{"id":24,"date":"2014-11-25T21:55:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-25T21:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.porcelainthunderbird.com\/?p=24"},"modified":"2015-07-16T00:58:46","modified_gmt":"2015-07-16T00:58:46","slug":"outlander-the-duke-of-sandringham-a-jacobite-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.porcelainthunderbird.com\/?p=24","title":{"rendered":"Outlander: The Duke of Sandringham – A Jacobite? Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"
One of the most enigmatic characters in the Outlander series is the Duke of Sandringham. More interesting is his association with Geillis Duncan. I have tried to search online for more details about them and what other readers, fans or bloggers have posted about them, but I have not been able to find much information about their relationship.This post was originally very long and somebody suggested to break it into three separate posts. As a result, I have renamed this post as Part 1.<\/span><\/div>\n
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In Dragonfly in Amber<\/i>, the reader is left with no much information concerning the Duke\u2019s role in the second Jacobite Uprising. Was he a Jacobite or not?\u00a0 <\/span>Part of it is due to the fact that Claire is in a state of shock and unable to process the information that the Duke is revealing to her in an efficient manner:<\/span><\/div>\n
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The shocks were coming thick and fast, and I hardly knew which to respond to first.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>(Gabaldon 826).<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cDo you mean to say you actually tried to have me killed?\u201d The room seemed to be swaying a bit, and I took a deep gulp of tea as being the nearest thing to a restorative available. It wasn\u2019t terribly effective<\/span>. (Gabaldon 826)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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As a result, she is able to correlate some of the Duke\u2019s confessions with certain events that happened to her and Jamie while they were living in France. Claire herself does not know where the Duke\u2019s loyalties lie, which is actually the same situation in which readers are.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Was he a Jacobite? So far as I could recall, the verdict of history \u2013 in the persons of Frank and the Reverend \u2013 was uncertain. So was I.<\/span> (Gabaldon 830)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The letter from England<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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During the conversation with the Duke, Claire is able to acquire the following information:<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201c I turned to look at the harpsichord in the corner of the room. Several sheets of music adorned its rack, written in a fine, clear hand. Fifty thousand pounds, upon the occasion of Your Highness\u2019s setting foot in Scotland.<\/b>Signed S. \u201cS\u201d of course, for Sandringham. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>(Gabaldon 829)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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The bolded part is exactly the translation of one of the coded messages that Jamie asked Mother Hildegarde to decipher.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201cHis Majesty\u2019s loyal subjects of England await his lawful restoration. The sum of fifty thousand pounds is at your disposal. As an earnest of good faith, this will be paid only in person, upon His Highness\u2019s arrival on the soil of England,\u201d I read. \u201cAnd there\u2019s a letter left over, an S. I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s a signature of sorts, or only something the maker needed to make the German word come out right.\u201d<\/span>(Gabaldon 278).<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When the encoded message was deciphered, the reader is only provided with the following information:<\/span><\/p>\n