Stuart, House of, was a royal family of England and Scotland. The Stuarts were kings and queens of Scotland from 1371 to 1603, and of England and Scotland from 1603 to 1649 and 1660 to 1714. Much of their rule in the 1600’s was characterized by disputes over foreign policy, religion, and the power of the monarchy. The family’s name is sometimes spelled Stewart.
James VI of Scotland, the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, became king of England and Ireland at the death of his third cousin, Queen Elizabeth I, in 1603. He took the title of James I. His son Charles I succeeded him in 1625. Charles’s attempt to rule without Parliament, as well as his religious, economic, and foreign policies, turned many English leaders against him. As a result, civil war broke out in Scotland in 1639, in Ireland in 1641, and in England in 1642. Charles was beheaded in 1649. After his execution, England became a republic.
In 1660, a new Parliament restored the monarchy under Charles II, son of Charles I. When Charles II died in 1685, his brother, James II, became king. In Scotland, James reigned as James VII. He wished to provide some religious freedom for Roman Catholics. Without Parliament’s consent, he suspended laws against Catholics and against Protestants who did not belong to the Church of England. Alarmed by the king’s actions, key political leaders united against him. They forced him to give up the throne in 1688. Parliament gave the crown to James’s daughter Mary and her husband, William of Orange, in 1689. Anne Stuart, Mary’s sister, became queen in 1702. She was the last Stuart ruler. During her reign, England and Wales joined Scotland to form a united kingdom of Great Britain, also known as the United Kingdom.
After Anne died in 1714, her distant cousin George I of the House of Hanover in Germany became king of Britain. But James Francis Edward Stuart, the son of James II, also claimed the throne. In 1715, thousands of his supporters, mostly Scots, rebelled against George. In 1745, James Francis Edward Stuart’s son, Charles Edward Stuart, led a more threatening uprising against George II. Both rebellions failed.
