Treasures from Rome and the Vatican are going on display in the UK for the first time as part of a major new exhibition about Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobites.

The artefacts will be on show at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh as it hosts the largest exhibition on the subject to be held in more than 70 years.

The major new exhibition about the Jacobites and their cause portrays them as pawns in European dynastic politics.

Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobites shows the complex web of political and religious intrigue which surrounded the uprising of 1715 and 1745.

As well as telling the tale of Charles Edward Stuart and the disastrous battle of Culloden, and its aftermath, the principal curator of the show, David Forsyth, said the exhibition hopes to move the Jacobite story beyond a story of Scotland versus England.

He said: "It's very evident from involvement of the two courts, France and Italy, that this is a European story.

"Unapologetically, we tell the visitors: this is a complex story, prepare to be surprised.

"This is not a story of not Scotland versus England, nor even of Highland versus Lowland - in the 1715 particularly, there was huge recruitment in the lowlands, even in Fife - in the 1745 there were Lowlanders on the Jacobite side, Highlanders on the Government side.

"The picture is complex."

The exhibition, which runs from June 23 to November 12, features treasures from Rome and the Vatican in the UK for the first time, as part of the collage of items which tell the story of the Jacobites as part of wider European power struggles.

Mr Forsyth said: "It was part of the wider European shifting dynastic system of the time.

"What we have tried to do is, rather than stand on the British Isles and look to Europe, lets stand in Europe and look to the British Isles.

"They [the Jacobites] were a useful pawn, a useful tool, as enemies of England and Britain, and the minute they were no use - they were dropped.

"That's what we have tried to do, we have looked at it from the perspective of the courts."

With Europe and the direction of Scotland's national future still of concern to contemporary audiences, the curator said it would be hard to draw parallels between the events of the 18th century and today.

He said: "It would be difficult and dangerous to draw direct parallels.

"I would be loathe to draw parallels, but as a colleague reminded me, the Stuarts were not exactly in thrall to parliamentary democracy, they were interested in the divine right of kings.

"They were happy to capitalise on political unhappiness in Scotland, but it would be dangerous to draw parallels to today."

More than 300 items drawn from across Britain and Europe are on view, with items from the collections of 44 lenders contributing to the five-month show, including the Royal Collection, the Musee de Louvre, the National Galleries and a number of private collections.

Among the attractions on display are three marble grave markers - formerly in St Peter's Basilica in Vatican City - for Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie), his younger brother Henry Benedict and their father James VIII of Scotland and III of England.

These are leaving Rome for the first time as loans from the Scots Pontifical College.

On loan from the Sacristy Museum is an elaborately-decorated gold communion set, inlaid with 130 diamonds, which has not been seen in the UK before.

Known as the York Chalice and Paten, it belonged to Henry (Cardinal York), who gifted it to the Church.

Experts believe the pieces illustrate the high standing in which the Stuarts were held in Roman society, where they held their exiled courts as Charles grew up.

Mr Forsyth added: "Bonnie Prince Charlie is the one that people know about, but I think that the visitors will be quite taken aback by the longevity of the Jacobites' cause.

"It's a story that has inspired artists, writers, poets. It's a story that still continues to have an interest and a resonance for people."