THE CHARM OF THE STUARTS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—The essayist who handles this theme in the Spectator of August 20 remarks : "Very possibly the Celtic strain in their blood was not so large as the Teutonic." Where is the Celtic strain in the Stuart blood ? The Royal Stuarts are a cadet branch of the Anglo-Norman FitzAlans, Earls of Arundel. Their crown, of course, came through the daughter of Robert Bruce (of Norman blood in the main line). Elizabeth Muir of Rowallan, the very irregular ancestress of the Royal Stuarts, was not Celtic. The wives of the Royal Stuarts, Jane Beaufort, Margaret Tudor, Anne of Den- mark, Mary of Modena, Maria Clementina Sobieska, and 80 on, were not Celtic. A family less Celtic than the Stuarts of the direct line can scarcely be found. We do not call Oliver Cromwell a Celt, or Celtic, because he, too, was a Stuart in the female line. The notion of a traceable drop of the Celt in the Stuarts is derived from the fable of Banquo. How, then, can "the Celt be the prominent partner in the Stuart character " ? By association ? The Stuarts, till James VI. and I , were in perpetual conflict with the Celts, who deliberately described themselves (in the Treaty of Ardtornish, if I remember rightly) as "the auld enemies of Scotland." There was no alliance of Stuarts, as such, and Celts against English till the cause of Charles I. became clearly the losing cause. Then, for good reasons of various kinds, the Celts, except the Campbells and Mackays, generally adopted the Stuart cause. It is notorious that James L of England found in England the survival of English servility to the Tudors, with their "divine right," as, in Scotland, he found nothing but resistance from nobles, clergy, and people. He was no Celt, and still less was his son, though described as "too much of a Celt to rule Englishmen." "Charming," or quite the reverse, as you please, the Stuarts were no more Celtic than Mr. Bright. The truth is, as to "charm," that many of the Stuarts had grace, beauty, and bad luck, like Queen Mary, James III. of Scotland, James II. of England, and" James the Last ; " while others, like James IV. of Scotland, James V., and Prince Charles, had good looks, and recklessness, or had gaiety, like James IV., James V., and Charles II. All were always on the losing side, and these things make their attraction. The Celts have no more to do with it than the Basques, for even the poetry of the lost cause is almost entirely Lowland Scots, the Gaelic poetry of the theme being quite unknown to the English, and not entering into their sentiments, though, as poetry, well worthy of attention.—I am, Sir, Sze., A. LANG. Danesfort, Killarney, August 218t.
[The Stuarts were descended from David I. of Scotland, and through him from all the earlier Scotch Kings, in whom there was surely no lack of Celtic blood. Our point was that this Celtic strain in the Royal house of Scotland came to the front in the Stuarts, or to put it in another way, that Charles I. and his descendants reverted to the Celtic type. We did not, of course, suppose that the
Stuart; in the direct male line, were anything but Anglo- Norman.—ED. Spectator.'
Previous page
