While we addressed
this issue a number of years ago it happens once in a while that we receive
e-mails asking if we know of the latest whereabouts of the self-styled "Prince
Michael James Alexander Stewart, 7th Count of Albany" also referred to as
"Prince Michael of Albany" a fraudster whose real name is Michel
Roger Lafosse. This time it was because of two
articles in June, one in The Scotsman newspaper and a later one in Poland. To
be clear, however, the two articles portray art historian Peter Pininski (Piotr Piniński) as
potentially real.
This subject started
to get traction again when earlier this year a portrait of Bonnie Prince
Charlie purchased
by The Pininski Foundation went on display at the
National Museum of Scotland.
Peter Pininski who is seen presenting the painting first came to
be known through his book The Stuarts' Last Secret: The Missing Heirs of Bonnie
Prince Charlie (2002) which was followed by Bonnie Prince Charlie: A Life
(2010).
The first book
describes how Pininski's quest began in the late
1990s when he set eyes on a painting of an 18th-century relation, Marie de Thorigny', who, as it would turn out, would hold the key to
unlocking the forgotten secrets of the Stuart dynasty.
History records that
Charlotte Stuart, daughter of Charles Edward Stuart and Clementina Walkinshaw,
gave birth to a son and two daughters fathered by Prince Ferdinand de Rohan,
Archbishop of Cambrai.
The son, who was named
Charles after his grandfather, died without fathering children himself, while
next to nothing was known of his two sisters except only that they had existed.
But according to the
findings presented in "Stuarts'"Last
Secret, the daughters, including Marie-Victoire, or Marie de Thorigny as she was more formally known, had their true
identities concealed due to their being the illegitimate offspring of a Roman
Catholic archbishop.
And Marie's mother
Charlotte was keen to veil her children's Stuart heritage too, to avoid
attracting the wrong kind of attention during a century infamous for its
turbulent politics.
In contrast to Pininski's historical approach "Prince Michael of
Albany" (born Michel Lafosse) in his own book
The Forgotten Monarchy of Scotland: The True Story of the Royal House of
Stewart and the Hidden Lineage of the Kings and Queens of Scots, creates an
entirely new legend in which he is the present day reincarnation of a Prince
who he alleges consummated a second and valid marriage in 1785. Lafosse polishes
the accepted accounts of the sad decline of the Prince and claims that
scholars, who support any negative claims about Charles, are malicious. These
scholars, say Lafosse, have simple followed the
demands of “authorities” to blacken the name of the “true” king.
Pininski's 2012 book in turn is a sycophantic work, determined
to portray Charles Edward Stuart in the most sympathetic light and rejuvenate
the myth of Bonnie Prince Charlie as a romantic hero of British history. It is
completely at odds with current scholarship in the field of Jacobite studies,
which is interested in deeper understanding and wider contextualisation
of Jacobitism and anti-Jacobitism, scholarship which is opening up new avenues
of research by diverting focus away from the Stuart dynasty and its shadow
court in exile and towards the Jacobite diaspora, commercial networks and
religious and intellectual means of support.
It has been argued
that Bonnie Prince Charlie indeed became a "forgotten king" because
he was a despised husband, a jealous lover, an alcoholic and the despair of the
faltering Jacobite cause. His health declined, he lost all support of the
French king and the Pope was not at home when he sought to present himself as
King Charles lll. The devotion of Charles’ daughter,
as the Prince increasingly lost his grasp on reality, injects another element
of poignancy. The period of her care of her father also coincides with the
time, according to the Lafosse claim, that the
Countess de Massillan became Charles’ second wife and
the mistress of Muti Palace. In these rather pathetic
pieces of correspondence, Charlotte describes the dire condition of her father
and his failing mind. Equally well
recorded are the final hours of the forgotten king. He dies in the arms of his daughter and in
the presence of a few of the remaining Jacobites.
"Prince Michael
of Albany" was born on 21 April 1958 as the son of two young middle-class
Belgian citizens. Doubtless, with all the joy of first-time parenthood, the
father, Gustave Joseph Clément Fernand Lafosse, a
shopkeeper, and the mother, Renée Julienne Dée, a
business employee, undertook the legal registration of the birth. This was done before the Registrar in the Watermael-Boitsfort district of Brussels. The first names
of the boy were entered into the city record as “Michel Roger”.
The family and
witnesses were not to know that young Lafosse would
one day repudiate this birth certificate and angrily declare it to be false. He
would replace it with not just one but two crude forgeries, both of which
declared him to be “son altesse royale, le Prince
Michael Jacques Stewart, septième Comte d’Albanie.”
Accordig to "Prince Michael" in his book The
Forgotten Monarchy of Scotland, the senior Stewart line goes all the way back
to King Arthur’s father, King Aedan of Scots, on the one hand, and to Prince Nascien of the Septimanian Midi
on the other. The Scots descent traces further back through King Lucius of Siluria to Bran the Blessed and Joseph of Aramathea (St James the Just), while the Midi succession
stems from the Merovingians male ancestral line through the Fisher Kings to
Jesus and Mary Magdalene." This wholly fictional
claim is taken from The Bloodline of the Holy Grail - The Hidden Lineage of
Jesus Revealed by Laurence Gardner, The Chevalier Labhran
de St Germain, and published by Element Books. It is a complete invention, and
cannot be supported by any documents or historical sources. The alleged
genealogy is filled with falsehoods, the most obvious being that Prince Charles
Edward, Charles III, never married "Marguerite O’Dea d’Audibert
de Lussan, Comtesse de Massillan"
(1749-1820), had he done so he would have been guilty of bigamy since he was
already married to Princess Louise of Stolberg, who survived him. Perhaps this
name is called into the equation because the Drummond Dukes of Melfort married into this same family and inherited the Lussan title.
Since 1979 he has
referred to himself as "HRH Prince Michael James Alexander Stewart, 7th
Count of Albany", stating that an ancestor used the title "Count of
Albany". Lafosse also says he has the right to
other noble titles including Comte de Blois, Duc d'Aquitaine
and Baron Lafosse de Chatry.a
cultural attaché at the Knights of Malta's embassy in the Democratic Republic
of São
Tomé and Príncipe in West Africa; and that he has been awarded the United Nations 2001
"Volunteer Service Medal" under the name "Albany". Lafosse claimed to be the Fons Honorum and Grand Protector of The Imperial and Royal
Dragon Court and Order in Britain and the English-speaking world. The
Federation of Autonomous Priories of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of
Jerusalem, Knights of Malta. The Federation of Autonomous Priories of the
Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Knights of Malta." And a
representative of the "President of the European Council of Princes",
following Archduke
Otto of Austria's tenure in that position.
Soon after the
alleged revelations in The Forgotten Monarchy of Scotland, The Daily Telegraph
referring to "an unanswerable claim" and The Guardian with an article
titled "The
man who would be king" quickly interviewed the would be Stewart.
Meanwhile, Lafosse continued to cast his net wide but with the most
devious discretion. He has targeted the
naïve, the romantics, the extreme nationalists and the “darn right silly.” He has assumed (correctly as it happens) that
his faithful followers would not wish to demand “evidence of his claims” and
made no effort to track down the sources of some of his stories. Thus he abused
their friendship, exploited their frailties, and took advantage of those
willing to follow his star for their own benefit. This was described among
others in a 2017 book titled "Grandma Medea: A Memoir" by Feline Minne where the latter described how here
grandmother Medea became an acolyte of the self-invented Prince. And how she
witnessed her grandmother and other acolytes when they stood in a circle around
the "Prince", holding a candle in one hand and their swords in the
other, singing a Gaelic song. The “prince” was sitting in Medea’s armchair,
bundled up in a white sheet and Medea had placed a shiny crown, with fur on the
sides, on his head. (1)
Then, when the Home Office
sought clarification from Michael la Fosse in reference to his use of forged
documents for the purpose of seeking (and receiving) British naturalization and
the issue of a British passport he then left the United Kingdom and via Belgium
moved for some time to Australia and then later back to Belgium where in 2012
he was pictured together with "Princess" Angelique Monét whose title is not to be confused with in this
case "the current region of Aquitaine and is not related to any
government." False titles of nobility are titles of nobility that are not
recognized by any government, even in countries in which titles of nobility
once existed or still exist. They are often connected to occult or
pseudo-masonic groups. They have received an increasing amount of press
attention, as the number of schemes that attempt to sell these titles has
increased. These titles are sometimes connected to self-styled orders of
chivalry. Pseudo-chivalric orders or self-styled orders are organizations which
claim to be chivalric orders but are not recognized as legitimate by countries
or international bodies. Most self-styled orders arose on or after the
mid-eighteenth century and many have (as also that of our fake Prince) been
created recently.
As evidenced also by
his picture with "Princess Angelique Monét a
few years ago he made quite a splash in the USA and Canada by creating
Knighthoods, Dame-hoods and other titles in the Order of the Temple of
Jerusalem. These titles were not inexpensive. A number of American ladies and
gentlemen were displaying their enameled crosses (similar to the cross of
Malta) at the various Scottish Gatherings & Games held in those countries.
It can also be noted
that Na Fir Dileas (who want a referendum to be held
on whether the country should become a republic, should continue as a monarchy
under the Windsors, or whether the royal House of
Stuart should be restored) in
the past supported the claim of Michel Lafosse.
Peter Piniski, in The
Stuarts' Last Secret, says of Lafosse's assertion:
One recent,
heroically unsubstantiated claim is that Prince Charles married in 1785 and
fathered a legitimate child. This 'fact' (which has escaped the notice of every
historian for over two hundred years!), is particularly imaginative considering
the prince was married at the time, being only separated from Louise von
Stolberg-Gedern, after April 3rd 1784, who remained
under the protection of the Pope. Nor was eighteenth century Rome the best of
cities for an internationally known Roman Catholic prince to commit bigamy. It
also ignores Charles' wretchedly infirm condition from before that date until
his death three years later. Likewise does it ignore the presence (and insult
the memory) of Charles' daughter and sole heir, Charlotte, who was daily at her
father's side, nursing him right up to the moment of his death despite her own
cancer. Professing direct descent on the female line from this 'marriage' the
same claimant equally fails to provide any evidence, proper references or
verifiable source documents for his additional assertion of descent on the male
line from not one, but both daughters of Charlotte Stuart. Professor Lenman describes all of this as: "The industry of
Stuart charlatanism".(2)
Although defended by
a number of historians Pininski's hypothesis has been
disputed by Marie-Louise Backhurst who in a 2013
article contends that the Charlotte's second daughter, who was always called
Victoire Adelaide, was married firstly at St Roch,
Paris, in 1804 to a military doctor in the service of Napoleon, Pierre Joseph
Marie de St Ursin (1763–1818). By de St Ursin she was the mother of Theodore
Marie de St Ursin, who was born in Paris about 1809–10 and who was still
resident in Paris in 1823, although his history has not been found. His mother
married again in 1823 to one Corbet James D'Auvergne,
although her place and date of death have not been found. Backhurst
examined Madame Nikorowicz's baptism, marriage and
death, and gives her name as Marie Victoire de Thorigny,
and Backhurst suggests that she was more likely to
have been the illegitimate daughter of Jules, Prince de Rohan, brother of
Ferdinand and thus a first cousin to Victoire Adelaide. Pininski
argues that Backhurst's interpretation is based on a
destroyed document that was "reconstituted" seventy years later and
that no document confirms the birth of Marie Victoire's son, whereas Pininski's publications provide original archival documents
and fully describe the context.
The contender from
Brussels meanwhile continued to engage in masquerades like those described by a
newspaper reporter in 2016: At his side, attached to his belt, he carried a
sword, and in his hands he held a huge wreath of flowers in the red and white colours of the Polish flag. He
appeared disdainful and rather aloof – clearly "a somebody" – and
just behind him strode two rather overweight gentlemen, also in kilts and sky
blue doublets, and covered in every kind of Highland accoutrement you can
imagine, dirks, powder horns, bonnets, sashes, dingly
dangly orders and decoration, and firmly clamped in their right hands, drawn
claymore swords."
Michael Hall
suggested that it is possible, that Michael Lafosse
actually believes some of the stories he spins but the extent to which he has
profited by selling titles points to a possible motive.
It is hard to predict
whether the fantasy life of Lafosse is really over.
The appearance of a second book and the prospect of a third appears to indicate
that at least one publisher believes that the “Prince” can still harvest a
readership from those for whom the bizarre is still a comfortable substitute
for reality.
As for Pininski the recent article in the Scotsman describes how
regardless of what 'rights' he may have, Peter Pininski,
never expressed a desire to challenge the House of Windsor. He commented:
"I would dearly like to stay right away from Stuart claimant-type
charlatanism, because it’s not what I find interesting."
The same article
quotes Lafosse who said: "My
claim is based on primogeniture, that I came from the first born and am
therefore first in line."
After his
British citizenship was taken away, the self-invented"Prince
Michael James Alexander Stewart, 7th Count of Albany" who while
in 2004 briefly attempted to become Czech Euro-MP following his flight from the UK, moved his
moneymaking machine to, among others, the Czech Republic where
he currently goes by the illustrious name of "Princ Michael Jakub Alexander Stewart z Albany"
while selling alleged Moravian 'knightly' titles:
See also: Lafosse and the Královský
řád Moravských rytířů svatých Rastislava a Kolumbana.
1) Feline Minne, Grandma Medea: A Memoir pp. 122-123.
2) Peter Piniski, The Stuarts' last secret: the missing heirs of
Bonnie Prince Charlie, 2002, p. 263.
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