DATES OF BIRTHS AND DEATHS OF THE PRETENDERS.
(Vol. viii., p. 565.)
Though it is much to be regretted that the dates in question are not recorded on the Stuart monument in St. Peter's, yet the deficiency is in part supplied by the cenotaph raised to the memory of his elder brother by Cardinal York, in his cathedral church at Frascati. From it we find that Charles Edward deceased on 31st January, 1788, at the age of sixty-seven years and one month. This date also fixes the year of his birth at 1720, and the month December; most probably the 28th, though often given as the 31st. We give a copy of the inscription below.
The date of the birth and decease of James III. is correctly given in "N. & Q.," Vol viii., p. 565.
An account of the sepulchral monument of the last of the Stuarts may interest the readers of "N. & Q." In the south aisle of St. Peter's, and against the first pier of the nave, is the monument of the Stuarts. It was sculptured by Canova to the memory of James, the old Pretender; Charles Edward, the young Pretender; and Henry Benedict, the Cardinal, who was known in Rome as Cardinal York. Part of the expense of the monument was defrayed by George IV., who sent a donation of fifty pounds for the purpose to Pius VII. The monument is built on to the masonry of the pier, of white marble, about fifteen feet high, and is in the form of the frustrum of a
pyramid, and surmounted above the entablature by the royal arms of England. Below the arms are profile portraits in bas-relief of James, Charles Edward, and Henry Benedict, surmounted by a festoon of flowers. Beneath the portraits is the following inscription:
"Jacobo III.
Jacobi II. Magnæ Brit. regis filio,
Karolo Edvardo,
Et Henrico, decano Patrum Cardinalium,
Jacobi III. filiis,
Regiæ Stirpis Stuardiæ postremis.
A.D. MDCCCXIX.
Beati mortui,
Qui in Domino moriuntur."
There is a representation of panelled doors, as if leading to a vault, below the inscription, though their sepulchre is not in this locality; a small triangular slab of marble surmounts the door, with the words "Beati mortui," &c. A weeping angel in bas-relief guards the doorway on each side; the head of each angel resting on the bosom, the wings drooping, the hands elevated, joined together, and resting on the end of an extinguished and inverted torch. The figures of the two angels are exquisitely beautiful, and among Canova's finest works.
The bodies, however, of these last representatives of a fallen line are not buried beneath this monument, but in the crypt under the dome, and in that portion of it called the "Grotto Vecchie." There, in the first aisle to the left on entering, against the wall, a tomb about six feet long by three broad contains all that remains of the ashes of the last of the Stuarts. Over it is a plain slab of marble, with an inscription to announce that this is the burial-place of "James III., Charles III., and Henry IX., Kings of England." Even in death this royal race has not abandoned the claim they were unable to enforce.