James Fitz-James Stuart, 2nd Duke of Berwick

James FitzJames Stuart
Duke of Berwick
Spouse(s) Catalina Ventura de Portugal-Columbus, 9th Duquesa de Veragua y de La Vega

Issue

Jacopo Stuart-FitzJames-Stuart y Colon de Portugal
James Fitz-James Stuart, 3rd Duke of Berwick
Pedro Stuart-FitzJames-Stuart y Colon de Portugal, Marques de San Leonardo
Catalina Stuart-FitzJames-Stuart y Colon de Portugal
Ventura Stuart-FitzJames-Stuart y Colon de Portugal
Maria Guadalupe Stuart-FitzJames-Stuart y Colon de Portugal
Noble family House of FitzJames
Father James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick
Mother Honora de Burgh
Born 21 October 1696
Saint Germain en Laye, France
Died 2 June 1738
Naples, Kingdom of Naples

James Francis (Diego Francisco) Fitz-James Stuart, 2nd Duke of Berwick, (Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France, 21 October 1696 – Naples, Italy, 2 June 1738) was a Jacobite and Spanish nobleman. He inherited titles in the Jacobite and Spanish nobility on the death of his father in battle in 1734 at Philippsburg, (near Karlsruhe, presently located in the German federal state of Baden-Württemberg), during the War of the Polish Succession. He was also Consort Duke of Veragua and of la Vega and a Consort-Marquis of four further titles by his Spanish marriage in 1716. His full title was 2nd Duke of Berwick, 2nd Earl of Tinmouth, 2nd Baron Bosworth, 2nd Duke of Liria and Xerica, Grandee of Spain 1st class (from 1716), Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece (from 29 September 1714), as well as the holder of several earldoms.

Family

His mother was Lady Honora Burke (1675–1698), second daughter of William Burke, (d. 1687), the seventh Earl of Clanricarde (Honora was a common female name in the Burke and Walshingam families). Her first marriage had been to the Irish Jacobite nobleman Patrick Sarsfield, 1st Earl of Lucan, (c 1650 - 1693). After having one child with Sarsfield, he died and Honora remarried to James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick on 26 March 1695 in the Royal Chapel at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France. Unfortunately, she died at Pezenas, in the Languedoc, South of France, on the 16 January 1698 when her new baby was less than 18 months old. The 1st Duke of Berwick was an illegitimate son of King James II of England by Arabella Churchill, sister of the 1st Duke of Marlborough. His father later remarried and so the 2nd Duke of Berwick had 12 younger half brothers and half sisters, the eldest half brother being the origin of the line of French Dukes of Fitzjames (a title extinguished in 1967).

James Fitz-James Stuart, 2nd Duke of Berwick, by Hyacinthe Rigaud

Marriage and descent

On 31 December 1716, the 2nd Duke of Berwick became the second husband of the dowager Catalina Ventura Colón de Portugal y Ayala-Toledo, 9th Duchess of Veragua (14 July 1690 – 3 October 1739). Catalina Ventura was by then the orphaned daughter of Pedro Manuel Colon de Portugal y de la Cueva, (25 December 1651 - 9 September 1710). She was thus the sister of Pedro Nuño Colón de Portugal y Ayala-Toledo, (17 October 1676 – 4 July 1733), 8th Duke of Veragua and Marquis of Jamaica. In 1733 she inherited her brother's title of Duke of Veragua since his two sons and one daughter all predeceased him, all dying by the end of 1714. This made the 2nd Duke of Berwick also duke-consort of Veragua and of la Vega. However, court disputes meant that many of her family titles, including the Dukedom "de la Vega de Santo Domingo", (now known as the Dominican Republic), passed to the Colón de Larreategui family in 1787.

Their second son was James Fitz-James Stuart, 3rd Duke of Berwick (28 December 1718 - 30 September 1785), who on July 26th 1738 married Maria Teresa De Silva y Haro, born after 1712. Of their other children, only Pedro de Alcántara, (1720–1790), Ventura or Buenaventura (1724 - ????)) and Maria Guadalupe (1725–1744, married but no issue) survived to adulthood.

Career

The Anglo-Franco-Spanish James Fitz-James Stuart was used by Elizabeth of Parma to achieve her military purposes, being involved in the battles on land and sea from 1717 to 1719 to regain Naples from its Austrian rulers and Sicily from the Duchy of Savoy, thus creating the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. He fought as colonel of the Irish Regiments of Spain and Lieutenant General of the Spanish Royal Armies, being promoted to Field Marshal in February 1724.

He then served as Spanish ambassador to Russia under Emperor Peter II (December 1726 to 1730), taking with him Ricardo Wall (1694–1777), later a minister in the Spanish government. During his time in Russia he was made a Knight of the Russian Order of Saint Andrew (28 March 1728), a Knight of the Russian Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky and a Knight of the Garter (by the pretender James Stuart on 3 April 1727). From 1730 to 1733 Stuart was ambassador in Vienna, then from 1733 to his death in 1738 ambassador to the "recovered" Kingdom of Naples (taking Wall with him again on both missions).

Ancestry

James Fitz-James Stuart was a grandson of King James II of England by his illegitimate son James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick whom he fathered with his mistress Arabella Churchill.

References

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