James Francis Edward Stuart

James Francis Edward Stuart (10 June 1688 – 1 January 1766) was the senior House of Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland from 1701 until his death in 1766. The only son of James II of England and his second wife, Mary of Modena, he was Prince of Wales and heir 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 Act of Settlement 1701.

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, first and only 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, coming five years after his mother's tenth and last pregnancy, none of which produced a child that survived more than a few days. The birth reignited controversies of religion, as the new son would be raised 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 Bellasyse 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 somewhat content, with his rule 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.

On 9 December, Mary of Modena disguised herself as a laundress and escaped with the infant James to France. Young James was 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), 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.

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.