James Francis Edward Stuart

James Francis Edward Stuart
Prince of Wales
Portrait from the studio of Alexis Simon Belle, c. 1712
Jacobite pretender
Pretence	16 September 1701 – 1 January 1766
Predecessor	James VII and II
Successor	"Charles III"
Born	(1688-06-10)10 June 1688 St. James's Palace, London, Kingdom of England
Died	1 January 1766(1766-01-01) (aged 77) Palazzo Muti, Rome, Papal States
Burial	St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City
Spouse	Maria Clementina Sobieska ​ ​ (m. 1719; died 1735)​
Issue	Charles Edward Stuart Henry Benedict Stuart
House	Stuart
Father	James II of England
Mother	Mary of Modena
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Signature

James Francis Edward Stuart (10 June 1688 – 1 January 1766)^[a] was the House of Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland from 1701 until his death in 1766. The only son of James II of England and his second wife, Mary of Modena, he was Prince of Wales and heir until his Catholic father was deposed and exiled in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. His Protestant half-sister Mary II and her husband William III became co-monarchs. As a Catholic, he was subsequently excluded from the succession by the Act of Settlement 1701.

Raised primarily in France and Italy, when his father died in September 1701 James claimed the thrones. As part of the War of the Spanish Succession, in 1708 Louis XIV of France backed a landing in Scotland on his behalf. This failed, as did further attempts in 1715 and 1719. Led by his elder son Charles Edward Stuart, the 1745 Rising was the last serious effort to restore the House of Stuart.

James Francis Edward Stuart was born on 10 June 1688, at St. James's Palace, first and only son of James II of England and his second wife, Mary of Modena, both Catholics.^[1] As the eldest surviving son of the reigning monarch he was automatically Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay at birth, and was created Prince of Wales in July 1688.^{[citation needed]}

His birth was unexpected, coming five years after his mother's tenth and last pregnancy, none of which produced a child that survived more than a few days.^[2] The birth reignited controversies of religion, as the new son would be raised Catholic. Wild rumours spread among British Anglicans: that the child had died stillborn, and that the baby feted as the new prince was an impostor smuggled into the royal birth chamber in a warming pan.^[3] Protestants found it suspicious that everyone attending the birth was supposedly Catholic,^[4] although the Protestant Lady Bellasyse testified that she "saw the child taken out of the bed with the navel string hanging to its belly".^[5] Another rumour was that James II had not been the father; he was said to be impotent after a bout with venereal disease years earlier. In an attempt to quash these rumours, James published the testimonies of over seventy witnesses to the birth.^[6][7] The line of succession to the throne was thrust into doubt. James II's eldest legitimate daughters, Mary and Anne, had been raised as Protestants.^[4] British Protestants had expected Mary, from his father's first marriage, to succeed their father.^[8] This possibility had kept Protestants somewhat content, with his rule a temporary inconvenience. Now that Mary or Anne's succession was in doubt with this new Catholic son and heir, discontent grew, already stoked by James II's actions which had alienated Tory Anglicans who had previously been inclined to honour him as sovereign even if they differed in religion. This movement would become the Glorious Revolution; Mary's husband William of Orange landed in England, backed by an army of English and Scottish exiles, as well as Dutch soldiers. Much of the English army promptly defected to William's cause, causing James II and his family to flee rather than stay and fight.^[4]

On 9 December, Mary of Modena disguised herself as a laundress and escaped with the infant James to France. Young James was brought up at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye,^[1] which Louis XIV had turned over to the exiled James II. Both the ex-king and his family were held in great consideration by the French king (who was his first cousin), and they were frequent visitors at Versailles where Louis XIV and his court treated them as ruling monarchs.^[9] In June 1692 his sister Louisa Maria was born.^[10]

He later received a military education overseen by Richard Hamilton and Dominic Sheldon, two veterans of the Irish Army.^[11]

On his father's death in 1701, James was proclaimed as rightful king by Louis XIV of France, despite having previously recognised the legitimacy of William III under the 1697 Treaty of Ryswick. Spain, the Papal States, and Modena also recognised him as king of England, Ireland and Scotland and refused to recognise William III, Mary II, or Anne as legitimate sovereigns. As a result of his claiming his father's lost thrones, James was attainted for treason in London on 2 March 1702, and his titles were forfeited under English law.^[12]

Though delayed in France by an attack of measles,^{[citation needed]} James attempted invasion, trying to land at the Firth of Forth on 23 March 1708. The fleet of Admiral Sir George Byng intercepted the French ships, which, combined with bad weather,^{[citation needed]} prevented a landing.^[13]

James served for a time as a volunteer in the French army, as his father had done during the interregnum.^[14] Between August and September 1710, Queen Anne appointed a new Tory administration led by Robert Harley, who entered into a secret correspondence with de Torcy, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, in which he claimed to desire James's accession to the throne should James convert to Protestantism.^[6] A year later, however, the British government pushed for James's expulsion from France as a precondition for a peace treaty with France. In accordance with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), Harley and Lord Bolingbroke, the Secretary of State, colluded with the French in exiling James to the Duchy of Lorraine.^[6]

Queen Anne became severely ill at Christmas 1713 and seemed close to death. In January 1714, she recovered but clearly had little time to live.^{[15][page needed]} Through de Torcy and his London agent, Abbé François Gaultier, Harley maintained the correspondence with James and Bolingbroke entered into a separate correspondence with him. They both stated to James that his conversion to Protestantism would facilitate his accession. However, James, a devout Catholic, replied to Torcy: "I have chosen my own course, therefore it is for others to change their sentiments."^[6] In March came James's refusal to convert, following which Harley and Bolingbroke reached the opinion that James's accession was not feasible, though they maintained their correspondence with him.^{[citation needed]}

As a result, in August 1714, James's second cousin,^{[citation needed]} the Elector of Hanover, George Louis, a German-speaking Lutheran^{[citation needed]} who was the closest Protestant relative of the now-deceased Queen Anne, became king of the recently created Kingdom of Great Britain as George I.^[13] James denounced him, noting "we have beheld a foreign family, aliens to our country, distant in blood, and strangers even to our language, ascend the throne".^{[16][page needed]} Following George's coronation in October 1714, major riots broke out in provincial England.^[17]

In the following year, Jacobites started uprisings in Scotland and Cornwall aimed at putting "James III and VIII" on the throne. On 22 December 1715, James reached Scotland after the Jacobite defeats at the Battle of Sheriffmuir (13 November 1715) and Battle of Preston (1715).^[13] He landed at Peterhead and soon fell ill with fever, his illness made more severe by the icy Scottish winter.^{[citation needed]} In January 1716, he set up court at Scone Palace. Reputedly Jane Stuart, a half-sister, came from Wisbech in England to visit him.^[18] Learning of the approach of government forces, he returned to France, sailing from Montrose on 5 February 1716. The abandonment of his rebel allies caused ill-feeling against him in Scotland;^[13] nor was he welcomed on his return to France. His patron, Louis XIV, had died on 1 September 1715, and the French government found him a political embarrassment.^{[citation needed]} When France, hitherto his main protector, allied with Britain, this effectively secured the Hanoverian dynasty's monarchy over the Kingdom of Great Britain.^{[citation needed]}

After the unsuccessful invasion of 1715, James lived in Papal territory, first at Avignon (April 1716 – February 1717),^[19] then at Pesaro (1717)^[20] and Urbino (July 1717 – November 1718).^[21] Pope Clement XI offered James the Palazzo Muti or Palazzo del Re^[22] in Rome as his residence, which he accepted. Pope Innocent XIII, like his predecessor, showed much support. Thanks to his friend Cardinal Filippo Antonio Gualterio, James was granted a life annuity of 12,000^[23] Roman scudi. Such help enabled him to organise a Jacobite court at Rome, where, although he lived in splendour, he continued to suffer from fits of melancholy.^{[citation needed]}

Further efforts to restore the Stuarts to the British throne were planned. In 1719 a major expedition left Spain but was forced to turn back due to weather. A small landing took place in the Scottish Highlands, but the Jacobite rising of 1719 was defeated at the Battle of Glen Shiel. James had gone to Spain in the hope he could take part in the invasion, but following its abandonment was forced to return to Italy.^{[citation needed]} A further attempt was planned in 1722,^[8] but following the exposure of the Atterbury Plot it came to nothing.^{[citation needed]}

In exercise of his pretended position, James purported to create titles of nobility, now referred to as Jacobite Peerages, for his British supporters and members of his court, none of which have ever been recognised in Britain.^{[citation needed]}

The court-in-exile became a popular stop for English travellers making a Grand Tour, regardless of political affiliation.^[24] For many, it functioned as an unofficial consulate. Those in need of medical attention preferred being treated by one of their own countrymen. In 1735 court physicians tended to Edmund Sheffield, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Normanby, and thirty years later to James Boswell.^{[25][failed verification]}

James remained well-treated in Rome until his death. He was allowed to hold Protestant services at Court, and was given land where his Protestant adherents could receive a public burial.^{[25][failed verification]}

James's two sons, Charles Edward Stuart (left) and Henry Benedict Stuart (right).

Louise Adélaïde d'Orléans (Mademoiselle d'Orléans), daughter of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, was at one time suggested as a wife for James, but nothing came of it.^{[citation needed]} In March 1717, while James was visiting Modena, he became engaged to his cousin Benedetta d'Este, but her father Duke Rinaldo put an end to the engagement to preserve his relations with Hanover and Great Britain.^[26]

On 3 September 1719, James married Maria Clementina Sobieska (1702–1735), granddaughter of King John III Sobieski of Poland. The wedding was held in the chapel of the Episcopal Palace in Montefiascone, near Viterbo. By his wife he had two sons:^{[citation needed]}

1. Charles Edward Stuart (31 December 1720 – 31 January 1788), nicknamed "Bonnie Prince Charlie"
2. Henry Benedict Stuart (11 March 1725 – 13 July 1807), a cardinal of the Catholic Church

Following James's failure, attention turned to his son Charles, "the Young Pretender", who led the major uprising of 1745. With the failure of this second rebellion, the Stuart hopes of regaining the British throne were effectively destroyed.^[27] James and Charles later clashed repeatedly, and relations between them broke down completely when James played a role in the appointment of his son Henry as a cardinal. Henry then took holy orders, which required him to maintain celibacy, ending the possibility that he would produce a legitimate heir, infuriating Charles, who had not been consulted.^{[citation needed]}

After the 1745 rising, there were no other plots to restore the Stuart dynasty except for when, in 1759, the French government briefly considered a scheme to have James (then aged 70) crowned King of Ireland as part of their plans to invade Britain, but the offer was never formally made to James. Several separate plans also involved Charles being given control of a French-backed independent Ireland, though that too was aborted after Charles showed up at a meeting with the French to discuss the plan late, argumentative, and idealistic in expectations, so that the French dismissed the possibility of Jacobite assistance.^{[28][full citation needed]}

After a lingering illness, James died aged 77 on 1 January 1766, at his home, the Palazzo Muti in Rome,^[8][29] and was buried in the crypt of St. Peter's Basilica in present-day Vatican City. His grave is marked by the Monument to the Royal Stuarts. His claimed reign had lasted for 64 years, 3 months and 16 days, longer than any British monarch until Queen Elizabeth II's reign surpassed it on 23 May 2016.^[30]

Following James's death the pope refused to recognise the claim to the British and Irish thrones of his elder son Charles, which had severely exacerbated the hostility between England and the Catholic Church. Instead, from 14 January 1766, in stages over the following decade, Rome accepted the Hanoverian dynasty as the legitimate rulers of Britain and Ireland; this was accompanied by a gradual relaxation and reform of the anti-Catholic "penal laws" in Britain and Ireland.^{[citation needed]} Two months after James's death, on 14 March, the royal arms of England were removed from the doorway of the Palazzo Muti.^[29] In 1792, the papacy specifically referred to George III as the "King of Great Britain and Ireland", which elicited a protest from James's younger son Henry, who was by then the Jacobite claimant.^[31]

James was created Prince of Wales on 4 July 1688.^[32]

• Jacobite, KG: Knight of the Garter, 1692–1766

As Prince of Wales, James bore a coat of arms consisting of those of the kingdom, differenced by a label argent of three points.^[33]

• Correspondence with James the Pretender (High Treason) Act 1701, Parliament's response to his claim to the throne
• Touch pieces, used to cure scrofula ('the King's Evil')

• Bevan, Bryan (1967). King James the Third of England: A Study of Kingship in Exile. Robert Hale.
• Corp, Edward T (2009). A Court in Exile: The Stuarts in France, 1689–1718. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521108379.

• Media related to James Francis Edward Stuart at Wikimedia Commons
• Prince James Francis Edward at the official website of the British monarchy
• Portraits of Prince James Francis Edward Stuart at the National Portrait Gallery, London
• The Marriage Certificate of James III and Maria Clementina Sobieska at the Library of Trinity College Dublin [IE TCD MS 7574]