Henry Benedict Stuart

Henry Benedict Stuart, Cardinal York

Henry Benedict Stuart (born March 6, 1725 in Rome , † July 13, 1807 in Frascati ), commonly known as the Cardinal Duke of York , was a Curial Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and a Catholic pretender to the British royal title. His grandfather was King James II of England, who had been deposed for his Catholic faith during the Glorious Revolution .

Henry Stuart was the third and last member of the House of Stuart to claim the British royal title, after his father James Francis Edward Stuart and his older brother Charles Edward Stuart . From January 31, 1788 until his death he was named King Henry IX by the Jacobites (supporters of the Stuart claim to the British throne). and I. of England , Scotland , France and Ireland . In contrast to his brother, who refused to admit that the Jacobite cause was lost, he accepted the political realities and chose the church career to which he felt called. As a cardinal, including archpriest of St. Peter in the Vatican, at 60 he has the longest term in history to date.

In the eyes of the Jacobites, his claims to the British throne passed to his great cousin Charles Emanuel IV of Savoy (Charles IV).

Life

Henry Stuart as a Child, by Antonio David, approx. 1729–32

Origin and early years

Henry Benedict Thomas Edward Maria Clement Francis Xavier Stuart was born on March 6, 1725 in the Palazzo Muti in Rome and a few hours later by Pope Benedict XIII. baptized. He was the second son of James Francis Edward Stuart (1688-1766), pretender to the throne of England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland in the Jacobite line of succession and his wife, the Polish Princess Maria Clementina Sobieska , granddaughter of the Polish King John III. Sobieski . His father claimed the throne of England, Scotland and Ireland as James VIII. Henry's older brother Charles Edward was considered the rightful Prince of Wales by the Jacobites , and Henry himself was referred to as the Duke of York , traditionally the title of the English King's second-born son. His family situation was turbulent. When he was eight months old, his quick-tempered mother withdrew to the Convent of Santa Cecilia, convinced that his father was having an affair. She did not return until two years later, appointing Winifred, 5th Countess of Nithsdale as Henry's tutor, and devoting herself to a life of piety and good deeds. She died in 1735 after years of caring for the poor in Rome.

Appearance and character

Henry was a handsome, dark-haired boy who impressed with his charming manner. His father proudly announced in 1729 that he “really loved the little duke, because he is the best child there is”. The Englishman Samuel Crisp, who saw him in Rome in 1735, reported that Henry was “more beautiful and dignified than anyone could ever imagine. He danced extremely wonderfully, it is said that he is the same in all other exercises and I heard that he also sings extremely lovely ”.

In addition to her love for music, he had inherited her temperament and piety from his mother. When he was nine and was not allowed to accompany his brother to the siege of Gaeta, he flung his sword across the room in a fit of rage, whereupon his father took away his membership in the Order of the Garter as punishment. As a youth in 1742, his tutor, James Murray, Earl of Dunbar, described Henry spending much of his time in agitated prayer, sometimes listening to masses up to four a day, and in a constant state of restlessness, always carrying his watch with him so as not to miss any religious rituals. According to Dunbar, he seemed incapable of taking pleasure in anything and was often "black around the eyes, his head very exhausted and his hands hot" in the evenings. In addition to his daring brother, his contemporaries did not do well with his intense religiosity, and the Jacobites later bitterly criticized him for choosing a church career instead of marrying and fathering male heirs.

However, Henry Stuart found fulfillment in his church career, he was a loving, sensitive and intelligent man, a philanthropist , book lover and art patron.

Jacobite revolt from 1744 to 1746

Henry was initially not informed in 1744 that his brother had secretly traveled to France to begin an invasion of Great Britain from there for fear that he would accidentally tell about it. When he finally found out about it, he really wanted to help and his father told King Louis XV. : "He cannot bear the thought of having to stay here in Rome while his brother is in Scotland." On August 29, 1745, however, he was also allowed to travel to France and nominally given command of a naval expedition, which the Duke of Richelieu prepared to invade England. Henry spent the winter in Dunkirk. However, when news of his brother's withdrawal from Derby came, the French lost interest and the invasion was dropped. Henry stayed on the coast until the catastrophic defeat of the Jacobites in the Battle of Culloden on April 16, 1746. Concerned about the fate of his brother, he then made several rescue attempts at sea and served in the French army during the siege of Antwerp. Louis XV gave him an estate at Clichy near Paris, where he finally learned that Charles had arrived safely in Roscoff in October 1746. He immediately traveled to meet his brother and then accompanied him to Paris.

Cardinal York

Henry Benedict Stuart's coat of arms as a cardinal

Henry felt more and more convinced that his calling was in the Catholic Church and that the collapse of the Jacobite revolt in 1745 freed him from any obligation to meddle in political or military affairs. Henry Stuart received the tonsure on June 30, 1747, was elevated to a cardinal deacon in the consistory on July 3, 1747 by Pope Benedict XIV , and he was awarded the title deaconry Santa Maria in Portico . In a mixture of his secular and spiritual significance, he had his red cardinal robes decorated with royal ermine, was addressed as "Royal Highness and Eminence" and was from then on known as Cardinal York .

The Jacobite cause was certainly harmed by Henry's career choice, since a Catholic king was unacceptable to the Protestant British. His father was surprisingly understanding of his younger son's wishes, even though in the past he had always tried to downplay the family's Catholic faith. The previously loving and close relationship with Henry Benedict's brother suffered greatly from the decision. Charles Stuart felt humiliated by the defeat he could not accept and tormented by the suffering of his followers in England and began to drink. Henry nervously kept his decision to be ordained a secret from Charles - and when Charles finally heard about it from his father, he announced that the news was "like a dagger in my heart" and forbade using Henry's name in his presence.

On September 1, 1748 he was ordained a priest by Pope Benedict XIV and was elevated to cardinal priest twelve days later , while maintaining his previous titular church pro illa vice . He kept this in Commendam until 1759. A year later he became archpriest of St. Peter's Basilica . On October 2, 1758, Stuart was named titular archbishop of Corinth . The episcopal ordination donated to him Pope Clement XIII. on November 19, 1758 in his second titular church, the Basilica of Santi XII Apostoli in Rome; Co-consecrators were the Cardinals Giovanni Antonio Guadagni , Cardinal Bishop of Porto and Santa Rufina , and Francesco Scipione Maria Borghese , Cardinal Bishop of Albano . In 1759, Stuart became a cardinal priest of the titular church of Santa Maria in Trastevere (from 1761–1763 in Commendam ). In 1761 Pope Clement XIV accepted him into the class of cardinal bishops and transferred the diocese of Frascati to him , for which he received the titular church of San Lorenzo in Damaso in 1763 . From 1803 until his death in 1807 York was Cardinal Dean of the Holy College and, as such, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia - Velletri .

Cardinal York participated in the conclaves of 1758 , 1769 , 1774/75 and 1799/1800 . He also ordained a number of bishops, archbishops and cardinals, as well as a patriarch and three popes.

After his death, the cardinal was buried in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican , where his father and brother Charles Edward are also buried.

reception

• Carl Amery : The King's Project . Novel. Süddeutscher Verlag, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-7991-6366-2 .

literature

• Brian Fothergill: The Cardinal King. Faber and Faber, London 1958.
• Bernard W. Kelly: Life of Henry Benedict Stuart, Cardinal Duke of York, with a Notice of Rome in His Time. R. & T. Washbourne, London 1899.
• Herbert M. Vaughan: The Last of the Royal Stuarts: Henry Stuart, Cardinal Duke of York. Methuen, London 1906.
• Rosalind K. Marshall: Henry Benedict (1725-1807). In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2004.

Web links

Commons : Henry Benedict Stuart  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Stuart of York, Henry Benedict Mary Clement. In: Salvador Miranda : The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. ( Florida International University website), accessed November 10, 2016.
• Entry on Henry Benedict Mary Clement Cardinal Stuart of York on catholic-hierarchy.org ; accessed on December 21, 2016.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Rosalind K. Marshall: Henry Benedict (1725-1807). In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2004.

predecessor	Office	successor
Giovanni Francesco Albani	Cardinal Dean 1803-1807	Leonardo Antonelli
Giovanni Francesco Albani	Cardinal Bishop of Ostia 1803-1807	Leonardo Antonelli
Charles III	Henry IX. and I., Jacobite pretender to the throne 1788–1807	Charles IV.
Camillo Paolucci de 'Calboli	Cardinal Bishop of Frascati 1761–1803	Giuseppe Doria Pamphili