Louisa Maria Teresa Stuart (Princess of England, Scotland and Ireland)

Female 1692 - 1712  (19 years)


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  • Name Louisa Maria Teresa Stuart (Princess of England, Scotland and Ireland) 
    Born 28 Jun 1692  Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Paris, France Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Female 
    Died 18 Apr 1712  Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Paris, France Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Buried St Edmund Abbey Church of the English Benedictines Cemetery, Rue St Jacques, Paris, France Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I465  King of Scots
    Last Modified 1 Feb 2009 

    Father James II and VII Stuart (King of England, Scotland and King of England and Ireland),   b. 14 Oct 1633, St James Palace London, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 16 Sep 1701, St-Germain-en-Laye, Paris, France Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 67 years) 
    Mother Mary Beatrice Eleanor Anne Margaret Isabel de Este (Of Modena),   b. 05 Oct 1658, Ducal Palace, Modena, Emilia-Romagna, Italy Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 07 May 1718, Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Paris, France Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 59 years) 
    Married 20 Sep 1673 
    Family ID F192  Group Sheet

  • Event Map
    Link to Google MapsBorn - 28 Jun 1692 - Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Paris, France Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsDied - 18 Apr 1712 - Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Paris, France Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsBuried - - St Edmund Abbey Church of the English Benedictines Cemetery, Rue St Jacques, Paris, France Link to Google Earth
     = Link to Google Maps 
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    Pin Legend  : Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  • Photos
    Louisa Stuart
    Louisa Stuart
    Personal Collection

  • Notes 
    • Princess Louisa Maria Teresa Stuart (28 June 1692 ? 18 April 1712), known to Jacobites as The Princess Royal, was the last child of the deposed King James II and VII (1633?1701) and of his Queen, Mary of Modena. In English, she was called Louisa Maria, in French Louise Marie.

      A Royal Stuart Society paper calls Louisa Maria the Princess over the Water, an allusion to the informal title King over the Water of the Jacobite pretenders, none of whom had any other legitimate daughters.[1][

      Background
      Main articles: James II of England, Mary of Modena, Glorious Revolution, and Williamite war in Ireland
      Louisa Maria's father, King James, was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 6 February 1685 to 11 December 1688, and the last Roman Catholic monarch in the British Isles. With the birth of Louisa Maria's brother, Prince James Francis Edward, the prospect arose of a new Catholic dynasty, and a group of James's leading Protestant subjects brought about the Glorious Revolution of 1688, which replaced James with his Protestant daughter Mary II and son-in-law William III of Orange.[3]

      Louisa Maria's mother, Mary of Modena, was James's second wife, marrying him in 1673, two years after the death from cancer of his first wife, Lady Anne Hyde. James had converted to Roman Catholicism and was at the time Duke of York and heir presumptive to the thrones of his brother, King Charles II, who had no legitimate children. Almost wholly Italian by blood, Mary was a daughter of Alfonso IV d'Este, Duke of Modena, and was a great-niece of Cardinal Mazarin. Brought up as a strict Roman Catholic, she thought of becoming a nun, but Louis XIV of France proposed her as a bride for James after he was widowed.[3] She married James by proxy on 30 September 1673, a few days before her fifteenth birthday, and in person on her arrival at Dover on 21 November.[2] Their first child was stillborn the next year.[3]

      Following the loss of his kingdoms, James retained the strong support of Louis XIV and also had many supporters in parts of the British Isles, particularly among Roman Catholics in Ireland. With French support, he made one serious attempt to regain his crowns, but was defeated in 1690 at the Battle of the Boyne. Thereafter he spent the remaining eleven years of his life in exile in France, where Louis XIV had given him a château at Saint-Germain-en-Laye.[3]

      Brothers and Sisters
      Louisa Maria had four half-brothers and four half-sisters who were the children of her father's first wife: Charles, Duke of Cambridge (1660?1661); James, Duke of Cambridge (1663?1667); Charles, Duke of Kendal (1666?1667); Edgar, Duke of Cambridge (1667?1671); Mary (1662?1694); Anne (1665?1714); Henrietta (born & died 1669); and Catherine (born & died 1671).[2]

      By Mary of Modena, apart from still-births, Louisa Maria's father had a further two sons and three daughters: Charles, Duke of Cambridge (b. & d. 1677), James Francis Edward Stuart, Duke of Cornwall, Prince of Wales (1688?1766), Catherine Laura (born & died 1675), Isabel (1676?1681), Charlotte Maria (born & died 1682) and herself, Louisa Maria Teresa.[2]

      Of her father's first family, only Mary and Anne survived infancy, and both later became Queen. Mary died while Louisa Maria was still a small child, but she was on friendly terms with her half-sister Anne.[4] And of the second family, she knew only her brother James Francis Edward. However, she also had several illegitimate half-siblings, some of whom she knew as she was growing up: James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick (1670-1734, who was killed at the siege of Philippsburg); Henry FitzJames (1673?1702); James Darnley (1685?1686); Henrietta FitzJames (1667?1730, James's daughter by Arabella Churchill), who married Henry Waldegrave, 1st Baron Waldegrave and later Piers Butler, 3rd Viscount Galmoye; Arabella FitzJames, a nun (1673?1704); and Catherine Darnley (1682?1743, James's daughter by Catherine Sedley), who married James Annesley, 3rd Earl of Anglesey and later John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham.[2]


      Birth
      Louisa Maria was born in 1692, at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, during her parents' exile.[5] Due to the huge controversy which had surrounded the birth of her brother, James Francis Edward, with accusations of the substitution of another baby in a warming pan following a still-birth, James II had sent letters inviting not only his daughter, Queen Mary II, to attend the birth in person, but also a large number of other Protestant ladies.[6]

      The Whig historian Macaulay later commented on James's precaution:[7]

      ? Had some of those witnesses been invited to Saint James's on the morning of the tenth of June 1688, the House of Stuart might, perhaps, now be reigning in our island. But it is easier to keep a crown than to regain one. It might be true that a calumnious fable had done much to bring about the Revolution. But it by no means followed that the most complete refutation of that fable would bring about a Restoration. Not a single lady crossed the sea in obedience to James's call. His Queen was safely delivered of a daughter; but this event produced no perceptible effect on the state of public feeling in England. ?

      The new-born princess was given the names Louisa and Maria in baptism, while Teresa (sometimes spelt Theresa) was added later, at the time of her confirmation.[6] She was given the name Louisa in honour of King Louis XIV, who acted as her godfather.[6] Her godmother was King Louis's sister-in-law, Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess Palatine, Duchess of Orléans.[6]

      After the birth, James II declared that Louisa Maria had been sent by God as a consolation for her parents at the time of their distress, and in later years she was often referred to as La Consolatrice.[8]

      Life
      Louisa was the only full sibling of Prince James Francis Edward, the 'Old Pretender', to survive infancy, and was four years younger than her brother.[3] The two were brought up together in France.[6]

      Louisa's tutor was an English Roman Catholic priest, Father Constable, who taught her Latin, history, and religion. She also had a governess, the Countess of Middleton, wife of the Jacobite peer Charles, 2nd Earl of Middleton.[6] James Drummond, 4th Earl of Perth, another Jacobite peer living in France, praised the child's natural affability.[6]

      An allegorical portrait by Alexis Simon Belle of James Francis Edward and his sister Louisa Maria, showing the prince as a guardian angel leading his sister under the gaze of cherubim, was painted in 1699 and is now in the Royal Collection.[9]

      By the summer of 1701, King James was seriously ill, and had been away from Saint Germain seeking medical treatment, accompanied by his wife. However, in June the two returned home for the birthdays of their two children, and two months later James suffered a stroke, dying just two weeks later on 16 September.[6] He was still able to talk when his children visited him for the last time, and to Louisa Maria he said:[6]

      ? Adieu, my dear child. Serve your creator in the days of your youth. Consider virtue as the greatest ornament of your sex. Follow close the great pattern of it, your mother, who has been, no less than myself, over-clouded with calumny. But time, the mother of truth, will, I hope, at last make her virtues shine as bright as the sun. ?
      Soon after James's death, Louis XIV proclaimed James Francis Edward as king of England, Scotland and Ireland, and he was also formally recognised as king by Spain, the Papal States and Modena. He and his sister Louisa Maria were transferred to Passy, into the care of Antoine Nompar de Caumont and his wife, with Lady Middleton continuing as Louisa Maria's governess there.[6]

      In 1705, at the age of thirteen, Louisa Maria was a guest of honour at a ball at the Château de Marly, ranking only after Louis XIV himself, her own mother Queen Mary, and her brother James Francis Edward, considered by Louis to be another King.[6]

      On 23 March 1708, after a delay caused by the measles, the young James attempted a landing on Scottish soil, at the Firth of Forth, supported by a fleet of French ships. However, the force was driven off by a Royal Navy fleet led by Admiral Byng.[3]

      Louisa Maria enjoyed dancing and the opera, and became popular at the French court. Two possible matches for her were considered, with Louis XIV's grandson Charles de Bourbon, Duc de Berry (1686-1714), and with Charles XII of Sweden (1682?1718). Neither took place, the first apparently due to Louisa Maria's equivocal position, and the second because the young King of Sweden was not a Roman Catholic.[6]

      Louisa felt keenly that Jacobites in exile had made huge sacrifices for her family, and she herself paid for the daughters of many of them to be educated. In this, she made no distinction between Roman Catholics and Protestants, supporting the daughters of both.[6]

      Death
      In April 1712, both James Francis Edward and his sister fell sick with smallpox. While the Old Pretender recovered, Louisa Maria died on 18 April (8 April, Old Style) and was buried with her father at the Church of the English Benedictines in Paris.[6]

      A French nobleman wrote of the death of the Princess to a friend at Urecht [10]

      "My Lord, I send to you by these the sad and deplorable news of the much lamented death of the Princess Royal of England who died of the smallpox the 18th of this month at St Germains who as she was one of the greatest ornaments of that afflicted court, so she was the admiration of all Europe; never Princess was so universally regretted. Her death has filled all France with sighs, groans and tears. She was a Princess of a majestical mien and port; every motion spoke grandeur, every action was easy and without any affectation or meanness, and proclaim'd her a heroine descended from the long race of so many paternal and maternal heroes..."

      William Legge, 1st Earl of Dartmouth, wrote of the Princess's death:[4]

      ? The queen [Anne] shewed me a letter wrote in the king of France's own hand, upon the death of her sister; in which there was the highest character that ever was given to any princess of her age. Mr. Richard Hill came straight from the earl of Godolphin's... to me with the news, and said it was the worst that ever came to England. I asked him why he thought so. He said it had been happy if it had been her brother; for then the queen might have sent for her and married her to prince George, who could have no pretensions during her own life; which would have pleased every honest man in the kingdom, and made an end of all disputes for the future. ?

      Madame de Maintenon, the morganatic second wife of Louis XIV, wrote of Mary of Modena's reaction to Louisa Maria's death:[4]

      ? I had the honour of passing two hours with the queen of England,[11] who is the very image of desolation. The princess had become her friend and only consolation. ?

      In his The History of the Church of Scotland (1845), Thomas Stephen says of the death:[4]

      ? On the 12th of April this year, the princess Louisa Maria Teresa, youngest daughter of the late king James, died of the small-pox at St. Germains, to the regret of many in England, even of those who were unfriendly to her brother's claims. She received a very high character from those who had an opportunity of appreciating it, and was a princess justly esteemed for her wit, and all those qualities worthy of her high birth. ?

      Like many other churches in Paris, the Church of the English Benedictines was desecrated and vandalised during the French Revolution. According to Jules Janin, writing in 1844, the remains of Princess Louisa Maria and her father King James II were then resting in the military hospital of the Val-de-Grâce.[12]

      Namesakes
      The names Louisa Maria Teresa (in French, Louise-Marie-Thérèse) were later used for Luisa Maria Teresa of Parma (1751-1819), Queen consort of Charles IV of Spain, for Louise Marie Thérèse of France, the eldest daughter of Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry, born 1819, and for Louise Marie Thérèse Charlotte Isabelle of Orléans, daughter of King Louis-Philippe of France and the Queen of King Leopold I of Belgium.

      References
      ^ a b Publications of the Royal Stuart Society at royalstuartsociety.com - web site of the Royal Stuart Society (accessed 11 February 2008)
      ^ a b c d e SCOTTISH ROYAL LINEAGE - THE HOUSE OF STUART Part 4 of 6 online at burkes-peerage.net (accessed 9 February 2008)
      ^ a b c d e f Addington, A. C., The Royal House of Stuart (London, 1969, third edition 1976)
      ^ a b c d Stephen, Thomas, The History of the Church of Scotland: From the Reformation to the Present Time (London, John Lendrum, 1845) Vol. 4, pp. 83-84 (for the year 1712) online at books.google.com (accessed 10 February 2008)
      ^ a b Princess Louisa Maria Theresa Stuart (1692-1712), Daughter of James II at npg.org.uk (accessed 8 February 2008)
      ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Beatty, Michael A., The English Royal Family of America, from Jamestown to the American Revolution (London, McFarland, 2003) pp. 83-85
      ^ Macaulay, Thomas Babington, The History of England, from the Accession of James the Second, Vol 4 (1855) Chapter XVIII (1692), p. 225 online at books.google.com (accessed 10 February 2008)
      ^ Callow, John, The King in Exile: James II, Warrior, King and Saint, 1689-1701 (London, Sutton, 2004) pp. 203-204
      ^ Corp, Edward, Belle, Alexis-Simon (1674?1734) in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, September 2004)
      ^ Miller, Peggy "James" (George Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1971) p138.
      ^ As a member of the French court, Madame de Maintenon referred thus to Mary of Modena.
      ^ Janin, Jules, The American in Paris: During the Summer (New York, Burgess, Stringer & co., 1844) p. 26, online at books.google.com (accessed 13 February 2008)
      ^ Prince James Francis Edward Stuart with his sister, Princess Louisa Maria Theresa at royalcollection.org.uk (accessed 9 February 2008)
      ^ Information from grosvenorprints.com: "Spaniel, Cavalier King Charles [Princess Louisa Maria Theresa Stuart at St. Germains, Engraved by Bernard Lens, n.d., c.1700] Mezzotint, proof before letters. 340 x 250mm. Mounted on board. The sitter was identified by the Lennox-Boyd collection as the daughter of James II, 1692-1712, at the château of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where she was born after her father's exile. Not in Chaloner Smith. Ex: Collection of The Hon. C. Lennox-Boyd.
      ^ Haywood, Eliza, The Fortunate Foundlings (London, 1744, new edition by BiblioBazaar LLC, 2006, pp. 54-57 et seq) online at The Fortunate Foundlings (accessed 10 February 2008)
      ^ A true and full account of the death and character of the Princess-Royal, English Short Title Catalog of the University of Southern California online at gandhara.usc.edu (accessed 9 February 2009)
      ^ Rodd, Thomas, Catalogue of Books: Part V: Historical Literature (London, Compton and Ritchie, 1843) page 471, online at books.google.com (accessed 9 February 2009)

      External links
      Portraits of Princess Louisa Maria Theresa Stuart at the web site of the National Portrait Gallery
      Louisa Maria Theresa Stuart at thepeerage.com

    • Full name
      Louisa Maria Teresa Stuart
      DetailTitles and styles
      The Lady Louisa Maria
      The Princess Louisa Maria Teresa
      The Princess Royal
      Father James II and VII
      Mother Mary of Modena
      Born 28 June 1692(1692-06-28)
      Château of Saint-Germain-en-Laye
      Died 18 April 1712 (aged 19)
      Chateau of Saint-Germain-en-Laye
      Burial Church of the English Benedictines, Paris


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