Lord Lovat has also appeared in multiple works of historical fiction published since, including novels by John Buchan, Neil Munro, and Diana Gabaldon.

Recognising the threat posed to it by the expanding power of the nearby Clan Mackenzie, as well as its ally the Atholl Murrays, Simon of Beaufort needed to ensure his father's succession to the lordship.

On Argyll's advice, Lovat left Britain and headed to a place that might offer a solution to the ongoing issue of his inheritance: the court of the exiled Stuarts, at St Germain-en-Laye in France.

Although the Jacobite ruling council ultimately agreed to the plan, Middleton was cautious and recommended to Louis that Fraser be sent back to Scotland to obtain written proof that the highland clans would rise if French troops landed.

[34] Fraser's goal was to regain the Lovat title and estates; while his brother John tried to keep his clansmen loyal and collected rents in his absence, there were signs they were beginning to accept a Mackenzie in his place.

[35] As the main Scottish sponsor of Union, Queensberry was happy to implicate the anti-Union Atholl and passed this onto London and provided Fraser a passport under a false name allowing him to leave the country.

[36] Fraser's "energy and tactical acuity"[37] certainly reinvigorated the government's campaign in the north, and by helping ensure no reinforcements arrived, he expedited the surrender of Inverness by its Jacobite garrison on 12 November 1715.

Another concession by the King later that year meant that he could also claim the income from the estates, although only for the lifetime of the previous tenant, Alexander Mackenzie (now languishing in a jail in Carlisle after having risen for the Jacobites).

The rest of Simon's life involved untangling the legal and financial problems he had inherited with the title, as well as fending off lawsuits from various claimants in the courts (one writer suggests he may even have enjoyed them).

By 1737, Lord Lovat had retained Iain Ruadh Stùibhart as his main intermediary and had resumed contact with the House of Stuart government in exile at the Palazzo Muti in Rome.

During an extended visit by Stùibhart to Beaufort Castle in 1736, according to later trial testimony, Iain Ruadh and Lord Lovat, "diverted themselves composing burlesque verse (in Gaelic) that when young Charles comes over, there will be blood and blows."

Tragically, according to literary scholar John Lorne Campbell, only Iain Ruadh Stùibhart still has extant poetry and none of the Scottish Gaelic poems composed by Lord Lovat are known to have survived.

[57] By the early 1740s, Lovat's practice of covertly granting freedom of religion, despite his official denials, to the many Catholics among his Clansmen, began to cause severe friction with the local Presbyterties of the Church of Scotland.

"[60] Until their overwhelming success caused a government crackdown to be launched at the demands of the General Assembly of the Established Church, the Catholics of Clan Fraser continued to be served with Lord Lovat's secret collusion by three outlawed Jesuit "heather priests", Frs.

Charles and John Farquharson and Alexander Cameron,[61][62] who lived even during the winters in a mountain cave and summer shieling afterwards referred to as (Scottish Gaelic: Glaic na h'eirbhe,[63] lit.

"[67] At this time, Fr John Farquharson's clerk, Alexander Chisholm (Scottish Gaelic: Alastair Bàn MacDhomhnuill 'ic Uilleam), was arrested and imprisoned inside "The Red Dungeon" at Beauly Castle by Lord Lovat.

Lord Lovat, despite being covertly a Catholic himself, refused an in-person request for the release of his clerk, so Farquharson, who was not a native speaker of the language, composed a satirical Gaelic poem.

In addition to reviling Lovat for disloyalty to the Holy See and the persecution of his Catholic clansmen, the poem predicted, correctly, that the Fraser Chief would soon be lacking his head and despised by history as a traitor "to both kings".

Satirical poetry and its authors have traditionally been viewed in the Gàidhealtachd with supernatural terror ever since pre-Christian times and, as Lovat did not wish to call down upon himself, "any more disagreeable prophecies," he immediately ordered the clerk's release.

[59] On 23 July 1745, Charles Edward Stuart landed first at Eriskay and then at Loch nan Uamh, much to the dismay of Scots Jacobites who expected far more French Royal Army soldiers and military advisers than only the Seven Men of Moidart, as well far more weapons and money.

[70] Lovat sent messages of support to both sides and maintained contact with Duncan Forbes, who hoped to ensure his neutrality; until then, there were men drilling on his green "but only he knew why, and the law's arm was restrained till he should be forced to declare his choice".

While Simon Fraser was a political Whig who allegedly considered a regime change war nonsensical, a contemporary noted his father was a "very strict man" with great power over his children.

Finally losing patience, Loudon arrested Lovat at Castle Dounie and took him to Inverness; but on 2 January, he escaped without difficulty and was transported by Fraser clansmen to Gorthleck House, overlooking Loch Ness.

[73] Only some members of the Fraser regiment were present at Culloden in April 1746; like many others, the main part under the Master of Lovat returned only at daybreak, exhausted from an ill-fated overnight march and missed the battle.

In the aftermath of Culloden, Prince William, Duke of Cumberland realised that the British Army did not have a good map of the Scottish Highlands to locate Jacobite dissenters such as Simon Fraser, so that they could be put on trial.

[76] During the post-Culloden search for Jacobites, John Ferguson, commander of the Royal Navy vessel Furnace, received information that Lovat was hiding on the island known as Eilean Bàn in Loch Morar, on 7 June.

Although both men and everyone else with them fled the island and into the mountains upon seeing the Royal Navy's approach, Lovat was unable to keep up, was left behind, and was found by the sailors hiding inside a cave along the nearby Glen created by the River Meoble.

"[79] In his naval history of the Jacobite rising and its aftermath, historian John S. Gibson commented about the capture of Lord Lovat at Loch Morar, "London, which, with the events of the past year, had come to abhor highlanders, could scarcely have been more elated had Charles Edward himself been caught.

"[80] Brought to London for trial, one of his stops was at St Albans, which is probably where he was sketched by William Hogarth, later popular when turned into an etching; this shows him listing points on his fingers, although what these were is uncertain.

[87] A lead-covered coffin in the crypt bore a bronze nameplate in the name of Sir Simon Fraser, with a Latin inscription; thought to have been dictated by Lovat himself, it refers to "the tyranny of the Athol and the treacherous plotting of the Mackenzies of Tarbat".