James Francis Edward Stuart
James Francis Edward Stuart, nicknamed the Old Pretender by Whigs and the King over the Water by Jacobites, was the son of King James VII and II of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and his second wife, Mary of Modena. He was Prince of Wales from July 1688 until, just months after his birth, his Catholic father was deposed and exiled in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. James II's Protestant elder daughter Mary II and her husband William III became co-monarchs. The Bill of Rights 1689 and Act of Settlement 1701 excluded Catholics such as James from the English and British thrones.
Portrait from the studio of Alexis Simon Belle, c. 1712
James Francis Edward as Prince of Wales, after a painting by Nicolas de Largillière
James Francis Edward, about 1703, portrait in the Royal Collection attributed to Alexis Simon Belle
The Old Pretender lands in Scotland after Sheriffmuir. An 18th-century engraving.
Jacobitism was a political movement that supported the restoration of the senior line of the House of Stuart to the British throne. The name derives from the first name of James II of England, which is rendered in Latin as Jacobus. When James went into exile after the November 1688 Glorious Revolution, the Parliament of England decided that he had abandoned the English throne, which they offered to his Protestant daughter Mary II of England, and her husband William III. In April, the Scottish Convention held that James "forfeited" the throne of Scotland by his actions, listed in the Articles of Grievances.
James Francis Edward Stuart, Jacobite claimant between 1701 and 1766
'The True Law of Free Monarchies;' James VI and I's political tract formed the basis of Stuart ideology
Charles I, whose policies caused instability throughout his three kingdoms
James II, 1685, dressed in military uniform