of Orange stipulated that the prince ‘should be educated a protestant in England’ (Memoirs of Great Britain, iii. 119). In a memorial, however, sent 27 July 1696 by Middleton, in James II's name, to the pope, it is objected that such an arrangement would be a surrender of the absolute claim of hereditary right (Original Papers, i. 553). The negotiation, therefore, did not go further. Louis XIV promised James II on his deathbed that the child should receive the same treatment as the father, and be acknowledged as king of England (ib. p. 589). Upon the death of James (6 Sept. 1701) a herald appeared at the palace gate of St. Germains, and in Latin, French, and English proclaimed the boy James III of England and VIII of Scotland. Upon an attempt to perform a similar ceremony in London the mock pursuivants were ignominiously pelted and dispersed by the mob. By the Act of Settlement, 21 June 1701, the male line of the Stuarts was excluded from the succession, and only a few hours before his death William gave assent to a special act of attainder against the young prince. Anne showed no more favour to the claims of her half-brother, and his youthfulness weakened the hands of his supporters. The ‘Scots Plot’ of 1704, in which Simon, lord Lovat [q. v.], was chiefly concerned, can scarcely be classed among serious Jacobite attempts, but in 1705 Lieutenant Nathaniel Hooke [q. v.], at the instance of the French king, undertook a mission to Scotland, and on his return to France, in the following May, he reported so favourably of the chances of success for a Jacobite rising, that Louis began to fit out a powerful expedition on behalf of the prince in the following January. Five men-of-war, two transports, and twenty frigates, with about four thousand troops, were collected at Dunkirk, under the command of Admiral Fourbin, and it was decided that the prince should go to encourage his followers. On parting with him at Paris, Louis bade him adieu with the words: ‘The best wish I can make you is that I may never see your face again.’ The arrival of the prince at Dunkirk at once revealed to the English agents the purpose of the expedition, and on 28 Feb., when all was nearly ready, an English fleet, much more powerful than the French, appeared in the Channel. Fourbin sent off an express to Paris for fresh orders, and meantime, on the plea—a false one (Memoirs of the Chevalier de St. George, 1712, p. 58)—that the prince was suffering from measles, the troops were disembarked. Orders arrived to sail at all hazards, and as the English fleet, in dread of the equinoctial gales, had returned to the Downs, Fourbin succeeded on 8 March in stealing away unperceived; but when on the 13th the vessels lay at anchor under the Isle of May, waiting for a tide to take them up the Firth of Forth, the approach of the English fleet was discovered. In face of such a force it was now impossible to carry out the original intention. The chevalier, it is said, wished to be put with his attendants in a small vessel, that he might make for the castle of Wemyss in Fife; but to this the French admiral refused consent, and set out to sea. Byng, the English admiral, followed in pursuit, but only succeeded in capturing one vessel, and, losing sight of the enemy during the night, returned to the mouth of the Firth of Forth. After careful consideration, the French admiral agreed to a proposal to land at Inverness, but on account of stormy weather this also was abandoned, and ultimately a direct course was steered for Dunkirk.
On his return to France the chevalier joined the army in Flanders, where he served with the household troops of Louis, especially distinguishing himself at Oudenarde and Malplaquet. An endeavour was made to induce the French king to send a second expedition to Scotland in the following year, but he was now unable to afford help, and although active negotiations were continued with the Jacobites in England and Scotland (see ‘Stuart Papers’ in Macpherson's Original Papers), no definite step was taken. The hopes of the chevalier were further shattered by a clause in the treaty of Utrecht, in April 1713, which provided for his removal from the dominions of France. Before the treaty was signed he went to Bar-le-Duc, where he was cordially received by the Duke of Lorraine. In May 1711 he had addressed a letter to Queen Anne (ib. ii. 223–4), requesting to be named as her heir; but if, as Lockhart asserts (Papers, i. 480), the queen ‘did design her brother's restoration,’ she never formally declared her intentions before her death, in August 1714, when the Jacobites were unable to hinder the accession of George I. Nevertheless, the change of dynasty tended to strengthen their claim, and they felt the importance of instant action. Preparations for a new expedition were stopped by the death of Louis XIV (1 Sept. 1715). The regent refused any material aid; but in August 1715 the irrevocable step was taken by Mar in the Scottish highlands [see Erskine, John, sixth or eleventh Earl of Mar, 1675–1732]. The attempt of the Duke of Ormonde upon Devonshire at once collapsed, and the disaster at Preston on 13 Nov. completely extinguished any immediate hope of a rising of
