The prayers of King James II

King James II, the last reigning Catholic King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, battled with self-sacrificing zeal during his short active reign (1685-1688) to restore his realms peacefully to unity and to free Catholics from persecution and oppression.

For this he was deposed by a treacherous conspiracy of faithless Whigs, claiming to be working for the good of the country but actually lining their own pockets.

James was brought up in the Church of England but he and his wife, Lady Anne Hyde, later converted to Roman Catholicism and ever after regarded it as the true religion, even though Anne Hyde was the daughter of the Earl of Clarendon, a leading light in the Church of England.

However, James was sensible to the dangers and in no way sought to impose his religion on the unwilling. He sought, instead, to free men from religious persecution and oppression, to succour the poor and to unite the country under the banner of freedom and prosperity.

The rich, bloated, Capitalist Whigs would have none of it. Anglicanism imposed on the nation suited them and allowed them to keep their ill-gotten gains and to continue to oppress the poor.

James was defeated by a conspiracy of highly-placed traitors, including John Churchill. He retreated to France where he lived, in the odour of sanctity, a devout Catholic life often visiting the Abbey of La Trappe, where some of his former officers were now Trappist monks.

These prayers below were composed especially for him, and written by hand into his own prayer-book. In to-day's Church, they are especially relevant for those who would remain loyal to orthodox Roman Catholic doctrine and practise in the face of bigoted hostility and an renewed and increasing persecution and oppression, by government and others, on the ground of religion.

PRAYERS OF KING JAMES II AND VII OF ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, FRANCE AND IRELAND

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God! Who only workest great marvells, show the riches of Thy goodness to Thy desolate and persecuted Church, that now sits mourning in her own dust and ruins, torn by schism and stripped and spoiled by sacrilege.
And Thou, who after a long captivity didst bring back Thy people to rebuild their Temple, look upon us with the same eyes of mercy.
Restore to us once again the publick worship of Thy name, the reverent administration of Thy sacraments; raise up the King, that we may once more enter into Thy courts with praise and serve Thee with that reverence, that unity, and order, as may be acceptable in Thy sight, through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.

O MOST powerful and ever blessed Lord God! Who art glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders; we most humbly beseech Thee to look compassionately on this persecuted part of Thy Church, now driven from Thy publick altars into corners and secret closets, that Thy protection may be over us, wherever we shall be scattered, and a remnant preserved amongst us by whom Thy name may be glorified, Thy sacraments administered, and the souls of Thy servants kept up in a corrupted and corrupting generation. So we that are Thy people and sheep of Thy pasture shall give Thee thanks for ever, and will always be showing forth Thy praise from generation to generation, through Jesus Christ, our only Saviour and Redeemer. AMEN.
[Source: Donald B. Aldrich, ed., The Golden Book of Prayer, Dodd, Mead, & Co., New York 1942, pp. 224-225.]

PRAYERS FOR ENGLAND

A Devout Recommendation

I adore and glorify Thee, O blessed Trinity, God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; I offer myself to Thy divine Majesty, humbly beseeching Thee to take from me, and from all Thy Faithful, whatever displeaseth Thee, and give us that which is grateful in Thy Sight. Grant that we may here do what Thou commandest, and hereafter receive what Thou promisest.
To Thee, O Lord, I commend my Soul and Body, (my Wife and Children, my Father and Mother, my Brethren and Sisters) my Kinsfolk and Benefactors, my Friends and Familiars, all my nearest and dearest Relations, and all those for whom I am any ways bound to offer up my Prayers. To Thee I commend the Holy Catholic Church. To Thee I commend this Kingdom, [and our Gracious Sovereign]. Grant, O Lord, that all may know Thee, all may honour and reverence Thee, all may love Thee, and be loved by Thee. Reduce those that err, and bring then again into the Way; abolish Heresies, convert all to the true Faith, who as yet do not know Thee. Grant us, O Lord, Thy Grace, and keep us in Thy Peace; may Thy holy Will be done, and not ours: Comfort all those that lead their Lives in Sorrow, Misery, or Temptations, and mercifully relieve them in their Afflictions, Spiritual or Temporal. Lastly, I commend all to Thy holy Protection, that Thou wouldest vouchsafe to the Living Forgiveness of their sins, and to the Souls departed everlasting Rest. Amen.

The Litany of Intercession for England

Remember not, O Lord, our Offences, nor those of our Parents; neither take Thou Vengeance of our Sins.
Lord, have Mercy on us.
Christ, have Mercy on us.
Lord, have Mercy on us.
Jesus, receive our Prayers.
Lord Jesus, grant our Petitions,
O God the Father, Creator of the World, Have Mercy on England.
O God the Son, Redeemer of the World, Have Mercy on England.
O God the Holy Ghost, Protector of the World, Have Mercy on England.
O Sacred Trinity, three Persons and one God, Have Mercy on England.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for England (repeat).
Holy Mary, Queen of Angels, whose powerful Intercession destroys Heresies,
Holy Mary, Virgin of Virgins, whose eminent Sanctity our Lord hath honoured with so many Miracles,
St. Michael, Prince of the Church,
St. Gabriel, glorious messenger of our Saviour's Incarnation,
St. Raphael, faithful guide of those that have lost their Way,
Holy Angel, to whose pious custody this Province is committed,
All Holy Angels, and blessed Spirits, of Heaven, who celebrate with Joy the Conversion of Sinners,
St. John Baptist, Precursor of the Messiah, and great Example of Penance,
All ye holy Patriarchs and Prophets, Friends of God, and Advancers of his Truth,
St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and Supreme Pastor of Christ's Sheep,
St. Paul, Doctor of the Gentiles, who of a Persecutor became a Preacher,
St. Andrew, first Disciple of Christ, and constant Lover of the Cross,
All holy Apostles and Evangelists, chief Planters of the Christian Faith, and zealous Maintainers of Catholic Unity,
St. George, our principal Patron, whose Courage remained invincible in the midst of so many Torments,
St. Alban, our first Martyr, who, for the generous charity of harbouring a Priest, was put to Death,
St. Thomas of Canterbury, who, as a faithful Shepherd, laidst down thy Life in Defence of thy Flock,
All holy Martyrs of this Nation, who voluntarily lost your Lives here, to find them again in a joyful Eternity,
St. Gregory, most vigilant Bishop of the universal Church, whose pious Zeal sent Missionaries from Rome for the conversion of our Ancestors,
St. Augustine, peculiar Apostle of this Nation, by whom our Forefathers were reclaimed from Paganism and Infidelity,
St. Bede, most venerable Confessor, by whose religious Life, and learned Writings, the Catholic Faith was eminently propagated amongst us,
All holy Bishops and Confessors, by whose Wisdom and Sanctity this Island was once a flourishing Seminary of Religion,
St. Helen, most holy Queen, and happy Mother of the first Christian Emperor,
St. Ursula, most blessed Martyr, who died in the glorious Defence of Faith and Chastity,
St. Winifred, most admirable Virgin, even in this unbelieving Generation still miraculous,
All holy Saints of this Nation, who, amidst the innumerable Joys of Heaven, still retain a particular Charity for the Conversion of your country,
All holy Saints of all Places, who, tho' divided here in several Regions, were united in the same Faith, and now enjoy one common Felicity, Be merciful, O Lord, and spare us.
Be merciful, O Lord, and hear us.

From the Dangers most justly threatening our Sins, Deliver England, O Lord.
From the Spirit of Pride, Rebellion, and Apostacy, Deliver England, O Lord.
From the Spirit of Hypocrisy, Prophaneness, and Sacrilege, Deliver England, O Lord.
From Schism, Heresy, and all Blindness of Heart, Deliver England, O Lord.
From Gluttony, Drunkenness, and the false Liberty of an undisciplin'd Life, Deliver England, O Lord.

We Sinners beseech Thee hear us.

That it will please Thee to hasten the Conversion of this, our miserable country, and re-unite them to the ancient Faith and Communion of Thy Church,
We Sinners beseech Thee hear us. (repeat)
That it would please Thee particularly to have Mercy on our Kinsfolks, Friends, and Benefactors, and open their Eyes to see the Beauty of Thy Truth, and embrace it,
That it would please Thee to incline the Hearts of all the Magistrates rightly to understand our Religion, and impartially consider our Sufferings; and how hardly soever they may deal with us, make us till with exact Fidelity to perform our Duties toward them,
That it would please Thee to comfort and strengthen Thy Servants who suffer for the Catholic Faith, and not permit the weakest of us, by any Temptation whatsoever, to fall away from Thee and Thy Truth,
That it would please Thee to assist with Thy special Grace those good Pastors who venture their Lives for their Flock, and daily augment in them the Fire of Thy Love, and the Zeal of gaining Souls,
That it would please Thee to preserve the Catholics of this Land from all Sin and Scandal, and to adorn our Lives with solid Piety, that our Enemy, seeing our good Works, may glorify Thee our heavenly Father,
That it would please Thee to grant us the grace of improving the Restraints and temporal Disadvantages we fall under, into an Occasion of Retiredness and Christian Severity; supplying our Want of public Assemblies by a greater diligence in private Devotions,
That it may please Thee to govern us by Thy good Spirit, that we may accept such Ease and Liberty, as Thou vouchsafest to bestow on us, with Gratitude, use it with Modesty, and give others to understand by our Behaviour, that nothing is pleasing to us, but so far as it tends to Thy Honour and our Neighbour's Good,
That it would please Thee to illuminate the Hearts of all Schismatics, who live out of the Church, seriously to apprehend the danger of their State, and the great Importance of eternal Salvation,
That it would please Thee to look mercifully down from Heaven on the Tears of the Afflicted, and the Blood of so many Martyrs, who have spent their Lives and suffered Death to convert us to Thee, Son of God, we beseech Thee to hear us.

O Lamb of God, that takest away the Sins of the World, Spare us, O Lord.
O Lamb of God, that takest away the Sins of the World, Hear us, O Lord.
O Lamb of God that takest away the Sins of the World, Have Mercy on us.
Lord have Mercy on us.
Christ, have Mercy on us.
Lord have Mercy on us.

Our Father, etc.
V.: And lead us not into Temptation.
R.: But deliver us from Evil. Amen.
V.: O Lord, hear our Prayers.
R.: And let our Supplications come unto Thee.

Let us Pray.

Almighty and everlasting God, whose Judgements are righteous, and Counsels unsearchable, who visitest the Iniquities of the Parents upon the Children, to the third and fourth generation, and yet at length rememberest Mercy: Forgive, we beseech Thee, the Sins of our Forefathers, and turn away Thy Wrath from their Posterity; deliver the Ignorant from being seduced by false Teachers, and the Learned from being abused by their Passions, and the whole Nation from the Spirit of Contradiction, Licentiousness, and Discord; that instead of many Divisions and Changes in Religion, under which they labour, they may again be restored to that Unity of Mind, Steadiness of Faith, and Tranquillity of Conscience, which is no where to be sought but in the Communion of Thy Church, nor possible to be found but by the Conduct of Thy Grace.
O eternal God, who in this great Deluge of Heresy, which wholly overflows, and almost covers the Face of this Land, hast vouchsafed to select a small Number for Thyself, and save them in Thy Holy Ark from the common Inundation; we praise and glorify Thy infinite Goodness, by which alone we enjoy the Comfort of a firm and settled Belief, free from the Inconstancy of those, who, having no Support but their own Fancies, float up and down awhile, and sink at last into the Gulf of Infidelity; make us sensible, O Lord, of these Thy unspeakable blessings, that as we know Thee by a sure Faith, we may love Thee with a perfect Charity; and fixing all our hopes on the joys of a future Life, patiently suffer what Thou permittest here, and still press on to what Thou promisest hereafter, thro' Jesus Christ our Lord, and only Saviour. Amen.

A Prayer to be Said Every Day in the Time of Persecution

O My Lord Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, who sufferedst an ignominious Death on the Cross for my Redemption; I humbly offer up to Thee my Soul, my Body, my Life, my Goods, and all my Fortunes, to be wholly disposed of according to Thy most blessed Will; and if it be Thy holy Pleasure that I should lose my Life or Fortunes for the profession of Thy holy Name and the Catholick Religion, Lord, I humbly and freely submit thereunto, beseeching Thee of Thy infinite Goodness and Mercy, and by the Merits of Thy bitter Death and Passion, that Thou wilt please to forgive me my Sins; give me Strength and Patience to overcome all Temptations and Adversities; pardon all my Enemies and Persecutors, and all the Injuries they have done me in Thought, Word, or Deed, and make us all Partakers of Thy heavenly Kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, who, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth one God, World without End. Amen.

Prayer for the King

V.: O Lord, save [name] our King.
R.: And hear us in the Day that we shall call upon Thee.

Let us pray.

We beseech Thee, Almighty God, that Thy Servant [name], our King, who, thro' Thy Mercy, hath the Government of this Realm committed to him, may likewise receive the Increase of all Virtues, wherewith being adorned, he may avoid the Enormity of Sin, and being rendered acceptable in Thy Sight, come at length to Thee, who art the Way, the Truth, and the Life: Who livest and reignest with God the Father, in the Unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, World without End. Amen.
[Taken from A Manual of Prayers and Other Christian Devotions: Fitted For All Persons and Occasions, dated 1755, probably printed at Preston.]

Aymez Loyauté

("Love loyalty" - the motto of the Stuarts)


...

Our last Catholic King: James II and VII

King James II of England, France and Ireland and VII of Scotland, was our last Catholic King.

He was pushed off his throne by a treacherous conspiracy of Whigs and other traitors including, it must be added, his money-worshipping chief army commander, Lieutenant General John Churchill, later 1st Duke of Marlborough, who plotted to kidnap James after William of Orange landed with his Dutch army. Churchill, ancestor to Sir Winston, then deserted his King at a crucial point in the defence of the nation. He became the richest man in Europe through his naked treachery and base betrayal of the King to whom he had sworn a solemn oath of loyalty.

King James was forced to flee to France and the protection of King Louis XIV. He kept court at St Germain-en-Laye looking for opportunities to regain his throne but his plans were ended at the Battles of the Boyne and Aughrim in Ireland.

The gauntlet of old, Catholic England, Scotland and Ireland was later taken up by his son, James Francis Edward and his grandson, Charles Edward ("Bonnie Prince Charlie").

Bonnie Prince Charlie, flanked by Cameron of Lochiel and MacDonald of Clanranald

Recent historians have begun to paint a true picture of our last Catholic King and to expose the dishonest picture painted of him by the treacherous but victorious Whig historians whose false portrayal of James has dominated the teaching of English history for so long.

The real reason that the treacherous Whigs sought to oust him was his attempt to roll back the penal laws which so grossly oppressed Catholics and Dissenting Protestants. In his Declaration of Indulgence, James granted religious liberty to his subjects showing that he was far ahead of his contemporaries and had a much wider vision than did the bigoted Whigs who wanted to impose Anglicanism on the three kingdoms and forbid non-Anglicans from taking any part in the professions, teaching, medicine, the law or any public life and to persecute those who were not Anglicans, above all Catholics.

The Whigs feared even the slightest relaxation of the oppression of Catholics because they were convinced that this might mean that they had to disgorge some of the immense wealth that they had stolen from the Church and the monasteries and which they continued to squeeze out of the poor (as William Cobbett, an Anglican, so devastatingly shows in his History of the Protestant Reformation in England and Ireland).

The result was the beginnings of the modern world with a tiny number owning a huge, vast share of the wealth and the vast majority owning only a small part.

Here is an extract from James's last letter to his own son:

James Francis Edward, son of King James II and father to Bonnie Prince Charlie

Instructions left by King James II to his son, 1692

"If it please God to restore me (which I trust in His goodness He will do) I may then hope to settle all things so as may make it easier for you to governne all my Dominions with safty to the Monarchy, and the satisfaction of all the Subjects. No King can be happy without his Subjects be at ease, and the people be secure of enjoying their own without the King be at his ease also, and in a condition to protect them and secure his own right; therefore preserve your prerogative, but disturbe not the Subjects in their property, nor conscience, remember the great precept, Do as you would be done to, for that is the law and the Prophets. Be very carefull that none under you oppresse the people, or torment them with vexations, suits, or projects: Remember a King ought to be a Father of his people, and must have a fatherly tendernesse for them... be content with what is your own. Endeavour to settle Liberty of Conscience by a Law.

...Be never without a considerable body of Catholick troops without which you cannot be safe, then will people thanke you for Liberty of Conscience. Be not persuaded by any to depart from that.

Our Blessed Saviour whipt people out of the Temple, but I never heard he commanded any should be forced into it; tis a particular grace and favour that God Almighty shews to any, who he enlightens so as to embrasse the true Religion, tis by gentleness, instruction, and good example, people are to be gained and not frightened into it, and I make no doubt if once Liberty of Conscience be well fixed, many conversions will ensue..."

So you see, it was King James who was for freedom of conscience and liberty of religion, and the Whigs who were for bigotry, oppression and the forceful imposition of Anglicanism upon the nation by violence, unjust and odious oaths and the savage persecution of Catholics.

Yet there are still many - even some seemingly intelligent people - who think that Whigs stood for toleration and liberty of conscience.

It was, in fact, James and his followers, the Cavaliers, Jacobites and Conservatives, who really had the interests of the nation and the people at heart and who truly preserved freedom and justice for all - not the treacherous Roundheads, Whigs and so-called Liberals.

It takes a special brand of hypocrite to call himself a "Liberal" whilst grinding the face of the poor and hanging, drawing and quartering a man for his religion and his priesthood.

The White Rose of the Stuarts and of legitimate Catholic monarchy throughout Europe

...

Erin's green Isle - the true story

Ireland is one of the most beautiful countries in the world. It is an island green and unspoilt and home to the Irish race for centuries. In the West, wild and haunting, a brilliant light often casts its ancient spell over hills and dales of wild heather, brush and peat turf. It is breathtaking and spectacular.

In this land a remarkably talented, poetic, romantic and often most delightfully charming and religious people have, for centuries, lived: the Irish. Of this people the oldest races amongst them are Celtic of which the largest by far are the Gaels, the latest Celtic race in time to arrive on Ireland's shores. They are thought to have originated in the Middle East, possibly Scythia or even Galatia.

The Gaels speak and write a very unusual and mystical language called Gaelic, as do their close cousins the Scottish Gaels of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. In Roman times Ireland was variously called Hibernia or Scotia and the Scotti or Scots were originally from Ireland before some of them travelled across to the Mull of Kintrye and later gave their name to what is now Scotland.

Never conquered by the Romans the Irish Gaels nevertheless imbibed the Roman culture and, above all, the true religion of which Rome became the great guardian and mistress. This they were taught by a Roman Briton, one Patrick, the son of a Deacon of the ancient British race, the Cymri, but himself Romanised.

St Patrick was taken captive to Ireland but later found his way back to Britain. He then later returned with a mission – a mission to convert the heathen Gael and make of them a land of saints and scholars to witness to the Gospel and and a people who, far on the outer reaches of the known world, the very edge of Christendom, would come to demonstrate to the rest of Christendom a loyalty to Roman Christendom and to the See of St Peter that lasted.

King-Emperor Brian Boru, Ard Ri Eireann

Divided into 5 kingdoms - Ulster, Leinster, Munster, Meath and Connaught - the land of Erin came to be ruled by one High King, the Ard Ri Eireann, who regarded himself as an emperor, modelled upon the Emperor Charlemagne, ruling over kings. After the death of Brian Boru, the Empire of Erin fell into some disarray and corruption in both Church and State.

Eventually, the Pope – an English pope, Nicholas Breakspeare, Pope Adrian IV - in a Bull entitled Laudabiliter, issued after an invitation from various of the Irish Chiefs, particularly the King of Leinster, gave approval to King Henry II of England to invade Ireland.

King Henry sent Richard Fitzgilbert de Clare, Earl of Pembroke and later Lord of Leinster, nicknamed "Strongbow", to invade Ireland on behalf of himself and the Pope and to restore order.

In 1168 Dermot MacMorrough (Diarmuid mac Murchada), King of Leinster, driven out of his kingdom by Turlough O'Connor (Tairrdelbach mac Ruaidri Ua Conchobair), High King of Ireland with the help of Tiernan O'Rourke (Tigernán Ua Ruairc), came to solicit help from Henry II.

He was pointed in the direction of Strongbow and other Welsh Marcher barons and knights by King Henry. King Dermot secured the services of Richard, promising him the hand of his daughter Aoife (Eve) and the succession to Leinster. An army was assembled that included Welsh archers, which would lead to Richard's nickname, "Strongbow" (though it was first recorded in 1223, in a charter for Tintern Abbey).

The army, under Raymond le Gros, took Wexford, Waterford and Dublin in 1169 and 1170, and Strongbow joined them in August 1170. The day after the capture of Waterford, Strongbow married MacMorrough's daughter Aoife of Leinster.

The wedding of Strongbow with Princess Aoife MacMurrough of Leinster

After various rebellions challenged Strongbow, he called upon the King of England for aid and Henry invaded in October 1172, staying six months and putting his own men into nearly all the important places. He was made Lord of Ireland by Pope Adrian IV.

The new Anglo-Welsh later became more Irish than the Irish and remained staunchly Catholic when the times changed and Protestantism came to threaten Ireland. They were often called the "Old English" despite being more accurately described as Cambro-Norman.

Though Ireland was a papal fief entrusted to the English king, as Lord of Ireland, it was the Protestant tyrant Henry VIII who usurped the title King of Ireland. He and his bastard daughter, Elizabeth I, persecuted the Irish and imposed a Protestant Ascendancy upon the country.

When Mary restored Catholicism, her husband, King Philip of Spain, was recognised by the Pope as King of England but also King of Ireland.

Thereafter, the early Stuarts maintained the Protestant Ascendancy but with the conversion of King James II to the Catholic faith, Catholicism was increasingly released from its bondage throughout the "Three Kingdoms" of England, Scotland and Ireland.

King James II of England and Ireland and VII of Scotland

But the so-called “Glorious Revolution” which rebelliously and treacherously overthrew King James, brought in one of the most brutally oppressive and cruel penal codes ever to oppress a Christian nation.

It was against this illegal and immoral code that the Irish, including the old Cambro-Normans (or "Old English"), gave lawful resistance. They loyally supported the Jacobite cause and supported the Catholic Stuarts at home and abroad producing such great men as Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan, and many another of the “Wild Geese” who went to serve in the armies of Catholic Europe, many reaching the highest ranks in Army and State in the Empire and the kingdoms of Christendom.

Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan, best known of the "Wild Geese"

But this all changed with the advent of the French Revolution and the gradual marginalisation of the Gaelic language in which Ireland’s true history had been written and preserved.

A new, unnatural, unholy and rebellious spirit entered into the otherwise tranquil and gentle culture of the Irish people.

Ironically, it was introduced by sons of the very Protestant Ascendancy that had been oppressing Irish Catholics for centuries. Not content with directly oppressing the Irish Catholic people, the Protestant and secular liberal Ascendancy now, through its rebellious sons, sought to poison the souls of the loyal Catholic people with devilish ideas of rebellion and revolution - not just against illegitimate usurpers but also against legitimate governments.

This was, in effect, to attack the very Catholicism of the Irish Catholic people in even more subtle and dangerous ways than the earlier direct, physical persecution of the savage Penal laws. Not a few Irishmen were duped into imbibing the spirit of revolution and so lost their faith - the very faith their ancestors had died for.

A new, unnatural and unholy spirit of revolution invaded Irish culture from France

It was a foreign, alien spirit – a spirit engendered by the so-called Enlightenment and specifically by the French Revolution – but brought to Ireland by Irish-born liberal Protestants, men like Theobald Wolfe Tone, Lord Edward Fitzgerald and Robert Emmet, all of them Protestants.

They formed the Society of United Irishmen with the express purpose of severing the connection with England and, ironically, many of these men were from Ulster in the North of Ireland. Many were Ulster Presbyterians - Orangemen - and the remainder were largely Anglicans or secularists.

Theobald Wolfe Tone, a Protestant-born, secular revolutionary who founded the Society of United Irishmen to foment revolution and who was later to cut his own throat in prison awaiting trial for treason (he is a hero of the Irish Communist Party)

Later, secularists and lapsed Catholics joined the movement as it became more and more revolutionary, secular and rebellious and deeply hostile to the Catholic Church which condemned it.

But how many today know these facts?

They know about the IRA and Sinn Fein. Some know about the Black and Tans and the Auxiliaries who ravaged Ireland after 1918. But they know little of what came before these terrorist groups.

The “Tans” were a bunch of thugs (and the Auxies worse) employed by the British Liberal government (led by Welshman David Lloyd-George) who misused them gravely.

The "Tans" off to cause trouble, murder and mayhem at the behest of a British Liberal government

But… the IRA were founded not by Catholics but by secular revolutionaries who originally called the movement the Irish Revolutionary (later Republican) Brotherhood and the IRA (in all its manifestations: stickies, provos, etc) has killed at least as many Catholics in its bloody history as it has non-Catholics, and almost certainly many more.

IRA terrorist about to cause mayhem, death and useless destruction

Neither the IRA nor Sinn Fein is now, nor ever has been, a real friend to Catholic Ireland or to Irish Catholics.

The IRA even press young girls into doing their filthy "work"

Sinn Fein/IRA is a crypto-Marxist organisation dedicated to revolution by the spilling of innocent blood.

(To be continued)

...

To Lochaber no more: do we support HM Queen Elizabeth II or the direct successor of the Stuarts, HRH Francis, Duke of Bavaria?

The short answer is this:

Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, is the legitimate monarch of the United Kingdom and all the Commonwealth Realms.

Why?

The best argument is this: common sense.

The true threat to legitimate Catholic monarchy today is most certainly NOT Queen Elizabeth II.

If you don't agree then stop reading now because nothing I nor anyone else says - even God himself - will persuade you.

However, there are many other very good arguments for her legitimacy.

Here are a few:

First, the Stuart line has not made any claim to the throne since the death of HRH the Cardinal Duke of York in 1807. That, on its own, puts an end to the matter.

Secondly, the popes since that time, and even before, recognised the Hanoverians for reasons of state policy and for the safety and security of Europe and what was left of Christendom.

Thirdly, the Cardinal Duke of York himself returned the "Honours of Scotland", the Scottish royal heirlooms which always revert to the Sovereign legally, to King George III which was a tacit recognition of him as his legal successor according to the ancient Scottish (and Gaelic) principle of the Taniste (pronounced "Tawnister") meaning "successor". Under this principle, which was a dynastic principle in most if not all of the Celtic monarchies and principalities, the king could choose a successor from amongst his near kin and his eldest son would only succeed if the king had failed to make such a choice. This law, of course, did not apply to England.

However, in England, Parliament claimed the right to make the king (at least since 1688/9). That law was wholly illegal and Parliament had no right to claim it, especially as it was imposed by foreign occupation when the Dutch invaded us and overthrew the rightful king, but, after remaining in place for over 100 years that was a principle that could not now be overthrown without disproportionate harm and so has had to be endured as a part of the British Constitution ever since. Thus it would now be wrong to seek to overthrow the Hanoverian dynasty, nor its heirs or successors.

Fourthly, the Catholic Church teaches that a war, to be just, must be declared by the right authority and no-one now has the right to declare the present dynasty overthrown nor to wage war against it, except, perhaps residually and only in Catholic law not international law, the Pope and he would not now do it as it would be grossly immoral so to disturb a peaceful state and constitution which works, and is working, perfectly well enough for the safety and security of the nation and the people (leaving aside the wicked machinations of some of our more odious politicians).

Fifthly, the Catholic Church also teaches that a war, to be just, must be proportionate and any such attempted overthrow would be utterly disproportionate and thus monstrously unjust and wicked. Indeed, it would be every bit as wicked as the attempt by the evil and Marxist Irish Republican Army to overthrow the state. It was for that reason, among others, that the IRA was several times condemned and its members ex-communicated by the Pope and the Irish bishops.

Sixthly, the Catholic Church favours stability of government - that, after all, is what "peace" is - and that is why it has always favoured legitimate monarchy which, as St Thomas Aquinas and St Robert Bellarmine say, is the best form of government. Now it would be a complete reversal of that principle if one were, at a time when another dynasty has become well-established, to champion the cause of a dynasty that has no prospect of removing the present occupants, does not wish to, and which, if attempted, would be to disturb the peace, safety and security so radically as to threaten the very foundations of the Constitution, the law and monarchy itself.

It would, in short, now be a revolutionary act and the Church utterly opposes revolution which is the greatest threat to any nation's safety and security and which inevitably leads to the persecution, oppression and murder of the innocent. The Church will always ally itself with those governments that are the most peaceful and just, even if that means some sacrifice in terms of legitimacy of monarchy. Peace and Justice are higher goals than legitimacy since legitimacy is seen as a means to the end of attaining such peace and justice because it is more stable than other forms of government. Legitimacy is not purely an end in itself. To choose legitimacy above peace and justice is thus to reverse right order and to sin since, as St Thomas teaches, sin is to desire a good inordinately i.e. outside its right order.

Seventhly, whatever is wrong with our current constitution it cannot be laid at the feet of the Windsor dynasty. Indeed, our Queen has been one of the most exemplary of monarchs that we have ever had the good fortune to see upon the British throne. She has dedicated and devoted herself to the service of her people, the Commonwealth, the Constitution and the best interests of all, without stinting and with much self-sacrifice.

To shew her the kind of ingratitude that is implied in the rejection of her right to sit upon the throne would be an act of the greatest iniquity and baseness and would rightly be viewed as cowardly and deeply criminal. It is the kind of evil ingratitude that utterly false and evil organisations like the IRA demonstrate and is odious in the extreme to all Catholic Christians of good conscience - and, I may add, that excludes all those so-called "Catholics" who think that the IRA have a right to bomb, main, slaughter and destroy innocent men, women and children in open and devilish defiance of the Commandment that says "Thou shalt do no murder". As Bishop Moriarity of County Kerry in Ireland said of their predecessors, the Fenians, "Hell is not hot enough, nor long enough, for such as them".

So, then, you will ask, why do we bother to remember and extol the Stuart dynasty?

That, too, is readily answered.

It is because the dynasty stands not only for legitimate monarchy but also for Catholic monarchy, for Catholic government, for Christian government in accordance with the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for stability, for peace, for justice, for loyalty, for honour, for truth and for a period in our history that is not only deeply romantic but also sets an example for us today and sets the right tone, human weakness notwithstanding, for what Christian monarchy is really about.

Attempts are repeatedly made - alas, not least in Scotland - to besmirch and dishonour the name of the Stuarts and to pretend that they were weak, venal, dishonest, power-hungry, corrupt, villainous, self-serving, incompetent, vain, bigoted, conwardly and so on. But the smears are so ludicrously excessive that they do not reach their mark just as the false accusations against the Templars and the Jesuits were so absurdly excessive that no-one believed them, not even those who might have been disposed to detest the Templars or Jesuits. It is the same with the wildly excessive accusations against the Stuarts.

Part of the reason for these attempts is that the Jacobites, i.e. those who supported the Catholic Stuarts, were largely exiled from Scotland were sent to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, America and other colonies or else escaped to Europe. That left in Scotland largely those dour, bleak, Calvinists, the Presbyterians, who have a vested interest in besmirching the name of the Stuarts and all they stand for.

The Scottish Episcopalians, among the most loyal of Jacobites, were heavily out-numbered and had to keep a low profile. Many went to America and founded the Episcopalian Church there. Now, they both have simply become yet another of the many liberal Protestant sects who do not really believe in anything much at all and have largely abandoned the historic creeds of Christianity and certainly have abandoned its morality.

In fact, as history reveals, it was the Whigs and Hanoverians who were bigoted and weak and whose government was corrupt. England was never so badly governed as it was by them, as the Protestant William Cobbett, who lived at the time, so graphically reveals.

It was they and their evil example that lost the American Colonies; they who tolerated the supremacy of the "jobbers" in the City of London that led to the South Sea Bubble, and the placemen in government who let corruption and anarchy reign in so many places so that the poor were never so destitute. They, too, were those who introduced transportation to the Colonies and over 200 capital offences, including death for stealing 6d or a sheep; they who widened and extended the most vicious and offensive Penal Code against Catholics ever to be seen so that English and Irish Catholics were reduced to the status of starved slaves in their own country.

The Stuarts stood for everything opposed to such monstrous corruption. The Catholic King James II and VII was even in favour of religious toleration within reasonable bounds. Indeed, it was for THAT reason and no other than he was treacherously betrayed by those who should have been most loyal to him and who sided with the Durch invader, William of Orange, and, indeed, actually INVITED the Duchman to invade, the most open and clear act of High Treason imaginable. Yet these same bare-faced, hypocritical pharisees falsely and unjustly dared to call Catholics by the odious and shameful name of "traitors" and to hang, draw and quarter them with the most savage and brutal torture imaginable - all simply to preserve the ill-gotten plunder of the Whigs!

James II ordered his Declaration of Indulgence to be read from every pulpit in the land (which was the "media" of its day) but the refusal of 7 Anglican Whig bishops so to do, and their subsequent trial, precipitated the plotting of High Treason against the King. In the Declaration, Catholics and dissenters were freed from the savage penalties against them and allowed to participate in the professions, the Armed Forces and the public life of the state, to some degree.

Read the Declaration here and judge for yourself:

http://www.jacobite.ca/documents/16870404.htm

The Whig Anglicans, whose ancestors had enriched themselves from the plunder of the monasteries, the system of welfare for the poor, feared that even this small measure of toleration might lead to them having to account for their ill-gotten gains and - absurdly and irrationally - they feared that it might lead to a Catholic government which might make them give back some of their plunder and robbery to the Church. They feared this even though the Catholic Queen Mary (Tudor) had found it impractical to order more than a small part of the plunder restored. But even this very little the villainous Whigs feared!

This was the REAL fear of those worthless scoundrels, the Whigs.

They feared for their grotesquely bloated wallets, their chests of booty, their fabulous houses and wealth, their sacks of gold. These Whigs were the original fat, bloated Capitalist exploiters and, like all thieves and robbers, they fought hardest and most energetically against those who would require them to disgorge their ill-gotten gains and return some to the public purse and to relieve the poor.

Instead, they conspired to oust the legitimate government, to which they owed allegiance, and, through the agency of the Parliament which they so totally controlled, they set up a puppet government with a king - William of Orange - who was entirely in thrall to them, so that they could secure to themselves fabulous wealth and riches, undisturbed by the famished cry of the starving children of the poor.

Was there ever men so evil as these?!

We remember the Stuarts as being the dynasty that set itself against these plundering rogues, the Whigs, and sought to govern for the good of the people as a whole, and not for one small section of the people.

The Whigs will tell you that the opposite is true but one need but read history to see what liars they are.

The Whigs claim that their revolution of 1688/9 was for "liberty" - but liberty for whom? It was liberty for them to enrich themselves at the expense of the poor, in truth.

Even as late as 1988, the late Quintin Hogg, Lord Hailsham of St Marylebone, a former Lord Chancellor, sought to celebrate 300 years of that Whig revolution as a celebration of our "ancient liberties". It was no such thing. It was the very opposite. It was a denial of our ancient liberties and the settlement of liberty upon the rich to exploit the poor.

The years after 1688 were the years which Hogarth so aptly illustrates with his paintings and drawings of the idle corruption of the rich, the sloth of government and the complete destitution of the poor. One such has a caption "Drunk 1d, dead drunk 2d". This was the time when rich and poor alike went to Tyburn to see many hanged and half-hanged and turned the whole ghastly event into a kind of Christmas fair!

This was why the Whigs felt the need to promote "No Popery" riots whenever there was public discontent with the government. It was a devious, cynical means of deflecting attention from the true source of corruption, i.e. themselves, onto entirely innocent but convenient scapegoats, the Catholics.

The evidence for this is Cobbett himself - a Protestant but a very fair and honest one. Read his book The History of the Protestant Reformation in England and Ireland to see all revealed. And Cobbett was an MP and journalist whop suffered unjust imprisonment for telling the truth about the corruption in British society of his time.

When the Whigs, and their predecessors the Cromwellite Roundheads, speak of "the people" they mean themsleves only. When they speak of "the consent of the governed" they mean only the consent of themselves. When they speak of liberty, they mean liberty only for themselves. And when they speak of "arbitrary government" and "Popish government" they mean a government that will stop them from exploiting, oppressing, persecuting, starving and slaughtering the people and which will stop them enriching and bloating themselves with wealth that once was used to succour the poor and sick.

As Dr Johnson once aptly wrote: "The Devil was the first Whig".

We remember the Stuarts as the dynasty that stood apart and above these evils and, instead, stood to defend the true liberties of the people from the depradations of a parcel of Whig plutocrats and exploiters who cared not a whit for the liberties of the ordinary people.

And we remember that these same Stuarts were, from James II onward, loyal and devout Catholics who looked to the principles of the Gospel to guide their government and to honour, loyalty, chivalry and protection of the weak, and all the virtues as the things at which kings must aim, not mere filthy lucre and self-aggrandisement.

And we remember that they were the legitimate monarchs against whom the treacherous Whigs disloyally and shamefully refused allegiance and, instead, declared treasonous war.

For this reason, too, we honour their descendants, the Wittelsbachs and Liechtensteins, also fine examples of good, modern, Catholic monarchy and dynastic rule.

His Serene Highness, Hereditary Prince Alois of Liechtenstein and his wife, Her Royal Highness, Princess Sophie of Liechtenstein and Duchess in Bavaria, through whom the Stuart line now passes.

We remember the motto of the Stuarts for the same reason:

Aymez Loyaute - love loyalty.

All true Christians love loyalty and hate disloyalty just as they hunger and thirst after justice, peace and mercy and hate injustice, war and the hard-hearted mercilessness of corrupt and selfish men.

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