Thursday, September 16, 2010

Old Pretender Claims Throne

God bless the King!--God bless the Faith's defender!
God bless--No harm in blessing--the Pretender.
Who that Pretender is, and who that King,--
God bless us all!--is quite another thing.

From Walter Scott's "Red Gauntlet".  According to Edinburgh University's Walter Scott Archive, "Red Gauntlet" may contain more investment of Scott's personal life than any of his other novels.  The story revolves around a last attempt by James Francis Edward Stuart to claim the throne.  On September 16, 1701, James's father James II (England and Ireland and VII (Scotland) died.  The "Old Pretender" made his first claim to these thrones that day.

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