Thursday, January 14, 2010

The Stuart Monument

Q: What do Fr Hunwicke's church and St Peter's have in common?
A: The Royal Arms of Great Britain and Ireland are on display in each.

In the case of  St Peter's, one finds them atop the Stuart Monument, erected in memory of the ill-fated Old Pretender and Young Pretender, and the last of the Stuarts, the Cardinal-King.

To think that the Scottish Episcopalians suffered persecution for most of the eighteenth century due to their allegiance to the exiled, Catholic, House of Stewart - until they finally renounced this, rather than be in the embarrassing position of recognizing as de facto Sovereign the Dean of the College of Cardinals!

Nonetheless, Henry Cardinal Stuart took as his motto the words "Not by the will of man, but of God" - while he didn't press his claims, he always regarded himself as rightfully a monarch.

The three faces of the last, exiled, Catholic Stuarts commemorated are portrayed above the following inscription:

IACOBO III
IACOBI II MAGNAE BRIT. REGIS FILIO
KAROLO EDVARDO
ET HENRICO DECANO PATRVM CARDINALIVM
IACOBI III FILIIS
REGIAE STIRPIS STVARDIAE POSTREMIS
ANNO MDCCCXIX 


Below, on the lintel doors that are forever shut, and are flanked by two mourning angels extinguishing torches turned upside down, symbolizing the extinction of the House of Stuart, are the words Beati mortui qui in Domino moriuntur - "Blessed the dead who die in the Lord".

2 comments:

Matthias said...

Have toast to the Kingsover the water as the Jacobites use to do. question - if the Stuarts ha dbeen on the throne would America have been lost to Britain?
And a blackout onthe memory of the Butcher of Culloden-the Duke of Cumberland

Schutz said...

The monument in St Peter's is incredibly sensual, don't you agree? Stephanie Meyer may have described her vampires as being as hard, white, cold and smooth as marble statues, but you have to touch that Stuart monument to know just how this might be in reality.