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Vestiarium Scoticum
The ''Vestiarium Scoticum'' (full title, ''Vestiarium Scoticum: from the Manuscript formerly in the Library of the Scots College at Douay. With an Introduction and Notes, by John Sobieski Stuart'') is a book which was first published in 1842 by William Tait (publisher), William Tait of Edinburgh in a limited edition. John Telfer Dunbar, in his seminal work ''History of Highland Dress'', referred to it as "probably the most controversial costume book ever written". The book itself is purported to be a reproduction, with colour illustrations, of a 15th-century manuscript on the Scottish clan, clan tartans of Scottish families. Shortly after its publication it was denounced as a forgery, and the "Stuart" brothers who brought it forth were also denounced as impostors for claiming to be the grandsons of Bonnie Prince Charlie. It is generally accepted today that neither the brothers themselves nor the ''Vestiarium'' are what they were purported to be. Nevertheless, the role of the book ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
John Sobieski Stuart
In the 1820s, two English brothers, John Carter Allen (1795–1872) and Charles Manning Allen (1802–1880) adopted the names John Sobieski Stuart and Charles Edward Stuart, moved to Scotland, converted to Catholicism, and about 1839 began to claim that their father, Thomas Allen (1767–1852), a former Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, had been born in Italy the only legitimate child of Prince Charles Edward Stuart and his wife Princess Louise of Stolberg-Gedern. They claimed that Thomas had, for fear of kidnapping or assassination, been brought secretly to England on a ship captained by their grandfather, Admiral John Carter Allen (1725–1800), and adopted by him. Thomas was thus, they claimed, 'de jure monarch of England in place of the then reigning sovereign Queen Victoria'. "They succeeded in fabricating around them an aura of bogus royalty which attracted the allegiance of a few romantic Jacobites in Victorian times". Herbert Vaughan called their story "an impudent fabrication ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
