On June 10, 1688, Queen Mary of Modena gave birth to a son and an heir. More than 70 people were in the room to watch it happen because they believed a crazy conspiracy theory that the queen had smuggled a newborn baby into her bedsheets and was trying to pass it off as her own. She was one of the most slandered queens in British history.
Queen Mary was born in Italy in 1658 as Maria Beatrice d’Este. Growing up, she dreamed of joining a convent and spending the rest of her life as a nun.
But when she was 15 years old, she was chosen to be the second wife of James, Duke of York. He would later become King James II of England and VII of Scotland.
At the time of their marriage, James was 40 years old and a devout Catholic. Mary traveled to England in the autumn of 1673 and wept the whole way there.
She received the opposite of a warm welcome. Parliament was openly against the marriage, and the public viewed her as a dangerous foreigner.
Between 1675 and 1684, Mary was pregnant almost every single year. She gave birth to 10 children, but they all died in infancy or childhood due to the poor medical care of that era.
Furthermore, Protestant England loathed Catholicism, and a plot to assassinate King Charles II arose. The English mob also wanted to prevent James from inheriting the throne. So, in 1678, Mary and James were forced to flee to Scotland for their own safety.
He finally took the throne in 1685. By 1688, Parliament was fed up with his pro-Catholic policies, but they weren’t too concerned because King James II was aging, and he only had two Protestant daughters from his first marriage.
But when Mary became pregnant again at the age of 29, that threw them for a loop. During the pregnancy, she was constantly observed and scrutinized.
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She refused to let people see her changing and only wanted some more privacy, but this led to rumors that her pregnancy was fake. The Protestants were looking for any way to cast doubt on the legitimacy of her child.
Because of all the rumors and political tension, James packed the birth chamber with more than 70 Protestant and Catholic witnesses. Mary gave birth to a healthy son, James Francis Edward Stuart.
However, a new rumor began to circulate. It claimed that the son of a local commoner had been smuggled in to replace a royal stillborn child. As a result, Protestant nobility invited William of Orange, James’s son-in-law, to invade and depose James from the throne.
On November 5, 1688, William landed in England. James and Mary fled to France with their baby. Mary of Modena died of cancer in France in 1718.
She died in poverty, having spent all her money on helping her son, James Francis Edward, try to reclaim his rightful place on the throne.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
