Use the interactive battle map to survey the battle field and relive the key decisions and strategies used in From the end of May he stayed with good friend Charles-Godefroy, Duc de Bouillon at his Chateau de Navarre near Evereux and it was there he learnt of Cumberland's disastrous defeat at Fontenoy on April 30th. That news convinced him to move without further delay and he ensured his father received intelligence that he was planning to visit Paris!
His supporters were instructed to gather one by one at Nantes in different lodgings and not to be seen together. When they were all arrived the Prince joined them in the disguise of a student of the Scots College at Paris.
From there he sailed to La Belle Isle to await the arrival of the Elisabeth , a lately captured British man-of-war with sixty four guns and a crew of some five hundred commanded by Captain D'Eau sailing now under French colours. It finally arrived on July 4th and both vessels departed for Scotland on July 5th. None except his closest friends knew his identity, the Prince having grown a beard and playing the role of Sir Thomas Sheridan's son.
St Nazaire then and today As the pattern of re-enactments continues to evolve, a visit to St Nazaire was clearly required. Was there any awareness there, or in Nantes, or even at the Chateau de Navarre that the Prince embarked on his enterprise from that corner of Brittany?
Bearing in mind the deliberate secrecy at the time little was to be expected and indeed little was to be found on first acquaintance but the opportunity has now presented itself for further research. Today, St Nazaire builds ships of dimensions undreamt of when La Doutelle upped anchor. The Queen Mary 2 was recently built there whilst three masted Le Belem provides the pleasures and thrills of sail.. And in the suburbs of St Nazaire, European Airbus fuselages are constructed.
