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A London-born art historian, Peter Pininski, says he has traced his family tree back to the legendary hero of the Jacobite uprising of 1745. Many historians have presumed that the Stuart dynastic line died out in the mid-19th century, but Mr Pininski claims in a book that he is linked to the infamous Stuart heir to the throne.

EVER since Bonnie Prince Charlie died leaving no legitimate male heir more than 200 years ago, the subject of who is the rightful descendant to the ancient Stuart dynasty of Scotland has thrown up claim and counter-claim. His is not the only claim on the table. Edinburgh-based writer Michel Lafosse, the self-styled Prince Michael of Albany, has already published his book, The Forgotten Monarchy of Scotland, and in it he claims he should wear the crown of Scotland as the rightful Stuart heir. Mr [Peter Pininski], 45, says he has unearthed documents indicating he is a descendant of Marie-Victoire, who was an illegitimate granddaughter of Bonnie Prince Charlie.

The descendency was traced thus: Prince Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) 1720-1788; Charlotte Stuart, Duchess of Albany 1753-1789; [Marie-Victoire] de Rohan, the demoiselle de Thorigny 1779-1836; Antime, Chevalier de Nikorowicz 1806-1852; Countess Julia Pininska 1833-1893; Count Alexander Pininski 1864- 1902; Count Mieczyslas Pininski 1895-1945; Count Stanislas Pininski 1925-; [Peter Pininski] 1956-.

[Peter Pininski] found that the evidence, even after repeated scrutiny, led to the conclusion that he was related to Charlotte Stuart, the illegitimate daughter of Bonnie Prince Charlie. Edinburgh-based writer Michael Stewart, who also claims to be a direct descendent of Bonnie Prince Charlie and the rightful heir to the crown of Scotland, dismissed the importance of Pininski's claim. Pininski himself has no plans to press his claim to the throne and has declared himself satisfied by uncovering the secrets of his family. He said: \"I would dearly like to stay right away from Stuart claimant-type charlatanism, because it's not what I find interesting.\"

[Peter Pininski] left BZW in 1990 for Warsaw and now holds a number of senior business posts in Poland. Incidentally, he was given his first break in the City by Hoare Govett's venerable Peter Meinertzhagen - a man whose bloodline is also worth a history book or two. Copyright Financial Times Limited 2002. All Rights Reserved.

Now [Peter Pininski] has unearthed evidence which suggests that the Jacobite leader's grandson, Charles August Maximilien Roehenstart, faced charges of treason after being framed for orchestrating a bid to regain the British throne. Pininski said: \"In 1817 an opportunity presented itself when a young Prussian officer called Augustus von Assig was arrested for theft. [John Schrader] then persuaded von Assig to accuse Charles of trying to organise an army with which to invade England. A French police report described the British agent's charges as a \"ridiculous exaggeration\" made in \"culpable bad faith\".

[Peter Pininski] did not stop there. He retrieved de Thorigny's death certificate. There was something odd going on. De Thorigny was born in the exact same year as one of [Charlotte Stuart]'s children. Not only that but she shared the name mentioned in the [Fitzroy Maclean] book, [Marie-Victoire]. The conclusion seemed unbelievable, not worth contemplating, and yet Pininski was drawn. He started research in earnest, building up a picture of the network of international connections that existed in Europe at the time. If de Thorigny was Marie, daughter of Charlotte Stuart, how had she ended up in Poland married to a wealthy Polish-Armenian landowner? He knew, certainly, that historically there had long been a dense mesh of connections between the Stuarts and the Poles. Bonnie Prince Charlie's mother, for instance, was Clementina Sobieska, a daughter of the Polish royal family, granddaughter of the famous John III Sobieski, who had defeated the Turks at Vienna. He knew the Stuarts were connected with the Radziwill family. He also knew about the Ferguson-Teppers, the internationally connected bankers based in Warsaw. All this was making sense but one thing was still troubling Pininski - the name de Thorigny. Where did that come from? Eventually he tracked down the Chteau de Thorigny in the Duchy of Montbazon, France, the dukedom of the head of the de [Rohan] family. \"The owners had only just got the history of the Chteau de Thorigny, which they had ordered from an extremely good young historian from Tours. We open it and, lo and behold, on the first page we find that [Ferdinand]'s eldest brother Jules Hercule, the Duc de Montbazon, has adopted as his own a girl called Marie and given her the title la Demoiselle de Thorigny. He had had her legitimised as his natural daughter. So we now have an explanation but a confusing one. Because we're now being asked to believe that Jules Hercule is the father.\" What is remarkable in Pininski's story is the way everyday coincidences accumulate. For instance, Pininski points out that all the Stuart descendants named Charles or Charlotte seemed destined to have difficult and tragic lives. [Charles Edward Stuart] was bankrupted, died childless and felt himself the \"object of universal hostility\". His sister Charlotte died young with her only child during birth. Marie- Victoire's grandson, Charles, was forced to commit suicide at 24 after a duel. And, many generations down the line, Pininski's great- aunt Charlotte was sent by the NKVD [the KGB's forerunner] to work in the wastelands of Soviet Kazakhstan.

Bonnie Prince Charlie's long lost heir was revealed yesterday. His name is Peter Pininski, he works as a banker and he lives in Warsaw. By Mr Pininski's count, Prince Charles Edward Stuart, son of a Polish princess, was his great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather. The crucial discovery claimed in his book is that one of Charles's granddaughters, Marie Victoire, gave birth to a son in 1806. Historians have tended to presume the granddaughters died childless. But Mr Pininski has traced Marie-Victoire's baptismal, marriage and death certificates and letters. He has also found the birth certificate of her son, later Antime, Chevalier de Nikorowicz.

Massingberd reviews \"The Stuarts' Last Secret: The Missing Heirs of Bonnie Prince Charlie\" by Peter Pininski.