Editing Flora MacDonald (section)

==Legacy==
[[File:Statue of Flora MacDonald - geograph.org.uk - 741250.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.8|1896 statue, [[Inverness Castle]]]]

Traditional portrayals of the escape focus on Charles, with MacDonald relegated to a secondary role. She herself rarely spoke of the episode, and her last contact with the Prince was when they parted ways at Portree. It appears her assistance was at least partly driven by fears his continued presence would endanger her family.{{sfn|Riding|2016|p=465}}

Michael Newton, a modern scholar of [[Scottish Gaelic literature]], argues English-language versions fail to recognise that not only is her husband the celebrated iconic hero in the Gaelic [[oral tradition]], but that, "Flora was only one of many people who risked their lives to protect" the Prince during his flight after Culloden.{{Sfn|Newton|2001|p=39}}{{efn|MacDonald herself rarely referred to the episode in later life, and made no attempt to highlight her own role}} Her cousin, Gaelic poet Niall mac Eachainn, criticised her in verse for trying to win favour from both Stuarts and Hanoverians, while contrasting his own continuing loyalty to the Jacobite cause.{{Sfn|Newton|2001|pp=39-41}}

MacDonald was painted several times by Scottish portrait artist [[Allan Ramsay (artist)|Allan Ramsay]] (1713–1784), most of which have now survived. The one used in this article was done after her release from the Tower in 1749–1750; in 2015, a previously unrecorded painting, allegedly also by Ramsay, was discovered in Florida.<ref>{{cite news |title='Flora MacDonald portrait' found in Florida |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-32129099 |access-date=22 July 2018 |agency=BBC News |date=31 March 2015}}</ref>

Inspired by the novels of Sir [[Walter Scott]], the [[Victorian era]] created a Scottish cultural identity that co-opted "romantic" icons like [[Mary, Queen of Scots]] and Prince Charles.{{sfn|Morris|1992|pp=37-39}} In 1878, MacDonald joined this list with the publication of an alleged "Autobiography". [[Ghostwriter|Ghostwritten]] by her granddaughter Lady Flora Frances Wylde, it contains so many mistakes that it could not have been written by her.{{sfn|Douglas|2004}} These errors were repeated by Charles Ewald in his 1886 book ''The Life and Times of Prince Charles Edward'', which remains the basis for many popular perspectives on her life and motivations.{{sfn|Douglas|2004}}

This was soon followed by the first performance of the [[Scottish highland dance]] known as "Flora MacDonald's Fancy", while a bronze statue was erected at [[Inverness Castle]] in 1896, with her dog Flossie by her side.<ref>{{Canmore |num=13434 |desc=Inverness, Castle Wynd, Statue Of Flora Macdonald |access-date=26 January 2015}}</ref> 

The [[Flora MacDonald College|Flora MacDonald Academy]], formerly Flora MacDonald College, in [[Red Springs, North Carolina]] is named for her. Two of her children are interred on the campus. Until 2009, it was also the site of the Flora Macdonald [[Highland Games]].{{cn|date=October 2023}}