Prince James Francis Edward Stuart was the son of King James VII and II, who was overthrown in 1688. James was only an infant when his parent fled into exile and he was brought up at the French royal palace of St Germain, near Paris. He was proclaimed King when his father died in 1701, however after unsuccessful attempts to regain the throne he finally settled in Rome with his Polish wife Maria Clementina Sobieska. They had two sons, the elder of whom was Prince Charles Edward Stuart, who came to be known as ‘The Young Pretender’.