"the king of scots, with all his power..."

[jazzfish]

Holy crap there are present-day Jacobites.

(I predict most responses to this will be either "what?" or "WHAT?")

The world is a very strange place.

Comments

[lurkingcat]

Huh. I didn't realise that there were still descendants running around. That... may actually be relevant to a fanfic idea that I've got hanging around at the back of my brain. Maybe :)

[jazzfish]

Yeah, my second thought (after "wtf?") was "oh crap, i can use this in a Secret History plot..." :)

[(Anonymous)]

There are no descendants; there are at best heirs. The line of the Stuarts died out in 1807. After James II, the next in line was his son James III, then his grandsons Charles III and Henry IX, both of whom died without legitimate issue. The line would have next gone through James II's elder daughters, Mary (who took the throne with King William in 1688, but had no issue) and Anne (who took the throne after William in 1702).

In 1700 Anne's only surviving child (of 17 pregnancies!) died at age 11, forcing Parliament to consider the succession. The Catholic James III was out, and James II had no more heirs. Charles II had had no legitimate children (which is why his brother James took the throne), and of Charles I'st children, next in line would be long-dead Princess Mary, who's sole child William was (in 1700) sitting on the Throne of England already (and who's succession they were trying to solve) The next line descended from Charles I went through his youngest daughter Princess Henrietta to her daughter Anne Marie d'Orléans, who was Catholic.

(In 1700, the Jacobites recognizes the line as James II, James III, Anne, William, and then Anne Marie)

To get a non-Catholic, you have to go back another generation. Charles I was the youngest son of James I, so next in line would be his eldest sister, Elizabeth. Although Elizabeth had 12 children, by 1700 only one line had not either died out or converted to Catholicism, that of her fifth daughter, Sophia, Electoress of Hanover. So Parliament settled on her, and in the Act of Settlement of 1701, they specified that Sophia (and her non-Catholic heirs) would succeed Anne.

William died in 1702, Sophia, then Anne, died in 1714, making Sophia's son George I the King of England.

[blaisepascal]

I am (Anonymous) above.