(37) 1. STUART OF YORK, Henry Benedict Mary Clement (1725-1807)
Birth. March 6, 1725, Rome. He was baptized by Pope Benedict XIII and received the names Henry Benedict Thomas Edward Maria Clement Francis Xavier. From birth he had the title of Prince of England, Scotland, France and Ireland. He was the son of James Francis Edward Stuart, son of King James II of England, de iure James III, called the Old Pretender, and Maria Clementina Sobieska, granddaughter of Jan Sobieski, King of Poland. His brother, Charles Edward, was known as Bonnie Prince Charlie or the Young Pretender, King Charles III.
Education. (No educational information found). Received the clerical tonsure from Pope Benedict XIV, Sistine Chapel, June 30, 1747.
Cardinalate. Created cardinal deacon in the consistory of July 3, 1747; received the red hat and the deaconry of S. Maria in Portico, July 31, 1747. Granted dispensation to be a cardinal without having received the subdiaconate and diaconate, August 27, 1747. Received the minor orders and the subdiaconate from Pope Benedict XIV, August 17, 1748; the diaconate, August 25, 1748.
Priesthood. Ordained, September 1, 1748. Opted for the order of priests and his deaconry was elevated pro illa vice to title, September 16, 1748. Archpriest of the patriarchal Vatican basilica. Prefect of the S.C. of the Reverend Fabric of St. Peter's. Opted for the title of Ss. XII Apostoli, retaining in commendam the title of S. Maria in Portico, December 18, 1752. Camerlengo of the Sacred College of Cardinals, March 13, 1758. Participated in the conclave of 1758, which elected Pope Clement XIII.
Episcopate. Elected titular archbishop of Corinto, October 2, 1758. Consecrated, November 19, 1758, basilica of Ss. XII Apostoli, Rome, by Pope Clement XIII, assisted by Cardinal Giovanni Antonio Guadagni, bishop of Porto e Santa Rufina, and by Cardinal Francesco Borghese, bishop of Albano. Opted for the title of S. Maria in Trastevere, retaining in commendam his title of Ss. XII Apostoli, February 12, 1759. Opted for the order of bishops and the suburbicarian see of Frascati, July 13, 1761. Vice-chancellor of the Holy Roman Church, January 14, 1763 until his death. Received in commendam the title of S. Lorenzo in Damaso, proper of the vice-chancellor, January 14, 1763. Participated in the conclave of 1769, which elected Pope Clement XIV. Participated in the conclave of 1775, which elected Pope Pius VI. In 1788, when his brother Prince Charles Stuart died, he was proclaimed Henry IX, king de iure of Great Britain, France, and Ireland. Participated in the conclave of 1799-1800, which elected Pope Pius VII. Opted for the suburbicarian see of Ostia e Velletri, September 26, 1803. Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals.
Death. July 13, 1807, Frascati. Exposed in the church of S. Andrea della Valle, Rome, where the funeral took place, and buried, next to his father and brother, in the vault of the Stuart family, in the patriarchal Vatican basilica.They now rest in a sarcophagus of red granite topped with the royal crown which was commissioned by King George VI of England in 1939. He was a cardinal for sixty years and ten days. Last surviving cardinal of Pope Benedict XIV.
Bibliography. Fothergill, Brian. The Cardinal King. London : Faber and Faber, 1958; Kelly, Bernard W. Life of Henry Benedict Stuart, Cardinal Duke of York. With a notice of Rome in his time.. London : R. & T. Washbourne; New York : Benziger bros., 1899; Jesse, John Heneage. Memoirs of the pretenders and their adherents. Philadelphia : J.W. Moore, 1846; Shield, Alice. Henry Stuart, Cardinal of York, and his times. London : Longmans, Green, 1908; Vaughan, Herbert M. The Last of the Royal Stuarts : Henry Stuart, cardinal duke of York. London : Methuen & co., 1906.
Links. Biography, in English; biography, in Italian; his episcopal lineage, in English; his portrait by Hugh Douglas Hamilton, National Portrait Gallery, London; and more portraits and his effigy on a silver medal by Gioacchimo Hamerani.
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