The Forgotten Monarchy of Scotland

Rating:
Summary: Reacessment of Scotland and her traditional Monarchy.
Review: "The Forgotten Monarchy of Scotland" by Prince Michael Stewart of Albany. Passionately written and researched by the the author, who`s passion is fueled by the fact that it is his own family and personal identity he is establishing in the face of a two century old conspiracy who`s source is one of the most powerful governments on earth.

Forgotten Monarchy is a minutely detailed reacessment of the history of Scotland and the emergence of the Royal Scottish family. We have all heard the old adage that history is written by the victors, well, here in Prince Michael`s book are told the details concealed by the English who wrote the victor`s history we were all taught in school. One of these surprising details is the revelation that the Stewart dynasty did not become extinct as the textbooks would have us believe.

Not just dry stories here, the details have modern significance and particularly relevant to a Scotland recently voting to have their own Parlament , not had since 1707.

Of major importence to the book is the detailing of Westminster`s conspiracy against the Stewarts in exile. Included are documents that prove that Bonnie Prince Charlie had prodigy, and they were recognised as such by governments and Royal families of Europe throughout the 19th century.

In places, Forgotten Monarchy reads like a mystery, it has everything you could want in a good mystery, conspiracy in high places, destruction of documents, attempted political assassinations. It all sounds unnervingly very modern but this conspiracy started in the 18th century and has continued to this day, fairly successfully I might add.

There are those who have publicly maintained that the claims of Prince Michael and his family are all fantasy, made up of whole cloth. If they have the courage to actually check out the documentation presented in this book they just might change their tune.

Finally, Forgotten Monarchy is an engaging story of a 17 year old man raised in Belgium who moved to Scotland in 1976 becau! se he felt that his destiny lay there in the land of his forebeares.

The last 22 years have been quite an experience for Michael Stewart, for most Scots as well as the rest of us in the english speaking world, had no idea the Stewart family had survived in exile.

Shortly after arriving in Scotland, young Prince Michael paid a visit to Lord Lovat, who also had no knowledge of the Stewarts in exile. When the Lord Lovat realised who this young man at his door was, he asked "What on earth are you doing here?"

The 17 year old`s reply is best told in his own words; "I could think of no better reply than to quote the well remembered words of Prince Charles Edward, and answered..........I am come home"

Rating:
Summary: Sheer Fantasy
Review: All those who want Scotland to choose a different path from that of England should hesitate before choosing to believe the claims of the author of this book. To cut a long story short, base your policies on fact, not fiction.

This book is totally ridiculous, and I'm glad that children have not been taught history from it. There are plenty of decent books on the Jacobites, and this is NOT one of them.

Rating:
Summary: This book is only good for a laugh
Review: Michel Roger Lafosse is from Belgium - an ordinary man, like most of the rest of us. Unlike most of the rest of us, he has embarked on a fantasy in which he is a prince. This may sound like the start of a children's fairytale story, but it happens to be the best way to begin the real life story of the author of this book. It also puts this book, which he claims is about his ancestors, in context.

Of course, the author Michel Lafosse (who now styles himself HRH Prince Michael of Albany, etc. etc.) was challenged to produce some evidence of his noble claims. He produced a birth certificate, which was dismissed as a forgery by the very authorities in Belgium that he claimed had issued it. His own real birth certificate, of the same date, shows his parents' names, less any mention of the titles that were added in the forgery. Yes, gone is the "Baron" in front of his father's name, and gone is the "Princess" in front of his mother's. Indeed his father's occupation is listed by the registrar as that of shopkeeper, while his mother is listed as a business employee. Through invention of ancestors and twisting of historical detail, Michel Lafosse has managed to write himself into his own imaginary version of history - and you can read it all in this book. I wonder if we need to consider the validity of the book contents at all after these simple facts.

There are many, many other areas where he has been caught out - producing poor quality forgeries of Vatican documents according to researchers, the apparent use of the same typesetting machine on documents supposedly hundreds of years apart (and produced by both Catholic and Protestant churches), and so on - but the space is too limited to properly counter his arguments here. Oh yes, he does claim he is directly descended from Jesus too.

Should you buy this book? If you are looking for knowledge and history, NO. It is written as one man's self-serving account of history with the intention of making him look like he is someone that he is clearly not. However, if you are looking to be entertained by a delusional man, then YES.

But for your own sake, do not leave it lying around the house where your school-going children might pick it up. You do not want them failing history exams or being laughed out of college. I suggest putting some highly visible stickers with the words "Fiction" or "Fantasy" on it, just in case.


Rating:
Summary: Biased, questionable
Review: The first third or so of this book is a relatively conventional, if somewhat whirlwind, history of Scotland and the Stewart/Stuart family's place in it, up to James VII/II's flight from Britain in 1688. At that point, it becomes less a history text than a prosecution brief. 'Prince Michael' lays out the case for his belief in a 'Hanoverian Conspiracy' designed to suppress the fact that the legitimate sovereigns of independent Scotland lived, and continue to live to this day.

Although Hilaire Belloc is not mentioned in the index, 'Prince Michael' seems to agree with Belloc's argument that the so-called 'Glorious Revolution' that placed the House of Orange on the throne marked the end of liberal, aristocratic, rights-based rule and the beginning of a commercial oligarchic republic that preserved the forms of the old order without any of their substance. However, development of this argument takes a back seat to 'Prince Michael''s chronicle of several centuries of deliberate insult directed at the Stewart/Stuart succession.

The weaknesses of 'Prince Michael''s scholarship are mentioned in other reviews on this page. I was particularly bothered by the fact that in almost 500 pages of argument, there are fewer than 120 footnotes. Many of the footnotes he does give us are frustratingly unhelpful: 'The Vatican Archives, Rome,' or 'Archives Napoléon, Paris.' Contrast this with, for example, Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn's 'Leftism Revisited,' which has nearly 1,200 fully documented footnotes in just about the same amount of text as 'Prince Michael''s book.

'Prince Michael''s research relies to an unsettling extent on those traditional repositories of 'secret histories,' the Masons and the Knights Templar. He even quotes Gardiner's 'Bloodline of the Holy Grail' -- a book for which 'Prince Michael' himself wrote the foreword. Many of his most eye-catching assertions, like the one mentioned in another review that Scotland is 'geologically the most ancient land mass on the planet' (p.11), are completely unsupported by citations or references. My favorite of these is the Abbot of Scone's alleged 1296 prophecy that 'Four scores and six hundred years it will take [ie, until 1976] before the Michael comes back to his inheritance' (p. 55). And when did 'Prince Michael' arrive in Scotland? In 1976! Wow!

'Prince Michael' unwittingly summarizes the nature of his research when he unironically describes his discovery of the connection between the Egyptian pharaohs, the princes of Scythia, and Scotland: 'I awoke suddenly one night, knowing precisely who Kinkiris was. I immediately rushed to the "Guinness Book of Kings, Rulers, and Statesmen," and there indeed was our man: Pharaoh Akenkheres' (p. 69). Who needs footnotes when you have divine revelation?

I'll leave it to genealogists more skilled than I to sort through the tangle of ancestors he claims (there are insightful websites that do exactly this). I'll just note that a few years ago, a British magazine did a study to determine who would have the strongest claim to a resurrected Scots throne. After sorting through the relevant genealogy, history, and legal precedents, they determined the person with the best claim to sit on the throne of Scotland is ... Queen Elizabeth II. If this book is 'Prince Michael of Albany''s appeal to overturn the court of history, the most charitable verdict can be Not Proven.

Rating:
Summary: H.R.H. Michael the incredible
Review: The self-styled "H.R.H. Prince Michael" claims a descent from "Bonnie Prince Charlie Stewart", the young pretender. Fact is that Bonnie Prince Charlie married Louise of Stolberg. He did recognize an illegitimate daughter, Charlotte, who may or may not be an ancestress of Michael. However, Michael claims that he also descends from a "Prince" born to Marguere de Lussan, and he claims that she had married Bonnie Prince Charlie. This marriage never took place and Charles Stewart never recognized a child by this woman.
To make his claim to royal descent even more ridiculous, Michael has added the completely fake genealogy of the Holy Blood, Holy Grail book to his book, thus claiming descent through the Guises and the Merovingians from Jesus Christ himself! This claim is completely absurd.

However, if you do not mind about historic accuracy, the book is quite pleasantly written and it is clear that the author loves Scotland. Besides the silly genealogy stuff, it contains a series of biografies of Scottish Kings.

Rating:
Summary: Hilariously bad pseudo-history
Review: This book would be even funnier if people did not take it so seriously. As a history, it doesn't even deserve notice; most of the assertions "Prince Michael" makes are backed up by citations that are so deliberately vague (The Vatican Archives, for example) that no serious scholar could ever attempt to verify his claims to being the legitimate Stuart claimant.

As a genealogy, this book is positively grotesque. "Prince Michael's" purported ancestry includes supposed ancestors that did not even exist, as has been conclusively demonstrated by a number of very good websites that specialize in European royal & noble lines. The fact that "Prince Michael" is in league with the very very dubious Laurence Gardner, who has no credence whatsoever in genealogical circles, should speak for itself.

A visit to "Prince Michael's" and Gardner's websites show clearly that the whole purpose of this enterprise is to make a buck, and evidently they have been successful in this venture, even if historical truth had to be sacrificed to achieve this.

This is not to say that I didn't enjoy the book. When the author doesn't have to bother with historical accuracy, he can instead concentrate on writing a brisk narrative. As a result, I was able to finish this book in rather short order. Also, there some pretty funny stuff in this book, such as the claim that Napol?on is the direct descendant of Charles I of Great Britain (supported again, we are told, by evidence buried deep within the Vatican Archives). Also, the absolutely god-awful painting of "Prince Michael" with his illustrious Stuart forebears (by the "court painter," we are told) was so bad that I could not help but laugh at great length. Such merriment can only be good for the soul, so I guess this book does indeed have something to offer.

In short, if you want a good laugh, by all means read this book. If you are looking for something with even a whiff of historical truth, look elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: Hilariously bad pseudo-history
Review: This book would be even funnier if people did not take it so seriously. As a history, it doesn't even deserve notice; most of the assertions "Prince Michael" makes are backed up by citations that are so deliberately vague (The Vatican Archives, for example) that no serious scholar could ever attempt to verify his claims to being the legitimate Stuart claimant.

As a genealogy, this book is positively grotesque. "Prince Michael's" purported ancestry includes supposed ancestors that did not even exist, as has been conclusively demonstrated by a number of very good websites that specialize in European royal & noble lines. The fact that "Prince Michael" is in league with the very very dubious Laurence Gardner, who has no credence whatsoever in genealogical circles, should speak for itself.

A visit to "Prince Michael's" and Gardner's websites show clearly that the whole purpose of this enterprise is to make a buck, and evidently they have been successful in this venture, even if historical truth had to be sacrificed to achieve this.

This is not to say that I didn't enjoy the book. When the author doesn't have to bother with historical accuracy, he can instead concentrate on writing a brisk narrative. As a result, I was able to finish this book in rather short order. Also, there some pretty funny stuff in this book, such as the claim that Napol?on is the direct descendant of Charles I of Great Britain (supported again, we are told, by evidence buried deep within the Vatican Archives). Also, the absolutely god-awful painting of "Prince Michael" with his illustrious Stuart forebears (by the "court painter," we are told) was so bad that I could not help but laugh at great length. Such merriment can only be good for the soul, so I guess this book does indeed have something to offer.

In short, if you want a good laugh, by all means read this book. If you are looking for something with even a whiff of historical truth, look elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: The only book on Scotland's history you will ever need!
Review: This is the book to have to discover the true story of Scotland and her Royal House of Stewart. This book is intelligently and passionately written by a young man who loves the land of his ancestors - the land he chose to adopt. I can only admire His Royal Highness for leaving Belgium and coming to Scotland to take up the cause of Scottish independence from England. For those who bitterly insist this book is a fraud and Prince Michael of Albany is a fake, I can only pity you for being so biased and not seeing the truth. Why can't those non-believers see that the Hanoverian House of Windsor has done everything and anything in its power to suppress the true history of the true Royal House of the Scots. I am grateful Prince Michael has the courage and bravery to present his side to the public. Scotland should be proud they have such a noble Prince to take up the standard of freedom for their country. This is one book I could not put down. I feel sorry for Prince Michael's detractors - they are only repeating the Hanoverian version of history. I say it's time they took those blinders off! To an independent Scotland and to Prince Michael of Albany - God bless them both!!

Rating:
Summary: The Forgotten Monarchy of Scotland
Review: What a provocative read! Self-titled "Prince Michael Stewart of Albany" expands upon the brief coverage of the conspiracy against the Stuarts given in Bloodline of the Holy Grail. Many of the author's comments about the political and social history of Scotland are valid and there is a wealth of accurate historical information in this book however it is a dangerous merging of fact and fiction which invalidates any value it might have had. Prince Michael struggles to document proof of his legitimate descent from Bonnie Prince Charlie and too often falls back on the excuse that much of the proof lies in his personal family archives or those of the Vatican (both sources which no body could possibly verify). The author quotes old books to be found only in the French national library, unfortunately upon investigation I found that the authors existed but the titles ascribed did not and finally, a 'phone call to the Lyon Court in Edinburgh confirmed that Prince Michael has never had "a satisfactory position of status quo"(p307 hardback)and is rather considered a bit of a 'loon'and incidentally anyone can apply for a passport (visitors defunct or standard)and get one calling himself 'King Raspberry of Doodah' if he wishes. The appalling artwork by the "Court Painter" does nothing to add credence to his presentation and author Laurence Gardner's association with this says more about his own works' veracity than he should like. An astoundingly bad book with some excellent presentation. The historical facts are finally outnumbered by the author's fiction, meanwhile the true Stuart claimant is made further obscure by this work.