Austen and the Stuarts

In her history of England, written at 15, Austen declares her favor toward the Stuart dynasty. She writes comically, but beneath the fun she is in earnest.

Irene Collins notes that her mother, Cassandra Leigh “liked to remember that her ancestor Thomas Leigh had received a baronetcy for welcoming Charles I at Stoneleigh Abbey in 1643 [a house which was still owned by relatives in Austen’s time, and which Austen visited], when the gates of Coventry were closed against him.” A century later, “Sir Thomas Leigh, Baron of Stoneleigh, [held] a room at the Abbey in readiness to receive Bonnie Prince Charlie in the ‘45.”

The Prayer Book sank in, for according to Collins “The most commonly held occasional services were those prescribed by the Prayer Book to be held annually on 5 November and 30 January, when Jane could have had the thrill of turning cold at the mention of ‘the most traitorous and bloody intended Massacre by GUNPOWDER’ and of the wickedness of ‘cruel and bloody men’ in taking the life of a most noble king.”

My earlier thesis confirmed: If Austen ever thought of Presbyterians, she disapproved of them (though she liked Walter Scott well enough).