A mezzotint of James Francis Edward Stuart as an infant prince, after a painting by Godfrey Kneller: full length, lying on a cushion; wearing a lace cap and gown, and wrapped in an ermine mantle; with drapery to the right, and an initial 'P' beneath a crown within a wreath in the background; with an English inscription below, including the publisher's address, 'Sold by I. Smith at ye golden Lyon in Russel Street'. Third state.

James II's first legitimate son to survive infancy, Prince James Francis Edward, was born on 10 June 1688, after James and his second wife, Mary of Modena, had been married for 15 years. Hitherto the Protestant Princess Mary, the first surviving child of James's marriage to Ann Hyde, had been heir to the throne; the birth of a Catholic heir plunged the nation into turmoil and soon led to Parliament's invitation to Princess Mary's husband, William of Orange, to take the throne.

This portrait of the new prince, after a painting by the king's Principal Painter, Godfrey Kneller, bears an inscription intended to counter current conspiracy theories that the child was not the legitimate heir. It states that the painting from which the mezzotint derives, was painted ad vivum ('from the life'), to allay any suspicions that the image was invented. The baby is shown in an ermine-lined robe on an opulent satin cushion, under a crowned 'P' (for prince) within a laurel wreath. Smith's image was rapidly copied by printmakers across Europe, most notably in the Netherlands, where Princess Mary was based.

Text adapted from Charles II: Art & Power, London, 2017