Stuart, James Francis Edward (1688-1766), was the prince whose birth triggered the Glorious Revolution of 1688 in England. The revolution overthrew his father, King James II. Later, James Francis Edward was called the Old Pretender, because he pretended to (claimed) the crowns of England, Ireland, and Scotland. Two major rebellions attempted to make him king, but both failed. His supporters were called Jacobites from Jacobus, the Latin form of James.
James Francis Edward Stuart (also spelled Stewart) was born on June 10, 1688, in London, the son of James II. His father, a convert to Roman Catholicism, had alarmed many English government leaders by favoring Catholics and trying to expand royal power. English leaders put up with James II as long as the heir to the throne was the king’s daughter Mary, a Protestant. But the birth of James Francis Edward ended their hope that a Catholic monarchy would be temporary, setting off the Glorious Revolution of 1688. The infant and his father became exiles in France. In 1689, Mary and her husband, William of Orange, were crowned as joint rulers. James II died in 1701.
In 1708, James Francis Edward sailed with a small French fleet to start a rebellion in Scotland. The fleet retreated when confronted by English ships. In 1715, discontented nobles in Scotland and northern England rebelled. But the rebellion had largely collapsed by the time James arrived in Scotland to lead it.
After 1719, James lived in Italy. He died in Rome on Jan. 1, 1766. Charles Edward, James’s oldest son, led an unsuccessful rebellion in his father’s name in 1745 and 1746.
