Whatever happened to the recent claimant to the Scottish crown?

[Kiki-frog]

Just been listening to Jeremy Vine covering the Olympic torch going through Scone, and I was reminded of a book I was helping to produce about 15 years ago.

The author was a Belgian guy (can't remember his name otherwise I'd google him) who claimed to be a direct descendant of Bonnie Prince Charlie and therefore was the rightful heir to the Scottish crown. His argument was based on his claim that Charles Stuart's marriage had been secretly annulled, and he was descended from Charles's second marriage.

I know he had moved to Edinburgh and had got British citizenship and had ambitions of getting the Queen to acknowledge him as King of Scotland. He claimed that he had been accepted as clan chief of the Stuarts/Stewarts, but I remember the Scottish press rubbishing this claim at the time.

Does anyone know whatever happened to him, or how far he got with his plans?

[HowardKennitby]

is this him?

http://en.wikipedia.o.../Michel_Roger_Lafosse

[sandyRoe]

Didn't Ide Amin make some claim to the Scottish Throne?

[Kiki-frog]

Howard - yes, that's the chap, and that's the book I worked on. Looks like he was booted out for having a forged birth certificate. What a shame, he was quite a colourful character. Thanks for the link.

[Kiki-frog]

Sandy, yes, I think he did, and there was a film made about it. I think the Belgian chap's claim was probably ever so slightly more plausible.

[tamborine]

Wasn't mugabe the black king

[Kiki-frog]

Tambo, the film I'm thinking of was about a young Scottish doctor who became Amin's physician, and followed how Amin became progressively more violent and deranged, and one of his wilder claims was that he was the true king of Scotland.

It may well be that Mugabe has made similar claims, I really don't know.

[HowardKennitby]

The Idi Amin film is 'The Last King of Scotland'

[WyeDyed]

The Last King of Scotland?
http://en.wikipedia.o...f_Scotland_%28film%29

[Kiki-frog]

I'm just reading Howard's Wiki link about Michel Lafosse. From his claims, I thought he was at least some kind of pukka aristo, but it seems his dad wasn't a baron after all, but a shopkeeper.

So is Lafosse crazy or criminal or both, I wonder?

[sandyRoe]

While both Lafosse and Amin don't seem to have had any grounds for their claims, I believe there's a 'coloured' family in South Africa who have real grounds to claim kinship with our royal family.

[jno]

an illegitimate child of George III was allegedly shipped out to South Africa. There's a town called George, between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth on the Garden Route.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Rex

This has been pretty much disproved; the town, though it is near where George Rex lived, was named after George III himself.

[Kiki-frog]

Interesting. Thanks for that, jno. George Rex - what a superb name! Although I wonder how many people do have royal blood from the wrong side of the blanket. Quite a few probably.

[sandyRoe]

Didn't the Prince of Wales, Prinny, enter into a marriage with a Catholic woman and they had about 12 children?

[Kiki-frog]

Sandy - Maria Fitzherbert, I think? I wonder if their descendants today are wealthy. I've not checked, but I think he was pretty besotted with her, so probably looked after the children's welfare.

[jno]

that was his brother, William IV. George IV probably had a few too.

http://en.wikipedia.o...ionships_and_marriage

[HowardKennitby]

Thinking back on this I seem to remember a TV documentary of many years ago that researched this.
My vague recollection is that, checking forward from the Stewarts, they found someone in New Zealand? who was the 'legitimate' monarch.

[jno]

that would be King Michael of Jerilderie in Australia

http://news.bbc.co.uk...a-pacific/3368731.stm

[Kiki-frog]

Another interesting link, jno, thanks. But this King Michael would then be a Plantagenet, not a Stuart. So many heirs, so few crowns!

[jno]

possible Stuart heirs (including QE2)

http://en.wikipedia.o...i/Jacobite_succession