Royal Stuart Society

Royal Stuart Society

Monarchist, Traditionalist
Headquarters	Walsingham, Norfolk, England
Governor-General	Murray Beauclerk, 14th Duke of St. Albans
Website	royalstuartsociety.com

The Royal Stuart Society, founded in 1926, is the largest extant Jacobite organization in the United Kingdom. Its full name is The Royal Stuart Society and Royalist League, although it is best known simply as the "Royal Stuart Society". It acknowledges Francis, Duke of Bavaria as head of the House of Stuart, while refraining from making any claim on his behalf that he does not make himself.

The society organises annual events to commemorate the major anniversaries of Jacobitism and other events of Royalist interest.

History

After the

.

The Royal Stuart Society considers itself a successor to, and effectively the continuation of, bodies of the Neo-Jacobite Revival, such as the Legitimist Jacobite League of Great Britain and Ireland (founded in 1891 by Herbert Vivian, Ruaraidh Erskine and Melville Henry Massue), the Order of the White Rose and the Thames Valley Legitimist Club. Among its other founders were Lionel Erskine-Young, 29th Earl of Mar (1891–1965) and Reginald Lindesay-Bethune, 12th Earl of Lindsay (1867–1939).^[1]

Objectives

The objectives of the Royal Stuart Society are as follows: (1) to be open to all who have an interest in the members of the Royal House of Stuart, their descendants and supporters; (2) to promote research in and further knowledge of Stuart history; (3) to uphold rightful Monarchy and oppose republicanism; and (4) to arrange such commemorations, lectures and other activities as shall advance these objects. It describes itself on its website as being “monarchist and traditionalist”.^[2]

Leadership

As of 2023^[update], the Governor-General is

Other Vice-Presidents of the Royal Stuart Society include:

• Princess Lew Sapieha, a Polish-Lithuanian noble
• Prince Filippo Rospigliosi, 12th Earl of Newburgh, a Scottish peer
• FRHistS
  , a British politician, historian, journalist and author
• Count
  monarchist and historian, and current nominal head of the House of Tolstoy
• Ian Maitland, 18th Earl of Lauderdale, a Scottish peer
• Peter de Vere Beauclerk-Dewar, the author of The House of Nell Gwyn – the fortunes of the Beauclerk Family 1670-1974 (1975)
• Lucius Cary, 15th Viscount Falkland, a British nobleman and politician
• Edward Corp, former Professor of British History at the University of Toulouse in Toulouse, France
• Lady
  FRSL, a British author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction

Activities

The Society organises a variety of events throughout the year. An important part of these events are the commemorations in Whitehall, Windsor and Westminster Abbey. Details of all these events, many of which are open to the public who are always made welcome, appear on the Society's website.

A service to commemorate the execution of

is marked by prayers and the laying of flowers at his statue outside the National Gallery on 14 October.

The Society also holds an annual dinner, which commemorates Restoration Day and White Rose Day, with the white rose being a symbol of

.

Newsletters with details of people, events, and news of the Society are produced and edited by the Principal Secretary, and sent to members during the year. The Society publishes the Royal Stuart Journal annually, and this is available to non-members via the website. The Journal replaced a series of publications called Royal Stuart Papers (still available from the Society), which included papers by a number of well known historians, such as Roy Porter, Richard Sharpe, Murray Pittock, Eveline Cruickshanks, Lady Antonia Fraser, and Ronald Hutton.^[2]

References