James Francis Edward Stuart Renounced Catholicism

James II had a son named James Francis Edward Stuart (JFES). As the oldest legitimate male heir, he was theoretically first in line over his sisters. But being Catholic he couldn't ascend the throne.

JFES died in 1766. Before his death, William & Mary, Anne, George I,II,III ascended the throne.

What if at some point in that line of succession, JFES renounced Catholicism and pressed his claim?
 
James II had a son named James Francis Edward Stuart (JFES). As the oldest legitimate male heir, he was theoretically first in line over his sisters. But being Catholic he couldn't ascend the throne.

JFES died in 1766. Before his death, William & Mary, Anne, George I,II,III ascended the throne.

What if at some point in that line of succession, JFES renounced Catholicism and pressed his claim?

He would have gotten the throne if he had renounced (although how Parliament would explain away William and then Anne publicly saying he was the "pretended" Prince of Wales and not really James II's son, as part of the reasoning for bypassing him in succession and Anne never even acknowledging his existence - I don't know).

BUT for this to work you would need an entirely different Old Pretender. He was raised in France (with the support of Louis XIV), was given houses and support by the Pope his entire life, his father (who he worshipped) had lost a throne for his faith, his mother was regarded by many (in France and elsewhere) as a living saint due to her faith, and he saw many of his father's Catholic supporters persecuted while those Protestants who turned on his father supposedly in the name of religion (including Churchill, Hyde, and his own half-sister, Anne) were rewarded by the Williamites, while pretending he was not even his father's son (his half-sisters not even acknowledging he existed except as a "Warming Pan Baby" - a story explicitly spread by Anne). Is it any wonder why on his PERSONAL religion this the was one issue on which he would not bend? For this AH JFES would need to be raised very differently.
 
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