CHARLES EDWARD STUART

Although the marriage of Louise and Charles Edward was childless, many refused to believe it.  Rumors and legends grew that they secretly had a child and sent it away for various political reasons.  

Napoleon took the rumors seriously enough to question Louise about them during a visit she made to Paris.  If Louise and Charles Edward had produced a child, or if Henry Cardinal York had been willing to cooperate with him, Napoleon might well have funded a Jacobite campaign in England on their behalf.

And imagine the consequences of that!  

Charles Edward might have been a good husband if he'd married when he was younger, before he sank into alcoholism.

In 1745, Charles Edward told some of his followers that he hoped to marry Princess Anne-Henriette, a daughter of Louis XV.  Anne-Henriette seems to have been eager for the marriage as well.  She was a distant cousin of Charles Edward, a direct descendant of Charles I's daughter Minette.

Louis XV raised troops and supplies for Charles Edward after learning of his early successes, perhaps in the hope of making an alliance with him via his daughter if he succeeded.  Alas, Louis never sent the troops and supplies and the effort failed.  Louis refused to consider a marriage between Charles Edward and Anne-Henriette, despite the fact that there was a dearth of suitors for his daughters.  

Louis's mind was probably made up by the failure of the expedition, although he may have been influenced by the love affair Charles Edward conducted with Marie-Louise-Henriette-Jeanne de La Tour d'Auvergne, Duchesse de Montbazon and Princesse de Rohan.  Charles Edward could hardly pretend to be dying of love for Louis's daughter when he had such a charming mistress.

Anne-Henriette died unmarried.  By the time he married Louise of Stolberg, Charles Edward was an old and broken man.