![]() | |
Abbreviation | RSS |
---|---|
Formation | 1926 |
Type | Monarchist, Traditionalist |
Headquarters | Walsingham, Norfolk, England |
Governor-General | Murray Beauclerk, 14th Duke of St. Albans |
Website | royalstuartsociety.com |
The Royal Stuart Society, founded in 1926, is the largest extant Jacobite organization in the United Kingdom. Its full name is The Royal Stuart Society and Royalist League, although it is best known simply as the "Royal Stuart Society". It acknowledges Francis, Duke of Bavaria as head of the House of Stuart, while refraining from making any claim on his behalf that he does not make himself.
The society organises annual events to commemorate the major anniversaries of Jacobitism and other events of Royalist interest.
After the First World War, the Jacobite movement was in disarray. The Royal Stuart Society was established by Captain Henry Stuart Wheatly-Crowe, who served as its first Governor-General, and representatives of the Royalist Association and other defunct or moribund bodies that supported the Jacobite succession to the British throne.
The Royal Stuart Society considers itself a successor to, and effectively the continuation of, bodies of the Neo-Jacobite Revival, such as the Legitimist Jacobite League of Great Britain and Ireland (founded in 1891 by Herbert Vivian, Ruaraidh Erskine and Melville Henry Massue), the Order of the White Rose and the Thames Valley Legitimist Club. Among its other founders were Lionel Erskine-Young, 29th Earl of Mar (1891–1965) and Reginald Lindesay-Bethune, 12th Earl of Lindsay (1867–1939). [1]
The objectives of the Royal Stuart Society are as follows: (1) to be open to all who have an interest in the members of the Royal House of Stuart, their descendants and supporters; (2) to promote research in and further knowledge of Stuart history; (3) to uphold rightful Monarchy and oppose republicanism; and (4) to arrange such commemorations, lectures and other activities as shall advance these objects. It describes itself on its website as being “monarchist and traditionalist”. [2]
As of 2023 [update] , the Governor-General is Murray Beauclerk, 14th Duke of St. Albans, a descendant of Stuart monarch King Charles II and his mistress, Nell Gwyn, through their illegitimate son, Charles Beauclerk, 1st Duke of St. Albans. His son, Charles Beauclerk, Earl of Burford, is also a Vice-President of the Society. [3]
Other Vice-Presidents of the Royal Stuart Society include:
The Society organises a variety of events throughout the year. An important part of these events are the commemorations in Whitehall, Windsor and Westminster Abbey. Details of all these events, many of which are open to the public who are always made welcome, appear on the Society's website.
A service to commemorate the execution of King Charles I is held at his statue in Trafalgar Square on 30 January each year, and a wreath is later laid on behalf of the Society on the King's tomb at St George's Chapel, Windsor, at the beginning of Choral Evensong. The execution of Mary, Queen of Scots is remembered with a Service at her tomb in Westminster Abbey on 8 February. The nativity of King James VII and II of Scotland and England is marked by prayers and the laying of flowers at his statue outside the National Gallery on 14 October.
The Society also holds an annual dinner, which commemorates Restoration Day and White Rose Day, with the white rose being a symbol of Jacobitism. An informal party for members is usually held in November. The Society's lectures take place at the parish hall of the Jesuit church at Farm Street in London's Mayfair.
Newsletters with details of people, events, and news of the Society are produced and edited by the Principal Secretary, and sent to members during the year. The Society publishes the Royal Stuart Journal annually, and this is available to non-members via the website. The Journal replaced a series of publications called Royal Stuart Papers (still available from the Society), which included papers by a number of well known historians, such as Roy Porter, Richard Sharpe, Murray Pittock, Eveline Cruickshanks, Lady Antonia Fraser, and Ronald Hutton. [2]
Jacobitism was a political ideology advocating the restoration of the Catholic House of Stuart to the British throne. When James II of England chose exile after the November 1688 Glorious Revolution, the Parliament of England ruled he had "abandoned" the English throne, which was given to his Protestant daughter Mary II of England, and her husband William III. On the same basis, in April the Scottish Convention awarded Mary and William the throne of Scotland.
A Jacobite is a follower of someone named Jacob or James, from the Latin Jācōbus. Jacobite or Jacobitism may refer to:
A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of government, but not necessarily a particular monarch. Most often, the term royalist is applied to a supporter of a current regime or one that has been recently overthrown to form a republic.
The House of Stuart, originally spelled Stewart, was a royal house of Scotland, England, Ireland and later Great Britain. The family name comes from the office of High Steward of Scotland, which had been held by the family progenitor Walter fitz Alan. The name Stewart and variations had become established as a family name by the time of his grandson Walter Stewart. The first monarch of the Stewart line was Robert II, whose male-line descendants were kings and queens in Scotland from 1371, and of England, Ireland and Great Britain from 1603, until 1714. Mary, Queen of Scots, was brought up in France where she adopted the French spelling of the name Stuart.
The Tories were a loosely organised political faction and later a political party, in the Parliaments of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom. They first emerged during the 1679 Exclusion Crisis, when they opposed Whig efforts to exclude James, Duke of York from the succession on the grounds of his Catholicism. Despite their fervent opposition to state-sponsored Catholicism, Tories opposed his exclusion because of their belief that inheritance based on birth was the foundation of a stable society.
A pretender is someone who claims to be the rightful ruler of a country although not recognized as such by the current government. The term may often be used to either refer to a descendant of a deposed monarchy or a claim that is not legitimate.
The Jacobite succession is the line through which Jacobites believed that the crowns of England, Scotland, and Ireland should have descended, applying male preference primogeniture, since the deposition of James II and VII in 1688 and his death in 1701. It is in opposition to the legal line of succession to the British throne since that time.
Murray de Vere Beauclerk, 14th Duke of St Albans,, styled Earl of Burford from 1964 until 1988, is an English duke. He was a member of the House of Lords from 1988 until 1999.
John Erskine, 23rd and 6th Earl of Mar and 1st Duke of Mar KT, was a Scottish nobleman and a key figure in the Jacobite movement. He held the title of the 23rd Earl of Mar from the earldom's first creation and was the sixth earl in its seventh creation. Erskine, often remembered for his political adaptability, navigated the complex and shifting landscape of early 18th-century British politics.
Clan Erskine is a Scottish clan of the Scottish Lowlands.
Clan Stewart is a Scottish Highland and Lowland clan. The clan is recognised by Court of the Lord Lyon; however, it does not have a Clan Chief recognised by the Lord Lyon King of Arms. Because the clan has no chief it can be considered an armigerous clan; however, the Earls of Galloway are now considered to be the principal branch of this clan, and the crest and motto of The Earls of Galloway's arms are used in the Clan Stewart crest badge. The Court of the Lord Lyon recognises two other Stewart/Stuart clans, Clan Stuart of Bute and Clan Stewart of Appin. Clan Stuart of Bute is the only one of the three clans at present which has a recognised chief.
Melville Amadeus Henry Douglas Heddle de la Caillemotte de Massue de Ruvigny was a British genealogist and author who was twice president of the Legitimist Jacobite League of Great Britain and Ireland. He styled himself the Marquis of Ruvigny and Raineval.
The Jacobite rising of 1715 was the attempt by James Edward Stuart to regain the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland for the exiled Stuarts.
Events from the year 1715 in Scotland.
The Neo-Jacobite Revival was a political movement active during the 25 years before the First World War in the United Kingdom. The movement was monarchist, and had the specific aim of replacing British parliamentary democracy with a restored monarch from the deposed House of Stuart.
The Order of the White Rose was a Jacobite society founded in 1886 by Bertram Ashburnham, 5th Earl of Ashburnham, as a successor to the Cycle Club. The Order attracted many writers and artists and began the Neo-Jacobite Revival that flourished in the 1890s. The Order closed during the First World War, but in 1926 the Royal Stuart Society was formed to carry on its ideal and mission.
The Legitimist Jacobite League of Great Britain and Ireland was a Jacobite society founded in 1891 by Herbert Vivian, Melville Henry Massue and Ruaraidh Erskine following a split from the earlier Order of the White Rose. The League was considered one of the key groups in the Neo-Jacobite Revival of the 1890s.
The Whirlwind was a short-lived British newspaper, published in 1890 and 1891. It was known for its Individualist political views and its artwork by Walter Sickert and James Abbott McNeill Whistler. It was also strongly Jacobite and played a leading role in the Neo-Jacobite Revival of the 1890s.
The Royal Martyr Church Union (RMCU) is a Church of England devotional society dedicated to the restoration of the observance of King Charles the Martyr in the calendar of the Book of Common Prayer. It was founded in 1906 by Captain Henry Stuart Wheatly-Crowe (1882-1967). Like the Society of King Charles the Martyr, the RMCU hosts an annual commemoration of the beheading of Charles I of England. It has historically had close connections with Jacobitism. Among other activities, the RMCU funded the construction of the Church of King Charles the Martyr in Potters Bar in the Diocese of St Albans. The current headquarters of the RMCU is at St Albans in Hertfordshire.