A crown prince whose birth led to his father's deposition as King. A life in exile with failed rebellions and a legacy that can be controversial in the months to come.
Story in the evening ...
Story in the evening ...
https://twitter.com/Arby_K/status/1343746315440648192
James Francis Edward was born in 1688 to King James of England, Scotland and Ireland and his wife Maria Beatrice. As his father's only son, he became his father's heir, superseding his elder half sisters, Mary and Anne. 1/10 
Both King James & Queen Maria were Catholic. Though princesses Mary & Anne had been raised as Protestants, the birth of a Catholic heir was an issue for the predominantly Anglican England. Mary, who was the heir earlier, was also married to Protestant Prince Willem Hendrik. 2/10
Though Prince Willem was technically stateless after the French annexed the Principality of Orange in 1672, he was also the Stadtholder of Holland and other Dutch provinces and a notable Protestant leader in continental Europe. 3/10
On 5th November, 1688, Willem landed in England with an army, invited by seven English nobles. As his army switched side, King James, his wife and his son left for France, to the court of his cousin, King Louis XIV. The King was declared to have abdicated. 4/10
With the enactment of Bill of Rights in England and Claim of Rights in Scotland, Willem and Mary were declared joint monarchs. Ireland would take a bit more time after King James and King Louis send in forces and were supported by local forces. 5/10
After defeat at the Battle of Boyne in 1690, the Jacobite forces retreated and the new monarchs consolidated their hold on Britain. After his father's death in 1701, James Francis was recognized as King by France, but there was little chance for him to get it enforced. 6/10
In 1701, the Act of Settlement was enacted by the English Parliament to bypass the descendants of Charles I and set his sister's Protestant descendants next in line to the throne. In 1702, Anne became the Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland. 7/10
With France busy with the War of Spanish Succession, it was only in 1715 that Prince James could muster up an army to reclaim his patrimony. By then, Georg Ludwig von Braunschweig-Lüneburg, Elector of Hanover, had become King of Great Britain and Ireland. 8/10
The rebellion was a failure and the Prince soon lost his main backer, King Louis, who also died in 1715. Later uprisings and invasions in 1719 and 1745 to restore Stuarts also met with failure, the last one led by Charles Edward Stuart, elder son of Prince James. 9/10
The Stuart regnal line ended with Cardinal Henry Benedict Stuart in 1807, but the Jacobite succession continues with descendants of Princess Henrietta Anne, younger sister of King James II, with the current claimant Franz von Bayern, who heads Bavarian House of Wittelsbach. 10/10
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