Henry Benedict Stuart: the forgotten prince?

When it comes to famous names of the 18th century, the name Charles Edward Stuart, or ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’, tends to stand out. Well known for his ambitious attempt to take back the British thrones for his Stuart family line in the Jacobite Rising of 1745, Charles is possibly the most memorable Stuart to have lived, alongside his grand-uncle Charles II and his great-great-great-grandmother Mary, Queen of Scots. His story is explored at several places in our care, such as Glenfinnan Monument and Culloden, while modern popular media (such as the Outlander book and television series) has projected Charles’s name far and wide.

But although Charles has commanded the spotlight for the past 300 years, there has been someone standing in his shadow: Henry Benedict Stuart.

Henry was born on 6 March 1725 in Rome, four years after Charles. He was just 20 when his older brother set off on that fateful voyage to Britain. But while Charles dreamed of his destiny to one day become king, Henry’s attentions were directed elsewhere. A quiet thoughtful child, Henry was heavily influenced by the strong faith of both his parents. His father, James Francis Stuart, had been exiled from Britain, along with his grandfather, James VII & II, for their Catholic faith. His Polish mother, Maria Clementina Sobieska, spent the first few years of his childhood in a convent. It is unsurprising that young Henry would become deeply devoted to Catholicism and later rise rapidly through the ranks of the Vatican to become Cardinal of York. 

But perhaps less well-known today are the contemporary accounts that suggest Henry may have been attracted to men. As with many historical figures, there is no concrete proof of Henry’s sexuality, but we know there was speculation during his lifetime that he had intimate relations with men. So, do we have any potential evidence that provides clues into Henry’s sexual or romantic orientation? 

The first comes from Giuseppe Gorani, an Italian writer and diplomat. Gorani wrote a passage in 1793, describing a dinner he was invited to at Henry’s home. Gorani claims to have already heard rumours pertaining to Henry being attracted to men. He noted that the Cardinal’s house was filled with young, handsome male attendants, dressed in habits. 

The next year, on her trip to Rome in 1794, Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi (a Welsh socialite) jotted down in her journal the rumours she heard about the Cardinal of York. She was told by an undisclosed source that ‘the Old Cardinal of York kept a catamite publicly at Rome.’ A catamite was a young man, or youth, who was the sexual partner of an older man. This suggests that Henry’s relationship with this young man was fairly well known, and that rumours of Henry’s sexuality had spread beyond the walls of the Vatican. Piozzi goes on to add that these relationships of Henry’s were considered ‘a Matter of Taste’. In other words, Henry’s sexuality was accepted, or at least tolerated, by many of those around him, possibly because of his high ranking position in society.

Although these are merely rumours, it was widely acknowledged that Henry had extremely close relationships with men throughout his life. Another such man was a priest named Giovanni Lercari. Henry and Lercari were so close that it caused a rift between Henry and his father James, who saw the relationship as manipulative (on Lercari’s part) and wholly inappropriate. Only with the intervention of Pope Benedict XIV did James and Henry come to an agreement – and Lercari was separated from Henry.