Charles Radclyffe (3 September 1693 – 8 December 1746) titular 5th Earl of Derwentwater, who claimed the title Fifth Earl of Derwentwater. He was the youngest son of Edward Radclyffe, 2nd Earl of Derwentwater and Lady Mary Tudor.
Charles was born in Little Parndon, Essex. The Radclyffe family were ardent followers of the House of Stuart, James Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater(1689–1716), being raised at the court of the Stuarts in France as companion to James Francis Edward Stuart, the Old Pretender. James and his brother Charles joined the Jacobite rising of 1715 and after being captured at Preston both were tried in London on charges of treason and condemned to death.
James was beheaded on Tower Hill, London on 24 February 1716, declaring on the scaffold his devotion to the Roman Catholic religion and to King James III, but Charles escaped from prison and rejoined the Stuarts in France.
In 1731, James Radclyffe's son, John (the fourth Earl) died and the title passed to his uncle (Charles).
He traveled to Rome and was an active participant in the Court of the Jacobite claimant James Francis Edward Stuart. While a captain in Dillon's regiment Charles was re-captured by the forces of George II of Great Britain in November, 1745 while sailing to join Charles Edward Stuart, the young Pretender, in Scotland. Condemned to death under his former sentence by Lord Chancellor Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, he was beheaded on 8 December 1746, aged 53.
Charles married, on 24 June 1724, to Charlotte Maria Livingston (1694–1755). She was the daughter of the 2nd Earl of Newburgh and was the widow of Thomas Clifford, son of the 2nd Baron Clifford of Chudleigh. Charles and Charlotte were the parents of three children;
- James Bartholomew Radclyffe, 4th Earl of Newburgh (23 August 1725- 2 January 1787), married Barbara Kemp, by whom he had issue.
- Maj.-Gen. James Clement Radclyffe (5 November 1727- 1788), died unmarried.
- Mary Radclyffe (5 April 1732- 27 August 1798), married on 11 February 1755 Francis Eyre, by whom she had issue.
He allegedly had an illegitimate daughter, Jane or "Jenny", as she was commonly known, by a mistress, Margaret Snowden, with whom he went through a form of marriage which was not legally binding.