Henry FitzJames (6 August 1673 – 16 December 1702), was the illegitimate son of King James II of England

James II of England

James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...

 and VII of Scotland by Arabella Churchill

Arabella Churchill (royal mistress)

Arabella Churchill was the mistress of King James II, and the mother of four of his children...

, sister of the Duke of Marlborough

John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough

John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, Prince of Mindelheim, KG, PC , was an English soldier and statesman whose career spanned the reigns of five monarchs through the late 17th and early 18th centuries...

. He was born in St. James's Square

St. James's Square

St. James's Square is the only square in the exclusive St James's district of the City of Westminster. It has predominantly Georgian and neo-Georgian architecture and a private garden in the centre...

, Westminster

City of Westminster

The City of Westminster is a London borough occupying much of the central area of London, England, including most of the West End. It is located to the west of and adjoining the ancient City of London, directly to the east of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and its southern boundary...

, Middlesex

Middlesex

Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. He was the brother of James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick

James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick

James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick, 1st Duke of Fitz-James, 1st Duke of Liria and Jérica was an Anglo-French military leader, illegitimate son of King James II of England by Arabella Churchill, sister of the 1st Duke of Marlborough...

, the French Marshal. He married Marie Gabrielle d’Audibert de Lussan 20 July 1700, daughter and heiress of Jean d'Audibert, Comte de Lussan. They had a posthumous daughter, Lady Christine Marie Jacqueline Henriette FitzJames, born 29 May 1703 at Bagnols sur Cèze, Languedoc, France. She became a nun. His widow, Marie Gabrielle d’Audibert de Lussan, Duchess of Albemarle, married, secondly, in May 1707, at St. Germain-en-Laye, John Drummond, Marquess of Forth, later 2nd Duke of Melfort (1682–1754))

FitzJames was created Duke of Albemarle

Duke of Albemarle

The Dukedom of Albemarle has been created twice in the Peerage of England, each time ending in extinction. Additionally, the title was created a third time by James II in exile and a fourth time by his son the Old Pretender, in the Jacobite Peerage. The name is the Latinised form of the ancient...

, together with the subsidiary titles of Earl of Rochford and Baron Romney, by his father on 13 January 1696, but the title is only recognized by Jacobites

Jacobitism

Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...

. He was also appointed the Grand Prior of the revived Priory of the English Commandery of the Sovereign Military Order of St.John of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta, known as the Knights of Malta.

Ancestry