King Charles II and King James II of Britain were the sons of the beheaded King Charles I. Charles II was nicknamed the Merry Monarch, but James was not quite as lucky and, as we have seen with his daughters Mary II and Anne and his nephew/son-in-law William III, ended up fleeing the country and being deposed.
HM King Charles II
Charles II was the eldest surviving child of Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland and Henrietta Maria of France. After Charles I's execution at Whitehall on 30th January 1649 at the climax of the English Civil War, the Parliament of Scotland proclaimed Charles II king on 5th February 1649. However, England entered the period known as the English Interregnum or the English Commonwealth, and the country was a de facto republic led by Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell defeated Charles II at the Battle of Worcester on 3th September 1651, and Charles fled to mainland Europe. Cromwell became virtual dictator of England, Scotland and Ireland. Charles spent the next nine years in exile in France, the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Netherlands. The political crisis that followed the death of Cromwell in 1658 resulted in the restoration of the monarchy, and Charles was invited to return to Britain. On 29th May 1660, his 30th birthday, he was received in London to public acclaim. After 1660, all legal documents stating a regnal year did so as if he had succeeded his father as king in 1649.
Charles's English parliament enacted laws known as the Clarendon Code, designed to shore up the position of the re-established Church of England. Charles acquiesced to the Clarendon Code even though he favoured a policy of religious tolerance. The major foreign policy issue of his early reign was the Second Anglo-Dutch War. In 1670, he entered into the Treaty of Dover, an alliance with his cousin King Louis XIV of France. Louis agreed to aid him in the Third Anglo-Dutch War and pay him a pension, and Charles secretly promised to convert to Catholicism at an unspecified future date. Charles attempted to introduce religious freedom for Catholics and Protestant dissenters with his 1672 Royal Declaration of Indulgence, but the English Parliament forced him to withdraw it. In 1679, Titus Oates's revelations of a supposed Popish Plot sparked the Exclusion Crisis when it was revealed that Charles's brother and heir presumptive, James, Duke of York, was a Catholic. The crisis saw the birth of the pro-exclusion Whig and anti-exclusion Tory parties. Charles sided with the Tories, and, following the discovery of the Rye House Plot to murder Charles and James in 1683, some Whig leaders were executed or forced into exile. Charles dissolved the English Parliament in 1681, and ruled alone until his death in 1685. He was received into the Catholic Church on his deathbed.
Charles was one of the most popular and beloved kings of England, known as the Merry Monarch, in reference to both the liveliness and hedonism of his court and the general relief at the return to normality after over a decade of rule by Cromwell and the Puritans. Charles's wife, Catherine of Braganza, bore no live children, but Charles acknowledged at least twelve illegitimate children by various mistresses, who we looked into in a previous Blog. He was succeeded by his brother James.
As Prince of Wales, Charles's Arms carried the plain white Label as was custom. With the Restoration in 1660 there was a renewal of royal heraldry and a 'restoration' of the Arms of Charles's Father and Grandfather. As Charles II counted his reign as having started at the death of his beheaded Father, King Charles I, we can presume that Charles II's Coat of Arms in exile was the full Royal Achievement.
It was during the reign of Charles II that the Royal Arms used in Scotland (which had always shown the Scottish Quarter in first and fourth position since the reign of James VI & I) were augmented with the inclusion of the Latin motto of the Order of the Thistle, the highest Order of Chivalry in Scotland, Nemo me impune lacessit (No one provokes me with impunity), which appears on a blue scroll overlying the compartment - the grassy mound, in this case, where the Supporters stand. (Previously, only the Collar of the Order of the Thistle had appeared on the Arms and the Motto In Defens had appeared - and still does - above the Crest in the Scottish fashion).
Shortly after his Restoration and return from exile in France via Netherlands (having a taste for the lavish court style of France) Charles issued a Royal Warrant concerning the Coronets of Princes (maybe including Princesses, maybe not) of the first and second generations.
Our Will and Pleasure therefore is, That the Son and Heir Apparent of the Crown for the time being, shall use and bear his Coronet composed of Crosses and Flower-de-Lized with one Arch; and in the midst a Ball and Cross, as hath our Royal Diadem; and that Our most Dear and most Entirely-beloved Brother James Duke of York, and so all the immediate Sons of Our Self, and the immediate Sons and Brothers of Our Successors Kings of England, shall bear and use his and their Coronets composed of Crosses and Flower-de-Liz only; but that all their Sons respectively, having the Title of Dukes, shall bear and use their Coronets composed of Crosses and Flowers or Leaves, such as are used in the Composure of the Coronets of Dukes not being of Our Royal Family...
HM Queen Catherine (Catherine of Braganza/Catarina de Bragança)
Catherine was born into the House of Braganza, the most senior noble house in Portugal. Her father, John, 8th Duke of Braganza, was proclaimed King John IV in 1640 after leading a rebellion which ended sixty years of Spanish rule in Portugal. However, Portugal was not recognised as a state by most European powers (this was due to Spain disputing the legitimacy of its independence), and the marriage of Catherine to a foreign prince was therefore a vehicle of gaining some recognition. Plans in this regard are largely thought to have been masterminded by Catherine’s mother, Queen Luisa. After attempts to secure an alliance with John of Austria and Louis XIV of France failed, Charles II – newly restored as King following Civil War and eleven years of republicanism – became the most attractive suitor. The marriage of Charles and Catherine, then, was a source of political stability and legitimacy for both of their respective houses.
The attractiveness of Catherine to the English Crown was due in large part to the huge dowry which the Portuguese offered, alongside colonies including Bombay and Tangier, as part of the marriage treaty. That the vast majority of the dowry remained unpaid was a significant source of tension, and undoubtedly constrained Catherine’s ability to become a political actor in England. More significant was Catherine’s ‘failure’ to produce an heir to the English throne (the main purpose of a Queen Consort), and the fact that her life at court was dictated to a significant degree by her rivalry with Charles’s mistresses, most noticeably Barbara Palmer and, latterly, Louise de Kéroualle. Despite this somewhat pessimistic picture of Catherine’s significance, more recent research is beginning to suggest that she had considerable agency in areas of culture – whether her impact was as large as Henrietta Maria (the Queen Consort of Charles I) remains to be tested; as does the extent to which her presence impacted upon English Catholicism.
Following Charles II’s death in 1685, Catherine remained in England throughout the reign of James II and, following the Glorious Revolution of 1688/9, into that of William and Mary. Her relationship with the latter was strained (largely by questions of Catherine’s Catholicism) and Catherine returned to Portugal in 1692, where her brother Peter II was King. Following bouts of illness he suffered in 1701 and 1704-05, Catherine became the regent of Portugal. She died at the Bemposta Palace in Lisbon on 31st December 1705 and was buried at the Monastery of São Vicente de Fora in Lisbon.
Catherine's Arms were those of her Father, King John IV, which hadn't changed since the time that John of Gaunt, son of King Edward III of England married his daughter Philippa to a previous King John of Portugal.
Argent, five Escutcheons in Cross azure, each charged with as many Plates in Saltire, all within a Bordure gules charged with seven Castles or.
As a footnote, Dragons and Wyverns seem to be interchangeable in many heraldic systems or cultures. In English heraldry, Dragons have four legs and Wyverns, specifically, have two front legs and a tail instead of back legs.
HM King James II & VII
James inherited the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland from his elder brother Charles II with widespread support in all three countries, largely based on the principle of divine right or birth. Tolerance for his personal Catholicism did not apply to it in general and when the English and Scottish Parliaments refused to pass his measures, James attempted to impose them by decree; it was a political principle, rather than a religious one, that ultimately led to his removal.
In June 1688, two events turned dissent into a crisis; the first on 10th was the birth of James's son and heir James Francis Edward, threatening to create a Roman Catholic dynasty and excluding his Anglican daughter Mary and her Protestant husband William of Orange. The second was the prosecution of the Seven Bishops for seditious libel; this was viewed as an assault on the Church of England and their acquittal on 30th destroyed his political authority in England. Anti-Catholic riots in England and Scotland now made it seem only his removal as monarch could prevent a civil war. (it would appear that James had not learned the lessons of his Father.)
Leading members of the English political class invited William of Orange to assume the English throne. After William landed in Brixham on 5th November 1688, James's army deserted, and he went into exile in France on 23rd December. In February 1689, a special Convention Parliament held that the King had "vacated" the English throne and installed William and Mary as joint monarchs, establishing the principle that sovereignty derived from Parliament, not birth. James landed in Ireland on 14th March 1689 in an attempt to recover his kingdoms, but, despite a simultaneous rising in Scotland, a Scottish Convention in April followed that of England by finding that James had "forfeited" the throne and offered it to William and Mary. After his defeat at the Battle of the Boyne in July 1690, James returned to France, where he spent the rest of his life in exile at Saint-Germain, protected by Louis XIV.
Following the precedent of King Henry VIII, who was himself a second son, James was assigned a Label of three Points ermine. Representations show the whole Label as being spotted with Ermine and not just the Points. However, even considering that James was 16 when his Father was beheaded, there is no evidence that James was assigned the Label until after the Restoration and his installation as Knight of the Garter. (He had been designated Duke of York at birth, invested with the Garter in 1642, and formally created Duke of York by his Father in January 1644. A year before the Restoration James was created Earl of Ulster and in 1660 he was created Duke of Albany by his Brother.)
Also, James's Garter Stall Plate as Duke following the Restoration shows his Crest placed on top of a cap (red 'turned up' ermine). One presumes that this ought to have been replaced with one showing the Coronet he had been assigned/had confirmed by the Royal Warrant mentioned above.
As the prospect of King Charles II having any legitimate children receded, it became increasingly probable that James would succeed to the Throne. Reproductions of James's Arms can be found with a plain Label more associated with the Heir Apparent, but with no official sanction.
As King and presumably in exile, James continued the use of the Arms of his Brother, Father and Grandfather.
Anne Hyde (HRH The Duchess of York and Albany)
Anne was the daughter of a commoner – Edward Hyde (later created Earl of Clarendon) – and met her future husband when they were both living in exile in the Netherlands. She married James in 1660 and two months later gave birth to the couple's first child, who had obviously been conceived out of wedlock. Some observers disapproved of the marriage, but James's brother wanted, if not ordered, the marriage to take place. Another cause of disapproval was the public affection James showed toward Anne, such as kissing in public, which was considered improper behaviour from man to wife during the Seventeenth Century. James and Anne had eight children, but six died in early childhood. The two who survived to adulthood were future monarchs, Mary II and Anne. James was a known philanderer who kept many mistresses, for which his wife often reproached him, and fathered many illegitimate children (as we saw again in a previous Blog).
Originally an Anglican, Anne converted to Catholicism soon after her marriage to James. She had been exposed to Catholicism during visits to the Netherlands and France, and was strongly attracted. Partly due to his wife's influence, James later also converted to Catholicism, which would ultimately lead to the Glorious Revolution. She suffered from advanced breast cancer and died shortly after giving birth to her last child.
Anne marshalled her Father's Arms with those of James according to tradition. Edward Hyde's Arms are as follows:
Quarterly, 1st and 4th: Azure, a Chevron between three Lozenges Or (Hyde); 2nd: Paly of six or and gules a Bend azure (Langford); 3rd: Azure, a Cross argent (Aylesbury).
As Duchess of York and Albany, Anne may have been expected to use Supporters - the Lion and ermine Label of her husband and the black Eagle, crowned with a Coronet gold and charged on the Breat with a couped Cross also in gold - but there does not appear to be any evidence of that.
Children of James and Anne
Charles, Duke of Cambridge: 22nd October 1660 - 5th May 1661. Born two months after his parents' legal marriage, died aged seven months of smallpox. Queen Mary II: 30th April 1662 - 28th December 1694. See previous Blog. James, Duke of Cambridge: 12th July 1663 - 20th June 1667. Died of the bubonic plague. Queen Anne: 6th February 1665 - 1st August 1714. See previous Blog. Charles, Duke of Kendal: 4th July 1666 - 22nd May 1667. Died of convulsions. Edgar, Duke of Cambridge: 14th September 1667 - 8th June 1671. Died in childhood. Henrietta: 13th January 1669 - 15th November 1669. Died in infancy. Catherine: 9th February 1671 - 5th December 1671. Died in infancy. | Both Charles and James (Dukes of Cambridge) were assigned in turn the five-pointed version of their Father's ermine Label. Edgar is also alleged to have been assigned it but there is no evidence of that. |
Mary of Modena/Maria di Modena (HM Queen Mary)
Born a princess of the northwestern Italian Duchy of Modena, Mary is primarily remembered for the controversial birth of James Francis Edward, her only surviving son. It was widely rumoured that he was a "changeling", brought into the birth chamber in a warming pan, in order to perpetuate her husband's Catholic Stuart dynasty. Although the accusation was almost certainly false, which the subsequent Privy Council investigation affirmed, James Francis Edward's birth was a contributing factor to the "Glorious Revolution", the revolution which deposed James II and VII and replaced him with his Protestant eldest daughter from his first marriage to Anne Hyde, Mary II. She and her husband, William III of Orange, would reign jointly as "William and Mary".
Exiled to France, the "Queen over the water" – as the Jacobites called Mary – lived with her husband and children in the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, provided by Louis XIV of France. Mary was popular among Louis's courtiers; James, however, was considered a bore. In widowhood, Mary spent much time with the nuns at the Convent of Chaillot, where she and her daughter Louisa Maria Teresa spent their summers.
In 1701, when James II died, young James Francis Edward became king at age 13 in the eyes of the Jacobites. As he was too young to assume the nominal reins of government, Mary represented him until he reached the age of 16. When young James Francis Edward was asked to leave France as part of the settlement from the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, which ended the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), Mary of Modena stayed, despite having no family there, her daughter Louisa Maria Teresa having died of smallpox at the age of 19. Fondly remembered by her French contemporaries, Mary died of breast cancer in 1718.
Mary used a simplified version of her Father Alonso's Coat of Arms, blazonned as follows:
Quarterly, 1st and 4th , Or, an Eagle displayed sable crowned gold (Imperial Augmentation); 2nd and 3rd, Azure, three Fleurs-de-Lys or with a Bordure indented Point in Point or and gules.
The sinister Supporter is the blue Eagle crowned gold of the House of Este.
Three crowns were made for Mary of Modena by the goldsmith Richard de Beauvoir in 1685: a coronation crown, state crown, and a diadem (jewelled headband). Both the diadem and the state crown [pictured above] reside within the main collection of the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London. The state crown, although not originally intended for coronations, was used by all queen consorts until 1831, when Queen Adelaide, consort of William IV, insisted on a new design.
Children of James and Mary
Catherine Laura: 10th January 1675 - 3rd October 1675. Died in infancy.
Isabel: 28th August 1676 - 2nd March 1681. Died in infancy.
Charles, Duke of Cambridge: 7th November 1677 - 12th December 1677.
Elizabeth: Died immediately after birth, 1678.
Charlotte Maria: 16th August 1682 - 16th October 1682. Died in infancy.
James III and VIII (Jacobite): 10th June 1688 - 1st January 1766. See below.
Louisa Maria Teresa: 28th June 1692 - 20th April 1712. Died of smallpox.
James Francis Edward Stuart
(The Old Pretender/"King James III & VIII")
James Francis Edward was raised in Continental Europe. After his father's death in 1701, he claimed the English, Scottish and Irish crowns as James III of England and Ireland and James VIII of Scotland, with the support of his Jacobite followers and his cousin Louis XIV of France. Fourteen years later, he unsuccessfully attempted to gain the throne in Britain during the Jacobite rising of 1715.
One of Europe's wealthiest heiresses from inheriting vast estates in Poland from her paternal grandfather, Maria Clementina Sobieska was betrothed to James Francis Edward Stuart. King George I of Great Britain was opposed to the marriage because he feared that the union might produce heirs to James Francis Edward's claim to his thrones. To placate him, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI (Maria Clementina's own maternal first cousin) had her arrested while on her way to Italy. She was confined in Innsbruck Castle but eventually the guards were deceived and Maria Clementina escaped to Bologna, Italy, where, for safety from further intrusions, she was married by proxy to James, who was in Spain at that time.
Maria Clementina's father, James Louis Sobieski, approved her escape, declaring that, as she was engaged to James Francis Edward, she ought to "follow his fortune and his cause".
Maria Clementina and James Francis Edward were formally married on 3rd September 1719 in the chapel of the episcopal palace of Montefiascone, Italy, in the Cathedral of Santa Margherita. Following their marriage, James and Maria Clementina were invited to reside in Rome at the special request of Pope Clement XI, who acknowledged them as the King and Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland.
Following his death in 1766, their elder son, Charles Edward Stuart, continued to claim the British crown as part of the Jacobite Succession.
As Prince of Wales, James Francis Edward would have had a right to the British Coat of Arms with a white 3-pointed Label. He would continue to carry these Arms in exile until his Father's death when he would take up the undifferenced Arms of King, although still in exile.
The manuscript shown here is the marriage certificate of James Francis Edward and Maria Clementina. Its elaborate frontispiece bears the combined Stuart and Sobieski coats of arms above a hilltop village probably intended to represent Montefiascone, near Lake Bolsena, north of Rome – the venue for the wedding, and summer residence of the then Pope, Clement XI. When the last member of the Stuart dynasty, Henry, Cardinal Duke of York (see below) died in Rome in 1807, the more personal family documents were retained by members of the Cardinal’s circle who then sold them off, piecemeal, to eager visitors taking the grand tour. Among these was the Irish collector Blayney Townley Balfour (1799-1882) of Townley Hall near Drogheda. While in Rome in 1842, he purchased, among other miscellaneous Jacobite souvenirs, this manuscript which is now in the possession of Trinity College Dublin. |
Research shows that the House of Sobieski used the Coat of Arms of the Polish nobility clan Janina which is said to be based on the constellation Scutum or Shield to commemorate the victory of the Polish forces led by John III Sobieski in the Battle of Vienna in 1683, and represents a "Shield within a Shield". These simple Arms are shown in different tinctures or colour combinations which vary greatly from family to family. That for the Sobieski Family appears to be a red background (or Field) with a pinkish, purplish Shield. Maybe this version shows the Inescutcheon better as the representation is of a more realistic Shield (on a Shield), rather than two geometric shapes. The photograph was taken at the Royal Chapel in Gdansk by Maciej Szczepańczyk |
Charles Edward Stuart
(The Young Pretender/Bonnie Prince Charlie/"King Charles III")
During his lifetime, he was also known as "the Young Pretender" and "the Young Chevalier", and in popular memory, he is "Bonnie Prince Charlie". He is best remembered for his role in the 1745 rising, but his defeat at the Battle of Culloden in April 1746 effectively ended the Stuart cause. Subsequent attempts failed to materialise, such as a planned French invasion in 1759. His escape by boat with Flora MacDonald from Benbecula to the Isle of Skye as he evaded capture by Government troops, immortalised in the Skye Boat Song, and his esacpe from Scotland after the uprising led to his portrayal as a romantic figure of heroic failure.
In 1766, Charles's father died. Pope Clement XIII had recognised James as King of England, Scotland, and Ireland as "James III and VIII" but did not give Charles the same recognition. In 1772 Charles married Princess Louise of Stolberg-Gedern. They lived first in Rome and in 1774 moved to Florence, where, in 1777, he purchased the Palazzo di San Clemente for his residence, now known also as the Palazzo del Pretendente, in his memory. In Florence he began to use the title "Count of Albany" as an alias, which is frequently used for him in European publications; his wife Louise is almost always called "Countess of Albany".
In 1780, Louise left Charles claiming that he had physically abused her; this claim was generally believed by contemporaries even though Louise was already involved in an adulterous relationship with the Italian poet Count Vittorio Alfieri.
In 1783, Charles signed an act of legitimation for his illegitimate daughter Charlotte, born in 1753 to Clementina Walkinshaw (later known as Countess von Alberstrof). Charles also gave Charlotte the title "Duchess of Albany" in the peerage of Scotland and the style "Her Royal Highness", but these honours did not give Charlotte any right of succession to the Throne. Charlotte lived with her father in Florence and Rome for the next five years.
John Hay Allen and Charles Stuart Allen, later known as John Sobieski Stuart and Charles Edward Stuart, revived the unsubstantiated claim that their father, Thomas Allen, was a legitimate son of Charles and Louise.
Charles died in Rome of a stroke aged 67. He was first buried in Frascati Cathedral near Rome, where his brother Henry Benedict Stuart (see below) was bishop. At Henry's death in 1807, Charles's remains (except his heart) were moved to the crypt of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican where they were laid to rest next to those of his brother and his father near the monument to the Royal Stuarts. His mother is also buried in St. Peter's Basilica. His heart remained in Frascati Cathedral, where it is contained in a small urn beneath the floor under a monument.
During his pretence as Prince of Wales, Charles claimed a Coat of Arms consisting of those of the Kingdom, differenced by a Label argent of three Points. The full Stuart Royal Arms are shown in the Palazzo di San Clemente in Florence when Charles was de facto King Charles III.
(I will deal with the heraldry of the Dukedom of Alba at a later date.)
Henry Benedict Stuart (Cardinal Duke of York)
He spent his life in the Papal States and had a long career in the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church, rising to become the Dean of the College of Cardinals and Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia and Velletri. At the time of his death he was (and still is) one of the longest-serving cardinals in the Church's history.
In his youth, Henry's father made him Duke of York (in the Jacobite Peerage), and it was by this title that he was best known. Upon the death of his brother in 1788, Henry became known by Jacobites, and within his personal entourage, as Henry IX of England and Ireland, and Henry I of Scotland, although publicly he referred to himself as Cardinal Duke of York.
Henry, being a Cardinal, had to have a Coat of Arms, and he raises a very interesting point. I am not sure whether the Arms were registered or just 'claimed' but he carried the Royal Stuart Arms (which, in effect, he was entitled to by descent from King James II & VII) but differenced by a white Crescent, the basic symbol of Cadency for a second son in English heraldry. This, to my knowledge, is the only time the British Royal Arms (post Tudor times) have been differenced by anything other than a Label (in the legitimate line) or Baston Sinister or Bordure (in the illegitimate line)
We finish with the splendid Pedigree of Charles and Henry going back to their Great-Great-Grandparents. Sister Maximilien Marnau has painstakingly included all their Shields and shows the British Arms with Scotland in pretence in the first and fourth Quarters.
(Please note the use of the Inescutcheon for Este (Azure, an Eagle displayed argent crowned or) on the Arms of Modena. Whilst this would indeed not be entirely incorrect, a representation of Mary of Modena's seal in The Royal Heraldry of England by J. H. & R. V. Pinches, 1974 (page 187) does not show this.
Also, Queen Henrietta Maria's Arms are usually shown alongside the Navarre Arms and not just France plain.)
But those are minor points. This is a marvellous piece of heraldic art.