Henry FitzJames

Henry FitzJames (1st Duke of Albemarle in the Jacobite peerage) (6 August 1673 – 16 December 1702), was the illegitimate son of King James II of England and VII of Scotland by Arabella Churchill, sister of the Duke of Marlborough.

Personal

FitzJames was born in St. James's Square, Westminster, then in the county of Middlesex, England. He was the brother of James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick, the French Marshal. On 20 July 1700 he married Marie Gabrielle d'Audibert de Lussan, daughter and heiress of Jean d'Audibert, Comte de Lussan. They had a posthumous daughter, Lady Christine Marie Jacqueline Henriette FitzJames, born 29 May 1703 at Bagnols sur Cèze, Languedoc, France, who became a nun. His widow, Marie Gabrielle d'Audibert de Lussan, Duchess of Albemarle, remarried in May 1707, at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, John Drummond, Marquess of Forth, later 2nd Duke of Melfort (1682–1754)).

Unrecognized Title

FitzJames was created Duke of Albemarle, together with the subsidiary titles of Earl of Rochford and Baron Romney, by his father on 13 January 1696, but the title is only recognized by Jacobites. He was also appointed the Grand Prior of the revived Priory of the English Commandery of the Sovereign Military Order of St.John of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta, known as the Knights of Malta.

Ancestry

References

• Ruvigny and Raineval, Henry Melville de Massue de Ruvigny, Marquis of, "the Jacobite Peerage", Edinburgh, 1904