On This Day In Royal History . 2 March 1681 . Isabel Stuart died . . ◼ Isabel was born at St James Palace on 28 August 1676. Her parents were the future King James II of England & his second wife, Mary of Modena. . ◼ For the majority of her lifetime, Isabel was the royal couple’s only child & thus fourth in line to the throne (behind her father, & half-sisters Mary & Anne). She was moved down a place upon the birth of her brother Charles Stuart, Duke of Cambridge; however, he died of smallpox after living only for a month, so Isabel was promoted back up to fourth in line. In 1678, Isabel was joined by another sister, Elizabeth, who was also short-lived. . ◼ In 1678 when Isabel was two years old, the Popish Plot led to her parents’ being exiled to Brussels to stay with Mary. The royal couple were accompanied by Isabel & Anne. . ◼ A report that her uncle King Charles II was very sick sent the family hurrying back to England. They feared that the King’s eldest illegitimate son, James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth & commander of England’s armed forces, might usurp the crown if Charles died in their absence. Charles survived but, feeling the family returned to court too soon, sent James & Mary to Edinburgh, where for the next three years they stayed on-and-off in the dilapidated Holyrood Palace, while Anne & Isabel stayed in London on kings orders. The couple were recalled to London in February 1680, only to return again to Edinburgh that autumn; this time they went on a more honourable footing: James was created King’s Commissioner to Scotland. Separation from Isabel caused her mother to sink into a state of sadness, exacerbated by the passing of the Exclusion bill in the Commons. . ◼ Lady Isabel, thus far the only one of Mary’s children to survive infancy, died of natural causes in March 1681, five months before her fifth birthday, at St James’s Palace, the place of her birth. She was buried at Westminster Abbey on 4 March as “The Lady Isabella, daughter to the Duke of York. . ◼ Isabel’s death plunged Mary into a religious mania, worrying her physician. Four years after Isabel’s death, her father succeeded as King of England. . . . #OTD #Onthisday #d2mar (at St James’s Palace) https://www.instagram.com/p/CL7pH8pjA5S/?igshid=tfi9ieipw8aa













