Part 1. A King, Deposed (1688 - 1701)
Just a little something ...
Having been deposed in 1688, James II and VII landed in Ireland with French support in an attempt to reclaim his crown.
This failed.
James fled back to France in 1690. But he wouldn't remain there for long - with further French backing and a conviction that if he couldn't take the English crown, he would certainly deprive them of their American colonies.
He landed in Virginia in 1691, and made his claim as it's rightful King. Taking up residence in Bacon's Castle, he was joined by his wife and son, James, the following year with his wife falling quickly pregnant and giving birth to a daughter, Elizabeth, in Summer of 1693.
The King and his family had to make a lot of adjustments to the lifestyle they had become accustomed to. Smaller and plainer meals, palaces and social events, and Bacon's Castle was a fortified manor house rather than the various castles, chateaux and palaces that the family had been used to in Europe.
For Crown Prince James, and his younger sister, the Princess Royal, this must have seemed like a fantastic adventure and with little frame of reference they must have made the quickest adjustments. Perhaps they heard their mother crying herself to sleep at night - for Mary of Modena, Queen of Virginia as she now was, missed society and in turn became a very attentive mother.
James in contrast - deemed rather boring to the English and French courts from all reports - found a new lease of life, planning the establishment of a new capital fitting a sovereign nation. This new city he planned would be named New Modena*, as a fortieth birthday gift for the Queen, and would be developed on the site of Middle Plantation.
James had yet to be officially crowned as King of Virginia by 1698, though the family had used the style of "... of Virginia" since the birth of the Princess Royal at the very least (a surviving copy of her birth certificate lists her as "Louisa Maria Teresa Stuart, Princess Royal of Virginia, and of His Majesty The King of Virginia's Other Colonies ..."). A hastily arranged coronation ceremony took place at a local chapel - an "awful Paupers Coronation" commented John Drummond, (previously the Earl of Melfort until he had forfeited his titles by joining James over the water), in his private journals.
But a King had been crowned, a capital had been planned and James' daughter, Queen Mary II of England, and her husband, King William III, had yet to stake a claim or try to evict Mary's father, step-mother and half siblings from their 'new colonial lodgings'. This couldn't have been out of fondness as the pair seemed genuinely convinced that the Crown Prince was a changeling and was perhaps more the English monarch and Parliament biding their time because, certainly, the House of Stuart would not be able to survive over the water for long.
If the latter was the case, they were rather mistaken. With James I, II and VII's death during 1701 of a brain haemorrhage, the thirteen year old Crown Prince was named King of Virginia - and unlike his father, he would rule for a lengthy 65 years.
* - TTL version of Williamsburg
Having been deposed in 1688, James II and VII landed in Ireland with French support in an attempt to reclaim his crown.
This failed.
James fled back to France in 1690. But he wouldn't remain there for long - with further French backing and a conviction that if he couldn't take the English crown, he would certainly deprive them of their American colonies.
He landed in Virginia in 1691, and made his claim as it's rightful King. Taking up residence in Bacon's Castle, he was joined by his wife and son, James, the following year with his wife falling quickly pregnant and giving birth to a daughter, Elizabeth, in Summer of 1693.
The King and his family had to make a lot of adjustments to the lifestyle they had become accustomed to. Smaller and plainer meals, palaces and social events, and Bacon's Castle was a fortified manor house rather than the various castles, chateaux and palaces that the family had been used to in Europe.
For Crown Prince James, and his younger sister, the Princess Royal, this must have seemed like a fantastic adventure and with little frame of reference they must have made the quickest adjustments. Perhaps they heard their mother crying herself to sleep at night - for Mary of Modena, Queen of Virginia as she now was, missed society and in turn became a very attentive mother.
James in contrast - deemed rather boring to the English and French courts from all reports - found a new lease of life, planning the establishment of a new capital fitting a sovereign nation. This new city he planned would be named New Modena*, as a fortieth birthday gift for the Queen, and would be developed on the site of Middle Plantation.
James had yet to be officially crowned as King of Virginia by 1698, though the family had used the style of "... of Virginia" since the birth of the Princess Royal at the very least (a surviving copy of her birth certificate lists her as "Louisa Maria Teresa Stuart, Princess Royal of Virginia, and of His Majesty The King of Virginia's Other Colonies ..."). A hastily arranged coronation ceremony took place at a local chapel - an "awful Paupers Coronation" commented John Drummond, (previously the Earl of Melfort until he had forfeited his titles by joining James over the water), in his private journals.
But a King had been crowned, a capital had been planned and James' daughter, Queen Mary II of England, and her husband, King William III, had yet to stake a claim or try to evict Mary's father, step-mother and half siblings from their 'new colonial lodgings'. This couldn't have been out of fondness as the pair seemed genuinely convinced that the Crown Prince was a changeling and was perhaps more the English monarch and Parliament biding their time because, certainly, the House of Stuart would not be able to survive over the water for long.
If the latter was the case, they were rather mistaken. With James I, II and VII's death during 1701 of a brain haemorrhage, the thirteen year old Crown Prince was named King of Virginia - and unlike his father, he would rule for a lengthy 65 years.
* - TTL version of Williamsburg