Everything about The Monument To The Royal Stuarts totally explained
The
Monument to the Royal Stuarts is a memorial in
St. Peter's Basilica, in the
Vatican in
Rome. It commemorates the last three members of the Royal House of Stuart:
James Francis Edward Stuart, his elder son
Charles Edward Stuart, and his younger son,
Henry Benedict Stuart. The
Jacobites recognised these three princes as kings of
England,
Scotland and
Ireland.
The marble
monument is by
Antonio Canova, the most celebrated Italian sculptor of his day. It is in the form of a truncated
obelisk. It carries
bas relief profile portraits of the three exiled princes, and the following inscription:
IACOBO·III
IACOBI·II·MAGNAE·BRIT·REGIS·FILIO
KAROLO·EDVARDO
ET·HENRICO·DECANO·PATRUM·CARDINALIVM
IACOBI·III·FILIIS
REGIAE·STIRPIS·STVARDIAE·POSTREMIS
ANNO·M·DCCC·XIX
(
To James III, son of King James II of Great Britain, to Charles Edward and to Henry, Dean of the Cardinal Fathers, sons of James III, the last of the Royal House of Stuart. 1819")
Below the inscription are two weeping angels, symbolising the lost hopes of the exiled Stuarts.
The monument to the Royal Stuarts was originally commissioned by Monsignor Angelo Cesarini, executor of the estate of
Henry Benedict Stuart. Among the subscribers, curiously, was
King George IV, who (once the Jacobite threat to his throne had ended with the death of Cardinal Stuart in 1807) was an admirer of the Stuart legend.
The monument stands towards the back of the basilica in the left aisle opposite the door from which people coming down the spiral staircase from the dome and roof exit. It is frequently adorned with flowers by Jacobite romantics.
The monument isn't a
tomb. The three Stuarts are buried in the
crypt below the basilica.
James Francis Edward Stuart was buried here at his death in 1766. When
Charles Edward Stuart died in 1788, he was buried in the
Cathedral Basilica of St. Peter Apostle in
Frascati. When his brother
Henry Benedict Stuart died in 1807, both brothers were laid to rest next to their father in the crypt of St. Peter's. Three separate tombstones were erected on the site.
Until 1938 the bodies of the three Stuarts were buried where the tomb of
Pius XI now stands. In that year the bodies were moved slightly further east on the left side of the crypt, to make room for Pius's tomb. In 1939 a single sarcophagus was erected over the three graves. On top of the sarcophagus is a bronze pillow on which is placed a bronze crown. On the front of the sarcophagus is the same inscription quoted above.
Opposite the monument to the Royal Stuarts in St. Peter's Basilica is a monument to
Maria Klementyna Sobieska, wife of
James Francis Edward Stuart and mother of
Charles Edward Stuart and
Henry Benedict Stuart. Its inscription reads:
MARIA CLEMENTINA M. BRITANN.
FRANC. ET HIBERN. REGINA
("Maria Clementina, Queen of Great Britain, France and Ireland"). The reference to
France is a relic of the
Plantagenet claim to the French throne, see
English Kings of France.
Queen
Christina of Sweden, the only monarch with a memorial in the church, also lies entombed in the crypt below the basilica, with the Royal Stuarts. She abdicated her throne in 1654 to convert to Catholicism.
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