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previous: Chapter 4 This webpage reproduces part of Roehenstart A Late Stuart Pretender by George Sherburn published by The University of Chicago Press 1960 The text is in the public domain. This page has been carefully proofread and I believe it to be free of errors. If you find a mistake though, please let me know! next: Chapter 6

 p39  Chapter Five

The Tin Box

Early in 1814 Roehenstart landed again in England. While he was in the States, his father, Prince Ferdinand de Rohan-Guémené had died on October 30, 1813, and that fact seems to have left his son more free to make frank inquiries about his Stuart family rights in his mother's estate — his "reclamations" as he liked to call them. It is clear that from childhood Roehenstart had been strictly forbidden to mention or to approach his maternal relatives. Now things had changed, and after having, as he thought, arranged the payment of his debts in America he turned his attention to an investigation of his family rights. He had no intention of revealing his true paternity or of pretending to any rights of succession — other than financial. Just as his mother, when in 1784 she joined her father in Florence, was certain that somewhere in the palace there was concealed great wealth in coin or jewels, so now her son was certain that with the death of Cardinal York (1807) somewhere should be lodged a great fortune that really belonged to him, but which had been seized by "the priests of Rome." Bishop Cesarini was in fact the heir of the Cardinal.

Roehenstart's finances are obscure. From somewhere he had a small income and usually, if he wished, he could pay debts (which are never large): like many gentlemen of his day he was frequently short of cash. He could not finance an expensive campaign against the "priests of Rome," but over a period of time he could persistently make inquiries and perhaps secure recognition of his maternal origin. He had certain leads. One was the hope that the Countess Norton, who had been lady in waiting to his mother at the time of Charlotte's death, might have information. Another was the hope that his grandmother, Clementine Walkinshaw, who had outlived her daughter by thirteen years, might have left documents of importance to his claims. There was also the  p40 widow of Prince Charles Edward, whom Roehenstart in fits of possibly acquisitive affection would later, on occasion, call his stepgrandmother. She was living in affluence in Florence. Rome itself might naturally have secrets to disclose.

After staying for a few weeks in London, Roehenstart turned up in Bordeaux, where possibly his deceased father, once archbishop of Bordeaux, might still have property. In August his letters were to be addressed "in care of Mr. Rougemont de Löwenberg," in Paris. Roehenstart had got track of one P. Couppey, who had served the Countess of Albestroff during her last eighteen years, and from Couppey, Roehenstart got a detailed account of her extreme poverty during those years. Couppey had barely met the Duchess of Albany, since he entered the service of her mother on September 15, 1784, two days before the duchess left for Italy. He seems to have known nothing about the three "tender plants" left behind. Clementine, lacking other friends, had in her will rewarded the faithful Couppey by making him her heir. There was in fact nothing to inherit except that her pension from Cardinal York had been renewed six months before her death, and it was wildly possible that its arrears might be paid. They were not. From his grandmother, then, Roehenstart had nothing to hope for except perhaps documents, and the most interesting passage in Couppey's long and moderately illiterate letter was the following (translated from the French):

In a postscript Couppey adds, "I don't know if Mr. Weck has sent on these papers to Mr. Coutts in view of the trouble that there was in corresponding with anyone in England." As a matter of fact, Mr. Weck had sent off six parcels of Clementine's papers in 1804, as he indicates in a drafted letter in French, which he turned over to Roehenstart  p41 in 1815. It is unaddressed but was clearly sent to some intermediate (probably a Mr. Haller, once mentioned) who could forward the parcels to Coutts. Weck had earlier tried to send on the letters, but they were returned, and he kept them, because, as he says:

This letter suggests the way by which the letters from Charlotte Stuart to her mother reached the Coutts family, from whom they ultimately came to the Bodleian Library. The person most likely to be compromised by the letters was Prince Ferdinand, Aumonier to the empresses of Napoleon. Doubtless the papers also included unkind remarks about the Cardinal-Duke of York.

Couppey in his letter gives an account of the financial resources of the Countess of Albestroff, and says "I never heard of any diamonds sent to Madame." But Roehenstart was not satisfied with this ignorance of diamonds, and among his memoranda he writes down: "It is necessary to speak with this gentleman [Weck] to know what's become of a tin box containing diamonds, jewels, and papers relating to the Dutchessº of Albany."

Since Roehenstart was much impressed by the story of the tin box, one might expect he would go at once to Fribourg, but instead he went to Florence to see the Countess of Albany. In October he sent her letters that she was pleased to receive, and she answered with a cordial invitation to come and see her. From this time on the lady and Roehenstart were ostensibly on friendly terms. Doubtless it was a matter of keeping an eye on each other, but it was more than that. In his travel notes on Florence, written in French, probably in 1815, Roehenstart devotes three pages to the society of that city in 1815‑16, in an account which begins:

It was chez la Comtesse that the English colony congregated, and there Roehenstart met Caroline, Princess of Wales (whom he found ungainly), Lady Elizabeth Forbes (who was "beauti­ful"), and others who with the approach of winter migrated to Rome. Later, at Milan, Roehenstart (in French) tells us,

The society that one met at the house of the Countess of Albany was, then, distinguished. The attitudes of the Countess and Roehenstart toward each other are somewhat baffling. His later habit of calling her "stepgrandmother," possibly was a way of advertising his royal connection. On the part of the Countess we may imagine the attitude of an inveterate coquette. Witness the conclusion of the useful note (in Italian) that she sent him before he left for Rome in 1814:

The name written above the note was "Il Signor degli Abbati a Rieti," and with this lead Roehenstart was presently corresponding with the former lady in waiting of his mother.

He doubtless never told the Countess Norton of the fantastic document that he had fabricated in April before he left London. It exists on a leaf of octavo size and is headed "Extract of the Reckoning of different Sums advanced by my Mother to her Ladyship Mary Countess of Norton." The Extract lists thirteen payments dating from January 3, 1780, to November 1, 1786. The total came to £2,350 — a very pretty sum to recover. But Roehenstart clearly did not know that he had dated his fictitious payments impossibly, since Countess Norton came to Rome and to attendance on the Duchess of Albany only in 1788. In a letter to the Countess of Albestroff, Charlotte says that she first saw Lady Norton March 15, 1788. The two latest alleged payments set down by Roehenstart were as follows:

Roehenstart's list is of value only as showing his imaginative powers and as showing that he had by April, 1814, done some research as to the bankers who might make payments to such a lady in waiting. Plausibly, Gouppy of Paris and Coutts of London are both named. The list of payments was never of any use.

Having secured the address of the aged Countess Abbati, Roehenstart wrote her the following letter:

 p44  This letter, polite and correct but not altogether truthful — the Cardinal doubtless had not called for him; he had no act of notoriety, and the Countess of Albestroff very likely had never spoken to him of Countess Norton — this letter may well have "much surprised" its recipient. The signature is interesting. Up to about this time the signature is likely to be "A. M. Korff" or "Korff Roehenstart." Later he shifts usually towards "Charles Edward Stuart, Baron Korff, Count Roehenstart." One might have expected the "Stuart" to be used here. Surprised as she doubtless was, the Countess Norton, in spite of ill health, replied with only a decent delay; and the reply (in Italian) is in a square firm hand that carries conviction:

This must have been a violent body blow; but Roehenstart persisted. Presently from Rome, in December, he wrote to her once or twice, and got at least one other reply, not preserved. He could not believe that the Countess Norton had never heard of his existence. He exaggerated her intimacy with his mother in the last months of Charlotte's life. On September 3, 1788, Charlotte had written to her mother (who had chosen Mme Norton as lady in waiting) commending the lady as serieuse and scrupuleuse and adding "As she keeps her eyes to the ground my Uncle finds her to his taste" — and so also did Charlotte. But at this rate the lady was likely neither to be told secrets nor to discover them. These things Roehenstart did not know, and he was obsessed with the idea that somewhere in Italy there was still another deposit of great importance in proving his right to his mother's estate. Most persistently he sought after any information the Countess Norton could furnish, and at last in May, 1816, he went to Ascoli determined to see  p45 the lady — only to find that she had died. He begged her daughter to allow him to scrutinize any papers the Countess might have left behind, but whether or not his request was granted, he evidently found nothing of use to him.

In December, 1814, after his early inquiries of "Queen" Louise and of the Countess Norton, Roehenstart, imitating English tourists, removed from Florence to Rome. He found all his key people either absent or dead, and so he cheerfully frequented English society in Rome, where he watched with critical eye the "school of waltzing" supervised by Lady Westmoreland. He gently deprecated the English passion for the waltz, and noted that in waltzing Mr. Fazackoley​a sprained his foot. He had an audience with the Pope:

One doubts if Roehenstart at this time made any useful or permanent friends in Rome. It seems, however, to have been a pleasant winter with many new acquaintances. It is clear that to any sympathetic listener he did not hesitate to tell privately the story of his claims.

In 1815 he kept on with his inquiries in a somewhat desultory fashion. Then, as later, he could say with still a modicum of hope that he must be "content to go a‑drift and expect the ebb." The spring of the year was tumultuous, with Napoleon back from Elba and Murat putting Italy in a turmoil. That meant that foreign drafts were a bit difficult, and in April Roehenstart (possibly to test her friendliness) asked the Countess of Albany for a loan. Her reply, refusing, was polite but firm.

Lack of funds, however, did not keep Roehenstart from going, a fortnight after the lady's refusal, to Venice to witness the ceremony of swearing allegiance to the Emperor; for Lombardy and Venice were now to be Austrian. Roehenstart spent something like a gay month in Venice. There were gondola races, balls, plays; and no one went to bed before three or four in the morning. The city was brightly illuminated, and Roehenstart comments, "I saw Venice in all its beauty." His comments on this sojourn occupy fourteen large pages of  p46 notes, but they frequently concern historical anecdotes of cloak-and‑dagger amours.

By July he was in Milan and on his way to Switzerland, where he hoped to find papers of his grandmother, the Countess of Albestroff. This was a season when he felt like putting his travels on paper, and he has left an extensive account of his journey on foot over the Alps. The account shows his unusual descriptive talents and his keenness of observation. He shifts from one language to another, using English, French, or Italian as the mood strikes him. The journey, done in leisurely fashion, took him two or three weeks, from July 6 to some time towards the middle or end of the month — pages of his account seem to be lost after he leaves St. Maurice. He followed the route lately constructed by Napoleon's engineers, and comments on the sad deterioration that has been permitted in the roadway. He comments on the tunnels through rock, the bridges, the marble quarries — and naturally the lack of honesty on the part of innkeepers. He discusses the cause of the prevalence of goiters in many villages, and, more pleasantly, shows an appreciation of the panoramic views. He comments on the château of Chillon, "which was a state prison," and he is reverent and much aglow over the landscapes around Vevey (where he notes the burial of the regicide Edmund Ludlow) and he advises one to read the Nouvelle Héloise in the milieu of its supposed happening. A footnote, added later, indicates that in time he had outgrown Rousseau:

His account of Geneva itself is lacking, but we learn from later letters that he did not like the town. In 1815 he made Berne his headquarters, and from Berne he planned trips to all parts of Switzerland. On July 25 he went to Fribourg, which he describes in some detail, much as an observant tourist might. He was especially interested in the château of Brunadern, which had recently been purchased by the Grand Duchess Constantin, sister of Antoinette, Duchess of Württemberg. He tried to pay his respects to the Grand Duchess, but she had gone to see her mother at Coburg. What one imagines was the real  p47 object of this visit to Fribourg is disposed of in one sentence: "I went to see M. the Counsellor Weck with regard to the Countess of Albestroff my grandmother, and I was altogether satisfied with his courtesy."

Returning to Berne after the day's visit to Fribourg, he begins to record his visits with the Marchioness of Bute, widow of the first Marquess, and daughter of Thomas Coutts. Roehenstart's first entry in his diary concerning this lady is as follows:

This privately made entry exaggerates the connection of Lady Albestroff with the Coutts daughters: they saw her in Paris for considerably less than a year, but possibly Lady Bute led Roehenstart to think they had known his grandmother for a longer time. The exaggeration, however, is typical of Roehenstart.

He had several conversations with Lady Bute, but she was dissatisfied with the staff of the Falcon, where she lodged, and quitted Berne for Thoune on August 8. Other English friends remained in Berne, notably William Wall, who probably was Roehenstart's companion in crossing the Alps. Wall visited Mme de Staël, and Roehenstart later also paid the celebrated lady a visit.​1 On August 10 he went again to Fribourg, and records the visit in his diary as follows:

Here there is no exaggeration, for on August 11, safeguarded by written agreements, Mr. Weck turned over to Roehenstart the papers remaining in Weck's hands from the Countess of Albestroff, to the number of thirty‑one listed documents. None of these really satisfied the hopes of Roehenstart as evidence. Several of them are not preserved in his papers: they may have been turned over to Thomas Coutts as evidence of Roehenstart's open-handedness, though why the Countess's copy of a letter from Pope Pius VI (October 11, 1784) addressed to the Duchess of Albany should have left Roehenstart's hands one cannot  p48 surmise. The acquisition of these papers together with the newly formed acquaintance with Lady Bute completed Roehenstart's mission to Switzerland. He enjoyed the summer there and had talks with interesting people — among them Mme de Staël and the "famous Maret, Duke of Bassano" — and visited institutions that to him were very interesting, especially perhaps the "agricultural establishment" at Hofwyl. His records for the summer indicate his wide interests and his gifts of observation.

In view of the fact that Counsellor Weck had sent to Coutts, ten years before, the much-sought-after tin box, probably the greatest satisfaction to Roehenstart came from his acquaintance with Lady Bute, who before quitting Berne had given Roehenstart cordial letters of introduction to her father the banker and to her sister Susan, Countess of Guildford. In both letters she speaks of Roehenstart as the "son of the Duchess of Albany." His charm had worked readily with the lady but perhaps not completely. Lady Bute returned to England soon after meeting Roehenstart, and from Bath on September 19, 1815, she wrote to her father, Thomas Coutts, as follows: "I am most happy you approve of my having refused to lend money to Le Baron Roehenstart: he is a gentlemanlike man, very like Madame D'Alberstroff.º It seems his mother, the Duchess D'Albany, married Mons. Roehenstart." The remark indicates a disposition to accept Roehenstart's story about his birth, but indicates also no disposition to give him financial aid.​2 E. H. Coleridge, who prints this last letter, also prints an undated document in Roehenstart's hand that lists Coutts's payments to the Countess of Albestroff from 1795 to 1802, and expresses the hope of making "one day to come" complete repayment. It would be interesting to know more than we do about Coutts's knowledge of Roehenstart's parentage. When (1788‑89) on the Continent did he converse with the Countess of Albestroff concerning the grandchildren, who presumably were still housed near by in the Rue St. Jacques?

It is evident that by the time he met Lady Bute at Berne Roehenstart had invented for his further use a father other than Prince Ferdinand — his Swedish parent, Count Roehenstart, who will appear fully invented in Roehenstart's Memorial of 1816. One memorandum, if taken at face value, indicates that perhaps one form of this Memorial was first prepared for the eyes of Lady Bute. It reads (in French):

Any memorial sent to Lady Bute has not been preserved. Such a history would be hastily written, but Roehenstart's habit of keeping drafts of such matters would be strangely violated if he sent her such a document without keeping a copy. It is of course possible that he sent her such a document which she, traveling about, did not preserve. It is hardly probable that in the summer of 1815 he had written the Memorial that was to be presented in October, 1816, to H. R. H. the Prince Regent.

For the late summer of 1815 we have no information as to Roehenstart's activities. From Switzerland he seems to have passed to the region of Baden and Stuttgart. In November at Strasbourg he received and preserved a letter from the Prince von Hohenlohe, whom he had known in Russia. One passage in the letter suggests that so far from pursuing his quest concerning Stuart property Roehenstart had asked to return to his former post with the Duke of Württemberg:

He chose to go south, and spent most of the following winter in Florence. He made a hurried and obscure trip to London that concerned an "urgent matter" undisclosed. It may be that he considered approaching the Prince Regent through the royal cousin, the Duke of Gloucester. From a secretary a note came to Roehenstart under date of February 4 offering an audience with the Duke of Gloucester "any morning that it may be convenient to him [Roehenstart] to call at Gloucester House." Elsewhere Roehenstart remarked that he had  p50 been recommended by the Duke of Württemberg in 1811 to the second Duke of Gloucester, grandson of George II. As late as 1820 Roehenstart seems to have received a letter (not preserved) from His Royal Highness, but Gloucester never afforded the protection necessary to secure recognition for Roehenstart.

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The Author's Notes:

1 See below, p99.

❦

2 Ernest Hartley Coleridge, The Life of Thomas Coutts Banker (1920), II, 333. See also II, 142‑43.

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Thayer's Note:

a Sic; Fazackerley is surely meant, whether the mistake is by Roehenstart or in Prof. Sherburn's transcription.

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