The Old Pretender
On 10 June 1688, St James’s Palace was the site of one of the most controversial births in British royal history. The infant was James Francis Edward Stuart, the only...
Christmas in Exile
Better exiled than beheaded, I guess. On December 23, 1688, James II of England finally got the hint that he was no longer welcome and fled to Paris. James, a...
Mary of Modena
On October 5, 1658, in the pretty town of Modena in Italy, Mary Beatrice d’Este, future wife of James II and last Stuart Queen of England, was born. She was...