What If the Future King of England, Scotland and Ireland Had Gone Down with the Gloucester in 1682?

The Wreck of the Gloucester Off Yarmouth, 6 May 1682, by Johan Danckerts (circa 1682). National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Caird Collection. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

The Background

In early May 1682, a fleet of Royal Navy vessels sailed eastward from Portsmouth, England, bound for Edinburgh, Scotland. Their route would take them through the English Channel and up the North Sea to the Firth of Forth and Edinburgh, a distance of about 528 nautical miles. The voyage had been arranged for James Stuart, the Duke of York, so he could conduct business at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh and meet his pregnant wife, Mary of Modena, in Scotland and bring her back to England for the birth of their daughter, Charlotte Maria (born August 16, 1682).

The Duke was aboard the Gloucester, a frigate, fully-rigged, 117 ft from its keel and 755 tons and launched in 1653 with 60 guns and a crew of over 200. It had a distinguished war record having participated in the four-day Battle of Orfordness (1666), the Battle of Solebay (1672), and the Battle of Schooneveld, Texel (1673).

By the early morning of May 6th, the fleet had sailed through the English Channel and was sailing north up the coast of England. They had passed London and Ipswich and had completed almost half of their voyage. The sea was rough—a strong gale was in progress. At about 5:30, fifteen minutes after sunrise, the Gloucester struck a sandbank twenty-eight miles off Great Yarmouth.

The Gloucester sank within an hour. The Duke, being royalty, had to be the first to leave the ship. Witnesses claimed he saved Catholic priests and his dogs before the others could abandon the ship. Some say this delay contributed to the deaths of 130-250 of the 330 aboard. (See National Maritime Museum and search for Gloucester)

But what if James, the Duke of York and the first in line to the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland, had gone down with the Gloucester?

The Wreck of the HMS Gloucester Off Yarmouth, 6 May 1682, by Monamy Swaine (1750-1800). National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

The History of Royal Succession under the Tudors and Stuarts

Under male-primogeniture, succession to the throne would appear straight forward but the history of royal succession under the Tudors and Stuarts was not always so. Religion and politics often played a role and therefore it becomes important to the question of who becomes the monarch of England, Scotland and Ireland, if James Stuart, the Duke of York, was not available to succeed his brother Charles II in 1685 and what difference would that have made.

Our investigation takes us back to the beginning of the Tudor monarchy. On August 22, 1485, Henry Tudor defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field and became the first of the Tudor monarchs and the last English monarch to win the crown in battle. This battle effectively ended the War of the Roses, a war between two branches of the royal House of Plantagenet, the House of Lancaster and the House of York. Henry, now King Henry VII of England and Lord of Ireland, married Elizabeth of York further ending the conflict between the two houses. Henry and Elizabeth were Roman Catholic. Their children, those who survived infancy, were Arthur (1486-1502), Margaret (1489-1541), Henry (1491-1547), and Mary (1496-1533). All were raised Roman Catholic.

In 1501, Arthur, the eldest, married Catherine of Aragon, the daughter of King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castille. Six months later, Arthur died without an heir.

In 1503, Margaret, the next eldest, married James IV, the King of Scotland, and became Queen of Scotland. James died in the Battle of Flodded in 1513 leaving a son, James V.

In 1509, King Henry VII died leaving his remaining three children, Margaret, Henry, and Mary, as his heirs. Under the rules of male-primogeniture, Margaret was passed over in favor of Henry who was crowned Henry VIII, King of England and Lord of Ireland.

Armor Garniture, Probably of King Henry VIII of  England, dated 1527, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, William H. Riggs Gift and Rogers Fund, 1919;  mail brayette: Gift of Prince Albrect Redziwill, 1927.

Less than two months after the death of his father, Henry married Catherine, the widow of his older brother Arthur. Henry was 17 and Catherine was 23. After three stillbirths and a male child who lived a month, Catherine, now 29, gave birth to a daughter, Mary. Catherine was Roman Catholic and she raised Mary as a Roman Catholic.

In 1517, Martin Luther, a German monk, nailed his 95 theses to a church door to begin the Protestant Reformation on the Continent. A new form of religion was taking hold in Europe and would soon spread to England and Scotland.

When Catherine was in her late 30s, Henry sought an annulment but the Pope refused. Henry broke from the Church and formed the Church of England with himself as its head and so began the Reformation in England.

After a secret marriage to Anne Boleyn on November 14, 1532, Henry and Anne were formally married on January 25, 1533. Henry received his annulment from Catherine in 1533. [Catherine was now around 47.]

Also in 1533, Henry had Parliament pass an Act declaring Mary, his daughter by Catherine, illegitimate thereby removing her from the line of succession to the throne. [First Succession Act, March 1534.] On September 7, 1533, Anne gave birth to Elizabeth. Anne then had three miscarriages and was beheaded on May 19, 1536.

In 1534, Henry had Parliament pass the Act of Supremacy which deferred the right to Henry VIII to be the supreme head of the Church of England, thereby severing eccleasliastial links with the Roman Catholic Church. This Act was repealed under Mary and a new Act was adopted in 1559 under Elizabeth.

The day after Anne Boleyn was beheaded, Henry married Jane Seymour. Henry had Parliament pass an Act repealing the First Succession Act and now declaring both Mary and Elizabeth illegitimate thereby removing both from the line of succession to the throne. [Second Succession Act, June 1536.] Jane gave birth to a male child, Edward, and she died shortly after childbirth. Henry’s three subsequent marriages produced no issues.

  In 1541, Henry assumed the title of King of Ireland rather than Lord of Ireland. He was now one king with two crowns, King of England and King of Ireland.

In 1544, Henry had Parliament pass an Act reinserting Mary and Elizabeth in the royal line of succession. He did not have Parliament legitimize either Mary or Elizabeth. The Third Succession Act, July 1544, repealed the Second Succession Act and stated the succession upon his death as Edward and his heirs, Mary and her heirs, and Elizabeth and her heirs.

In late 1546 as Henry was laying on his deathbed, he made his last will which was signed using the “dry stamp,” read, and stamped. He repeated the succession as Edward, Mary and Elizabeth and their heirs and added the heirs of his sister Mary’s daughters (who were Frances Grey, the Duchess of Suffolk, and Eleanor Clifford, the Countess of Cumberland). Henry’s younger sister, Mary, was not listed in the order of succession because she had died back in 1533. Mary had married Louis XII, the King of France and he died within three months of their marriage. Mary then married Charles Brandon, the 1st Duke of Suffolk. The heirs of Mary’s daughters were Lady Jane Grey, Lady Katherine Grey, Lady Mary Grey and Lady Margaret Clifford (Margaret Stanley) and they would have been in the line of succession in that order. They were Henry’s great nieces.

Henry’s will did not mention his older sister, Margaret, the Queen of Scotland, so she was excluded. By referring to the heirs of his younger sister’s daughters, his nieces were excluded as well.

King Henry VIII died in 1547 and was succeeded, under the Third Succession Act, by his son Edward, who at the age of nine became King Edward VI of England and Ireland. He was the first English monarch to be raised Protestant. Due to his age, the kingdoms were governed by a regency council. During his reign, Protestantism was established in England with reforms that included the abolition of clerical celibacy and the Mass and the imposition of compulsory services in English.

When Edward became terminally ill at fifteen, he executed a will skipping over his half-sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, and having the next on his father’s list, Lady Jane Grey, his first cousin once-removed, succeed him. She was Henry VII’s great granddaughter. Jane was a committed Protestant and would support Edward’s reformed Church of England. Edward and his council did not want his half-sister Mary to become queen because she would return England to Catholicism. Elizabeth was excluded because she would have been next in line to the throne and ahead of Jane.

The reign of Lady Jane Grey lasted only nine days. [For a discussion of  questions surrounding Lady Jane Grey’s succession to the crowns, see Wikipedia, Lady Jane Grey.] The Privy Council ruled Edward’s will unlawful on the ground that the Third Succession Act took precedence over Edward’s subsequent will. The Privy Council pronounced Mary queen and she became Mary I. She was known as Bloody Mary because of her treatment of Protestants. Mary reversed Edward’s Protestant reforms and burned a number of Protestants at the stake. In 1554, she married Philip II of Spain and they served as co-monarchs of England and Ireland. In 1556, Philip became king of Habsburg Spain and Mary became queen consort until her death in late 1558.

Mary died without an heir and her five-year reign was followed by the long reign of her half-sister, Elizabeth I (1558-1603). [For a discussion of  Elizabeth’s succession to the crowns, see Wikipedia, Succession of Elizabeth I.]

Very early in Elizabeth’s reign in England and Ireland, John Knox led the Church of Scotland in its split with the Catholic Church. The 1560 Reformation Settlement was approved in 1572 by James VI, the king of Scotland. The official church became known as the Kirk of Scotland.

Elizabeth established an English Protestant church with herself as supreme governor. She did not marry and died without an heir. Elizabeth’s reign concluded the order of succession listed in the Third Succession Act (1543). 

Who would succeed Elizabeth? The will of Henry VIII had specified that Elizabeth would be followed by the heirs of his younger sister Mary’s daughters. Working down their heirs generation by generation, the next living heir was Anne Stanley, the Countess of Castlehaven. She was the great-great-great-granddaughter of Henry VII. Anne was followed by her sister, Lady Elizabeth Stanley (Hastings). [For a discussion of Anne’s claim to the thrones and her colorful life, see Wikipedia, Anne Stanley, Countess of Castlehaven.]

Anne’s claim to the English and Irish thrones was challenged by James VI, an heir of Henry VIII’s older sister, Margaret. She had married James IV, the King of Scotland. Scotland strictly followed male-primogeniture. Margaret and James had a son and he succeeded his father as James V. 

James V’s  daughter by his second wife, Mary of Guise, a French Roman Catholic, was named Mary. She was six days old when her father died in 1542 and she succeeded to the throne as Mary I of Scotland (Mary, Queen of Scots).

During Mary’s childhood, Scotland was governed by her regents. She was brought up in France, married, widowed, and returned to Scotland where she married her half cousin, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. They had a son, James, and shortly after his birth, his father was murdered in their garden. James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, was acquitted of orchestrating Darnley’s death, and shortly after his acquittal he married Mary. Following an uprising against Mary and her new husband, she was imprisoned and forced to abdicate in favor of her one year old son, James.

James was baptized Catholic and did not see his mother again after she was imprisoned. His care was entrusted to a series of regents who raised him as a member of the Protestant Church of Scotland (the Kirk of Scotland). When he was thirteen months, he became King James VI of Scotland, and gain full control of the government in 1583.  Mary fled to England, was imprisoned by her cousin once-removed, Queen Elizabeth I, who ultimately had Mary beheaded in 1587.

James VI assumed the throne of Scotland while Mary I, his first cousin twice removed, was the queen of England and Ireland. When Elizabeth died in 1603, the choice of successor was between Anne Stanley, the Countess of Castlehaven and the great-great-great-granddaughter of Henry VII and James VI, the king of Scotland and the great-great-grandson of Henry VII. The decision appeared to favor male-primogeniture over the will of Henry VIII although the plotting between Sir Robert Cecil and King James VI tells the real story. [See Wikipedia, Successor to Elizabeth I, Wikipedia, Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, and Wikipedia, Anne Stanley, Countess of Castlehaven.]

King James VI became King James I of England and Ireland. He was now king of three kingdoms and was known as James VI and I. This ended the Tudor dynasty and began the Stuart dynasty in England and Ireland. The three kingdoms, England, Scotland and Ireland, were now under one king. Once he became king over England and Ireland, James moved to England, the largest of the three kingdoms. James VI and I was Anglican.

James VI and I married Anne of Denmark, the daughter of King Frederick II of Denmark and Sophie of Mecklenburg-Gustrow. She had been brought up Lutheran but may have discretely converted to Catholicism. The kingdoms of England and Scotland were individual sovereign states with their own parliaments, judiciaries and law. Anne gave birth to seven children who survived beyond birth. Three reached adulthood: Henry (1594-1612), Elizabeth (1596-1662) and Charles (1600-1649).

Henry, the Prince of Wales, the eldest son and heir apparent to his father, died at eighteen from typhoid fever. He was Anglican, never married, and left no heirs.

When James VI and I died in 1625, Elizabeth, his second eldest, was passed over in favor of her brother, Charles, who became Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland.

Charles, an Anglican, married the Bourbon princess Henrietta Maria of France, a Roman Catholic, and she gave birth to nine children. Five reached adulthood: Charles (1630-1685), Mary (1631-1660), James (1633-1701), Henry (1640-1660) and Henrietta Anne (1644-1670).

The reign of Charles I was marked by conflict. He was constantly at odds with the Parliament of England. He believed in the divine rights of kings and governed without consulting parliament. Many opposed his policies, especially his levying taxes without parliamentary consent. His religious policies along with his marriage to a Roman Catholic did not sit well with his Protestant subjects. Armed conflict with the army of the English parliament led to the English Civil War and his capture and beheading in 1649.

After the king’s execution, England became a republic (Commonwealth of England). In 1660, the monarchy was restored. Charles, the eldest, became Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland. In 1662, Charles II married Catherine of Braganza, the daughter of King John IV of Portugal. Catherine was Catholic. Charles and Catherine had no children although Charles did acknowledge having thirteen illegitimate children.

James Crofts also called James FitzRoy (1649-1685 by Lucy Walter) (opposed James II and VII and was beheaded)

Charlotte Jemma Henrietta Maria FitzRoy (1651-1684 by Elizabeth Killigrew)

Charles FitzCharles (1657-1680 by Catherine Pegge)

Catherine FitzCharles (1658-1759 by Catherine Pegge)(became a Benedictine nun)

Anne Palmer (Fitzroy) (1661-1722 by Barbara Villiers)

Charles Fitzroy (1662-1730 by Barbara Villiers)

Henry Fitzroy (1663-1690 by Barbara Villiers)

Charlotte Fitzroy (1664-1718 by Barbara Villiers)

George Fitzroy (1665-1716 Barbara Villiers)

Charles Beauclerk (1670-1726 by Nell Gwyn)

James Beauclerk (1671-1680 by Nell Gwyn)

Charles Lennox (1672-1723 by Louise Renee de Penancoet de Keroualle)

Mary Tudor (1673-1726 by Mary “Moll” Davis) 

Charles II was Anglican but on the last evening of his life he was received into the Catholic Church. Some said that was to fulfill his promise to his cousin Louis XIV of France in exchange for France’s help in the Third Anglo-Dutch War.

Mary, the eldest daughter of Charles I and Henrietta Maria of France, was the first holder of the title Princess Royal. In 1641 at the age of nine, she was married to William, the son of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, and Amalia of Solms-Braunfels. Mary was Protestant and her husband was Calvinist. Mary remained in England with her parents because of the political situation in England. In 1642, she and her mother sailed to the Netherlands. Five years later, William inherited the title Prince of Orange and Mary became the Princess of Orange and the Countess of Nassau. In 1650, eight days before the birth of their son William, Mary’s husband, William II, died of smallpox. Mary served as the regent for her minor son William of Orange.

In 1660, Mary had come to London to see her brother’s coronation when she died of smallpox.

James, the second son of Charles I and Henrietta Maria of France, was heir apparent after his brother Charles II. In 1660, James married Anne Hyde, who was Anglican. She converted to Catholicism shortly after their marriage. James was Anglican until 1668 when he converted to Catholicism. Anne gave birth to eight children. Four died in infancy, two died young, two reached adulthood: Mary (1662-1694) and Anne (1665-1714). Anne Hyde died in 1671.

In 1673, James married Mary of Modena, a Roman Catholic. Prior to the wreck of the Gloucester in 1682, Mary had given birth to four children and was pregnant with a fifth. All five died in infancy.

James had several mistresses and acknowledged fathering five illegitimate children prior to the wreck.

Henrietta FitzJames (1667-1730 by Arabella Churchill)

James FitzJames (1670-1734 by Arabella Churchill)

Henry FitzJames (1673-1702 by Arabella Churchill)

Arabella FitzJames (1674-1704 by Arabella Churchill)

Catherine Darnley (1681-1743 by Catherine Sedley)

Henry, the Duke of Gloucester, was the third son of Charles I and Henrietta Maria of France. He did not marry and died of smallpox before the monarchy was restored.and his brother Charles crowned.

Henrietta Anne was the youngest child of Charles I and Henrietta Maria of France. She fled England as an infant along with her mother and governess and moved to the court of her first cousin, Louis XIV of France, where she was known as Minette. In 1661, she married her cousin, Philippe I, the Duke of Orleans. Henrietta gave birth to three children, one died in infancy, two reached adulthood: Marie Louise d’Orleans (1662-1689) and Anne Marie d’Orleans (1669-1728). Henrietta Anne died in 1670. She was Anglican but had converted to Catholicism.

Marie Louise d’Orleans married Charles II of Spain in 1679 and became the Queen of Spain. She was Roman Catholic. They had no children. Her younger sister, Anne Marie d’Orleans, married Victor Amadeus II of Savoy in 1684 and became the Queen of Sardinia. She was an important figure in the Jacobite Succession. After the death of Queen Anne in 1714, Marie Louise became the heir presumptive. She and her first cousin, James Francis Edward Stuart were the only surviving grandchildren of Charles I.

Back up the ancestral chart to King James VI and I and his wife, Anne of Denmark. In addition to Charles I, they had a daughter, Elizabeth Stuart. She married Frederick V, the Elector of Palatinate, and they had thirteen children. Nine survived into adulthood.

Charles I Louis (1617-1680)

Elisabeth (1618-1680)

Rupert (1619-1682)

Maurice (1621-1652)

Louise (1624-1709)

Edward (1625-1663)

Henrietta Marie (1626-1651)

John Philip Frederick (1627-1650)

Sophia (1630-1714)

 Only Louise and Sophia were living at the time of the death of Charles II in 1685.

Growing Fears of Roman Catholic Influence

The general population of England and Scotland had concerns with their monarchs' choice of spouses. Charles I and his son Charles II were Anglican and each married a Roman Catholic (Henrietta Maria of France and Catherine of Braganza, the daughter of King John IV of Portugal, respectively). Charles’s younger brother, James, the Duke of York, had converted to Catholicism and was married to a Catholic, Mary of Modena. Charles II sought to accommodate the Catholics.

In 1672, he issued the Royal Declaration of Indulgence, suspending all penal laws against Catholics and other religious dissenters. Also in 1672, he supported France, a Catholic country, and began the Third Anglo-Dutch War.

Parliament opposed the Declaration on the grounds that the king had no right to arbitrarily suspend laws passed by Parliament. This led Parliament to introduce the Test Act in 1673. Under this Act, all civil and military officials were required to take an oath in which they disavowed the doctrine of transubstantiation and denounce certain practices of the Roman Church as superstitious and idolatrous and to receive the Eucharist under the auspices of the Church of England.

The future looked bleak with a Catholic waiting to be king. The growing fear of Roman Catholic influence was not imagined but quite real.

Who Would Make a Claim to the Throne if James, the Duke of York, Did Not Survive Charles II?

Who would have succeeded Charles II in 1685 had James gone down with the Gloucester? Mary (1631-1660), Henry (1640-1660) and Henrietta Anne (1644-1670) had all predeceased him. Mary, James and Henrietta Anne had surviving issue. The list of succession might look something like this:

1. Charles II could have controlled the order of succession by designating his successor by will and have Parliament affirm his succession. This would follow the procedure spelled out in the Third Act of Succession during the reign of Henry VIII that placed Mary and Elizabeth back in line. But Charles was not on good terms with Parliament so Parliament might not have acquiesced. Whether letters patent or a will alone would suffice is questionable in light of Henry VIII’s attempt to have his great nieces come before James IV of Scotland, a claim James made according to the rules of male-primogeniture.

2. James Crofts (also known as James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth) was the first illegitimate son of Charles II. Parliament had the power to place him in the line of succession as it did with the Third Succession Act under Henry VIII with Mary and Elizabeth. If James Crofts became eligible although he was illegitimate, what about his five half-brothers and four half-sisters who were also illegitimate children that Charles I recognized? Charles Fitzroy, Henry Fitzroy, George Fitzroy, Charles Beauclerk, Charles Lennox, Catherine FitzCharles, Anne Palmer (Fitzroy), Charlotte Fitzroy, and Mary Tudor were all living in 1685.

3. Mary, James’s older daughter, who was married to William of Orange, would be next in line. Mary had been living in the Netherlands since she was eleven. Would she be interested in serving as monarch without her husband. Co-sovereigns had occurred in the past with Mary I after she married Philip II of Spain. And if they were co-sovereigns, would William continue to serve as monarch if his wife had predeceased him? He was willing in 1688.

4. Anne, James’s younger daughter, would follow her older sister. She was unmarried when the Gloucester wrecked but in 1683 would marry Prince George of Denmark. Anne would have seventeen pregnancies—twelve would be miscarriages or stillbirths, four infant deaths, and one who was an an eleven year old son.

5. Although Henrietta Anne, the younger sister of Charles II was deceased, she had two daughters who were alive in 1685: Marie Louis d’Orleans and Anne Marie d’Orleans. They were Catholic and living in France. Would they be passed over because of religion?

6. Although Mary Stuart, Charles II’s older sister, was deceased, she had a son, William of Orange. He had married Mary, James’s older daughter. He would have a place in the line of succession as of his own right.

7. Back up the ancestral chart to King James VI and I and his wife, Anne of Denmark. In addition to Charles I, they had a daughter, Elizabeth Stuart, who married Frederick V, the Elector of Palatinate. They had thirteen children—nine survived into adulthood and two were alive at the time of Charles II death in 1685: Louise (1624-1709) and Sophia (1630-1714). Sophia had married and had issue, including her eldest son, George. Also Charles I Louis and Edward had married and although they were deceased at the time of Charles’s death, their issue were alive.

What Difference Would It Make If James, the Duke of York, Did Not Succeed His Brother as King?

Hindsight is always better than foresight. James would be king for three years. Within that time, he alienated many and that led to the Glorious Revolution. William, the Prince of Orange, and James’ son-in-law and nephew, was asked to land an army in England. James’ resistance crumbled and he fled to France. The English Parliament declared that he had abdicated the English throne and the Scottish Parliament followed a year or two later.

The Glorious Revolution was significant. It led to the reign of the co-sovereigns William and Mary and subsequently Mary’s younger sister Anne. James Francis Edward Stuart, James’ son, was cut-off from succession to the thrones.

The Glorious Revolution also eliminated any chance of James’ younger sister’s children succession to the throne.

The  Glorious Revolution led to the Bill of Rights that gave succession to Mary’s sister, Anne, unless Mary had issue, barred Roman Catholics from the throne, abolished the monarch’s power to suspend laws, and declared a standing army illegal in time of peace. The Glorious Revolution changed England, Scotland and Ireland from kingdoms based on the divine rights of the ruling monarch to one where the ruling power was in Parliament.

The Bill of Rights was followed by The Act of Settlement of 1701 that secured Protestant succession to the throne and ensured a parliamentary form of government. It established the order of succession with Anne following William III (her sister Mary had died) and then to James’ granddaughter, Sophia, and then her son George, the Elector of Hanover. Many were passed over including the heirs of Henrietta Anne of England, the younger daughter of King Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria, the Duchess of Orléans, and her heirs. They would have carried on the Stuart line.

The Discovery of the Gloucester

The exact location of the wreck of the Gloucester was discovered in 2007 half-buried in sand, 28 miles from the coast of Norfolk. In 2012, the ship’s bell was recovered and that confirmed the wreckages as that of the Gloucester. This discovery had been kept secret so the site could be protected. The discovery was not made public until 2022.

Images of the underwater wreckages are on the internet. See “The wreckage of the Royal Navy Ship Gloucester.”