Isabel Stuart

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Isabel
Isabel after Sir Peter Lely, circa 1679-1681
House House of Stuart
Father James, Duke of York
Mother Mary of Modena
Born (1676-08-28)28 August 1676
St James's Palace, London
Died 2 March 1681(1681-03-02) (aged 4 years and 6 months)
St James' Palace, London
Burial Westminster Abbey

Isabel Stuart (28 August 1676 – 2 March 1681) was a daughter of James II of England and his second wife Mary of Modena.

Isabel was born at St James's Palace in London;[1] at this time, Isabel's father was Duke of York, the reigning king was her uncle Charles II of England. At the time of her birth, she was the second daughter of James and Mary, behind her sister Catherine Laura who died two months after Isabel's birth. Isabel had two older half-sisters from her father's first marriage to Anne Hyde: Mary and Anne; both would become reigning Queens of England. Isabel's paternal grandparents were Charles I of England and his wife Henrietta Maria of France, her maternal grandparents were Alfonso IV d'Este and Laura Martinozzi.

Life

For the majority of her lifetime, Isabel was the royal couple's only child therefore, for the majority of her life she was fourth in line to the throne (behind her father, Mary and Anne). She was moved down a place upon the birth of her brother Charles Stuart, Duke of Cambridge; however, he died of smallpox after living only for a month, so Isabel was promoted back up to fourth in line. In 1678, Isabel was joined by another sister, Elizabeth, but the child was also short-lived.

Her family had a portrait painted of her by Sir Peter Lely.[2]

In 1678 when Isabel was two years old, her parents faced the Popish Plot which led to them being exiled to Brussels to stay with Mary. The royal couple were accompanied by Isabel and Anne; Isabel was not yet three-years-old at the time.

A report that King Charles was very sick sent the family back to England post-haste.[3] They feared the King's eldest illegitimate son, James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, and commander of England's armed forces, might usurp the crown if Charles died in their absence.[3][4] The matter was compounded by the fact that Monmouth enjoyed the support of the Exclusionists, who held a majority in the House of Commons of England.[3] Charles survived but, feeling the family returned to court too soon, sent James and Mary to Edinburgh, where they stayed on-and-off for the next three years.[5][6] Lodging in the dilapidated Holyrood Palace however, Anne and Isabel stayed in London on Charles's orders.[7] The couple were recalled to London in February 1680, only to return again to Edinburgh that autumn; this time they went on a more honourable footing: James was created King's Commissioner to Scotland.[8] Isabel and her mother remained separated, this caused Mary to sink into a state of sadness, exacerbated by the passing of the Exclusion bill in the Commons.[9][10] Lady Isabel, thus far the only one of Mary's children to survive infancy, died in February 1681 in the care of her uncle King Charles.[11] Isabel's death plunged Mary into a religious mania, worrying her physician.[11] At the same time as news reached Holyrood of Isabel's death, her maternal grandmother Laura was falsely accused of offering £10,000 for the murder of the King.[11] The accuser, a pamphleteer, was executed by order of the King.[11]

Isabel died at St James's Palace, the place of her birth, she died of natural causes aged four,[1] five months shy of her fifth birthday, she was buried at Westminster Abbey. Four years after the death of Isabel, her father succeeded as King of England.

Ancestry

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Biography of Isabel Stuart
  2. ↑ Sir Peter Lely - Portrait of Princess Isabel
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Oman, p 63.
  4. ↑ Fea, p 85.
  5. ↑ Haile, p 92.
  6. ↑ Turner, p 171.
  7. ↑ Oman, p 67.
  8. ↑ Fea, p 96.
  9. ↑ Waller, p 35
  10. ↑ Haile, pp. 99–100
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Oman, p 71.
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