On 21 February 1713, the Jacobite claimant to the throne of Britain and Ireland, James Francis Edward Stuart, left France to find refuge in the neighbouring duchy of Lorraine, ruled by his cousin, Leopold, the duke of Lorraine, who happily welcomed him. Following the resolution of the war of Spanish Succession, the 1713 treaty of Utrecht was signed and Louis XIV recognised Queen Anne as the British monarch. The Sun King had previously been an official ally of the Jacobite claimants to the throne of the three kingdoms – James II and James III – who had been living in France since 1688. Thus, in 1713, James Stuart had to flee France under the pseudonym ‘Chevalier de St Georges’. But leaving the security of the Palace of St Germain-en-Laye came with the threat of assault by a British contract killer.

The Jacobites were considered traitors to Britain and helping them in any capacity would put a sovereign in a delicate position with London. Despite this risk, Leopold was willing to accommodate the dreams and wishes of the Jacobites in exile to keep the hopes of a Stuart restoration alive. Leopold had been betrayed by Queen Anne, who had not upheld her promises to support him at the peace negotiations in Utrecht. Sovereign of a small state, Leopold was not powerful enough to overtly support the Jacobites in the same way as a superpower like France. Instead, he chose to celebrate James’ birthday in style.

The duke of Lorraine organised two months of festivities for James’ 25th birthday. Cost was no object for his royal guest and he spent a fortune protecting his Stuart cousin – there was a price of 100,000 crowns on James’ head and the killer was still on his heels.

James also met an array of high-ranking officials from the Lorraine court, who offered him personal protection and unlimited entertainment. The physical presence of the exiled king at lavish parties was important to the Jacobite movement as a means of reminding others – particularly people of quality, the nobles and the bourgeois of influence – of his claim to the British crown. Although foreign princes did not have a direct influence over British opinions, maintaining status at home and abroad was important for the Jacobite court in exile because it was in constant competition with the London court. Princes who had agreeable meetings with James could report favourably to family or friends in the British Isles and Ireland. Leopold thus invited the Jacobites to his own court of Lunéville, where they were welcomed on 2 May 1713 by the duchess and her dames d’honneur. There, James was able to meet powerful figures from across Europe.

Part of the visibility of the king’s body was his participation in cultural events. The duke made sure his Stuart cousin was always under the spotlight. In May and June 1713, members of the nobility had a whole month of festivities including dinner parties, balls, concerts, theatres and fireworks in James’ honour. The young king made the most of balls and parties to show off his skills as a dancer. Dance was a physical metaphor for social and political order and a public demonstration of James’ competence presented him as intellectually and physically capable. This was particularly important as his opponents were trying to discredit the Jacobites by depicting James as unable to fight, intellectually average and, thus, unfit to rule as king.

Another ten days of uninterrupted parties were organised by Charles-Henri de Vaudémont. A prince from the Lorraine family and the governor of Milan, Vaudémont was an influential nobleman with family connections in France and an impressive career in the army of the Holy Roman Empire. On 7 June 1713, the Jacobites went to his palace in the Lorraine town of Commercy, where they were joined by the ducal court for James’ birthday on White Rose Day (10 June). A poet composed a madrigal for James that inadvertently revealed his alias:

In all the places you’ve been misled / by the bizarre whims of fate / You win the people’s heart and they swoon … We shall see you crowned thrice again … let god by his right support your claims / he who carry in his hands the hearts of kings.

Then, the two courts and Vaudémont left Commercy on 17 June to go to James’ castle in Bar-le-Duc where Molière’s Amphitryon was staged on 19 June. James enjoyed French theatre and he had a particular love for Molière; this must have been a treat for the 25-year-old prince. The decision to stage a play on this date was a deliberate choice. The writing, composing, or staging of any kind of cultural production, as well as organising events for Jacobite personalities, was an offence to the English government, and 19 June was also the birthday of James’ ancestor, James I. By choosing another Stuart monarch’s birthday to perform one of Molière’s masterpieces, Leopold was making a firm statement.

In Lorraine, James became friends with Vaudémont. The prince organised more festivities for James the following year and had the duke of Lorraine, his brother, and the marquess of Lunati in his residence on 13 July 1714. James also received guests in Bar such as the duke of Lauzun and the prince of Harcourt, who joined celebrations in Lunéville.

Apart from allowing James to remain a well-connected shadow monarch, these events garnered what the court in London was trying to avoid: popular support for James. The Lorraine-based newspaper La clef du cabinet des Princes de l’Europe regularly published pieces in favour of the exiled monarch. It advocated for James’ restoration while excoriating Anne’s demands for Leopold to expel him from Lorraine. In June 1714, the editors denounced the assassins sent after the Stuart prince and, in 1715, newspapers repeatedly justified James’ departure from Lorraine to ‘rescue’ his people from the Hanoverians.

In the end, the assassins never reached their target and James spent his two-month-long birthday unscathed. Despite being the sovereign of a small state, Leopold positioned himself as a protector and an ally of the Stuarts, promoting cultural Jacobitism and jeopardising his relationship with England. Ultimately, Jacobitism became one of the landmarks of the 18th century and its politics lurk in the background of many events of the period.

Jérémy Filet is a teaching fellow at Manchester Metropolitan University and a specialist in Jacobite history.