Point of Divergence:
1745 – During the
Jacobite uprising against the House of Hanover, Prince Charles Stuart encounters with
Lady Flora MacDonald, granddaughter of the Chief of Clan Macdonald of Clanranald. They fall in love and after the eventual defeat of the uprising she follows him and leaves Scotland for France.
1746 – Prince Charles and Lady Flora decide to marry and they do it in two different occasions: first in a Catholic ceremony in a church in Paris, and Second, By a Huguenot Priest in secret at a friend's house also in Paris.
1748 – Prince Charles fathers a son – Prince James Henry Ranald Stuart. Under his mother's influence, he is raised as a Protestant, and officially converts to Protestantism in 1789. Afterwards Prince Charles and Lady Flora have together 8 more children, 9 in total, 7 boys and 3 girls.
1791 – In light of the French Revolution, the place of exile of the royal Stuarts becomes unstable, and they move at first to Naples where the Bourbon King of Naples, King Ferdinand IV, invited them to stay, and when that also becomes unsafe for them, they move to the United States, where Lady Flora had relatives there in the southern state of South Carolina.
1795 – After a long series of unsuccessful business ventures, and rising debt, the Royal Stuarts decided to return to Europe, and on the Invitation of Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, they moved to Maribor in modern day Slovenia.
1816 – At the Age of 72, The Jacobite Pretender, Prince James Henry Ranald Stuart has died. His eldest son, Prince Charles Benedict Stuart, aged 38, succeeds his father, and for the first time since the Glorious Revolution of 1688, he declares that from now on all the members of the House of Stuart have officially converted from Catholicism to Anglicanism, and to commemorate that, he used what little money his family have saved from their exile in the Austrian Empire to establish an Episcopal church in France called the First Episcopalian Church of Gaul. The move was a result of discreet negotiations the prince secretly had with representatives of King George III of Great Britain in order to facilitate a reconciliation between the House of Stuart and the House of Hanover.
1832 – Following the July Revolution in France, which overthrew the Bourbon Kings of France in favor of a king from the junior line of Orleans, the new King Louis Philippe publishes a new constitution which nullifies and revokes all the privileges and pensions that the aristocracy had previously enjoyed. In this brave new world where bloodline and titles meant very little, The Prince, Charles Benedict, having witnessed in his lifetime, twice, the loss of wealth and status, had decided that this could no longer be the course of the family to always look for new patrons that could finance their lifestyle. Instead, he decided to change course and from now on his family will be a leader in the areas of Industry and Finance.
In order to do that, the prince decided to establish two corporations that will be the economic power base for the members of the dynasty – The Royal Stuart Bank and the Rueil-Malmaison Company for Textile (in short R.M.C.T.). He did that, thanks to his friendship with such influential people in these areas – The Rothschilds (who became business partners in the bank) and the relatives from his mother's side in South Carolina. These two corporations have created for the House of Stuart a web of wealth that started in France, but soon covered most of Europe and the Americas.
1852 – Following the disastrous Spring of Nations revolutions of 1848, the two companies were faced with a prospect of near bankruptcy as most of their branches in France, the Austrian Empire, Russia, Prussia, and Scandinavia, were almost completely destroyed in the riots that swept through all of Europe. In order to rebuild and restore the companies to their former self, Prince Charles Benedict knew that the only way to do that was if he had access to capital investments from the London Stock Exchange, but, as he was a Stuart, and his family was exiled from Britain since 1688 and barred from re-entering, he knew that first he had to overcome this major obstacle. To do that, he was committed to finish his life's mission and reconcile between the two houses. So the Prince sent emissaries to Prime Minister Lord Palmerston asking what he thought was the necessary steps in order to give the exiled Stuarts an access point back to Britain. The PM replied that if the Stuarts are willing to swear allegiance to Queen Victoria, to the Act of Settlement of 1701, to all and any laws made by Parliament ever since, and to publicly renounce any claim and pretensions to the British Crown, if so, than they are welcome back. Prince Charles Benedict accepted it, and on September of the same year, he traveled from Paris to Windsor Castle where he publicly, in front of the Queen and Members of the Cabinet, took the Oath of Allegiance to the Queen and renounced all claims and pretensions to the Crown. The Press in Britain celebrated it as the "Day of Reconciliation". Upon this, the Queen decided not to ignore the royal bloodline of the exiled royal Stuarts, and created for them the title of Duke Stuart of Darnley as it was his ancestors title before the house of Stuart became the Royal House of Scotland and England. Following this, the now Duke Stuart of Darnley borrowed the necessary capital that was needed to restore the family's businesses, and created new branches in London and Edinburgh.
1853 – After achieving his life's goas of reconciliation, Duke Stuart of Darnley, Charles Benedict, passed away at the age of 75. He was succeeded by his grand-nephew, James Oliver Hippolytus Stuart, 2nd Duke Stuart of Darnley, aged 25. Having been educated in both Paris and New-York (his father was sent there to establish the New York branch of the Royal Stuart Bank in Wall Street) the young duke had decided to carry on his father and great-uncle's mission. He decided that the best thing for the Stuart family economic power was to expand to Asia and the Pacific, so in 1855 the Young duke decided to move back to the United States, but this time, it was to San Francisco, where he established another branch, and just in time to benefit from the
California Gold Rush. From there, he moved to Hong-Kong where he established another branch, and finally moved to Bombay, to establish his last branch on his world tour. In 1861 he finally came back to London, where he had to deal with the financial outcomes of the American Civil War.
The American Civil War did not bring any good news to the House of Stuart. The loss of access to American cotton market meant that the textile company R.M.C.T. came into debt and by 1863 was declared bankrupt. The Royal Stuart Bank also had encountered some major losses, but thanks to the new revenue from California and Hong-Kong the bank was able to withstand the losses and continue its operations.
1858 – In that year the 2nd Duke Stuart of Darnley finally married to a daughter of a wealthy silk merchant from Hong Kong, and in the same year he fathered a son named Henry Augustus James Stuart, who became the 3rd Duke Stuart of Darnley in 1899, when is father passed away at the age of 71.
1884 – The Earl of
Kilmuir, heir to the title of Duke Stuart of Darnley, and son of the 2nd Duke, decided to marry
Princess Olga of Hanover and Cumberland and a member of the House of Hanover. The two met each other during his vacation in Germany in the summer of the preceding year, and they fell in love. The Wedding was heavily covered by the press, as it was seen as a union between the two houses, and also, it meant that any child born of this union could possibly be considered in the royal line of succession by right of his mother. When the Duke was asked by reporters if this means that he still has any claim to the throne, the duke replied: "From birth, I have had only my deepest Loyalty to the Queen and nothing has ever changed since then!", as a gift, Queen Victoria decided to award the title of the
Duke of Stirling and give
Stirling Castle to the Duke to be the Seat of the House of Stuart.
1893 – The
Panic of 1893 meant the end for the Royal Stuart Bank, its losses have accumulated to such a degree that it declared bankruptcy in the same year. From now on the House of Stuart was never to be an independent economic power; its power now was based on working in the civil service as managers and even ambassadors, in academia, in the British armed forces as officers and in the private sector as directors and managers of other successful corporations. But most of its power came by way of intermarriage with other rich and successful families who wanted to mix their blood with the royal blood of the Stuarts, and thus add some class and distinctiveness to their family.
By 1970's the House of Stuart was just another higher middle class family in Scotland. From time to time a local reporter would get in touch with them to do a magazine article about living outside the fame & glam of the royal family, and also they got coverage by the tabloids with ridiculous headlines asking "Is the Real King of Scotland living in Edinburgh as a Real Estate Agent?" but other than that, no other serious reference was made to them from any serious source.
The End.
(Or Is It?)