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Monument to the Royal Stuarts


The Monument to the Royal Stuarts is a memorial in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City State, the papal enclave surrounded by Rome, Italy. It commemorates the last three members of the Royal House of Stuart: James Francis Edward Stuart, his elder son Charles Edward Stuart, and his younger son, Henry Benedict Stuart. The Jacobites recognised these three princes as kings of England, Scotland and Ireland.

The marble monument is by Antonio Canova, the most celebrated Italian sculptor of his day. It is in the form of a truncated obelisk. It carries bas relief profile portraits of the three exiled princes, and the following inscription:

(To James III, son of King James II of Great Britain, to Charles Edward and to Henry, Dean of the Cardinal Fathers, sons of James III, the last of the Royal House of Stuart. 1819)

Below the inscription are two weeping angels, symbolising the lost hopes of the exiled Stuarts.

The monument to the Royal Stuarts was originally commissioned by Monsignor Angelo Cesarini, executor of the estate of Henry Benedict Stuart. Among the subscribers, curiously, was King George IV, who (once the Jacobite threat to his throne had ended with the death of Cardinal Stuart in 1807) was an admirer of the Stuart legend.

The monument stands towards the back of the basilica in the left aisle opposite the door from which people coming down the spiral staircase from the dome and roof exit. It is frequently adorned with flowers by Jacobite romantics.

The monument is not a tomb. The three Stuarts are buried in the crypt below the basilica. James Francis Edward Stuart was buried here at his death in 1766. When Charles Edward Stuart died in 1788, he was buried in the Cathedral Basilica of St. Peter Apostle in Frascati. When his brother Henry Benedict Stuart died in 1807, both brothers were laid to rest next to their father in the crypt of St. Peter's. Three separate tombstones were erected on the site.


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