ABSTRACT
‘Lord Derwentwater was perhaps the most attractive, as well as the most pathetic figure in the Jacobite martyrology.’ 1 Aged only 27 when he died, James Radcliffe, Earl of Derwentwater’s short life has become embroidered with overtones of historical fiction. The Victorians added myths and legends to it, and in the 21st century websites on Dilston Hall, his Northumberland home, claim that his ghostly figure haunts the ruined tower, and that Dilston Water ran red when he was executed. How near to fact are the stories about the earl? Was he the tragic romantic figure of the 19th-century romance, or merely a disaffected aristo who thought that the Stuarts would serve him better than the Hanoverian Georges? As we shall see, sweep away the romantic additions and we find a rather frightened young man, caught up in events over which he had no control or experience in handling. We shall also see that there was indeed a heroic streak in him as he faced death rather than renounce his religion, and that although others might support the Stuarts through self-seeking motives, he genuinely believed that James was his rightful king.
