Over 70 observers watched this Stuart queen give birth. Why did they still doubt the baby was real?

On 10 June 1688, Maria of Modena, queen to King James II of England and VII of Scotland, gave birth to a son who was heir to both kingdoms. More than 70 observers watched it happen.

But while that baby – James Francis Edward Stuart, would grow to adulthood – he would never wear either crown. Instead, scurrilous questions about the birth itself played a pivotal role in the eventual toppling of James’s rule in England.

Speaking on the HistoryExtra podcast, Breeze Barrington, a cultural historian specialising in women’s history and the 17th century, explained why Maria of Modena’s labour was so closely witnessed and how it became key in ending her husband’s reign.

The pressure was on Maria to produce an heir

The most important job of a queen was to produce heirs. But there was extra political and religious pressure for Maria to give birth.

Maria and James were Catholic, and they needed to produce a Catholic heir if they wanted to keep the ruling of England out of Protestant hands. Otherwise, the throne would go to Mary, James’ oldest legitimate child from his previous marriage, who had been brought up Protestant.

Protestant factions at the English court, and in government, hoped that Maria wouldn’t have any sons who could prevent Mary from claiming the throne. “There was constant worry about England going back to Catholicism if there was a Catholic heir,” Barrington says.

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Maria had been pregnant many times before 1688, but many of those had ended in miscarriage or stillbirth; the few that survived died in infancy.

“Maria was really concerned that she needed to have a son in order to secure the line of succession, so she went to Bath to take the waters in the hope that it would help her to become pregnant,” Barrington says.

The reproductive health of the queen was in the interest of the nation, and so even Maria’s attempts to improve her fertility were of public concern. Members of the public went to watch her sitting in the waters at Bath from the balconies in August 1687.

By December of the same year, Maria was pregnant.

People questioned whether Maria was really pregnant

“Almost straight away, there were whispers that this wasn't true, or that there was something wrong,” Barrington says. People questioned that she could get pregnant at her age (she was 29), after so many years of difficult pregnancies, and even whether any of her previous pregnancies and miscarriages had been real.

She was constantly observed, scrutinised, and assessed during the pregnancy.

“Understandably, it's extremely upsetting and distressing when you're heavily pregnant and everyone just wants to gawp at you,” Barrington says.

“So she refuses to let lots of people see her when she's changing. At this time, it was quite normal for lots of members of the court to be there in the morning when she was getting up, for what was called ‘levée’ [a formal royal morning reception] and she tried to make this more private.”

But this only fuelled rumours that the pregnancy was fake.

“These foundations had already been laid. The rumours were already there that there was going to be an attempt to smuggle a different child in,” Barrington says.

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Any doubt about the legitimacy of an heir could help to fuel plots against their rule – and because of this it was usual for royal births to be observed. And because of the rumours and political tension, Maria’s labour was witnessed by an unusually high number of people – more than 70 people gave testimonies that they saw it happen, which James later published in a book of depositions.

“By the time she goes into labour, the room is filled up. There is something like 80 people there, most of them men, being herded to the end of the bed to have a good look,” Barrington says.

If that sounds horribly intrusive, it’s because it was.

“Maria says to James, ‘I can't bear to do this with so many men looking at me.’ And he covers her face with his wig so that she can't see them,” Barrington says.

When James Francis Edward Stuart was born, he was taken to another room to be cleaned and swaddled, and James made sure people followed him there, too.

80 witnesses weren’t enough to quell suspicions

But the rumours didn't end just because people saw the birth. A new rumour started to circulate at court: that the baby had been stillborn and switched out for a baby smuggled in a bedpan brought in to heat the bed.

“There were witnesses that said they'd seen the pan full of hot coals, and a bedpan isn't anything like big enough to put a baby in anyway,” Barrington says. Nonetheless, it took root.

Historians today do generally agree that James Francis Edward was the legitimate child. But at the time, there were multiple reasons it was believed he was an imposter.

Firstly, James’s choices of witnesses weren't the most astute. Most of the people who saw the birth were Catholics or otherwise sympathetic to their cause, so it was in their interest to say that he was legitimate whether it was true or not.

Secondly, the new heir posed a threat to Protestantism. The majority of people in England were Protestant and viewed James VII and II as a brief Catholic blip in the line of succession – as long as he didn’t have any Catholic sons.

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But the birth of James Francis Edward changed this. Now there was both motivation for pro-Protestant factions to take action – to stop the cementing of a Catholic dynasty – and a reason why.

“The rumour is the pretext for seven politicians and aristocrats to send a letter over to William of Orange, inviting him to invade England and to usurp James from the throne,” Barrington says.

Not only was William of Orange James’ nephew, but he was also married to the king’s daughter, Mary. Most importantly, they were both Protestant.

And so invade William did, landing in England on 5 November 1688. James fled to France, which Parliament interpreted as him abdicating, and William and Mary were declared joint rulers.

“So, it is the birth of this longed-for boy,” Barrington says, “who they had so hoped for, who they thought would cement their future, who would fulfil Maria’s obligations to the Pope, which is their downfall.”

James Francis Edward Stuart spent most of his life in exile and became known to his supporters as the Old Pretender, the focus of repeated but ultimately unsuccessful Jacobite attempts to reclaim the throne.

Breeze Barrington was speaking to Elinor Evans on the HistoryExtra podcast. Listen to the full conversation.