Ritual , Secrecy , and Civil Society • Vol . 6 , No . 2 • Fall 2018 / Spring 2019
Ramsay and Jacobitism : A Lasting Relationship ?
By Sophie Desplanches
I . Who Was the Chevalier Ramsay ?
The life of Andrew Michael Ramsay can be described as a sort of labyrinth , an illustration borne out by the fact that both his professional career and his spiritual journey are shrouded in mystery . He is a complex , elusive character , difficult to fathom , encompassing both a mystical and a political dimension , and very secretive .
He was born , allegedly , in 1686 , at Ayr in Scotland ; but doubts subsist even concerning his date and place of birth . What we can affirm is that he was an intellectual of the Enlightenment whose name is now unknown to most people , though it remains familiar to members of the Order of Freemasons who are acquainted with his Discourse . My intention in this paper is not , however , to present Ramsay as a Freemason but to explain the part that he played in the events of his time as a Jacobite .
II . What Is Jacobitism ? 1 . A Religious Issue
In 1673 , the future James II took as his second wife the Italian Princess Mary of Modena , a Catholic . Their first child ,
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James Francis Edward Stuart , was born in June 1688 . Fearing a future establishment of a Catholic dynasty , the English nobles appealed to Parliament . They found a solution in the person of William Prince of Orange , stadtholder of Holland and other Dutch provinces , who was married to Mary , James II ’ s daughter by his first wife , the Protestant Anne Hyde . In November 1688 , William landed at Torbay at the head of a Dutch army . James II put up little resistance and fled to France on December 23 , 1688 , taking refuge with his family and the regiments which had remained loyal to him in the château of Saint-Germain-en-Laye . There he was welcomed by his cousin , King Louis XIV . This marked the beginning of the Jacobite presence in France . Considering that James ’ s flight was tantamount to an abdication , the Westminster Parliament offered the crown to William III and Mary , who thus became joint sovereigns in his place . These momentuous events , which changed the destiny of Great Britain , came to be known as the Glorious , or Bloodless , Revolution . William and Mary would reign together from 1689 until Mary ’ s death on December 28 , 1694 , from when on William ruled on his own .
doi : 10.18278 / rscs . 6.2.5