James Francis Edward Stuart (10 June 1688 – 1 January 1766), also known as the Old Pretender and the Chevalier de St. George, was the senior House of Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland from 1701 until his death in 1766. The only surviving son of James II of England and his second wife, Mary of Modena, he was created Prince of Wales. He was heir-apparent until his Catholic father was deposed and exiled in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. His Protestant half-sister Mary II and her husband William III and II became co-monarchs. As a Catholic, he was subsequently excluded from the succession by the Bill of Rights 1689.
James claimed the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland when his father died in September 1701. As part of the War of the Spanish Succession, in 1708 Louis XIV of France backed a landing in Scotland on his behalf. This failed, as did further attempts in 1715 and 1719, after which James lived quietly in Rome. Led by his elder son Charles Edward Stuart, the 1745 Rising was the last serious effort to restore the Stuart line.
James Francis Edward Stuart was born on 10 June 1688, at St. James's Palace, the second son of James II of England and his second wife, Mary of Modena, both Catholics. As the eldest surviving son of the reigning monarch, he was automatically Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay at birth, and was created Prince of Wales in July 1688.
His birth was unexpected, as it came five years after his mother's tenth pregnancy; none of the infants had survived more than a few days. The birth reignited controversies of religion, as the new son would be raised a Catholic. Wild rumours spread among British Anglicans: that the child had died stillborn, and that the baby feted as the new prince was an impostor smuggled into the royal birth chamber in a warming pan. Protestants found it suspicious that everyone attending the birth was supposedly Catholic, although the Protestant Lady Belasyse testified that she "saw the child taken out of the bed with the navel string hanging to its belly". Another rumour was that James II had not been the father; he was said to be impotent after a bout with venereal disease years earlier. In an attempt to quash these rumours, James published the testimonies of over seventy witnesses to the birth.
The line of succession to the throne was thrust into doubt. James II's eldest legitimate daughters, Mary and Anne, had been raised as Protestants. British Protestants had expected Mary, from his father's first marriage, to succeed their father. This possibility had kept Protestants reasonably content, with his reign a temporary inconvenience. Now that Mary or Anne's succession was in doubt with this new Catholic son and heir, discontent grew, already stoked by James II's actions which had alienated Tory Anglicans who had previously been inclined to honour him as sovereign even if they differed in religion. This movement would become the Glorious Revolution; Mary's husband William of Orange landed in England, backed by an army of English and Scottish exiles, as well as Dutch soldiers. Much of the English army promptly defected to William's cause, causing James II and his family to flee rather than stay and fight. In November 1688, James II ordered Lord Dover to escort his heir out of the country to France, and James was taken to Portsmouth. The plan was foiled when Lord Dartmouth refused to prepare a boat to evacuate Dover and the prince, and James was brought back to London.
On 9 December, Mary of Modena disguised herself as a laundress and escaped with the infant James to France. He was there brought up at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, which Louis XIV had turned over to the exiled James II. Both the ex-king and his family were held in great consideration by the French king (who was his first cousin through his mother Henrietta Maria), and they were frequent visitors at Versailles where Louis XIV and his court treated them as ruling monarchs. In June 1692 James's sister Louisa Maria was born. He later received a military education overseen by Richard Hamilton and Dominic Sheldon, two veterans of the Irish Army. When he was dying in 1701, James's father implored James to never give up his Catholic faith.
On his father's death in 1701, James was proclaimed as rightful king by Louis XIV of France, despite having previously recognised the legitimacy of William III and II under the 1697 Treaty of Ryswick. Spain, the Papal States, and Modena also recognised him as king of England, Ireland and Scotland and refused to recognise William III and II, Mary II, or Anne as legitimate sovereigns. As a result of his claiming his father's lost thrones, James was attainted for treason in London on 2 March 1702, and his titles were forfeited under English law.
Though delayed in France by an attack of measles, James attempted invasion, trying to land at the Firth of Forth on 23 March 1708. The fleet of Admiral Sir George Byng intercepted the French ships, which, combined with bad weather, prevented a landing.
James served for a time as a volunteer in the French army, as his father had done during the interregnum. During this time, James served under both the Duke of Burgundy and the Duke of Vendôme in the War of the Spanish Succession. He was noted for his valour during the Battle of Oudenarde, where he stayed at the head of army until the French were forced to retire. He also served during the Siege of Lille. During a bout of malaria in Cambrai, James met François Fénelon, and was greatly influence by Fénelon's concept of Quietism, a philosophy he would adhere to in some form for most of his life.
Between August and September 1710, Queen Anne appointed a new Tory administration led by Robert Harley, who entered into a secret correspondence with de Torcy, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, in which he claimed to desire James's accession to the throne should James convert to Protestantism. A year later, however, the British government pushed for James's expulsion from France as a precondition for a peace treaty with France. In accordance with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), Harley and Lord Bolingbroke, the Secretary of State, colluded with the French in exiling James to the Duchy of Lorraine.
Queen Anne became severely ill at Christmas 1713 and seemed close to death. In January 1714, she recovered but clearly had little time to live. Through de Torcy and his London agent, Abbé François Gaultier, Harley maintained the correspondence with James and Bolingbroke entered into a separate correspondence with him. They both stated to James that his conversion to Protestantism would facilitate his accession. However, James, a devout Catholic, replied to Torcy: "I have chosen my own course, therefore it is for others to change their sentiments." In March came James's refusal to convert, following which Harley and Bolingbroke reached the opinion that James's accession was not feasible, though they maintained their correspondence with him.
As a result, in August 1714, George, Elector of Hanover, a German-speaking Lutheran as George I. James and George were both great-grandsons of King James I & VI, making them second cousins. James denounced him, noting "we have beheld a foreign family, aliens to our country, distant in blood, and strangers even to our language, ascend the throne". Following George's coronation in October 1714, major riots broke out in provincial England.
In the following year, James's supporters, known as Jacobites, started uprisings in Scotland and Cornwall aimed at putting "James III and VIII" on the throne. On 22 December 1715, James reached Scotland after the Jacobite defeats at the Battle of Sheriffmuir (13 November 1715) and Battle of Preston (1715). He landed at Peterhead and soon fell ill with fever, his illness made more severe by the icy Scottish winter. In January 1716, he set up court at Scone Palace. Reputedly Jane Stuart, a half-sister, came from Wisbech in England to visit him. Learning of the approach of government forces, he returned to France, sailing from Montrose on 5 February 1716. The abandonment of his rebel allies caused ill-feeling against him in Scotland; nor was he welcomed on his return to France. His patron, Louis XIV, had died on 1 September 1715, and the French government found him a political embarrassment. When France, hitherto his main protector, allied with Britain, this effectively secured the Hanoverian dynasty's monarchy over the Kingdom of Great Britain.