Hilt, British, about 1710-30; blade, German (Solingen), probably contemporary with the hilt

The gilt-brass HILT consists of a POMMEL shaped like an inverted pear, but with a distinct arris at each side, and with a flattened spherical tang-button, and a guard of the same general form as that of RCIN 62965, except that, in addition to the SCROLL-GUARD, the KNUCKLE-GUARD is linked to the edge of the SIDE-RING by two recurved LOOP-GUARDS on each face, the shorter one arising on the centre of the knuckle-guard. The drop-shaped end of the small quillon is turned slightly towards the blade.

The barrel-shaped, wooden GRIP, which in section is oval with flattened ends, has a later binding of coarse brass wire: a twist alternating with two plain wires, between Turks’ heads.

The straight, single-edged BLADE, which is of isosceles section, has a shoulder 1/16in long, a broad, full-length fuller at the spine, starting 3 ½in from the shoulder, and a bevelled false edge approximately 7 ¼in long. ETCHED in line on each face with a rectangular panel containing large stylized acanthus tips on a simulated false-watered ground, framing an oval cartouche with a plain ground, above which is the representation of a king on horseback. The outer cartouche contains the words With this/ good Sword/ thÿ Cause. I/ Will maintain/ and for thÿ/...../ Will Breath/ Each vein, and the inner one Vivat/ ...../ tertivs/ magnæ/ Britanniæ/ Rex. The gap in each inscription is caused by a file-cut. Etched along the spine for 3 ¾in with foliate scrolls.

A hilt very similar to this sword occurs on RCIN 61510. A comparable hilt in the Royal Armouries (no. IX.1358) is mounted on a blade etched with God Bleas (sic) King george/ And His Ragel (sic) familie, in the same manner as on this sword and on the well-known ‘No Union’ blades Since no dateable portrait seems to be recorded depicting a hilt of this type, its date can only be surmised by the type of pommel with which most are fitted. This occurs most commonly between 1710 and 1730.

The words missing from the inscriptions are respectively ‘Sake O James’ and ‘Jacobvs’.Presumably the sword fell into the hands of a supporter of the Hanoverian interest who defaced the Jacobite inscription. The James referred to is the Old Chevalier who succeeded to the Jacobite claim in 1701.Blades with inscriptions honouring James III were intended for English Jacobites; to a Scot, James was the eighth king of that name.

Recorded in A Catalogue of the Relics in the Stuart Room at Windsor Castle, 1916, Vol.II, p. 7, no. 12, as given to George V and Queen Mary by Mrs Stanton, Snelston Hall, Ashbourne, March 1927, as the sword of Prince Charles Edward Stuart. Prince Charles entered Ashbourne on his march south on 4 December 1745.

Adapted from text written by A.V.B Norman in 1998.