Death of a Dynasty

Private Tours of the Vatican Museums

Monument to the Stuarts (det.) by Antonio Canova

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The funerary monument to the Stuarts (1810-19), in St Peter's Basilica, commemorates the last three members of the Royal House of Stuart: James Francis Edward Stuart (1688-1766, the 'Old Pretender'), his elder son Charles Edward Stuart (1720-88, 'Bonnie Prince Charlie'), and his younger son Henry Benedict Stuart (1725-1807).

James was the son of King James ll, who was deposed in the 'Glorious Revolution' of 1688. When his father died in 1701, James, who spent most of his life abroad, was recognised as the king of England by Spain, France, and the Papacy. He died in Rome in 1766 and the succession of the Stuart line passed first to his eldest son, Charles, and after his death in 1788, to Henry, who died without issue in 1807. 

​The monument, which is the work of Antonio Canova (1757-1822), bears the portraits of the three men, who are buried in the crypt. At the base of the monument, the two winged angels of death are in the act of extinguishing their down-turned torches. 

The main inscription reads: 'To James III, son of King James II of Great Britain, to Charles Edward and to Henry, Dean of the Cardinal Fathers, sons of James III, the last of the Royal House of Stuart, 1819'. 

The shorter inscription, above the closed door, is a quotation from the Book of Revelation (14:13): 'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord'. 

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Monument to the Stuarts by Antonio Canova