Jacobite peerage

After the deposition by the English parliament in February 1689 of King James II and VII from the thrones of England and Ireland (the Scottish Estates followed suit on 11 April 1689), he and his successors continued to create peers and baronets, which they believed was their right. These creations were not recognised by James's de facto successors or British law, but the titles were used in Jacobite circles in Continental Europe and recognised by France, Spain and the Papacy. The following tables list the peerages and baronetcies created by the Stuart claimants in exile. The tables present the situation from the Jacobite perspective, and so titles granted after 1689 by King James II & VII's de facto successors to the throne, whose authority was not recognised by Jacobites, are represented in inverted commas.

The seven Irish peerages (the Duke of Tyrconnell, Viscount Kenmare, Viscount Mountcashell, Viscount Mount Leinster, Baron Bourke, Baron Nugent, Baron Fitton of Gawsworth, and their subordinate peerages) created by James II in 1689 are in an anomalous legal position, even from the Hanoverian viewpoint. He was held to have abdicated the English (and Scottish) thrones in December 1688; but the Government of Ireland was carried on solely in his name until August 1689. The creations were recorded in the Irish Patent Roll, and have never been struck out.

It is the usual British maxim that the actions of a King in possession are valid, even when his title is unsound; but there was also a law of the Kingdom of Ireland that the King of England is automatically King of Ireland – and William and Mary, considered by Jacobites as usurpers, were crowned in England on 11 April 1689.

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