Ye Jacobites by Name

Jacobitism (/ˈdʒækəbaɪˌtɪzəm/; Scottish Gaelic: Seumasachas, [ˈʃeːməs̪əxəs̪]; Irish: Seacaibíteachas, Séamusachas) was a largely 17th- and 18th-century movement that supported the restoration of the House of Stuart to the British throne. The name is derived from Jacobus, the Latin version of James.

When James II and VII went into exile after the 1688 Glorious Revolution, the Parliament of England argued he abandoned the English throne and offered it to his Protestant daughter Mary II and her husband William III.[1] In April, the Scottish Convention held he "forfeited" the throne of Scotland by his actions, listed in the Articles of Grievances.[2]

The Revolution created the principle of a contract between monarch and people; if that was violated, he or she could be removed. Jacobites argued monarchs were appointed by God, or divine right, and could not be removed, making the post-1688 regime illegitimate. While this was the most consistent difference, Jacobitism was a complex mix of ideas, many opposed by the Stuarts themselves; in Ireland, it meant tolerance for Catholicism, which James supported, but also Irish autonomy and reversing the 17th-century land settlements, which he opposed. In 1745, clashes between Prince Charles and Scottish Jacobites over the 1707 Union and divine right were central to the internal conflicts that ended it as a viable movement.