Scottish myth
Bonnie Prince Charlie – the Scottish warriors died for the “handsome” prince, when he was just a pimply teenager
The prince shows his everyday face.
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Charles Edward Stuart’s face was reconstructed for the first time. As a young man, the “beautiful” Prince Charlie still looks optimistically into the world. The simulation shows him as a 24-year-old just before his ill-fated rebellion collapsed and old Scotland was systematically destroyed by the English.
With a series of uprisings, the supporters of the Stuarts tried to eliminate the consequences of the “Glorious Revolution” in England. The last attempt was the Jacobite Rising of 1745 led by Charles Edward Stuart, Bonnie Prince Charlie. After the initial successes of the “beautiful” prince, the tide turned. London was stronger in every way, and then there were the mistakes of the insurgents.
Unlucky uprising
In the Battle of Culloden in 1746 the remnants of his army were crushed. With that, the Scotland of the Highland clans also perished, because the English systematically destroyed the culture of the Highlands after their victory – today one would speak of cultural genocide. The prince was able to escape. After that his life deteriorated, one can say that he lost all political influence and his wife through his alcoholism first and then slowly drank himself to death.
romantic myth
This did not detract from the myth of the “beautiful” prince. The motif was too romantic: “The beautiful, youthful prince, noble and surrounded by wild clan warriors, is defeated by the butchers of dark London.” The first seasons of the hit TV series “Outlander” revolve largely around the prince’s rebellion. Time-travelling protagonist Claire Randal (Caitriona Balfe) falls from the 20th century into the 18th, knowing full well that all the Scots surrounding her will die in Culloden.
The painting shows the prince as a teenager
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Now the prince’s face has been reconstructed and it only looks half magical. It was recreated using death masks, but the reconstruction does not show the old man, but the prince as he would have looked during the Jacobite rising of 1745. A team from the University of Dundee’s Center for Anatomy and Human Identification has been able to create the most lifelike replica yet.
The basis are death masks
The work shows him with an everyday face, blond curls and a white shirt open, just as he would have seen himself in the mirror in the morning. 3D models were created from the death masks, which in turn were scaled down to a younger age. Barbora Veselá initiated the project. She explains: “I’ve been looking at previous reconstructions of historical figures and was interested in how it could be done differently. I wanted to give a picture of what it would have been like during the Jacobite Rising. There are death masks of Bonnie Prince Charlie that are accessible, some are in private collections. We also know that he suffered a stroke prior to his death, which made the age regression process even more interesting to me.”
“It was a pleasure to work with these artifacts. There are moments when working with the masks, you suddenly think that this is a living person. Beauty is a very subjective thing, but Bonnie Prince Charlie has characteristics Features like his nose and eyes that encourage you to study him.”
Instagram version of the myth
The realistic reconstruction breaks with the traditional paintings. There the young prince is always sumptuously dressed, wears a hat and wig and, true to the spirit of the time, has full make-up. Barbora Veselá shows him with red spots on his face, as if he had just washed himself in the morning. The reconstruction spins the myth further. Veselás Prinz is still looking to the future full of curiosity and confidence. A moment before his world ended and his courage to live left him forever after the defeat at Culloden.
Source: Guardians