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Tom Courtney

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historical oddity [Jun. 18th, 2009|04:28 pm]
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[mood | curious]

I got to read the plaque for the Mayflower Compact in Provincetown, MA. yesterday, and noticed that it referred to James I as the king of France. This got me to doing a little looking around, and I discovered the English monarchy claimed that until after the French Revolution, when George III dropped the claim upon the creation of the United Kingdom of England and Ireland.

Interestingly, the followers of the Jacobite pretenders to the English throne haven't renounced the claim, and refer to the current pretender (right now, Franz Bonaventura Adalbert Maria Herzog von Bayern) as the king of France.

Fascinating.
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Comments:
[User Picture]From: [info]antoniseb
2009-06-18 09:05 pm (UTC)

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That's an interesting historical tidbit that I never followed through on. Thanks!
[User Picture]From: [info]donal_mac_r
2009-06-19 02:21 am (UTC)

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I don't think the Young Pretender has any designs on France though. He'd be happy enough if Scotland listened to him . . .

(After I entered this but before I sent it, I found that HRH Prince Michael of Albany also claims to be Prince of France.)
[User Picture]From: [info]baron_elric
2009-06-19 04:15 am (UTC)

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Which makes me wonder how many other readers of this list have met Michael? Editrx and I visited with him on three trips to Scotland back in the early 90s, but I understand he's fallen on harder times. It's not easy to be a pretender.
[User Picture]From: [info]donal_mac_r
2009-06-19 04:28 am (UTC)

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I have not; but I've read his book.

I've seen affidavits endorsing and refuting his claim.

What d'you think of him?
[User Picture]From: [info]baron_steffan
2009-06-19 02:07 am (UTC)

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Sure. You get to choose your French monarch, in fact. I believe there's a guy *in* France, who calls himself the Comte de Paris ('cause calling yourself the king is kinda non-PC, y'know); he's the Bourbon heir. The Emperor is some Yank bloke in Illinois, last I heard.
[User Picture]From: [info]donal_mac_r
2009-06-19 04:29 am (UTC)

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The Emperor? Claimant to the Bonaparte dynasty?
[User Picture]From: [info]gyzki
2009-06-19 11:47 am (UTC)

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Yah, Jerome married (briefly) a Betsy Patterson of Baltimore MD and had issue by her; their grandson(?) was Teddy Roosevelt's Attorney General. But my understanding was that the last of the American line died in 1945. (Although I suppose a pretender from another branch could have moved to the States since then.)