The revival largely came to an end with the First World War, and the various societies of the time are now represented by the Royal Stuart Society. This almost certainly understates their numbers, for many sympathisers remained within the Church of England, but Non Jurors were disproportionately represented in Jacobite risings and riots, and provided many "martyrs". The Duke of Cumberland, the son of George II, never forgot this, making it a personal ambition to put an end for good to what he saw as a truly cancerous problem. James II and VII's other grandson, Henry Benedict Stuart, the last of his legitimate descendants, died in 1807, by which time the Jacobite succession ceased to have supporters in any number.

In February 1689, the English Parliament appointed William and Mary joint monarchs of England, while the Scots followed suit in March. Later historians have characterised Jacobitism in a variety of ways, including as a revolutionary extension of anti-court ideology; an aristocratic reaction against a growth in executive power; feudal opposition to the growth of capitalism; or as a product of nationalist feeling in Scotland and Ireland. Now under the banner of James II’s grandson, Charles Edward Stuart, the ‘Bonnie Prince’, they initially achieved an astonishing victory against the Whig Government’s forces at Prestonpans.

Populist songs and tracts presented the Stuarts as capable of correcting a wide range of ills and restoring social harmony, as well as contrasting Dutch and Hanoverian "foreigners" with a man who even in exile continued to consume English beef and beer. Despite this, many Jacobites were Protestant Lowlanders, rather than the Catholic, Gaelic-speaking Highlanders of legend. This has led some historians, notably Bruce Lenman, to characterise the Jacobite risings as French-backed coup attempts by a small network drawn from the elite, though this view is not universally accepted. Others argue riots were common in 18th-century urban areas and see them as a "series of ritualised clashes". It may well have been naïve to think of this as a solution, but it certainly gave the cause additional energy and seriousness of purpose.

While Charles argued there with the Scots about his faith status, the duke of Hamilton invaded England, and his army was completely defeated at the battle of Preston. Charles’s escape after the battle has become legendary – the Boscobel Oak, and all that – but he evaded his pursuers for six weeks, eventually reaching Shoreham and sailing to Fécamp in Normandy.

Several days after the Irish Jacobites were defeated at The Battle of the Boyne in July 1690, victory at Beachy Head gave the French temporary control of the English Channel. The Invention of Scotland (Routledge Revivals): The Stuart Myth and the Scottish Identity, 1638 to the Present.

From 1807 to 1840, it was held by the House of Savoy, then the House of Habsburg-Lorraine until 1919, while the current Jacobite heir is Franz, Duke of Bavaria, from the House of Wittelsbach. Following the Glorious Revolution, this was altered by a series of English and Scottish statutes, namely the Claim of Right Act 1689, the Bill of Rights 1689 and the Act of Settlement 1701, [3] [33] [34] but Jacobites did not accept their validity.It’s also worth saying that the Stuart Court in Exile was also maintained by money from the Irish Fitzwilliams of Merrion.