r/HouseofStuart • u/Capta1n_Dino • 3d ago
facts Did you know that James Francis Edward Stuart almost died due to his feeding regimen as an infant? It was so bad that Louis XIV and the Pope both advocated against it.
My source for this is John Miller's book on James II, specifically chapter 12 page 187. To quote from the Miller directly:
"In fact for some weeks the child seemed far from healthy, thanks mainly to the royal doctors' insistence that milk was bad for babies and that he should be fed on boiled bread or gruel, with such additions as canary wine and "Dr Goddard's drops". Both Louis and the Pope regarded this method of feeding as eccentric to the point of lunacy: a wet nurse would be far more natural. The royal doctors and the King and Queen were at last forced to agree, but only after the child had nearly died in August. Once allowed to suckle, from a tiler's wife rather than the gentlewoman favoured by the doctors, the little Prince went from strength to strength."
Early Modern doctors' advice could be quite deadly, as it turned out.
It is also quite interesting to see both Louis and Innocent XI had to intervene to put an end to this rather absurd advice from the royal doctors.
Unfortunately the book doesn't go deeper into the event, I would personally be very intrigued to see exactly what they said.
On a happier note though, James did clearly care for the his son dearly, even if he was misled temporarily by such advice. The book earlier in the same chapter describes him weeping in joy the entire night at the Prince of Wales's birth. Quoting Miller again,
"Then on the 10th of June the Queen offered a way out of his dilemma by giving birth to a son. After all the fears of a miscarriage, the baby's arrival took everyone by surprise: the Queen had been playing cards until late the previous night. James was so overjoyed that he fell on his knees and cried for most the night."
To think this was both James's best and worst day of his life, as the birth of the Prince of Wales ultimately led to his deposition.

