A pretender is someone who claims to be the rightful ruler of a country although not recognized as such by the current government. The term is often used to suggest that a claim is not legitimate. The word may refer to a former monarch or a descendant of a deposed monarchy, although this type of claimant is also referred to as a head of a house.
James Francis Edward Stuart, later known as the Old Pretender, depicted c. 1703, having been recognised in 1701 by King Louis XIV of France as the rightful claimant to the English, Irish, and Scottish thrones
Karl Emich of Leiningen, also known under his Christian Orthodox name Nikolai Kirillovich Romanov
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.