The Secretary of State was one of the senior ministers of the Jacobite court in exile following the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
In common with Jacobite attempts to create a shadow court in exile that matched of that in London, the role was based on the British position of Secretary of State. In London the role had been split into two Northern Secretary and Southern Secretary. At the Jacobite court in exile, first in Paris and then in Rome, the claimants alternated between having one or two Secretaries of State. From 1689 to 1759 a series of unsuccessful attempts were made to invade Britain which would have restored the Secretaries effective power.
Image | Secretary | From | To | Monarch |
---|---|---|---|---|
John Drummond, 1st Earl of Melfort | 1688 | 1694 | James II & VII | |
Charles Middleton, 2nd Earl of Middleton [1] | 1693 | 1713 | James II & VII / James III & VIII | |
Thomas Higgons [2] | 1713 | 1715 | James III & VIII | |
Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke | 1715 | 1716 | ||
John Erskine, Earl of Mar | 1716 | 1724 | ||
John Hay, Duke of Inverness [3] | 1724 | 1727 | ||
James Murray, Earl of Dunbar | 1727 | 1747 | ||
Daniel O'Brien, Earl of Lismore | 1747 | 1759 | ||
John Graeme, Earl of Alford [4] | 1759 | 1763 | ||
James Edgar | 1763 | 1764 | ||
Andrew Lumisden | 1764 | 1768 | James III & VIII / Charles III | |
John Baptist Caryll | 1768 | 1777 | Charles III |
Jacobitism was a political movement that supported the restoration of the senior line of the House of Stuart to the British throne. The name derives from the first name of James II of England, which is rendered in Latin as Jacobus. When James went into exile after the November 1688 Glorious Revolution, the Parliament of England argued that he had abandoned the English throne, which they offered to his Protestant daughter Mary II of England, and her husband William III. In April, the Scottish Convention held that he "forfeited" the throne of Scotland by his actions, listed in the Articles of Grievances.
James Francis Edward Stuart, nicknamed the Old Pretender by Whigs, was the son of King James II and VII of England, Scotland and Ireland, and his second wife, Mary of Modena. He was Prince of Wales from July 1688 until, just months after his birth, his Catholic father was deposed and exiled in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. James II's Protestant elder daughter Mary II and her husband William III became co-monarchs. The Bill of Rights 1689 and Act of Settlement 1701 excluded Catholics such as James from the English and British thrones.
Charles Leslie was a former Church of Ireland priest who became a leading Jacobite propagandist after the 1688 Glorious Revolution. One of a small number of Irish Protestants to actively support the Stuarts after 1688, he is best remembered today for his role in publicising the 1692 Massacre of Glencoe.
William Cadogan, 1st Earl Cadogan, KT, PC, an Irish-born British Army officer, began his active military service during the Williamite War in Ireland in 1689 and ended it with the suppression of the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion. A close associate and confidant of the Duke of Marlborough, he was also a diplomat and Whig politician who sat in the English and British Houses of Commons from 1705 until 1716, when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Cadogan.
The Jacobite succession is the line through which Jacobites believed that the crowns of England, Scotland, and Ireland should have descended, applying 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.
Lord George Murray, sixth son of John Murray, 1st Duke of Atholl, was a Scottish nobleman and soldier who took part in the Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1719 and played a senior role in that of 1745.
John Drummond, 1st Earl of Melfort, styled Duke of Melfort in the Jacobite peerage, was a Scottish politician and close advisor to James II. A Catholic convert, Melfort and his brother the Earl of Perth consistently urged James not to compromise with his opponents, contributing to his increasing isolation and ultimate deposition in the 1688 Glorious Revolution.
The 1689 Convention of Estates sat between 16 March 1689 and 5 June 1689 to determine the settlement of the Scottish throne, following the deposition of James VII in the 1688 Glorious Revolution. The Convention of the Estates of Scotland was a sister-institution to Parliament, comprising the three estates of bishops, barons and representatives of the Burghs. Historically, it had been summoned by the king of Scots for the limited purpose of raising taxes, and could not pass other legislation. Unlike the English Convention Parliament of 1689, the 1689 Scottish Convention was also a contest for control of the Church of Scotland or Kirk.
James Murray, Earl of Dunbar was a Scottish Tory politician who became a Jacobite agent and courtier. He served as the Jacobite Secretary of State in exile in Rome from 1727 to 1747.
The Planned French Invasion of Britain, 1708, also known as the 'Entreprise d’Écosse', took place during the War of the Spanish Succession. The French planned to land 5,000–6,000 soldiers in northeast Scotland to support a rising by local Jacobites that would restore James Francis Edward Stuart to the throne of Great Britain.
The Jacobite rising of 1745, also known as the Forty-five Rebellion or simply the '45, was an attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the British throne for his father, James Francis Edward Stuart. It took place during the War of the Austrian Succession, when the bulk of the British Army was fighting in mainland Europe, and proved to be the last in a series of revolts that began in 1689, with major outbreaks in 1708, 1715 and 1719.
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.
The Glorious Revolution in Scotland refers to the Scottish element of the 1688 Glorious Revolution, in which James VII was replaced by his daughter Mary II and her husband William II as joint monarchs of Scotland and England. Prior to 1707, the two kingdoms shared a common monarch but were separate legal entities, so decisions in one did not bind the other. In both countries, the Revolution confirmed the primacy of Parliament over the Crown, while the Church of Scotland was re-established as a Presbyterian rather than Episcopalian polity.
William Murray, Marquess of Tullibardine was a Scottish nobleman and Jacobite who took part in the rebellions of 1715, 1719, and 1745.
The Jacobite Rising of 1719 was a failed attempt to restore the exiled James Francis Edward Stuart to the throne of Great Britain. Part of a series of Jacobite risings between 1689 and 1745, it was supported by Spain, then at war with Britain during the War of the Quadruple Alliance.
The Jacobite rising of 1689 was a conflict fought primarily in the Scottish Highlands, whose objective was to put James II & VII back on the throne, following his deposition by the November 1688 Glorious Revolution. Named after "Jacobus", the Latin for James, his supporters were known as 'Jacobites' and the associated political movement as Jacobitism. The 1689 rising was the first of a series of rebellions and plots seeking to restore the House of Stuart that continued into the late 18th century.
Duncan Forbes of Culloden was a Scottish lawyer and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1721 to 1737. As Lord President and senior Scottish legal officer, he played a major role in helping the government suppress the 1745 Jacobite Rising.
Sir Thomas Higgons (1668-1733) was an English Jacobite. From 1713 to 1715 he was the Jacobite Secretary of State in Paris, appointed by James Stuart to replace the long-serving Earl of Middleton.
Henry Oxburgh was an Irish soldier and Jacobite who was one of the leaders of the Jacobite rising of 1715 in England. Captured by forces loyal to the Hanoverian Dynasty following the Battle of Preston, he was executed at Tyburn for high treason.
John Graeme of Newton, referred to as the Earl of Alford in Jacobite circles, was a Scottish Jacobite agent and minister who was Secretary of State to the exiled James Francis Edward Stuart.