IF there is a serious contender for the unluckiest man in Scottish history then it has to be James Francis Edward Stuart, who died in this week in 1766. In truth it was not always a case of bad luck for James, whose own ineptitude at times hampered his attempts to regain his throne. He has come down to us by the name of the Old Pretender. I have always disliked that term, because there is no doubt whatsoever that he was born the son and heir of King James VII and II, and that William of Orange and his own aunt Mary usurped the throne and stopped him having his rightful inheritance. They were the Pretenders, installed as King and Queen in a supposedly joint reign because they were Protestants and James had been baptised as a baby into the Roman Catholic Church – something over which he had no control, obviously.

It was the very act of James being born that doomed his father’s monarchy and changed British history. His Catholic mother, Mary of Modena, had not conceived for five years and the Protestant establishments in London and Edinburgh had concluded that she would not do so, which meant that James’s older sisters, Mary and Anne, would gain the throne – and they had been raised as Protestants.

King James had become increasingly bolder about his own Catholicism and had promoted people from his own religion, very much against the wishes of most of the Protestant aristocracy and political leadership, not to mention the Anglican and Scottish Presbyterian clergy, all of whom stood to lose out should the young James succeed his father, as he should have done when James VII and II died in 1701.

James had been deposed and forced to abdicate during the so-called Glorious Revolution just months after young James’s birth on June 10, 1688. Mary of Modena disguised herself as a laundress and fled to France, taking James with her in December that year – he would never be in England again.

Cruel and patently untrue rumours were spread that young James was an impostor, slipped into Mary’s bed after her own child was stillborn, but 70 witnesses to the birth testified otherwise.

On the death of James II in 1701, King Louis XIV of France and his allies including Pope Clement XI recognised the 13-year-old James, Prince of Wales and Duke of Rothesay, as King James VIII and III. Many Scots toasted their new king.

Over in London, Queen Anne had succeeded William in 1702. Due largely to misogyny she was not universally popular but she was Protestant, and she was desperate that her cousin Sophia, the Electress of Hanover, should succeed her as she, too, was Protestant. The Act of Union Article 2 says it all – “that all Papists and persons marrying Papists shall be excluded from and for ever incapable to inherit, possess or enjoy the Imperial Crown of Great Britain and the Dominions.”

There was already considerable agitation for James’s return to the throne and his supporters, known as the Jacobites, were plotting his gaining of his rightful throne. A year after the Act of Union became law, a new Jacobite Rising was planned, but there was a problem – James simply refused to convert to the Church of England and, over time, that cost him nearly all his support in England.

In Scotland, the situation was very different, not least because the Union was detested by the vast majority of the populace. A Scottish-based rising was planned and King Louis provided 6000 troops and 300 small ships to transport them to Scotland where they would land in the Forth while the clans in the Highlands and north-east would gather and march south.

James, who had served in the French army, was going to lead but he was infected by measles which postponed the departure of his fleet for two weeks, allowing the Royal Navy time to prepare. The Jacobites of Scotland were waiting, but were too few in number. The French could not land their troops and went home, taking a disconsolate James with them.

He tried again in 1715 but, due to bad timing on his part, didn’t even set foot in Scotland until after the Battle of Sheriffmuir had effectively ended the rising. His bad luck continued – Louis XIV died during the rising and French support fizzled out. Again James was sick and went back to France in early 1716.

The Stuart family were forced to leave France and Pope Clement XI gave them a residence in Rome and an annuity. James married Maria Clementina Sobieski and they had two sons, Charles Edward and Henry Benedict. James lived the life of a king in exile, but suffered serious bouts of depression. Bonnie Prince Charlie’s rising in 1745 ended in failure and the last chance for James to get back his throne was gone.

A tragic figure, he lived on in the Palazzo Muti in Rome which became a popular visiting place for artists and the British aristocracy doing the Grand Tour.

It was there that James died on January 1, 1766, at the age of 77. Had he become king on the death of his father, he would have been the longest reigning monarch in British history before the present Queen.

James is buried in St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, where there is also a marble monument to him and his two sons.