The Order of the White Rose was a Jacobite society founded in 1886 by Bertram Ashburnham, 5th Earl of Ashburnham, as a successor to the Cycle Club. The Order attracted many writers and artists and began the

Neo-Jacobite Revival The Neo-Jacobite Revival was a political movement active during the 25 years before the First World War in the United Kingdom. The movement was monarchist, and had the specific aim of replacing British parliamentary democracy with a restored monar ...

that flourished in the 1890s. The Order closed during the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, but in 1926 the

Royal Stuart Society The Royal Stuart Society, founded in 1926, is the largest extant Jacobite organisation in the United Kingdom. Its full name is The Royal Stuart Society and Royalist League, although it is best known simply as the "Royal Stuart Society". It acknow ...

was formed to carry on its ideal and mission.

History

Jacobites A Jacobite is a follower of someone named Jacob or James, from the Latin ''Jācōbus''. Jacobite or Jacobitism may refer to: Religion * Arminianism, the theology of Jacobus Arminius * Jacobites, followers of Saint Jacob Baradaeus (died 578). Ch ...

support restoration of the

House of Stuart The House of Stuart, originally spelled Stewart, also known as the Stuart dynasty, was a dynasty, royal house of Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland, Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland and later Kingdom of Great Britain, Great ...

to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Following the defeat of the

Jacobite rising of 1745 The Jacobite rising of 1745 was an attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the Monarchy of Great Britain, British throne for his father, James Francis Edward Stuart. It took place during the War of the Austrian Succession, when the bulk of t ...

, Jacobitism was rigorously suppressed, and Jacobite sympathisers had to form secret clubs and societies to discuss their ideas in private. One prominent example was the "Cycle of the White Rose" usually known as the Cycle Club, which had been founded in 1710 by the Williams-Wynn family in

North Wales North Wales ( ) is a Regions of Wales, region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, with Snowdon ...

. The Cycle Club continued to meet under the family's patronage until the 1860s.

Formation

In 1886, Bertram Ashburnham circulated a leaflet seeking Jacobite sympathisers, and amongst those who replied was

Melville Henry Massue Melville Amadeus Henry Douglas Heddle de la Caillemotte de Massue de Ruvigny (26 April 1868 – 6 October 1921) was a British genealogist and author who was twice president of the Legitimist Jacobite League of Great Britain and Ireland. He styled ...

. Together they formed the Order of the White Rose, a Jacobite group that was the spiritual successor to the Cycle Club. The Order was officially started on June 10, 1866. The Order was influenced by the

Oxford Movement The Oxford Movement was a theological movement of high-church members of the Church of England which began in the 1830s and eventually developed into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose original devotees were mostly associated with the Un ...

of the 1830s and 1840s which promoted

Anglo-Catholicism Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the Catholicism, Catholic heritage (especially pre-English Reformation, Reformation roots) and identity of the Church of England and various churches within Anglicanism. Anglo-Ca ...

and held up

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

as a martyr. The Order attracted Irish and Scottish Nationalists to its ranks. While these various interests gathered under the banner of restoring the House of Stuart, they also had a common streak against the scientific and secular democratic norms of the time. Some even planned (but did not execute) a military overthrow of the Hanoverian monarchy, with the aim of putting Princess Maria Theresa on the British throne.

Neo-Jacobite revival

In 1889, the New Gallery in London put on a major exhibition of works related to the House of Stuart, organized by

Henry Jenner Henry Jenner (8 August 1848 – 8 May 1934) was a British scholar of the Celtic languages, a Cornwall, Cornish cultural activist, and the chief originator of the Cornish language revival. Jenner was born at St Columb Major on 8 August 1848. H ...

. Ashburnham - the president of the gallery - persuaded Queen Victoria to lend a number of items to the exhibition, as did

Princess Helen of Waldeck and Pyrmont Princess Helen of Waldeck and Pyrmont (Helen Frederica Augusta; 17 February 1861 – 1 September 1922), later Duchess of Albany, was a member of the British royal family by marriage. She was the fifth daughter and child of George Victor, Prince ...

(Victoria's daughter-in-law), and families with Jacobite sympathies and pasts from England and Scotland donated items. The exhibition was a significant popular success and revived public interest in the House of Stuart generally, and Jacobitism specifically. The Order of the White Rose was largely a romantic and sentimental organisation, focused on a nostalgic vision of a Jacobite past. It attracted artists and writers to its ranks, including Frederick Lee,

, Kitty Lee Jenner,

James Abbott McNeill Whistler James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter in oils and watercolor, and printmaker, active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral a ...

, Robert Edward Francillon,

Charles Augustus Howell Charles Augustus Howell (10 March 1840 – 21 April 1890) was an art dealer and alleged blackmailer who is best known for persuading the poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti to dig up the poems he buried with his wife Elizabeth Siddal. His reputation as ...

, Stuart Richard Erskine,

Andrew Lang Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a folkloristics, collector of folklore, folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectur ...

and

Herbert Vivian Herbert Vivian (3 April 1865 – 18 April 1940) was an English journalist, author and newspaper owner, who befriended Lord Randolph Churchill, Charles Russell, Baron Russell of Killowen, Charles Russell, Leopold Maxse and others in the 1880s. H ...

. The order published its own paper ''The Royalist'' from 1890 to 1903. The popularity of the exhibition sparked a renewed interest in the political ideals of the Jacobite cause, especially amongst monarchists and Anglo-Catholics. Immediately following the exhibition, new Jacobite groups began to form. In 1890, Vivian and Erskine co-founded a weekly newspaper, ''The Whirlwind'' that espoused a Jacobite political view. Ashburnham was not a proponent of the political side of the movement, and in 1891 The Order of the White Rose split, when Vivian, Erskine and

formed the

Legitimist Jacobite League of Great Britain and Ireland The Legitimist Jacobite League of Great Britain and Ireland was a Jacobite society founded in 1891 by Herbert Vivian, Melville Henry Massue and Ruaraidh Erskine following a split from the earlier Order of the White Rose. The League was conside ...

. Vivian and Massue were leading members of the neo-Jacobite revival, while Erskine soon focused his political endeavours on the related cause of

Scottish Nationalism Scottish nationalism promotes the idea that the Scottish people form a cohesive nation and Scottish national identity, national identity. Scottish nationalism began to shape from 1853 with the National Association for the Vindication of Scottis ...

. The League was a "publicist for Jacobitism on a scale unwitnessed since the Eighteenth Century". Several other Jacobite and Legitimist societies formed in the early 1890s, and though serious in intent, they were widely greeted with amusement and disdain. The Order was the leading society for the artistic and historical side of Jacobitism. Art dealer

and journalist

Sebastian Evans Sebastian Evans (2 March 1830 – 19 December 1909) was an English journalist and political activist, known also as a man of letters and an artist. He helped to form the National Union of Conservative Associations. Life Born on 2 March 1830 at ...

were members of the Order, while poets

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the ...

and

were drawn to the cause. By 1910 it had inspired a branch in North America.

Closure

In 1914, just after the start of the First World War, Prince Rupprecht – the legitimate king of England, Ireland and Scotland according to the

Jacobite Succession The Jacobite succession is the line through which Jacobites believed that the crowns of England, Scotland, and Ireland should have descended, applying male preference primogeniture, since the deposition of James II and VII in 1688 and his deat ...

– appeared in German uniform in support of The Kaiser. Public sympathy immediately turned against the Neo-Jacobites, many supporters left, and the Order was quickly closed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Order of the White Rose (1886-1915) Neo-Jacobite Revival Monarchist organizations 1886 establishments in the United Kingdom Organizations established in 1886 Monarchism in the United Kingdom