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Prince James Edward Stuart

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Royalty

The Resume

    (June 10, 1688-January 1, 1766)
    Born in London, United Kingdom
    Son of King James II of England and his second wife, Mary of Modena
    Claimant to the British throne
    Nicknamed ‘the Old Pretender’
    Father of Bonnie Prince Charlie

Why he might be annoying:

    Opponents of the Stuarts claimed that Mary’s child was actually stillborn and James Edward was an impostor who had been smuggled into the royal birth chamber in a warming pan.
    His birth triggered the revolution that overthrew his father: the British had been willing to live with James II’s Catholicism as long as he was going to be followed to the throne by one of his Protestant daughters from his first marriage, but Prince James Edward’s birth created the potential for a Catholic dynasty.
    When Queen Anne was ill, British officials began secret negotiations with him, offering him a chance to return and claim the throne if he converted to Protestantism. He refused (1711).
    He sailed to Scotland to claim the throne when a rebellion broke out against the new Hanoverian dynasty (December 22, 1715); however, when the British army approached, he fled back to France (February 5, 1716).
    After Louis XIV died, the new French monarch had no interest in his cause, and he had to move from France to the Papal States.

Why he might not be annoying:

    His father collected testimony from over seventy witnesses to his birth to counter the infant substitution rumors.
    During the Glorious Revolution that overthrew his father, his mother disguised herself as a laundress and fled with him to France.
    He distinguished himself as a soldier in the French army during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14).
    He noted that the Hanovers who followed Queen Anne were ‘aliens to our country, distant in blood, and strangers even to our language.’
    He clearly took his religious beliefs seriously.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 28 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 39 Votes: 28.21% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 92 Votes: 58.70% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 16 Votes: 87.50% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 83 Votes: 55.42% Annoying