The White Rose and the Stuarts

Charles I on his way to Execution

King Charles I

Some articles by Charles Coulombe. I have invited him to supper with us but he is in Austria. But maybe some day. From Crisis:

The persecution of the English Church by Henry, Elizabeth, and company resulted in a small, secretive minority in England (and daughter colonies, such as Maryland and Kentucky). They were forced to forego a demonstrative liturgical life, instead focusing on personal piety and holiness. Living a sort of dry (and occasionally wet) martyrdom and—especially after the defeat of the last Jacobite attempt in 1746—having to forego any hope of influencing the external political order, English Catholicism became ever more secretive and inward-looking. 

Meanwhile, inside and outside the Established Church, English Protestantism became ever more chaotic. Nevertheless, as early as the 17th century under King Charles I, a “Catholicizing” element appeared within the Church of England, paradoxically spearheaded by the king himself. The so-called “Caroline Divines” attempted to establish an Anglicanism in continuity with pre-Reformation Christianity, while the Cavalier Poets not only praised Charles and his adherents while attacking their Puritan opponents in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms but also evoked those elements of English life unchanged by the religious upheavals. The King’s judicial murder by the Roundheads was to a great degree because of his refusal to accept the abolition of bishops in the Church of England, as well as his sporadic negotiations for reunion with Rome. (Read more.)

From Musings of an Old Curmudgeon:

In addition, Catholic SKCM members should cultivate devotion to the 18 Catholics martyred by Parliament “under” Charles I – who in essence shared their parliamentary murderers with him, most especially Anglican converts William Ward and Henry Morse. Tyburn Convent, a shrine to the martyrs near Marble Arch, should become as much a place of Pilgrimage for Catholic SKCM members as it was for Queen Henrietta Maria (she also played a role in the propagation of devotion to the Sacred Heart). So too should it be with such Martyrs’ shrines as Ladyewell in Lancashire. Indeed, all the English and Welsh, Scots, and Irish martyrs should be foci of our devotion. There is also the approved cultus of Bl. Karl, who, as noted earlier, shares so many traits with the Royal Martyr, and already boasts Ordinariate members among his clients. (Read more.)

From Catholic Today:

The White Rose – for all that Yorkshire is still called the white rose and Lancashire the red rose countries – will ever, in British history, be most associated with the House of Stuart. Well it should be. For if James can never be the figure of Romance that his mother was, his son, Charles I, surely is. The martyred “White King,” who tried to restore the Church of England to a more Catholic stance and negotiated with the Holy See for reunion, lost throne and life in the “Wars of the Three Kingdoms” against truly venomous foes. His adherents, the “Cavaliers,” were about as romantic a set of folk as fighters can be – one even speaks of the “Cavalier Poets,” and in religion, the “Caroline Divines.” In the latter sphere, Charles is considered a saint by many in Great Britain and America (more of the latter in a moment). 

Although the Restoration brought Charles son, Charles II, back to the throne, as noted his younger son, James II was chased back off of it, culminating in the Battle of the Boyne. When he died, and James III succeeded him, the stage was set for the Jacobite Risings against the usurping House of Hanover and their attendant Whig Oligarchy; on their hats, the Jacobites wore the White Cockade, symbolic of the flower.  In 1715 and 1719, James and his followers in England and Scotland tried unsuccessfully to restore him to his three thrones. His son, the gallant Bonnie Prince Charlie, tried again in 1745, and came closest to success. But the defeat at Culloden ended that last attempt, and the Bonnie Prince was reduced by privation and drink to a shadow of himself, for all that his remaining followers called him Charles III after his father died in 1766. He died after 22 years on his phantom throne (and having refused the offer of the Crown of America from the Continental Congress), to be succeeded by his younger brother, Cardinal York – Henry IX. When he died in 1807, he was buried with his brother and father at St. Peter’s in the Vatican (you may see their monument and tomb to-day). It seemed that the cause of the White Rose was dead, for all that their rival cousin, George III, seemed to want to restore their kind of Monarchy without them – a desire frustrated by the defeat in the American Revolution. It was perhaps fitting that he gave a pension to Henry, thus in a sense being reconciled. (Read more.)

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