J.

by David Brining

  THERE have been four armed attempts to restore the Stuart dynasty. The two most well- known were in 1715, led by James Edward, and the second in 1745, led by his son Prince Charles. Both men were known as 'Pretenders' although both had greater claims on the throne than either of their rivals (Queen Anne and King George II in that they were descended from a king of Britain and not distant relations of a usurping foreigner). Thirty years later, in 1776, came the most dangerous rebellion of them all, a rebellion excised from the history books for reasons of securing the Hanoverian/German succession to our crown.

  The Third Jacobite Rebellion was led by the great grandson of James II, Robert Stuart. People believe the Stuart line had died out but this was a combination of JASOn protecting its own and the fact that history books are written by the winners. Officially the Jacobite cause died at Culloden but in reality Robert Stuart, a dashing prince of twenty-six, the son of Henry, nephew of the Bonnie Prince, gathered an army around him at St Germain, the court in exile. On July 1st 1776, Robert landed his force at Fishguard in Wales. As they moved inland, they gathered support from the Welsh sheep farmers, but the most dramatic events were happening overseas in America. As Robert mustered his troops, Jacobite sympathisers led by John Jay in Massachusetts held a demonstration against King George III. In what became known as the Boston Tea Party, JASOn's people tipped crates of tea into the harbour as a diversion aimed at creating conflict on two fronts. Whilst the British Government was busy quelling rebellion abroad, Robert Stuart planned to occupy London and claim the crown as Robert I, the IV of Scotland.

  Robert I was anointed by Cardinal Mazzola of Beauvais on the beach at St David's and later crowned by him in St Justinian's (or Jestyn's or Iestyn's) Church at Llanstinan. But things went wrong. The rebellion in America turned into a full-scale revolution. Sensing that Robert's invasion would fail, John Jay and the others (John Adams, George Washington et al.) decided America's best interests lay with independence. He was correct. Robert's army was met head-on near Tenby and defeated in a bloody battle on the beach. Robert escaped by swimming to the nearby Caldey Island where he disguised himself as a monk to avoid detection. The commander-in-chief of the Government forces, General Thomas, ordered the razing of the coastal towns, but before this operation was put into effect, he and his troops were recalled and despatched across the Atlantic. Robert managed to slip away from the island hidden in a laundry basket and from there back to the Continent.

  JASOn, defeated, consoled themselves with the fact that they had at least cost the Hanoverians both a colony and a king (George III was removed soon after on the pretext of 'madness' (read 'failure')) and created at the same time the greatest threat to civilisation of our time (The United States) but they were still exiles, frustrated and increasingly bitter. Robert Stuart had failed them. A new figurehead was needed. So, when the French Jacobins rose against their king in 1789, Saint Just arranged safe passage for Robert and his family to leave Paris for Santiago della Compostella in Spain. The day after they arrived, a JASOn agent strangled his King with a wire. He left a poem on the wall, written in the dead king's juices -

  "Jacobites still

  Set out to kill

  To smash and rail and slaughter,

  But Robert let them down,

  He gave up his crown,

  And his dynasty tumbled thereafter."