James Stuart

James Stuart, also known as the Old Pretender, was the son of the former King James II and James VII of Scotland and Queen Mary of Modena. During the latter part of his father's reign, he was the Prince of Wales and the first in line to the English and Scottish thrones.

He was born in 1688. There was a rumour that he had been smuggled into his mother's bedchamber in a warming pan and therefore had no right to the throne.

Shortly before James II was overthrown by his daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange in the Glorious Revolution in November 1688, he and his mother went into exile in France. The Second Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot helped her to evade a mob of Protestant supporters of William. (AUDIO: The Glorious Revolution)

James was the father of the Young Pretender Bonnie Prince Charlie, who attempted to reclaim the English and Scottish thrones for his family in the Jacobite Rising of 1745 which came to an end with the Jacobite defeat at the Battle of Culloden on 16 April 1746. (AUDIO: The Glorious Revolution; TV: The Highlanders)

Behind the scenes

 * He was played by Freddie Wilson in the 1969 BBC drama series The First Churchills.