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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 September 2015
King Charles II's first illegitimate son, the little-known Jacques de La Cloche, married a lady in Naples and had a posthumous son, born in 1669 and known as Don Giacomo Stuardo. Although his father was illegitimate and he himself a Catholic, Stuardo hoped that he might one day become King of England. The Glorious Revolution resulted in opposition between supporters of the Protestant Succession to the British thrones and supporters of the exiled Catholic Stuarts, James II and then his son James III. When the Protestant Queen Anne was succeeded by the unpopular Hanoverian George I in 1714, James III was still unmarried and had no children, so Stuardo hoped that James might recognize him as the Jacobite heir. When James married and had two sons, Stuardo hoped that his cousin would at least receive him as a Stuart prince. All his attempts to meet James III and secure recognition were unsuccessful, and he died disappointed and in poverty in about 1752. In the tercentenary of the Hanoverian Succession, enough archival information finally has emerged to provide a study of the life of this alternative claimant to the British thrones.
Il primo figlio illegittimo di re Charles II, il piccolo noto Jacques de La Cloche, sposò una donna in Napoli ed ebbe un figlio postumo, nato nel 1669 e noto come Don Giacomo Stuardo. Sebbene suo padre fosse illegittimo e lui stesso un cattolico, Stuardo sperava di diventare un giorno re d'Inghilterra. La Glorious Revolution fu il risultato dell'opposizione tra coloro che erano a favore della successione protestante ai troni britannici e coloro che erano a favore degli esiliati e cattolici Stuart, James II e poi suo figlio James III. Quando la successione alla regina Anne, protestante, toccò all'impopolare George I di Hannover nel 1714, James III era ancora celibe e non aveva figli. Per questa ragione Stuardo sperò che James potesse riconoscerlo come l'erede giacobita. Quando James si sposò ed ebbe due figli, Stuardo sperò che suo cugino lo riconoscesse almeno come un principe della dinastia Stuart. Tuttavia tutti i suoi tentativi di incontrare James III e di arrivare al riconoscimento andarono falliti e morì rammaricato e in povertà attorno al 1752. In occasione del tricentenario della successione hannoveriana sono finalmente tornate alla luce sufficienti informazioni archivistiche per permettere uno studio della vita di questo aspirante alternativo ai troni britannici.
1 Steuart, A.F., ‘The Neapolitan Stuarts’, English Historical Review 18 (July 1903), 470–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at p. 473.
2 J.E.E. Dalberg, Lord Acton, ‘Secret history of Charles II’, The Home and Foreign Review (July 1862), 146–74.
3 Boero, G., sj, ‘Historia della conversione all Chiesa Cattolica di Carlo II, Re d'Inghilterra, cavata da scritture autentiche ed originali’, La Civilità Cattolica 6 (1863), 385–96Google Scholar, 697–713; 7 (1864), 268–88, 415–24, 671–84; Dumas, F., ‘Charles II, Roi d'Angleterre et son fils le P. Jacques Stuart’, Études Religieuses, Historiques, et Littéraires par des Pères de la Compagnie de Jésus, nouvelle série 5 (1864), 454–73Google Scholar, 598–622; 6 (1865), 178–201. See also various articles in the Gentleman's Magazine of 1866: January, pp. 22–9; February, 226–7; April, 531–4; and July, 65–8.
4 See N. Mitford, The Sun King (London, 1966; revised edition 1983), 75: ‘He [Louis XIV] had always been inclined to go to bed with any woman who was handy …, but such passing fancies … had never bothered anybody and the public knew nothing of them’. For the many bastards born to Louis XV, see N. Mitford, Madame de Pompadour (London, 1954; revised edition 1968), 188: ‘his mistresses … were pretty little lower-class girls who did their work with no fuss, made no demands on him, had no influential relations or angry husbands, who did not insist upon their children being ennobled and who were content to retire with a modest dowry’; and J. Barry, Versailles, the Passions and Politics of an Era (London, 1972), 277: ‘Pregnant, they were … given … a dowry for marriage in the provinces’. For the English monarchs, see P. Beauclerk-Dewar and R. Powell, Royal Bastards (Stroud, 2008), 12: ‘Over the centuries, most kings have had one or more mistresses and many begat children by them, most of whom … were officially recognised’.
5 Rome, Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu [hereafter ARSI] Opp.NN 174/175, E/2/3, Charles II to Oliva, 3 August 1668. (The detailed reference is cited in Tarantino, G., ‘Jacques de La Cloche: a Stuart Pretender in the seventeenth century’, Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu 73 (June–December 2004)Google Scholar [hereafter Tarantino], 434, n. 27.
6 National Archives, State Papers [hereafter NA SP] 85/10, various letters from Joseph Kent to Joseph Williamson, 30 March to 7 September 1669.
7 V. Armanni, Delle lettere del Signor Vincenzo Armanni nobile d'Ugubbio, scritte a nome proprio, e divise in tre volumi (Macerata, 1674), III, 198–210; W.M. Brady, ‘The eldest natural son of Charles II’, in Anglo-Roman Papers (London, 1890), 93–121. Brady had previously published ‘Stuart Pretenders’, The Scottish Review 10 (1885), 311–32Google Scholar.
8 British Library [hereafter BL] Add MSS 20646, fols 56–8; P. Sidney, ‘The eldest son of Charles II’, The Westminster Review (February 1903), 217–22; and Sidney, P., ‘The Neapolitan Stuarts’, English Historical Review 18 (October 1903), 718–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also above, n. 1.
9 G. Goodwin, ‘James La Cloche’, Dictionary of National Biography (London, 1908), XI, 371–2.
10 A. Lang, ‘The mystery of James de la Cloche’, in The Valet's Tragedy and Other Stories (London, 1903), 228–57; and ‘The master hoaxer, James de la Cloche’, Fortnightly Review (September 1909), 430–9.
11 A. Lang, ‘James de La Cloche’, Encyclopedia Britannica (eleventh edition) (Cambridge/New York, 1911), XVI, 50–1.
12 A.S. Barnes, The Man of the Mask (London, 1912), 160–88. Barnes's arguments were refuted in J. Noone, The Man behind the Iron Mask (New York/Stroud, 1988; revised edition 1994), 205, 208–10.
13 Perhaps the most significant was by G.S.H.L. Washington, King Charles II's Jesuit Son (Cambridge, privately printed for the author, 1966; with completely revised editions in 1968 and 1979).
14 G. Tarantino, ‘Jacques de La Cloche’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004) [hereafter ODNB] XXXII, 177–9.
15 Tarantino, 425–41.
16 These letters were first published in E. Corp, The Stuarts in Italy, 1719–1766: a Royal Court in Permanent Exile (Cambridge, 2011), appendix E, and the present article corrects some inaccuracies contained there.
17 His father Jacques de La Cloche is not mentioned in Beauclerk-Dewar and Powell, Royal Bastards (above, n. 4), even in the section entitled ‘Stuart loose ends’. See also R. Clifton, ‘Lucy Walter’, ODNB LVII, 179: James Scott ‘was the first of Charles II's many bastards’. P. Seaward, ‘Charles II’, ODNB XI, 122–45, made no mention of any bastard born before James Scott (p. 126).
18 ARSI Opp.NN 174/175, E/2/3, Charles II to La Cloche, 4 August 1668, as paraphrased in translation in Tarantino, 433. The key phrases in Lang's Encyclopedia Britannica article (above, n. 11) are translated as: ‘you may claim higher titles from us than the Duke of Monmouth’, and ‘the Kingdoms belong to you, and parliament cannot legally oppose you, unless, as at present, they can only elect Protestant Kings’. In his earlier article of 1903 Lang had given this last phrase as ‘unless Catholics are excluded from the succession’ (‘The mystery of James de la Cloche’ (above, n. 10), 236).
19 Archivio di Stato di Roma, Misc Famiglia: Stuart b.172, fascicolo 3 (ten and a half pages at the end of the volume).
20 Stuardo stated that in 1743 he had in his possession various documents regarding his identity, including ‘a privilege of Charles II’ that had been given to his father. See below, p. 237.
21 For the Jacobite succession during these years, see E. Corp, ‘The court of Turin and the English succession, 1712–1720’, in P. Bianchi and K. Wolfe (eds), Turin and the British in the Age of the Grand Tour (British School at Rome Studies) (Cambridge, forthcoming). For the edict of July 1714 and the declaration of May 1715, see F. Bluche, Louis XIV (Paris, 1986), 872.
22 Anne, Countess of Sussex; Lady Barbara Fitzroy, a Benedictine nun at Pontoise; and Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond.
23 BL Add MSS 31261, fol. 164, Nairne to F. Gualterio, 21 July 1718: ‘Je renvoye a V.E. la lettre de ce pretendu Principe Stuardo, qui se dit fils d'un batard de Charles 2 Roy d'Ang.re. La chose n'est pas impossible, mais le Roy ne le connoit pas ni ne veut pas s'en mesler. Il paroit par sa lettre qu'il est doublement pauvre et de l'esprit et de bien, et que Bayard et luy ont a peu près un meme charactere de folie, au reste V.E. est prié en rendant la lettre et le portrait du dit Stuard au Prince Giustiniani, de le remercier au nom de S.M. de l'attention qu'il a eu a ne vouloir point se mêler de cet homme sans en donner avis a S.M.. Après cela ce Prince pourra faire pour ce pauvre avanturier par charité ce qu'il jugera a propos, mais le Roy ne s'y interesse point’. Gualterio's letter to Nairne of 16 July 1718 had also enclosed a letter from someone named Bayard (BL Add MSS 20302, fol. 59).
24 The detailed references are all given in Tarantino, 431–5.
25 ARSI Opp.NN 174/175, E/2/3, certificate of 27 September 1665; deed of settlement, 7 February 1667; testimonial of 29 July 1667; letter of Charles II to La Cloche, 4 August 1668; letters of Charles II to Oliva, 3 and 29 August, undated, and 18 November 1668. This is written on the assumption that all these documents were already in the Jesuit archives. It is possible that the certificate, the deed, and/or the letter to La Cloche were still in the possession of Stuardo at this time. See above, n. 18.
26 Tarantino, 434. The date of the marriage is taken from his will (see below, n. 29). The scandal that this caused must have been well known at the time among the Jesuits in Rome. Francis Sanders, who served as confessor to James II and James III at Saint-Germain, entered the English College in Rome in January 1669, which was the precise time that Jacques de La Cloche left the novitiate, went to Naples and was arrested by the Viceroy. Sanders remained in Rome and was received into the Society of Jesus by Oliva in 1674 (E. Corp, ‘Father Francis Sanders’, ODNB XLVIII, 863).
27 Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Barberini Latini 8620, fols 184–5, Jacques de La Cloche to Francesco Barberini, 6 and 10 April 1669, printed in Tarantino, 439–41.
28 NA SP 85/10/fol. 114, Kent to Williamson, 7 September 1669.
29 Naples, National Library MS.XI.E.14, fols 32–6, ‘Testamento di D. Giacomo Stuardo figliuolo naturale di Carlo II re della Gran Brettagna’ (cited in Tarantino, 436, n. 37). There is a copy in Archivio di Stato di Roma, Misc Famiglia: Stuart b.172, fascicolo 3 (ten and a half pages at the end of the volume). The Italian original and an English translation were sent to London by the English agent at Rome: NA SP 85/10/fol. 114, Kent to Williamson, 7 September 1669. An English translation of the will was later published in T. Duffus Hardy, Report to the Right Hon. Master of the Rolls upon the Documents in the Archives and Public Libraries of Venice (London, 1866), 87–90.
30 ARSI Opp.NN 174/175, E/2/3, Charles II to Oliva, 3 August 1668; NA SP 85/10/fol. 111, Kent to Williamson, 7 September 1669.
31 See the family tree in BL Add MSS 20646, fol. 57v, which Stuardo stated was based partly on ‘Vincenzo Armanni di Eugubio tom. 3’. He was obviously muddled about the Stuart family or he would not have needed to consult Armanni's published correspondence.
32 Parish church of Santa Sofia in San Giovanni a Carbonara, Libro III de’ Battezzati, fol. 254. (The reference is cited in Tarantino, 437, n. 40.)
33 BL Add MSS 20646, fol. 58r, ‘Manifesto, in cui si mostra l'identità e real nascita del Principe D. Giacomo postumo Stuardo, Nipote di Carlo II. Rè della Gran Brettagna’, 7 January 1750 [hereafter ‘Manifesto’]. His father's will refers to 180,000 scudi, with no mention of property (see above, n. 29). The money was said to be in the hands of Charles II, who would make an annual payment to La Cloche's posthumous child.
34 BL Add MSS 20646, fols 57v–58r, ‘Manifesto’: ‘vivere occulto in Napoli’: ‘è cresciuto nella città di Napoli sotto varie forme per la necessità di vivere incognito per lo spazio di anni 40 in circa, nel qual tempo sopragiunte in Napoli le arme Cesaree, il detto principe fu forzato partire’.
35 Vienna, Albertina Museum, inv. 1259, 24.8 × 17.8 cm: ‘Ritratto dell'Inglese per soprannome La Reginella che si fingeva essere Il Rè Giacomo Stuardi d'Inghilterra’. Don Giacomo Stuardo's mother had apparently been referred to as ‘La Reginella’ (NA SP 85/10/fol. 34, Kent to Williamson, 13 April 1669, quoted in Tarantino, 435).
36 BL Add MSS 20646, fol. 58r, ‘Manifesto’: ‘per tale dichiarato, e riconosciuto per mezzo d'un magnifico diploma della Santità sua [Pope Clement XI], come costa dal sudetto processo’; ‘nel tempo stesso costrutto altro processo per lo medesimo Principe D. Giacomo postumo nella Curia Arcivescovile di Napoli’.
37 BL Add MSS 20646, fol. 58r, ‘Manifesto’: ‘senza niuno appoggio di ragione, attenta l'absenza da Napoli, del Principe D. Giacomo Postumo, che fu nel 1708’. The palazzo in Naples was occupied by ‘Sig. Cav. di Casa Piscicelli’, and the one at Capua by ‘Signori Gentilomini di Boccardi’.
38 See above, p. 227.
39 Archivio di Stato di Milano, Atti di Governo, Potenze Estere, cart 51 (Inghilterra 1549–1763). There are copies of these documents in NA PRO 31/2/fols 37–55, as part of the Bliss Transcripts.
40 Tarantino, 438.
41 BL Add MSS 20646, fol. 57r.
42 Corp, The Stuarts in Italy (above, n. 16), 28–31 and chapter 8.
43 BL Add MSS 20646, fol. 57r. The copies were dated 16 and 17 November 1727.
44 Royal Archives at Windsor Castle [hereafter RA] SP 146/141, James III to Inverness, 4 July 1731.
45 According to Brady (‘The eldest natural son of Charles II’ (above n. 7)) and Barnes (The Man of the Mask (above, n. 12)), Cardinal Pignatelli sent a letter on Stuardo's behalf to the Archbishop of Genoa in 1734, so we may assume that he was living in that city by then. (I am grateful to Giovanni Tarantino for this observation.)
46 Ferdinando de Signoribus de Segni was a votante of the Tribunale della Segnatura di Giustizia. (I am grateful to Giovanni Tarantino for this information as well.)
47 RA SP 187/42, Stuardo to James III, 8 May 1736. (Translated from the Italian by the archivists at Windsor Castle.) Lord Inverness served as Secretary of State to James III until 1727, when he retired. He lived in Avignon from 1731 until his death in 1740, but visited Rome in 1736.
48 Corp, The Stuarts in Italy (above, n. 16), 255, 320.
49 Manifesto in cui si dimostra la identità e real nascita del Principe D. Giacomo Stuardo, figlio postumo del Principe Giacomo Errico Stuardo, e nipote di Carlo II. Re della Gran Bretagna (Naples, 1752), 43–4. (This Manifesto, cited in Tarantino, 437, n. 38, is longer than the earlier one of 1750 in BL Add MSS 20646): ‘in questa nostra Chiesa il Corpo, ò vero Cadavere del Principe Giacomo Errico Stuardo figlio del Rè Carlo Secondo Rè d'Inghilterra’; ‘Capitati in questa nostra Chiesa il Signor Duca di Bervicche in compagnia del Signor Conte Giacomo Stella Agente Generale del Signor Principe Postomo Stuardo, come dissero, che erano venuti à vedere dove stava sepoltro il figlio del Rè d'Inghilterra’; ‘molti Religiosi, e quantità di persone secolari’; ‘lo ritrovarono sotto il Capo una Carrafina, e dentro vi era un pezzetto di carta scritto, dove diceva Giacomo Errico figlio del Rè d'Inghilterra, e la posero in altra urna, e lo ritornarono ad infossare’; ‘di voler fare le funebri funerali’.
50 RA SP 216/140, Stuardo to James III, 15 August 1739. Translated from the Italian by the archivists at Windsor Castle. Ormonde's letters to James III and Prince Charles have not survived in the Stuart Papers. The Duke of Ormonde had joined James III in exile in 1715. After living in Spain from 1718 to 1732, he settled in Avignon, where he remained until his death in 1745.
51 RA SP Box/125, engraving by Girolamo Rossi of ‘B. Catharina Flisca Vidua Adurna Januensis’. The reference is to Caterina Fieschi Adorna of Genoa, who was canonized in 1737. Alessandro Maineri's Vita di Santa Caterina Fieschi Adorna di Genova was published in Genoa during the same year. See F. de Martinoir, Catherine de Gênes, ou la joie du purgatoire (Paris, 1995), 175.
52 ‘Amantissima mia Protettrice, da che il Sig.re Iddio fecemi la grazia di conoscerui, e venerarui in questa vostra Dominante Patria, vi à piaciuto con la vostra diffesa, e gran Patrocinio di sempre assistermi, et esaudire specialmente i miei voti; nuovamente di tutto cuore vi supplico à proseguirmi più che mai la vostra efficacissima Prottectione, e sostenermi in terra, et in cielo anche qual nacqui nipote di Carlo II: Rè d'Inghilterra, e Cugino del Rè Giacomo III. In forza di questa infallibile verità, ricconoscerò altre si da voi la giustizia dovrà farmi il Reggio, a magnanimo di lui cuore in rispondere all'acclusa mia lettera quanto le inspirera per intercessione vostra lo spirito santo, qui conservet eum. Amen. Giacomo Stuardo.’ Although the wording of the last sentence is a little unclear, it seems that Stuardo was promising, in the event of his obtaining the protection of James III, to give the credit for persuading the king to Saint Catherine of Genoa.
53 The Duchess died in 1739, one year after her husband.
54 The 2nd Duke of Berwick's son (the 3rd Duke) lived in Rome for most of the time from 1737 to 1742, at first at the Collegio Clementino, and then for two and a half years with James III in the Palazzo del Re (Corp, The Stuarts in Italy (above, n. 16), 255).
55 RA SP 263/82, Dowager Duchess of Berwick to James III, 14 March 1745.
56 RA SP 264/17, James III to Dowager Duchess of Berwick, 6 April 1745.
57 At a later date the family adopted the spelling Stuart instead of Stuardo.
58 In 1742 and 1743 Ghezzi, who had drawn Stuardo's portrait in 1708, was employed by James III to decorate his bedchamber in the Palazzo del Re (Corp, The Stuarts in Italy (above, n. 16), 322).
59 BL Add MSS 20646, fol. 58r, ‘Manifesto’: ‘(per la Dio grazia) già da qualche tempo erano ritornate le Armi della Monarchia di Spagna’; ‘ripassò per Roma nel 1743 all 11 di Novembre, in cui fu nuovamente arrestato con tutto il suo corteggio, e conduto nelle carceri nuove, come impostore, e falso Principe’. Baron von Stosch reported to London that an adventurer had arrived in Rome calling himself Principe Giacomo Stuardo and that he had been arrested on the orders of the Pope. He added a week later that the adventurer was a Neapolitan, and that his name was apparently Giacomo Origo (NA SP 98/46/fols 262, 264, Stosch to Newcastle, 23 and 30 November 1743). The manifesto of 1752 referred to in n. 49 states incorrectly that Stuardo returned to Rome in 1742 and remained there until 1743. The letters of Stosch confirm that the manifesto of 1750 is correct in stating that he returned in 1743 and remained there until 1744. (I am very grateful to Giovanni Tarantino for pointing out this discrepancy between the two manifestos.)
60 BL Add MSS 20646, fol. 58r, ‘Manifesto’: ‘scritture, e documenti spettantino all'identita, e Real nascità di detto Principe autenticati’; ‘un privilegio di Carlo II’, ‘molte altre scritture, e lettere di corrispondenza, Sigilli Reali, ed ordini’; ‘colli quali venghono dichiarati dal detto Principe D. Giacomo postumo Cavaliere dell'Ordine di S. Andrea di Scozia’. Stosch reported that Stuardo had a large family tree, some large seals bearing the Stuart coat of arms, some patents, a counterfeit Order of the Garter [sic], and various documents on which he based his claim, and that they were all confiscated (NA SP 98/46/fol. 268, Stosch to Newcastle, 7 December 1743; NA SP 98/49/fol. 35, Stosch to Newcastle, 3 March 1744).
61 BL Add MSS 20646, fol. 58r, ‘Manifesto’: ‘senza essere stato mai esaminato, fu presentato in Tribunale, e d'ordine della S.S. [Pope Benedict XIV] le fu intimata la sentenza, che fu l'esilio da tutto lo Stato Ecclesiastico, privato dell’ Ordine di S. Andrea come impostore, e falsario, per il che alla presenza de’ Ministri, e sbirri fu fatto spogliare fino della camica, e rivestito da capo a piedi di un'abito mandato a bella posta da quella Corte’. Stuardo had a cousin named Donna Lucrezia Orsino, contessa di Oppido, who had married Signor Galeotti. It was his Orsino and Galeotti relations who helped him. Stosch reported that at first the Roman authorities were embarrassed because they did not know on what grounds they could legally punish Stuardo (NA SP 98/46/fol. 268, Stosch to Newcastle, 7 December 1743). According to him, they considered keeping Stuardo permanently in prison, and then decided to banish him from the Papal States (NA SP 98/49/fols 16, 18, 35, Stosch to Newcastle, 4 and 11 January, 3 March 1744).
62 BL Add MSS 20646, fol. 57r: ‘nipote di Carlo Secondo re d'Inghilterra di professione cattolica e zelantissimo della nostra santa religione per cui ha sofferto e sofferse tanti travagli’.
63 BL Add MSS 20646, fol. 57r: ‘il sudetto personaggio referito, come si è ritrovato nelle maggiore Corti d'Europa, cioè Roma, le corti della Germania, la Republica di Venezia, e quella di Genova, ed ora in Napoli’.
64 La Cloche's mother-in-law was Annuccia d'Amici (or d'Amicij), so Stuardo's advocate was presumably his cousin. (For Stuardo's maternal grandmother's name, see Tarantino, 434.)
65 BL Add MSS 20646, fols 57v–58r: ‘Manifesto in cui si dimostra la identità e real nascita del Principe D. Giacomo Stuardo, figlio postumo del Principe Giacomo Errico Stuardo, e nipote di Carlo II Re della Gran Bretagna’.
66 BL Add MSS 20646, fol. 58v, ‘Manifesto’: ‘in potere di Liborio Michil [sic: Michilli] Giudice, Luogotenente del Governo di Roma’; ‘beni lasciati dal Serenissimo Principe D. Giacomo Errico Stuardo in questo Regno di Napoli’; ‘gratis come povero’.
67 ‘Immitti in possessionem omnium bonorum dicti eius patris’.
68 BL Add MSS 20646, fol. 58v, attestation of Don Francesco d'Amici, 15 December 1750: ‘questo Principe, che si riferisce si puol dire, chè evidente miracolo del Cielo, che lo sostiene in Terra per maggior esaltazione della S. Madre Chiesa Cattolica Romana frà mezzo à tanti travagli, ed infinite disgrazie che se fusse stato uno Gigante sarebbe à quest'ora in polve, non si puol dire altro, che servira per specchio d'ammiratione à tutti gli’ huomini Letterati, e capaci d'intendere questa fondata Scrittura, e quanto stà di sopra riferito, à pieno costa nel Governo di Roma’.
69 BL Add MSS 20646, fol. 56, Stuardo to Luigi Gualterio, ‘Da Casa’, 10 March 1752: ‘Io crederei che sarà sufficientemente informata d'un povero Principe accompagnato con assedio d'Infinite disgrazie, è ridotto à mendicar pane; non per questo si perde il Principato, dicendo cosi il Santo Evangelo, quod Paupertas non tollatur Nobilitatem, e colla dilei profonda dottrina, e santa mente giudicherà la mia condotta, come e stata giudicata da tutte le Corti d'Europa dove li siamo in caminati, e da questo sovrano Monarcha (che iddio sempre feliciti) col suo real dispaccio comandò al Tribunale della G.C. della Vicaria che mi si fusse spedito di giustifizia, e dichiarato erede universale del Regio sangue Stuardo d'Inghilterra, e tutto sio non è stata opera mia, ma di Giesucristo, che ave volsuto far vedere al mondo tutto un Principe Ramingo; Pertanto non difficulto del dilei valido Patrocinio, acciò li soverra nelle nostre presente urgenze che si ritroviamo resto con baciarle riverentemente le sacri mani’.
70 BL Add MSS 20646, fol. 57v: ‘si accasò Carlo II con la casa Braganza, non ebbe prole, mà in gioventù con Maria Errichetta Stuardo un maschio di Giacomo Boveveri Roano Stuardo figlio naturale’. See above, n. 31.
71 BL Add MSS 20646, fols 57r–58v.
72 See above, n. 49. As already explained in n. 59, this manifesto of 1752 gave the dates of Stuardo's return to Rome as 1742–3 instead of 1743–4.
73 Tarantino, 438.
74 Tarantino, 436.
75 NA SP 85/10/fol. 111, Kent to Williamson, 7 September 1669 (quoted in Tarantino, 435). If La Cloche's mother was really a member of the Stuart royal family then he would have been conceived from an incestuous relationship. But in fact there were no possible Stuart princesses of the appropriate age during the mid-1640s.
76 See above, n. 35.
77 See above, p. 227.
78 In his 1752 manifesto Stuardo says that his father (La Cloche) had received from Charles II ‘la potestà’, extended to his sons and heirs, to create Knights of the Royal Order of St Andrew of Scotland. Yet the order was not revived until 1687, after the death of Charles II. (I am grateful to Giovanni Tarantino for this information about the 1752 manifesto.)
79 Tarantino, 433.
80 See above, nn. 31 and 75.
81 There is a file of papers concerning the inheritance of James's son Cardinal York in 1807 that contains a copy of the will drawn up by Jacques de La Cloche in 1669. Whether the copy had been obtained by James III or his son, as seems likely, or whether it was put in the file by someone else at a later date, is unknown. Archivio di Stato di Roma, Misc Famiglia: Stuart b.172, fascicolo 3: above, n. 29.
82 I am very grateful to Professor Claire Catalini for her invaluable help with some of the Italian translations.
