Henry Stuart, Duke of Albany

“ A child of the marriage was expected, at least by the Scotch Jacobites, in 1773. There is a legend that a child was actually born, was intrusted to Captain John Carter Allen, was brought up by him as his own, and this infant, grown to manhood, became the father of two gentlemen calling themselves John Sobieski Stolberg Stuart and Charles Edward Stuart, Counts of Albany. They lived till late in the present century, were picturesque figures in society, and writers of some spirit and vigor. For long they were much cherished by some noble Highland families. ”

“ Such secrecy is, to say the least, very unusual. Then, returning to Prince Charlie himself, it is indisputable that when his wife left him in disgust in 1780, he had no recourse to his imaginary son to cheer his old age, but turned instinctively to Charlotte Stuart, his illegitimate child, for sympathy. In July 1784 he executed a deed, with all the necessary forms, legitimating this person, and bestowing upon her the title of Albany, by which he had himself been known for fourteen years, with the rank of duchess. ”

“ Douglas, soon left the Regent powerless among the factions of warring nobles. She appealed to her brother for aid, while her opponents called on the Duke of Albany, the son of the Albany who had been driven to France in 1484 and heir to the crown after the infant king, to return and take the regency. Albany held broad lands in France; he had won fame as a French general; and Scotland in his hands would be simply a means of French attack. A French alliance not only freed Henry from dependence on Ferdinand but would meet this danger from the north ”

“ And Albany set out to take ship at St Malo, "mawgre all the ships now in the sea" to stop him. The English had a great day with the King for his keeping. Francis suggested that if he stopped Albany for three months then Suffolk should remain the same time in France as hostage for Henry's behaviour towards the Scots. [438] The ambassadors promptly said No, they had no authority to do this and would not if they had, and if the Duke were to help the one party in Scotland, Henry would certainly 206 send aid to his sister, Queen Margaret. ”

“ Nay, Sir Horace Mann, the English Minister at Florence, whose spies watched every movement of the Count and Countess of Albany, was able to report to his Government, in answer to a vague rumour of the coming of an heir, that the wife of Charles Edward Stuart had never, at any moment, had any reasons for expecting to become a mother. And when, in the first years of this century, Henry Benedict, Cardinal York, the younger brother of Charles Edward, was buried where the two melancholy genii of Canova keep watch in St. ”

“ About a year after the combat in which Sir Patrick was killed, the duke of Albany returned, with the intention of bringing about an intimate alliance between Scotland and France. Margaret Tudor, who wished for an alliance with England, and who found herself deprived of power by the arrival of Albany, wrote on September 13, 1523, to her brother Henry VIII.: ‘The person and the kingdom of my son are exposed to very great danger ”

“ The ambition of the lords, and the caprices of the queen-mother—a true sister of Henry VIII—fill up the minority of the king. Parliament met only to ratify appointments which [89] it had no power to question, and to deal with official business. It is possible that the Estates chose the Duke of Albany as regent. But it is almost certain that the impulse must have come from some of the leading nobles or prelates ”

“ Henry Stuart likewise held sinecure benefices in France, Spain and Spanish America, so that he became one of the wealthiest churchmen of the period, his annual revenue being said to amount to £30,000 sterling. On the death of his father, James Stuart (whose affairs he had managed during the last five years of his life) , Henry made persistent attempts to induce Pope Clement XIII. to acknowledge his brother Charles as legitimate king of Great Britain, but his efforts were defeated, chiefly through the adverse influence of Cardinal Alessandro Albani, who was bitterly opposed to the Stuart cause. ”

“ Charles, lonely, ill, and evidently near death, now summoned to Florence his natural daughter, Charlotte Stuart, the child of Clementina Walkinshaw, born at Liége in October 1753 and hitherto neglected by the prince. Charlotte Stuart, who was declared legitimate and created duchess of Albany, tended her father for the remaining years of his life, during which she contrived to reconcile the two Stuart brothers, so that in 1785 Charles returned to Rome, where he died in the old Palazzo Muti on the 30th of January 1788. ”

“ In pursuing the traces which bring Scotland back to her English kindred, and saved her from a permanent annexation to France, the arrival of John Duke of Albany in Scotland, in 1515, is a critical turning-point. Already had the seed of the union with England been planted when James IV. got for a wife the daughter of Henry VII. Under the portrait of this sagacious king, Bacon wrote the mysterious motto—Cor regis inscrutabile. ”

“ A man less staunch and loyal might have thrown over so profitless a service. He had talents that would have commanded a price in the Roundhead market. Yet staunchly adhering to the Stuart fortunes, labouring ceaselessly and shrewdly in the Stuart interest, employing his great ability and statecraft, he achieved at long length the restoration of the Stuarts to the Throne of England. And for all those loyal, self-denying labours in exile on the Stuart behalf, all the reward he had at the time was that James Stuart, Duke of York, debauched his daughter. ”

“ The influence of Henry VIII, who then supported his sister, Margaret Tudor, in the regency of Scotland, and was carrying on the negotiations which resulted in the marriage of his sister Mary to Louis XII, was sufficient to prevent Albany's departure until after the accession of Francis I, at whose consecration, on 25 Jan. 1515, Albany was present. While still in France he acted as the representative of Scotland, and on 2 April 1514 sold in Paris to the French king for forty thousand crowns of Tours the Great St. ”

“ Royal-souled Charles Edward Stuart had certainly been in his youth; brilliant with all those virtues of endurance, clemency, and affability which the earlier eighteenth century still fondly associated with the divine right of kings; and royal-souled, hard and weak with all the hardness and weakness, the self-indulgence, obstinacy, and thoughtlessness for others of effete races of kings, he had become no less certainly, in the second part of his life; branded with God's own brand of unworthiness, which signifies that a people, or a class, or a family, is doomed to extinction. ”

“ It was destined, however, that a prize which had so long eluded the handsomest gallants in England should fall at last to one of the most insignificant of all Charles's courtiers, a man who had neither good looks, intellect, nor character to commend him to a lady's favour. Such a gilded nonentity was Charles Stuart, Duke of Richmond and of Lennox, who, having buried two wives, now began to cast envious eyes on the maid-of-honour whom his Sovereign could not win. ”

“ The Stuart blood, it would seem, enriches the veins of every Christian sovereign of Europe, and among the European noble families will be found many princes who, by the now ignored and we hope never to be revived, principle of divine hereditary right, are nearer heirs to the British throne than the Prince of Wales. The heir-of-line of the Stuarts is, we believe, Francis, ex-Duke of Modena, the heiress presumptive being his niece, Maria Theresa, wife of Prince Louis of Bavaria. ”

“ Al′bany, the original Celtic name probably at first applied to the whole of Britain, but afterwards restricted to the Highlands of Scotland. It gave the title of duke formerly to a prince of the blood-royal of Scotland. The first duke was Robert Stuart (1345-1420) , son of Robert II by his mistress Elizabeth Mure, and brother of Robert III. He was virtual ruler of the kingdom during the latter years of his brother's reign, and acted as regent for his nephew James I (kept a prisoner in England) till his own death. ”

“ Walter Stuart, a cadet of the House of Blantyre. Her father, an ardent Royalist, fled from the vengeance of Parliament, and Frances was brought up at Paris, where her beauty and peculiar charm attracted even royal attention. When she joined the household of Queen Catherine in England, her loveliness captivated all hearts, and stirred the fire of passion even in such a jaded voluptuary as the King. Her subtle combination of virgin simplicity and adroit prudence only inflamed him the more. For once he was consumed by an ardent love, and tortured by a real jealousy. ”

“ Thus, seeing crowds of the most distinguished and delightful people, receiving piles of the most interesting and adoring letters, happy, self-satisfied, Mme. d'Albany grew into an old woman. Every evening until ten, the rooms of the Casa Alfieri were thrown open; the servants in the Stuart liveries ushered in the guests, the tea was served in those famous services emblazoned with the royal arms of England. ”

“ By him and his party it was that Albany was invited to Scotland. Henry was greatly alarmed at this proposition, and for some time the fear of a breach induced Francis I. to restrain Albany from accepting the offer. Yet in May, 1515, Albany made his appearance in Scotland. He found that kingdom in a condition which required a firm and determined hand to govern it. The nobility, always turbulent, and kept in order with difficulty by the strongest monarchs, were now divided into two factions, for and against the queen and her party. ”

“ The maid of honour's servants, surprised at his majesty's return, were unable to warn their mistress without his knowledge; whilst one of them, in pay of the countess, found means of secretly intimating to her that the Duke of Richmond was already in Miss Stuart's chamber. Lady Castlemaine, having with an air of exultation led the king down the gallery from his apartments to the threshold of Miss Stuart's door, made him a low courtesy savouring more of irony than homage, bade him good-night, and with a subtle smile promptly retired. ”

“ STUART, HENRY WINDSOR VILLIERS (1827–1895) , of Dromana, politician, born in 1827, was only son of Henry Villiers Stuart, baron Stuart de Decies. His father, born in London on 8 June 1803, was the fifth son of John Stuart, first marquis of Bute, by his wife Gertrude Emilia, daughter and heiress of George Mason Villiers, earl Grandison. ”

“ This Charles Edward Stuart is a perpetual worry to England. His Grace, the Duke of Cumberland has been accused of unnecessary cruelty because he has been forced to take severe measures for the suppression of that spirit of rebellion, which is only being fostered in Scotland because of that young Pretender's perpetual presence there. He fans smouldering revolt into flame, he incites passions, and creates misguided enthusiasms which lead to endless trouble to all! ”

“ II. Alexander Stewart, duke of Albany (c. 1454–1485) , was the second son of James II., king of Scotland, by his wife, Mary, daughter of Arnold, duke of Gelderland. Created duke of Albany before 1458, he also received the lordship of the Isle of Man, and was afterwards captured by an English ship when journeying to Gelderland in 1468. He was soon released, and as he grew to manhood began to take part in the government and defence of Scotland, being appointed in quick succession high admiral, warden of the marches, governor of Berwick and lieutenant of the kingdom. ”

“ When Bolingbroke found himself in full power he began at once to open the way for some attempt at the restoration of the Stuart dynasty. He put influential Jacobites into important offices in England and Scotland; he made the Duke of Ormond Warden of the Cinque Ports, that authority covering exactly the stretch of coast at some point of which it might be expected that James Stuart would land if he were to make an attempt for the crown at all. Ormond was a weak and vain man, but he was a man of personal integrity. ”

“ STUART or STEWART, FRANCES TERESA, Duchess of Richmond and Lennox (1647–1702) , ‘La Belle Stuart,’ born on 8 July 1647 (Sloane MS. 1708, f. 121) , was elder daughter of Walter Stewart, M.D. Her father, who took refuge in France after 1649, and seems to have been attached to the household of the queen dowager, Henrietta Maria, was third son of Walter Stewart or Stuart, first lord Blantyre [q. v.] Her younger sister, Sophia, married Henry Bulkeley, master of the household to Charles II and James II, and brother of Richard Bulkeley [q. v.] ”

“ Until that blood is diluted down to nothing, I think that a Stuart will always find men to love and to die for him. But it was Stuart against Stuart this time; so who could tell with whom the victory would lie?
So I was thinking to myself, when suddenly the Duke looked up.
"Mr. Mallock," he said, "I hear that you have a very persuasive manner with both men and women. There is an exceedingly difficult commission which I wish you would execute for me. You have spoken with the Duchess of Portsmouth?"
"Never, Sir," I said. "I have seen Her Grace in the park only." ”

“ All the cavaliers of her house have fallen in battle; and lastly the duke, by the hands of Evan Iverach and Macrone, a serjeant, who attacked him with his pike. Poor Stuart, though in peril himself, did all he could to save him; but the hot blood of the Gaël was up, and the fierce Spaniard perished. But Virginia is weeping: we are only recalling her sorrows, and must say no more of these matters just now. Ronald Stuart—"
"Ah! by-the-by, what of him? A brave fellow! See how Alice blushes. Faith! I shall never forget the day the dauntless young Highlandman pulled me out of Corrie-avon. ”