James Francis Edward Stuart
Prince James Francis Edward Stuart, also known as The Old Pretender, was born on 10th June, 1688 in London and died on 1st January, 1766 in Rome. He was the claimant to the English and Scottish throne. Supporters also called him James III of England and James VIII of Scotland.
Life
He was the son of King James II of England and his Catholic second wife, Mary of Modena. From his first marriage, James II had two Protestant daughters (Mary and Anne); James Edward, by contrast, was raised in the Catholic faith. Due to his being a son (law of male-preference primogeniture), he would replace his sisters in succession. The British people, however, mostly feared a Catholic heir to the throne. This was one of reasons why William of Orange was invited to take over the throne in the Glorious Revolution.
James II took his wife and his infant son to France to live in exile. King Louis XIV of France regarded James Edward Stuart as the rightful heir apparent. James Edward became the focus for the Jacobite movement. When James II died in September 1701, his son was declared King of Britain by Louis XIV; the rest of Europe more or less accepted William of Orange. When Louis XIV made peace with Britain in 1713 after the War of Spanish Succession, James was forced to leave France and eventually settled in Rome.
In 1714, his half-sister, Queen Anne, died, leaving no heir. Due to the Act of Settlement of 1701, James Edward could not become the next king of England. George I, the Protestant elector of Hanover, became king instead. Both of James Edward's attempts to win back his inheritance in Jacobite risings did not work out.
Descendants
James Francis Edward married Maria Clementina Sobieski, a Polish Princess and the grand-daughter of John III of Poland, in 1719. One reason was to produce an heir. They had two sons, Charles Edward Stuart (1720–1788) and Henry Benedict Stuart (1725–1807). Charles Edward became known as The Young Pretender or Bonnie Prince Charlie, who triggered one last Jacobite rebellion in Britain in 1745. Henry Benedict became the Cardinal Duke of York.