Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Jacobite minstrelsy

xiv GENEALOGY.
jects, and partly English refugees, November 5, 1688. As
he proceeded to London, James was deserted by his army,
by his friends, and even by his own children ; and in a
confusion of mind, the result of fear and offended feelings,
he retired to France. A Convention Parliament then
declared that James had abdicated, and resolved to offer
the crown to William and his consort Mary. This event
is usually termed " The Revolution of 1688."
William III., son of Mary, eldest daughter of Charles
I., and who had married his cousin Mary, eldest daughter
of James II., thus assumed the crown, "in company with
his consort; while King James remained in exile in
France. Mary died in 1695, and King William then be-
came sole monarch. In consequence of a fall from his
horse, he died in 1701, leaving no issue.
Anne, second daughter of King James II., was then
placed upon the throne. James, meanwhile, died in
France, leaving a son, James, born in England, June 10,
1688, the heir of his unhappy fortunes. This personage,
known in history by the epithet of the Pretender, and
more popularly by his incognito title, the Chevalier de St.
George, continued an exile in France, supported by his
cousin, Louis XIV., and by the subsidies of his English
adherents. Anne, after a reign of thirteen years, distin-
guished by excessive military and literary glory, died
without issue, August 1, 1714. During the life of this
sovereign, the crown had been destined, by Act of Parlia-
ment, to the nearest Protestant heir, Sophia, Electress
of Hanover, daughter of Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia,
the daughter of King James VI. Sophia having prede-
ceased Queen Anne, it descended of course to her son,
George, Elector of Hanover, who accordingly came over
to England and assumed the sovereignty, to the exclusion
of his cousin, the Chevalier.
George I. was scarcely seated on the throne, when an
insurrection was raised against him by the friends of his
rival. It was suppressed, however; and he continued to
reign, almost without further disturbance, till his death
in 1727.
George 1 1, succeeded to the crown on the death of his fa-
ther. Meanwhile, the Chevalier de St. George had married
Clementina, grand-daughter of John Sobieski, the heroic
King of Poland, by whom he had a son, Charles Edward
Lewis Cassimir, born December 31, 1720, the hero of the
civil war of 1745, and another son, Henry Benedict, born
1725, afterwards well known by the name of Cardinal de
York. James was himself a man of weak character ; but
the courage and enterprise of Sobieski was conspicuous for
a season at least, in his eldest son, whose romantic intre-
pidity, displayed in 1745-6. did everything but retrieve the
fortunes of his family.