Henry accepted four thousand pounds a year from George III during the last eight years of his life. This sum was worth over two hundred thousand pounds in today’s money. Henry accepted the money as partial payment of his grandmother Mary of Modena’s dowry, which was a debt acknowledged, but never paid, by William III and Queen Anne.
Henry ran into serious financial problems after the French revolution. Much of his income came from church lands in France, which were nationalized. The incursions of French troops into Italy worsened his financial situation, forcing him to flee to Venice, and his inheritance from his wealthy mother only stretched so far. One of his friends, Cardinal Borgia, wrote to Sir John Hippesley, a British diplomat, about Henry’s poverty. When Hippesley returned to England, he informed George about the situation. George ordered his ambassador to Vienna, the Earl of Minto, to offer Henry the money as delicately as possible. Henry never ceded his right to the throne or expressly recognized George as king, although he was very grateful for the money. In a thank you letter to Hippesley, Henry acknowledged “your gracious Sovereign’s noble and spontaneous generosity.” George also gave a pension to Charles Edward’s widow, Louise of Stolberg, who had been left penniless after the French revolution broke out and Henry had no more money to give her.
George’s reactions to the deaths of Charles Edward and Henry were not recorded, but it’s likely that he was relieved that the Jacobite threat was over. George was about seven years old during Charles Edward’s attempt to regain his throne in 1745, and probably heard many stories about the Jacobite threat as he grew up.
George IV was fascinated by the Stuarts. He bought up a great deal of the papers of the exiled Stuarts and some jewels from Henry’s estate, including a Garter that belonged to Charles I. He encouraged historians to write about the Stuarts, and allowed them access to the papers he’d bought from Henry’s estate. Without his interest, and his foresight in acquiring the papers, much information about the exiled Stuarts would have been lost.
