| "Jacobite" was the name given to
the party, which after the revolution of 1688 in Britain, in which King
James II and his family fled to Europe and settled in Rome, continued to
support the Stuart dynasty, as representing the Divine Right to rule. It
is derived from the Latin word Jacobus, meaning James and was coined
during the reign of King James I & VI.
Many Americans have heard that the House of
Windsor (Queen Elizabeth) has no right to the British throne. This has
come about by various individuals coming forward and proclaiming
themselves to be the true successors to the House of Stuart, and due to
our trusting American nature, some of us actually believe them. Most
notable of these today being a gentleman styling himself as Prince Michael
of Albany . But that is another story !
The Jacobites believe that the Royal House
of Stuart is still in existence. That is partially true. The last male
pretender to the English & Scottish thrones, with the Stuart name, was
Cardinal King Henry IX & I, (IX of England, I of Scotland), younger
brother of King Charles Edward Stuart III (Bonnie Prince Charlie).
If the laws of progeny were followed, the
descendents of the youngest daughter of King Charles I , Princess
Henrietta Anne, should have followed her nieces, Queens Mary & Anne,
to the throne. Henrietta Anne was born on June 16, 1644 in Exeter, England
and died in St. Cloud, France in 1670. Already in exile with her Mother
& family in France, she was five years old when her father was
beheaded. She married Philippe I, Duke of Anjou & Orleans. Philippe
outlived Henrietta by one year, dying of apoplexy in 1701. An interesting
year as we shall soon see. They had three children. The third
child, a daughter Anne Marie, survived longest and was know as
Mademoiselle de Anjou. She married the Duke of Savoy and their son became
King Charles III of Sardinia & Sicily. Her older sister, Marie Louise,
Mademoiselle d’ Orleans,* became the consort Queen of Spain. The
line continues later in this article.
What a different story there would be if
those linear heirs had proceeded to the throne.
William of Orange had married his first
cousin, Mary, eldest daughter of King James II. & VII. William was the
son of King James II sister Mary. This union produced no children
which may have been a blessing in disguise considering the closeness of
the in-breeding. Also, one considers the stories of William being
"a soldiers soldier ".
William saw that the succession from
himself and Mary would be Mary's younger sister Anne and was not at all
happy about the consequences of that. Anne, soon to be Queen Anne,
was addicted to laudanum (a derivative of opium). She also unfortunately
had a string of pregnancy miscarriages. It is believed that she may have
had 16 miscarriages and none of her children lived into adulthood.
At the risk of repeating oneself, next in line should have been the
descendants of the youngest daughter of King Charles I, Princess Henrietta
Anne - a Catholic !
After all the sufferings the English and
Scots had gone through because of this branch of the House of Stuart and
their religious intolerance, William was not about to allow the country to
return to being a Roman Catholic kingdom. William III ( as he was
rightfully known) being Dutch and Protestant, had with him in London
a large contingent of his Dutch Guard. So many in fact that some
politicians were wondering if they had been invaded and conquered and had
not realized it.
William summoned a parliament on January
22nd., 1687 and on January 28th. the House of Commons passed legislation
that read in part ".......That it hath been found by experience
inconsistent with the safety and welfare of this Protestant kingdom to be
governed by a Popish Prince" After some political wrangling ,
assisted no doubt by the forceful presence of William's Dutch guards,
William and Mary were declared King & Queen (William III & Mary
II).
The Act of Settlement & The Act of the
Abjuration were both passed in 1701 both by a majority of merely one vote.
These acts settled the succession on Sophie, the Electress of Hanover
(grand-daughter of James I & VI) and her Protestant successors. This to the
exclusion of her two older brothers Charles and Edward of the Palatine,
both of whom had issue and also to the exclusion of the more
legitimate Roman Catholic successors to Charles I . There were in fact 42
others with a more legitimate linear claim to the throne.
The day after the passing of these Acts,
William fell off his horse and was killed. Queen Mary had preceded him
in1694. Their work was completed . Since the beheading of King
Charles I, the passage of these Acts of Parliament reinforced the concept
of a "Parliamentary Constitutional Monarchy".
By the time Queen Anne died the succession fell to Sophie's son The
Elector of Hanover who became King George I. He passed away in 1727 and
his son became King George II - and the rest, as they say, is history.
There are one or two interesting side bars
to this story. In 1718 King George I must have felt insecure or had
doubts about his legitimacy to the throne for he convened a conference
called the Quadruple Alliance. This alliance contained a guaranty of the
succession to the British throne to himself, his heirs and successors of
both sexes. His son King George II also repeated the procedure in 1748,
(two years after the Jacobite rebellion that ended in the slaughter of the
Scottish clans at the battle of Culloden), with a conference entitled The
Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. The number of illustrious heads of state that
signed the document was quite impressive for the times. Most notably that
of King Charles Emanuel III of Sardinia who was in fact the then current
Jacobite claimant to the British throne ! The true Jacobites, while
acceding his right to resign his own rights, do not accept that he could
sign away the rights of his heirs and successors.
The House of Hanover were now so secure in
their tenancy of the throne that they paid no attention to more than one
or two alleged visits to London by Prince Charles Edward Stuart.
After the death of the pretender, Cardinal
King Henry IX & I, (Charles' younger brother), the Stuart claim to the
throne passed to King Charles Emanuel IV of Sardinia of the Royal House of
Savoy and then to his brother King Victor Emanuel I. Then the line passes
from the House of Savoy to the House of Hapsburg in Germany and then to
the House of Wittelsbach where it rests today in the person of Francis,
Duke of Bavaria (styled by the Jacobites as King Francis II ). This
gentleman who is childless, will pass on the succession to his brother
Maximillian- Emanuael , Duke in Bavaria, who is married and has five
daughters.
The eldest is Sophie who is married to
Alois, Hereditary Prince of Leichtenstein and son of Hans-Adam II,
Reigning Prince of Liechtenstein. They have three children, the eldest of
which is Joseph Wenzel . Alois and Sophie spent several years in London
together. She graduated from an interior design school and Alois was
employed by an auditing firm. Joseph is the first prince of the Stuart
successors to have been born in London since James II & VII. Therefore
it seems that young Joseph Wenzel, Prince of Leichtenstein will be
destined to carry the legitimate dynastic genes of the old Scottish House
of Stuart into the third millennium.
It would take an act of parliament to
remove the religious restrictions placed upon the current British royalty.
Within living memory the current Prince Michael of Kent (cousin to Queen
Elizabeth II) was removed from the royal line of succession after marrying
a Roman Catholic Princess. His position in the line was so far removed
from the throne, that it made no difference to his life or that of
the country. Perhaps just as interesting is the fact that in the new
Scottish parliament, the Scottish National Party pushed through a
resolution calling for the repeal of those Acts of Parliament that bar
Roman Catholics from the throne. The debate to repeal the Act of
Settlement is now under hot debate in both Scotland and England as being
outdated and bigoted.
Interested parties should note that the
British monarchy, as mentioned earlier, is not only a constitutional one
but is also a "parliamentary constitutional monarchy".
Parliament has the final say as to who the monarch shall be. To wit, the
removal of King Charles I - and his head !
Another example of parliamentary supremacy,
which is worthy of a separate article, was in more recent times (1936)
when the government surreptitiously removed King Edward VIII (Duke of
Windsor) from the throne and replaced him with his younger brother, King
George VI. It was styled an "abdication for the woman he
loved". A twice divorced American woman. However, he was considered
totally unsuited to be king and emperor by the government of Prime
Minister Stanley Baldwin. He was considered to be dissolute, irresponsible
and the secret of his inability to provide issue was semi-public
knowledge.
It is also interesting to note that the
Houses of Windsor,( formerly Hanover, later Saxe-Coburg-Gotha ) ;
Mountbatten, (formerly Battenburg); and Stuart (now Wittelsbach, soon to
be Leichtenstein), have a great many German Princely relatives.
Copyright 1999, 2001.
Bibliography: Noel McFerran, Edward Hall.
* McFerran & Hall seem to disagree on the titles of these two ladies |
