The House of Stuart was always controversial in the post-Tudor England. King Henry VIII had turned the country away from Catholicism and had rejected the authority of the Pope. His daughter Queen Mary, a Catholic, earned the nickname "Bloody Mary" thanks to her anti-Protestant pro-Catholic policies which saw thousands slaughtered. Her protestant half-sister who succeeded her, Queen Elizabeth, brought peace and prosperity, but suspicion and fear of Catholicism was strong and the Stuart's convenient conversion to the Protestant church did not convince many. For this reason The Act of Settlement (1701) ensured that no Catholic could sit on the English throne, leaving Stuart heirs Prince James (son of King James II) and his son Prince Charles (Bonnie Prince Charlie) fighting for the crown. Supporters of James and Charles were known as Jacobians. | The House of Stuart was always controversial in the post-Tudor England. King Henry VIII had turned the country away from Catholicism and had rejected the authority of the Pope. His daughter Queen Mary, a Catholic, earned the nickname "Bloody Mary" thanks to her anti-Protestant pro-Catholic policies which saw thousands slaughtered. Her protestant half-sister who succeeded her, Queen Elizabeth, brought peace and prosperity, but suspicion and fear of Catholicism was strong and the Stuart's convenient conversion to the Protestant church did not convince many. For this reason The Act of Settlement (1701) ensured that no Catholic could sit on the English throne, leaving Stuart heirs Prince James (son of King James II) and his son Prince Charles (Bonnie Prince Charlie) fighting for the crown. Supporters of James and Charles were known as Jacobians. |