HENRY (HENRY BENEDICT MARIA CLEMENT STUART) (I 7 2 5 1807), usually known as Cardinal York, the last prince of the royal house of Stuart, younger son of James Stuart, was born in the Palazzo Muti at Rome on March 6, 17 2 5. He was created duke of York by his father soon after his birth, and by this title he was always alluded to by Jacobite adherents of his house. In support of the Young Pretender's campaign in Scotland, Henry was despatched in the summer of 1745 to France, where he was placed in nominal command of French troops at Dunkirk, with which the marquis d'Argenson had some idea of invading Eng land. Seven months after Charles's return from Scotland Henry, who had joined his brother in Paris, secretly left for Rome and, with his father's approval, but to his brother's disgust, was created a cardinal deacon under the title of the cardinal of York by Pope Benedict XIV. on July 3, 1747. In the following year he was ordained priest, and nominated arch-priest of the Vatican Basilica. In 1759 he was consecrated archbishop of Corinth in partibus, and in 1761 bishop of Frascati (the ancient Tusculum) in the Alban Hills near Rome, where he founded an ecclesiastical seminary. In 1763 he became vice-chancellor of St. Peter's. Henry Stuart held sinecure benefices in France, Spain and Spanish America, so that he became one of the wealthiest churchmen of the period, his annual revenue being said to amount to £30,000 sterling. On the death of his father, James Stuart, Henry tried unsuccessfully to induce Pope Clement XIII. to acknowledge his brother Charles as legitimate king of Great Britain. On Charles's death in 1788 Henry issued a manifesto asserting his hereditary right to the British crown. At the outbreak of the French Revolu tion he lost two rich French livings and his pension from Spain, and in Feb. 1798, at the approach of the invading French forces, he was forced to fly to Naples, whence he sailed to Messina. At this time he disposed of his family heirlooms to help the pope raise the tribute demanded by Napoleon. From Messina he pro ceeded by sea in order to be present at the expected conclave at Venice, where he arrived in the spring of aged, ill and almost penniless. George III., on the recommendation of Prince Augustus Frederick, duke of Sussex, gave a pension of £4,000 a year to the last of the royal Stuarts. Henry received this assistance gratefully, and subsequently left by his will certain British crown jewels in his possession to the prince regent. In 1800 Henry was able to return to Rome, and in 1803, being senior cardinal bishop, he became ipso facto dean of the sacred college and bishop of Ostia and Velletri. He died at Frascati on July 13, 1807, and was buried in the Grotte Vaticane of St. Peter's in an urn bearing the title "Henry IX." ; he is also com memorated in Canova's well-known monument to the royal Stuarts (see JAMES). The Stuart archives, once the property of Cardinal York, were presented by Pope Pius VII. to the prince regent, who placed them in the royal library at Windsor Castle.
See B. W. Kelly, Life of Cardinal York; H. M. Vaughan, Last of the Royal Stuarts; A. Shield, Henry Stuart, Cardinal of York, and his Times (Ico8) ; T. F. Henderson, The Royal Stuarts (1914) .