Baron Stuart de Rothesay

Charles Stuart, 1st Baron Stuart de Rothesay GCB , PC ( January 2, 1779 - November 6, 1845 in Highcliffe Castle ) was a British nobleman and diplomat.

origin

Stuart came from an old branch of the Stuarts , which descended from the Scottish King Robert II . He was the eldest son of British General Charles Stuart and his wife Anne Louisa Bertie , and his father was the favorite son of British Prime Minister John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute .

Life

He attended Eton College from 1787 to 1795 . From 1797 to 1798 he studied at Christchurch College , Oxford and then until 1799 at the University of Glasgow . On November 6, 1797, he was admitted to the bar at Lincoln's Inn , but after a brief stint as a lawyer, he entered the diplomatic service in 1801. Until 1804 he was the secretary of the embassy in Vienna and then until 1808 the secretary of the embassy in St. Petersburg . From 1808 to 1810 he was the contact person for the juntas and secret agent in French-occupied Spain . In 1810 he became a minister and member of the Regency Council of Portugal. As this he made himself indispensable for the British General Arthur Wellesley . In 1812 he became Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath and in 1814 a member of the Privy Council . From February 1815 he was British ambassador to the Netherlands. On the eve of the Battle of Waterloo, he attended the Duchess of Richmond's ball in Brussels. After the victory of the Allies , he led the French King Louis XVIII. back to France. He was made the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath and was British Ambassador to Paris until 1824.

In 1825, as a member of an Anglo-Portuguese delegation, he negotiated the recognition of Brazil's independence by Portugal. For his services he was made an officer of the Portuguese Order of the Tower and Sword and the Portuguese Conde de Macchio as well as the Brazilian Marquez d'Angara . In 1828 he was again ambassador to Paris. On January 22, 1828, he was the Baron Stuart de Rothesay , of the Isle of Bute been raised, but during the French Revolution of July Stuart himself was implicated in a conspiracy that instead of the Duke of Orleans the grandson of King Charles X , the Comte de Chambord , wanted to take the throne. In doing so he had seriously violated the neutrality imposed on him by the British government and had brought Britain into diplomatic difficulties. Prime Minister Wellington initially wanted to recall him, but ultimately Stuart only received a reprimand from British Foreign Minister Lord Aberdeen . Finally, in 1831, Stuart was recalled by the new Whig administration under Earl Gray and received no new post for the next few years. From 1830 he had a new manor house built on the site of Highcliffe Castle in Dorset , for the construction of which parts of the demolished Jumièges Abbey were used and which he had furnished with numerous pieces of furniture acquired in Paris.

Although his health was already in bad shape, he became British ambassador to Russia in 1841 under the Conservative government of Robert Peel . After suffering a stroke in July 1843, which he initially tried to cover up, he finally had to give up his post in March 1844 and returned to England. He died after several more strokes. He was buried in St Mark's Church in Highcliffe, the construction of which he had supported with donations of land and money. Since he died with no male offspring, his title expired on his death.

Family and offspring

He married Elizabeth Yorke (1769-1867) on February 6, 1816, daughter of Philip Yorke, 3rd Earl of Hardwicke and Elizabeth Scot Lindsay. With her he had two daughters:

• Charlotte (1817–1861) ⚭ Charles John Canning, 1st Earl Canning ;
• Louisa ⚭ Henry Beresford, 3rd Marquess of Waterford .

Individual evidence

1. ^ The Edinburgh Gazette : No. 3614, p. 21 , January 22, 1828.

Web links

Commons : Charles Stuart, 1st Baron Stuart de Rothesay  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Robert A. Franklin: Stuart, Charles, Baron Stuart de Rothesay (1779-1845). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004
• Mr Charles Stuart at Hansard (English)
• Highcliffe Castle: Lord Stuart de Rothesay
• The Social Networks and Archival Context Project (SNAC): Stuart de Rothesay, Charles Stuart, Baron. OAC
• Charles Stuart, 1st and last Baron Stuart de Rothesay on thepeerage.com , accessed July 28, 2015.