Born and bred a Roman: Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Venerable English College
Christmas is a time for carols, even if this year we may only be able to sing them from the comfort of our home, and none is more popular than O Come, All ye Faithful. This is a Victorian translation of a Latin hymn, Adeste Fideles, probably written by John Francis Wade (1711–86), an English Catholic musician who spent most of his adult life in Douai, in France.
It has been suggested that the hymn contained a coded reference to a ‘joyful and triumphant’ event that took place in the Palazzo Muti, Rome, 300 years ago this New Year’s Eve: the birth, on 31 December 1720, of Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Silvester Severino Maria Stuart (1720–88), better known as ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’. Indeed the words of the hymn, ‘born the King of Angels’ (Regem Angelorum), contained a wordplay on ‘King of the English’ (Regem Anglorum), for the new-born baby who, in the eyes of his supporters, would one day become the rightful ‘King Charles III’.
One of the oldest surviving copies of Adeste Fideles, from circa 1740
Readers will doubtless be familiar with the basic facts of the Jacobite cause: how the Catholic James II (1633–1701) lost his throne to his daughter and son-in-law, Mary (1662–94) and William of Orange (1650–1702), in the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688; how the exiled king set up a court in exile at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris; and how James II made several attempts to regain the throne, a struggle which continued with his son, James Francis Edward Stuart (1688–1766).
After the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), James was obliged to leave French soil and, after a period in Lorraine and various locations in the Papal States, the exiled royals reached Rome in 1718 and the following year settled into the Palazzo Muti (also known as the Palazzo del Re).
The Palazzo Muti, Rome, residence of the Stuart court in exile
Situated on the north side of the Piazza dei Dodici Apostoli, this unassuming palazzo is today regularly passed by students of the College walking to the Pontifical Gregorian University. In addition, the pope granted the Stuarts the Palazzo Savelli in Albano as a summer retreat.
The Jacobite court cannot be written off merely as a frustrated group of exiles. It followed contemporary customs of court etiquette, ceremonial and display, generously patronised artists and musicians, and gave a tantalising glimpse of what a future Jacobite monarchy might look like. One distinctive note was provided by its religious tolerance: it was a court made up of Anglicans and Catholics, and the Holy See turned a blind eye to the services held there, following the Book of Common Prayer.
As an English institution in Rome, the Venerable English College was inevitably swept up into Jacobite affairs. Some students had connections with Jacobite families or even owed their places at the College to the influence of the court: Mary of Modena (1658–1718), the consort of James II, recommended two of her chapel boys at Saint-Germain, together with several others, for free places at the College.[1] The College Pilgrim Book (AVCAU, Liber 292) contains details of visiting pilgrims who came to Rome to visit the ‘King’ and receive the royal touch, believed to be particularly efficacious for sufferers of scrofula. Thus in 1751 we read:
Came here Mr Brady who travelled purely on account of his child who had got the King’s Evil and arrived safe to Rome but in going to Albano to the King, died on the road, and so the father departed with only one child for London.[2]
Visitors seeking the royal touch included non-Catholics who came to Rome for this purpose, such as 16-year-old Matthias Woodbridge of Reading, who arrived in August 1737.[3]
Prayers were regularly offered at the College for the Jacobite cause: for example, exposition of the Blessed Sacrament was organised for the success of a rising in 1708 and, again, in 1712 for James’s recovery from smallpox. Just two days before Charles Edward’s birth in 1720, Pope Clement XI celebrated Mass at the College for St Thomas’s Day and included a collect for the expectant queen. When news of the birth reached the College, the Te Deum was solemnly sung.
Likewise, when James’s wife, Maria Clementina, died in 1735, students joined the funeral procession from the Basilica dei Santi Dodici Apostoli, adjoining the Palazzo Muti, to St Peter’s. However, controversy was caused in 1766 when ‘Charles III’ succeeded to the throne on the death of his father.
Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Silvester Severino Maria Stuart (1720–88)
Portrait by a member of the circle of Domenico Duprà (1689–1770)
Venerable English College, Rome
The new ‘King’ paid an informal visit to the College on 31 March 1766, hearing a Low Mass from the tribune of the College church, and allowing his hand to be kissed by some students as he left. Similar visits were paid to the Scots College, the Irish Dominicans at San Sisto Vecchio and the Irish Franciscans at San Isidoro. Nevertheless, spread and embroidered by Hanoverian supporters in Rome, rumours abounded that Charles had actually been secretly crowned in the College church.
The Holy See was nervous of such allegations, since, from the time of James’s death on 1 January 1766, it had no longer recognised the Stuart claimant to the throne as the rightful one. There were fears that continued support for the Stuarts would hinder improvements in the conditions of Catholics in Britain and affect the Papacy on the diplomatic stage. As a result, the Rector of the Venerable English College, the Jesuit Charles Booth (1707–1797), was dismissed and returned to England, where he acted as chaplain to Lord Arundell of Wardour.[4] It can have been of little consolation to Fr Booth that his fellow rector at the Scots College, and his Irish Dominican and Franciscan confrères, were also dismissed from the leadership of their communities.
The College’s Jacobite links are still tangible today. In the College church is the magnificent tomb of Sir Thomas Dereham of Dereham (c. 1678–1739), an ardent Jacobite whose memorial states that he remained unmarried lest his posterity should wander away from the true Faith or the true King. In the Salone at the College there are contemporary portraits of Charles Edward Stuart, by a member of the circle of Domenico Duprà (1689–1770), and his brother Henry Benedict, attributed to Pierre Subleyras (1699–1749).
As the 300th birthday of Charles Edward Stuart is marked, it is good to be reminded that, despite his associations with tartan, shortbread tins, Walter Scott, and the Skye Boat Song, this most romantic and Scottish of figures was born and bred a Roman.
[1] Brocard Sewell, The Cardinal of Norfolk, Philip Howard OP (London: Royal Stuart Society, Royal Stuart Papers XV, 1980), 16.
[2] Archivum Venerabilis Collegii Anglorum de Urbe (AVCAU), Liber 292, 1 October 1751.
[3] AVCAU, Liber 292, 14 August 1737.
[4] R. L. Stewart, ‘1766 and All That’, The Venerabile, 15 (1952), 266–270.