the British view of the harmless and peaceable Italian
Pretender.
Henry's own opinion with regard to his anomalous
position is the next difficulty that requires to be solved.
This question, we trust, has been fully answered in the
pages of this biography, wherein an endeavour has been
made to show that, though detesting strife and shrinking
from intrigue, he never abandoned one atom of his passive
pretensions to the British throne, pretensions that he ever
deemed a sacred inheritance incapable of being alienated
either by or from himself. In fact, both Charles and
AS AN HISTORICAL FIGURE 285
Henry held precisely the same theory, though their inter-
pretation of it was as widely different as their two natures
would admit. Charles set little value upon remaining an
exiled king without a kingdom, and was consequently
always engaged in restless scheming; Henry, on the other
hand, would have been perfectly content to live on in
Rome as a recognised dejure monarch. Many years ago
the sharp-witted Italians had nicknamed James Stuart
" the King Here," and George II, the de facto reigning
monarch in London, " the King There," and in this
satirical distinction Henry had failed to detect any
absurdity. Let there be, he argued, a Catholic King of
Britain in Rome ready against the propitious day when
the English, repenting alike of their disloyalty to their
genuine kings and of their infidelity towards the Church,
shall humbly send to invite their exiled Sovereign in
Rome once more to fill the throne of his ancestors. Let
the story of Charles il's landing at Dover and his arrival
in the Capital amidst universal merry-making be repeated
by the people of Britain : — a second voluntary Restoration
of the Stuarts and a voluntary reconciliation with the
Church of Rome, these were the day-dreams of the lonely
Cardinal King. It is needless to state that the nimble-
minded and practical Charles would have scoffed at such
expectations as the veriest nonsense, yet there can be no
reasonable doubt that Henry lived in continual hope
that some such unlikely contingency might occur. In
other words, he trusted literally to recovering the British
Crown by success of prayer rather than by force of arms,
by a direct act of Divine interposition, in short ; and as
several of his existing letters make mention of miracles,
we may fairly infer from such references that it was for
286 HENRY STUART CARDINAL YORK
some such superhuman act, some miracle, that he ever
waited in pious patience, believing, in his simple faith,
that the Almighty would yet in his own good time accede
to his earnest prayers for the conversion of England to
the true Faith and for the bloodless restoration of his
royal House. Such a theory the wise world will put
down as sheer folly, yet in one who was a true Christian,
a Cardinal Bishop of the Roman Church and an implicit
believer in the Divine Omnipotence, is such a policy to be
adjudged illogical or absurd ? Is not such an example of
Christian patience to be preferred to that blind feeling
after mischievous intrigue and petty conspiracy which
marked his brother's later years and eventually trans-
formed a singularly gallant and high-minded youth into a
discredited adventurer? If Charles was ready, should an
opportunity arise, " to wade through slaughter to a throne,"
Henry on his part was fully satisfied to place himself and
his cause in the hands of the Almighty to deal with as
He thought fit. Which, we ask, in such a case is the
nobler virtue or the less hurtful quality, Resignation or
Perseverance ?
But though holding aloof from vain political struggles,
Henry's firm and honest belief in the principles of
Legitimism forbade him to desert a maxim that was still
regarded seriously in the days before the French Revolu-
tion ; in his own eyes he became, after his brother's death,
King of Britain in Rome, and no further recognition did
he desire or demand. For the Churchman in Henry ever
appeared uppermost ; he was a priest first, and a temporal
sovereign afterwards, even in his own estimation. On one
occasion he is said to have been reproved by " a great
Personage" (perhaps Monsieur d'Aubeterre, the French
AS AN HISTORICAL FIGURE 287
Ambassador at Rome) for entering the priesthood and
thereby endangering the chances of the dynasty, and it
was suggested that the Cardinal Duke should, like the
Cardinal Ferdinand de' Medici of Tuscany, obtain a Papal
dispensation to divest himself of his ecclesiastical char-
acter so as to marry and beget an heir. To this speech,
presumably addressed more in flattery than with real
intent, Henry is stated to have answered " in a flash of
zeal " that his true heirs were those souls he had rescued
from sin to the spiritual life as Bishop of Frascati, and
that he desired no others. 1 Yet the tenacity with which
he clung to his empty royal claims is continually to be
observed, notably in the terms of his Manifesto, issued in
1788 but carefully prepared long beforehand; in his
curious Memorial to Pius VI ; and in certain passages of
his Will, from all of which sources it becomes quite clear
that he never once swerved from the singular theory we
have just described.
Of the Cardinal Duke's place in Papal history during
the sixty years that he was a prince of the Church, there
remains little further to be said, except that his high rank,
his wealth and his virtuous life combined to make him a
prominent but by no means an influential figure at the
Court of Rome. That he lacked real ability is plainly
shown by the insignificant part he played in the four
important Conclaves at which he assisted. At his first
Conclave, that of 1758, he succeeded in making himself
ridiculous, as we have mentioned, by posing as the
champion of the Imperial candidate in opposition to the
expressed wish of his father and in spite of the fact that
he himself was in receipt of a large income from French
1 Mastrofini.
288 HENRY STUART CARDINAL YORK
and Spanish sources. In the critical Conclave of 1769
he appears more tractable to the desires of his patrons,
for he warmly supported the nominee of the Bourbon
Courts, the high-minded scholar, Cardinal Ganganelli,
who as Pope Clement XIV boldly faced a situation of
great difficulty by dissolving the Society of Jesus ; and it
is interesting to note that Henry Stuart was on terms of
considerable intimacy with this celebrated Pontiff, whom
he frequently visited during his mortal illness at Castel
Gandolfo in the summer of 1774. We have related how
the Cardinal Duke shared to a certain extent the evil fate
of Pius VI, and how he was present at the memorable
Conclave at Venice that elected Pius vil, who always
treated the Stuart Cardinal with special distinction.
Henry's lengthy enjoyment of a Cardinal's rank stands
probably without precedent in Papal annals, yet he is only
remembered therein as the zealous bishop of a small
country-town, and as a sincerely pious but not highly
gifted member of the Sacred College ; whilst the chance
of his election to the Papacy was never deemed within the
bounds of possibility, although his brother seems more
than once to have harboured such a notion.
Having now discussed Henry Stuart's claim to be
included amongst the political figures of the eighteenth
century, we must revert to the private aspect of his
character. Here again we find the influence of his
Italian birth and breeding forcibly presented to us, so
that we can understand how it came to pass that the
merry, pleasure-loving boy who delighted to dance all
night in Roman ballrooms, and to accompany his elder
brother on long shooting excursions in the Campagna or
amongst the Alban Hills, passed quickly, almost imper-
HENRY STUART, CARDINAL DUKE OF YORK
AS AN HISTORICAL FIGURE 289
ceptibly, into the vague, studious, somewhat dull-witted
youth, whose priggish airs of moral superiority so dis-
gusted the French courtiers at Versailles and the officers
at Dunkirk. As a Churchman, we have throughout this
work given frequent instances of his piety, his charity and
his many virtues. Sincerely religious, lavish and tender-
hearted towards the poor, hospitable to his friends and
equals, devotedly attached to the interests of his Church,
humble in spirit, except where his royal rank was
challenged, Henry Stuart may be summed up
"As fair in morals, as in face and form
He was accounted comely ; "
for all the many extant portraits of him that are to be
found both in England and in Italy represent the Cardinal
Duke of York as the beau-ideal of a prince of the
Church : — high-bred, handsome, benign in expression and
dignified in appearance. If he owned a moral failing, it
was that of pushing his very virtues to extremes ; thus his
love of chastity was apt to tend towards prudery, and his
loyalty to the Church towards a selfish neglect of family
interests. But in face of so solid a phalanx of good
qualities arrayed against any hostile criticism, it is almost
agreeable to unearth a solitary charge of meanness and
ingratitude. Yet the person who brings forward this
accusation is none other than Andrew Lumisden, Charles
Stuart's faithful secretary of state, who worked so
diligently on behalf of the two royal brothers after their
father's death. For Lumisden, after complaining in
guarded terms of the Cardinal Duke's indifference and
stinginess towards various needy Jacobite adherents,
speaks openly to a friend of his own particular case.
J 9
290 HENRY STUART CARDINAL YORK
"... The world perhaps may think I have partaken
of the Duke's generosity, but I can in confidence tell you
that I never received a shilling from him ; no, not even at
a time when a little money might have been properly
given. . . . 'Tis true the day before I left Rome, when I
took leave of His Royal Highness at the Conclave [of
1769], he gave me a snuff-box which belonged to the late
King, which he was graciously pleased to call a small
token of his grateful remembrance of my long and faithful
services to the Royal Family. As I was not in absolute
want, such a present, I confess, was more agreeable to me
than a trifle of money he might perhaps have given me.
As I never applied to the Duke for anything myself, I
cannot complain of his having refused me, but you know
there are certain circumstances in which one expects to be
remembered without asking. l
We have no intention of disputing Lumisden's ex-
plicit charge, or of trying to palliate the Cardinal Duke's
behaviour on this occasion towards an old and trusted
servant of his House, who undoubtedly merited a more
substantial reward for his past disinterested exertions
than a polite message and a costly trinket ; but, on the
other hand, it is only fair to state that such a complaint
stands alone, for according to general report a sense of
gratitude was by no means missing from Henry Stuart's
extended list of virtues. To counterbalance his callous
treatment of Lumisden, we venture to mention the return
made by him to Sir John Hippisley. For Sir John
alludes in the most flattering terms to the Cardinal Duke's
conduct in the delicate matter of the British Government
1 Memoirs of Strange and Lumisden.
AS AN HISTORICAL FIGURE 291
obtaining control over the National Colleges in Rome, a
subject on which Henry was naturally disposed to resent
jealously any official interference. But though the
request for assistance in this case must have been singularly
distasteful to the Cardinal and de jure King, yet Henry,
mindful of Hippisley's past services with regard to the
royal pension, at once promised his co-operation in this
new scheme. — " I approve," he wrote to Sir John Hippisley
on October 17th, 1800," your intentions of addressing His
Holiness with regard to the affair of the Colleges,
concerning which any application for my good offices is
quite superfluous, since both conscience and inclination,
honour and obligation, require all my possible endeavours,
where there is a question of my nation and country."
And Sir John himself, referring some years later to Anglo-
Papal relations, declared that " it would be an act of great
injustice to the memory of an eminent and illustrious
Personage to omit recording the zealous efforts of the
late Cardinal of York as directed towards the National
Institutions in Rome." l
Passing next to the personal accomplishments of the
Cardinal Duke, we have little further to add. In spite of
the early prophecies of Murray of Broughton, of Crisp,
and of other British critics, it is obvious that he was not
so well endowed with natural gifts as was his elder
brother ; and even his chief eulogist, Father Atti, admits
that he owned neither original genius nor great erudition,
although he had the good sense to appreciate such qualities
in those whom he chose for his friends. By diligent
application he had, however, acquired no small amount of
1 Sir J. C. Hippisley, Substance of an Undelivered Speech in the House of
Commons.
292 HENRY STUART CARDINAL YORK
culture, so that his tastes were always shown to be refined
and scholarly. To his zeal in the cause of education, by
no means a common trait at that period, the well-stocked
library of the Seminary of Frascati bears witness as a
noble and enduring memorial : — exegit monumentum cere
perennius. He was always a diligent student of theology
and a good Latin scholar ; he spoke French and English
fluently, though with the accent of a foreigner ; and as a
writer of English he far surpasses Charles. His letters in
Italian, though somewhat verbose and rambling, are not
without literary merit, whilst his elegant calligraphy
presents the greatest contrast with the clumsy hand-
writing of his more able brother. Nor was his undoubted
power of application restricted only to book-learning, for
we are told by Atti that he had gradually schooled himself
to keep a naturally hot temper under perfect control :
thereby proving himself morally superior to Prince Charles,
who in his later years was ever quarrelling with old friends
and making fresh enemies.
From the various biographies of the Countess of
Albany it might perhaps be inferred that Henry Stuart
was miserably weak and vacillating, as well as a perfect
child in all worldly affairs, solely because he was indirectly
responsible for the public scandal which ended in Alfieri's
banishment from Rome. We have already ventured to
excuse his course of conduct in the unpleasant dilemma
wherein he found himself placed, and we shall only
reiterate our former argument that his previous apparent
acquiescence in the Countess' intrigue was not prompted
by innate folly (as certain writers would seem to suggest)
but rather by a misplaced confidence in a sister-in-law's
virtuous behaviour. And with regard to the highly
AS AN HISTORICAL FIGURE 293
prejudiced Sir Horace Mann's sneer, expressed in con-
nection with this incident, that "a sillier mortal never
existed," let us bear in mind that many a wiser man than
the Cardinal Duke has been deceived and exploited by-
less brilliant and attractive women than Louise of
Stolberg. Though he was in truth not a genius, Henry
Stuart was no fool ; his excellent rule of the see of
Frascati, his judicious patronage of learning, and his
decision to eschew useless political intrigue go far to
prove his possession of sound common-sense. Nor do the
accounts left us by Lord Cloncurry, by Forsyth and other
chance visitors to Rome in his declining years, which
present him to us as an amiable but somewhat childish old
gentleman, afford a fair criterion to judge of his character
and actions in the days of his prime. The portrait they
offer us of an old man, exhausted by recent privations in
exile, worn-out by bodily infirmities and not a little
decayed in intellect, cannot be deemed a correct represent-
ation of the last of the Stuarts. On the ground of
historical accuracy as well as of romantic predilection it is
more just to regard Henry Stuart as a stately and pious
prince of the Church, as a lonely and pathetic, yet withal
picturesque and kingly figure, fully worthy to be the last
male representative of Mary Queen of Scots, so many
of whose descendants had been distinguished for their
unwavering, if unpractical devotion to Religion. Mary of
Scotland and France had died on the scaffold, openly
professing the unpopular Faith ; James I had been an
enthusiastic convert to Anglicanism ; Charles I is to this
day officially recognised by the Church of England as
its Royal Martyr ; James 11 showed himself as eager a
convert to the Roman Church as ever his grandfather had
294 HENRY STUART CARDINAL YORK
been to the Anglican, and finally lost his crown by an
injudicious ecclesiastical policy; James Stuart, "the Old
Pretender," in spite of every political temptation in his
youth to commit apostasy, never faltered in his loyalty to
the creed in which he had been born ; — it was therefore
only meet that the last prince of a House, whose memory
in spite of all its shortcomings remains bright and beloved
even in these prosaic days, should live and die a priest in
the Church whereof his sire and grandsire had been such
staunch adherents. And we rejoice to reflect that the
memory of " the Youngest Pretender," the gentle and
innocent Cardinal King, exists recorded as Henry the
Ninth in imperishable marble within the precincts of the
Eternal City that witnessed the whole story of his long
life from the cradle to the grave.
INDEX
Abdul Cadir Bey, 227.
Aquaviva, Cardinal, 33, 52.
Acton, General, 239.
Aix-la-Chapelle, Treaty of, 58.
Albani, Cardinal Alessandro, 24, 33,
34, 52-54, 91, 94, 99, ill, 115,
117, 118, 122-123, 206, 210,
233 ; quoted, 41.
, Cardinal Giovanni Francesco,
101, 109, no, 113, 259.
Albano, 66, 95, 124.
Albany, Count of, title of, assumed
by Charles Allen, 279.
Albany, Charles Edward, Count of.
See Charles Edward.
Albany, Countess of (Louise of
Stolberg) —
Bequests to, under the will of Henry
Stuart, 269.
Career of — married life in Rome,
132-134 ; flight from her husband
with Alfieri, 1 38-144 ; life in
Florence, 139-140; appeal to
the Cardinal Duke for help,
145-146 ; advice of the Cardinal
Duke and the Pope, 146-147 ;
life in her brother-in-law's palace,
148-154, 162; banishment of
Alfieri, 156-158; legal separa-
tion from her husband, 159-161 ;
leaves Rome to meet Alfieri, 161 ;
pension allowed her by the
French Court, 161 ; joint protest
of her husband and the Cardinal
Duke against her conduct, 180.
Deception practised by, 292-293.
Description of, 1 3 1.
Disparagement of, by the Duchess
of Albany, 174.
Albany, Countess of (Louise of
Stolberg) contd. —
Income of, sources of, 165, 229,
264, 270.
Protest against Charles' treatment
of the Duchess of Albany, 172.
Son of, alleged, 277, 279-280.
mentioned, 81, 213 note.
Albany, Duchess of (Charlotte
Stuart)—
Ambitions of, 191-193.
Career of — Birth and legitimisation
of, 166-167, 169, 176, 191, 192 ;
arrival in Rome with her mother,
135-136; joins her father in
Florence, 167-168, 171 ; ante-
cedents and early life of, 168-171 ;
attempts to obtain recognition
from the Cardinal Duke,
172-176; correspondence with
the Cardinal Duke, 173-178,
181 ; partial recognition obtained,
177-178; meeting with the
Cardinal Duke, 179-180; life in
Rome, 182-183 ; last days of,
185-188 ; relations with her
uncle during her last days,
186-193 ; funeral of, 189 ;
scheme to secure the dowry of
Mary of Modena for her father,
245, 249.
Character and personality of, 164,
183, 188, I93- I 94-
Son of, alleged, 278.
Will of, 188-189.
Alberstroff, Comtesse d'. See Walk-
inshaw, Clementina.
Albert, Prince of Naples, 22 \.
Aldobrandini, Villa, 70. 73.
295
296
INDEX
Alfieri, Count Vittorio —
Attachment to, and flight with the
Countess of Albany, 139,
140-144.
Banishment from Rome, 156-157.
Death of, 164.
Interview with the Countess in her
convent, 1 50-1 51 and note.
Meeting with the Countess at Col-
mar, 161.
Residence in Rome — intrigue with
the Countess, 151-154, 162.
Welcomed to Rome by the Pope,
149.
otherwise mentioned, Si, 174, 180,
193-
Alford, Earl of, 98, 107, 123.
Allen, Charles Stuart, 276.
, Admiral John Carter, 276.
, John Hay, 276.
, Lieutenant Thomas, 276, 277.
Altieri, Don Gian-Battista, 101, 122.
Ambleteuse, 36.
America, no.
Ancona, 216, 218.
Angelelli, Marchese, 101, 131.
Angereau, General, 217.
Anne, Queen, 205, 244, 250.
Annual Register 1807, quoted, 236
and note, 237-238 and note.
Antibes, 34.
Antigone, performance of, 154.
Antonelli, Cardinal, 210.
Antwerp, siege of, 38.
Architecture of Italian Renaissance,
specimen of, 64.
Argenson, Marquis d', 28, 35, 38,
. 47-
Arini, Giovanni Battista, 223, 252.
Arquien, Marie -Casimire d'. See
Marysienka, Queen.
Artaud, cited, 199 and note ; quoted,
217 and note, 271 and note, 274
and note.
Asti, 140.
Atti, Don Alessandro, cited, 71 and
note, 72, 291 ; quoted, 76, 79, 97
and note l , 202 and note, 268 and
notes.
Aubeterre, M. d', 112, 286.
Auchin, 58.
Augustus, King of Poland, 13, 27.
Austria, 215.
Austria, Emperor of, 219.
Austrian Succession, war of, 23-24.
Avignon, 32, 33, 34, 218.
Avignon, Legate of, 51.
Azara, Chevalier, 216.
Azpurna, Senhor, 112.
Bannockburn House, 168.
Barbier, Abbe, 181.
Barnaby Rudge, 273.
Barrymore, Lord, 25.
Basseville, Hugo, 215.
Bavaria, 200.
, Elector of, 23.
Bavaria-Neuburg, Princess Hedwige
Elizabeth of, 4.
Beaton, Dr., 277, 280.
Beaufort, Duke of, 25.
, Henry (son of John of
Gaunt), 53.
Benedict xin, Pope, 3.
Benedict xiv, Pope, 10, 52, 53, 54,
58, 59, 95, 96-97, 186.
Berchastel, qzioted, 199 and note.
Beresford, Anna, 278.
Bernis, Cardinal de, 77, 78.
Berthier, General, 221.
Berwick, Duke of (natural son of
James 11), 4, 176.
Berwick, Marshal, 17.
Biographical Dictionary of Medal-
lists, cited, 200.
Bolingbroke, 25.
Bologna, 96, 186, 189, 216.
, Archbishop of, 188.
, Peace of (1796), 216-218.
Bolognetti, Marchioness, 14, 15.
Bolognetti Palace, masked ball at,
13-16.
Borghese, Villa, 16.
Borgia, Cardinal Stefano, efforts of,
to obtain an English pension for
the Cardinal Duke, 227-233,
234-
Boufflers, Marshal, 243.
Bouillon, 107, 108.
Marie - Charlotte Sobieska,
Duchess of, 4.
Boulogne, 35, 36.
INDEX
>97
Bourbon, House of, 207.
Bourbons of Naples, 24.
Bracchi, 10.
Bramante, 64, 152.
Braschi, Cardinal, 225, 226.
Braschi-Onesti, Duke, 218.
Braye, Lady, 63.
Brest, 28.
Brett, Captain, 28.
British Museum, 63.
Brittany, 41.
Brasses, President de, 183 ; letters of,
quoted, 1 7- 1 9.
Bruce, Lady Charlotte, 130.
, Robert, 81.
Buonaparte, Napoleon, 215-220,
263, 273.
Burdett, Sir Francis, 234.
Burford Papers, quoted, 13-16 and
note l .
Burke, Edmund, quoted, 208, 209
and note l .
Burnet, Bishop, 103.
Burney, Fanny, 13.
Bute, Lord, 194.
Butler, James, Duke of Ormonde,
34-
Byron, Lord, 140.
Cacault, M., 218.
Cadiz, 51.
Calais, 36, 37.
Calandrelli, 80.
Cameron of Lochiel, 25.
Camlachie, 168.
Campagna, 124.
Campanelli, Cardinal, 210.
Campo Formio, Treaty of, 225.
Cancellaria, Palace of, 63-64, ioi,
149, 151, 253, 266.
Canova, 267.
Canterbury, Papal Archbishop of, 53.
Canziani, M., 101.
Capanne, Le, reform of, by the
Cardinal Duke, 87-88.
Carpegna, Palazzo, 67.
Caryll, Lady, 132.
, Lord, 133 ; efforts to obtain
the fortune of Mary of Modena
for the Stuart family, 245-247,
249.
Castel Gandolfo, 51, 288.
Castlereagh, Lord, 273.
Cataldi, 197.
Catholic Emancipation, 207-209.
Cavalchini, Cardinal, 122.
Cavallo, Monte, 17.
Cavo, Monte, 85.
Celestine in, Pope, 69.
Ceri, Duke and Duchess of, 154.
Certosa, Abbey of, 222.
Cesarini, Monsignore Angelo, 64-65,
90, 164, 186, 189, 224, 242, 253,
262, 264, 265, 268-269, 270.
Charles 1, 269, 271, 293.
Charles II, 195, 205, 285.
Charles v, Emperor, 97.
Charles VI, Emperor, 23.
Charles X, of France, 206.
Charles Edward, "The Young Pre-
tender," "Charles in"—
Career of — Birth, 2 ; descent and
family connections, 4 ; youth and
education, 6, 12 ; French visit,
24-27 ; disaster at Dunkirk, 27-
28 ; lands in Scotland, the '45,
28-29, 35, 38 ; retires to France
after Culloden, 39, 40, 58 ;
strained relations between the
brothers, 40, 42-43 ; breach
with his father and brother on
Henry's entering the Church,
4774?> 57. 5 8 > 93-94 5 recon-
ciliation effected, 107 ; Henry's
efforts to obtain the Pope's re-
cognition of "Charles III," 107-