b. 1722, Milton, South Uist, Outer Hebrides, Scot.
d. March 5, 1790, Kingsburgh House, Skye, Inner Hebrides
Scottish Jacobite heroine who helped Charles Edward (also known as
Bonnie Prince Charlie and "the Young Pretender") to escape from Scotland after his defeat in the Jacobite rebellion of 1745-46.
After losing a devastating battle at
Culloden in
April 1746, and being
pursued as he was by the
English, Charles headed for safety in the
Hebrides, where Flora was visiting some friends. Flora wasn't a
Jacobite herself and didn't support Charles' cause, but she and her family, like many others, would never have betrayed him. Persuaded by his
beauty or by her
family, depending on whose account you believe, she allowed him to join her
party disguised as her maid,
Betty Burke. (Why
Hollywood hasn't made this story into a
cross-dressing farce yet, I will never know.) They obtained permission to sail to
Skye, where they parted -
Bonnie Prince Charlie made it to
France, while
Flora was discovered and imprisoned for a short time in the
Tower of London. She was later released, married her long-time sweetie Allan
MacDonald, and they
emigrated to North Carolina in
1774. After he was captured in
American Revolutionary War (fighting on the
British side), Flora returned to
Scotland. Allan eventually joined her there, and she died in
1790 on
Skye.
There has been much
speculation about a
romance betwixt the Pretender and Flora MacDonald; if there was a romance, it was much more in the
adventure-story sense of the word, rather than a
wee Scottish lass and
lad making misty eyes at each other.