Stuart, Louisa Maria Teresa (1692 -1712)

Louisa Maria Teresa Stuart, known to Jacobites as The Princess Royal, was the last child of James II, and his wife Queen Maria of Modena. She was given the name Louisa in honour of King Louis XIV, who acted as her godfather. Louisa Maria was the only full sibling of Prince James Francis Edward, the “Old Pretender”, to survive infancy. She was four years younger than her brother. The two were brought up together in France. Louisa Maria's tutor was an English Roman Catholic priest, Father Constable, who taught her Latin, history, and religion. She also had a governess, the Countess of Middleton, wife of the Jacobite peer Charles, 2nd Earl of Middleton. Soon after James's death, Louis XIV proclaimed James Francis Edward as King of England, Scotland and Ireland, and he was also formally recognised as king by Spain, the Papal States and Modena. He and Louisa Maria were transferred to Passy, into the care of Antoine Nompar de Caumont and his wife, with Lady Middleton continuing as Louisa Maria's governess there. Louisa Maria felt keenly that Jacobites in exile had made huge sacrifices for her family, and she herself paid for the daughters of many of them to be educated. She made no distinction between Roman Catholics and Protestants, supporting the daughters of both. In April 1712, both James Francis Edward and his sister fell sick with smallpox. While the Old Pretender recovered, Louisa Maria died on 28 April (18 April, Old Style) and was buried with her father at the Church of the English Benedictines in Paris.