The Old and Young Pretenders
The Stuarts’ reign (1603-1714) was a tumultuous period and the so-called Old and Young Pretenders extended the chaos by their doomed efforts to claim the throne after the death of the childless monarch, Queen Anne (1665-1714).
The ‘Old’ was James Stuart (1688-1766), born in London to the Catholic King James II (1633-1701) who was deposed after just three years due to his attempts to bypass Parliament. The son therefore grew up in France with his exiled father, but in trying to raise a rebellion against King William III (1650-1702) was defeated in battle in 1690 and returned to France and then Italy with his Italian second wife.
The ‘Young’ was their son, Charles Stuart (1720-88), born and raised in Italy, also known as ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’, a nickname to which many tales of adventure were attached. He led an ill-advised march south into England to challenge the throne’s incumbent at the time – the German King George II (1683-1760) – which reached as far as Derby. Lack of numbers forced him to flee, chased by the King’s army. After hiding for some time, Charles managed to sneak away on a French boat and only returned once, to plead that he would convert to Protestantism but the die was already cast.
(Images LtoR: James Stuart at picryl.com, the Stuart tartan at Wikimedia Commons and Charles Stuart at picryl.com – all Public domain)