Charles Radclyffe

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Charles Radclyffe (3 September 1693 – 8 December 1746)^[1] titular 5th Earl of Derwentwater, who claimed the title Fifth Earl of Derwentwater, was an early Scottish Rite Freemason. He was the youngest son of Edward Radclyffe, 2nd Earl of Derwentwater and Mary Tudor.^[2]

The Radclyffe family were ardent followers of the House of Stuart, James Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater (1689-1716), being raised at the court of the Stuarts in France as companion to James Francis Edward Stuart, the Old Pretender. James and his brother Charles joined the Jacobite rising of 1715 and after being captured at Preston both were tried in London on charges of treason and condemned to death.

James was beheaded on Tower Hill, London on 24 February 1716, declaring on the scaffold his devotion to the Roman Catholic religion and to King James III, but Charles escaped from prison and rejoined the Stuarts in France. In 1725, Charles Radclyffe was serving in Paris as personal secretary to Prince Charles Edward Stuart of Scotland, and founded the first Scottish Rite Masonic Lodge.

In 1731, James Radclyffe's son, John (the fourth Earl) died and the title passed to his uncle (Charles).

He traveled to Rome and was an active participant in the Court of the Jacobite claimant James Francis Edward Stuart. Charles was re-captured by the forces of George II of Great Britain in November, 1745 while sailing to join Charles Edward Stuart, the young Pretender, in Scotland. Condemned to death under his former sentence by Lord Chancellor Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, he was beheaded on 8 December 1746.

[edit] In fiction

In conspiracy theories, such as the one promoted in The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, Radcliffe been alleged to be the twentieth Grand Master of the Priory of Sion.

As Charles Radcliffe, he was a leading character in the historical novel Devil Water, by Anya Seton.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• In-depth biography