Jacobitism

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A movement within the Scottish Jacobite cause advocating for the restoration of James II and his descendants to the throne of England
2. A political ideology centered on the principles and values of the Jacobites striving for the recognition of a legitimate monarch
3. An expression of allegiance to the Jacobite regime, maintaining support for the Stuart claim to the British crown

Etymology: Jacobitism is one of those words where the suffix does most of the work. "Jacobite" comes from "Jacobus," the Latin form of James, and it was applied to supporters of James II of England, the Catholic king deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. After James fled, his followers and their heirs, including the Stuart claimants James Francis Edward and Charles Edward Stuart, sought to restore the dynasty, and the name stuck to them as a group. The "-ism" ending, borrowed from Greek through Latin, turns a person-label into a doctrine or system of loyalty. So Jacobitism names the political creed itself: the belief that the Stuart line held the rightful claim to the British crown, and the commitment to acting on that belief. The word therefore describes a principle more than a set of individuals, and it is most often used of the cause in the decades after 1688, when it was a live threat to the Hanoverian government.