The Order of the Lion Rampant

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Scotland exists today, as it has every day for many centuries, as an Independent Kingdom of Scots – not a matter of opinion but a fact of Scots Law.

Since the English Parliament forced King James VII of Scots and II of England into exile in 1688, the Scots struggled to restore the Royal House of Stuart. Immediately the new regime established Regiments around Scotland in order to quell resistance and suppress any attempts to restore the King and their liberty.

Effectively this was a military occupation of Scotland. This military occupation has continued until today and is how England maintains is illegal government over Scotland.

No legal parliament has sat in Scotland since 1688
The members of parliament who assembled in 1689 to depose King James VII:
• did not convene as a legal Parliament with any Right of Law to act as they did
• illegally attempted to depose the King outside the terms permitting such action per the Declaration of Arbroath
• breached the Law of Succession (1681), which could not be abrogated in any way

On this basis Scottish Legitimists maintain that no legal parliament has been assembled since the Anglo-Dutch exile of our King James VII, therefore no legislation after December 1688 has any validity. This being the case, the Act of Union between Scotland and England (1707) to form ‘the United Kingdom of Great Britain’ is illegal and Scotland’s government remains in abeyance. The Head of Scotland’s Royal House (according to Law) lives in effective exile in Munich.

The question is not whether Scotland wants independence, rather Scotland is an independent monarchy so why is it still subject to de facto government by the Monarch and Parliament of England?

A brief background History of Scotland…
Scotland was established as the country we know today by King Kenneth I (MacAlpin) back in 834 AD. From the earliest times this great Nation had to fight off attempts to invade it and take over by the English until King Robert (I) the Bruce made a decisive victory. The Barons of Scotland met at Arbroath Abbey in 1320 and signed the famous Declaration of Arbroath in which they declared Scotland’s sovereignty which was ultimately acknowledged by the Pope. This declaration laid down (amongst other things) the conditions under which a King of Scots could be displaced and deposed:

"Yet if he [the king] should give up what he has begun, and agree to make us or our kingdom subject to the King of England or the English, we should exert ourselves at once to drive him out as our enemy and a subverter of his own rights and ours, and make some other man who was well able to defend us our King; for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom — for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself."

In 1603 James VI King of Scots inherited the Throne of England and generally Scotland’s interests became somewhat marginalised by England.

In 1681 the Duke of Albany (the future King James VII), acting as Charles II’s High Commissioner for Scotland, effected the passing of the Act of Succession (1681) which protected the line of Succession to the Scots Crown as absolute:

“the kings of this Realm succeeding lineally thereto, do succeed according to the known degrees of proximity by blood [Primogeniture] and this cannot be interrupted by any Act, Law or Statute whatsoever”
(Acta Parliamentorum Caroli II, 13th August 1681)

In 1688, in conjunction with the Dutch prince William of Orange, English parliamentarians forced King James VII and II into exile under threat of violence and later presented it to parliament that the King had abandoned the State, without alternative provision for government and that (by introducing Laws for religious tolerance) he intended to subject England to Roman Catholic government again. In Scotland some members of parliament also saw an opportunity to seize greater powers for themselves and so illegally attempted to offer the Scottish Throne to William of Orange. In Scotland there was great resistance to this and for the next 60 years James VII, his son and grandsons tried (often with assistance from France) to overturn the military occupation of Scotland and restore the independent Kingdom of Scots.

1746: the Scots rallied again to battle for the restoration of King James VIII and an independent Scotland under the leadership of his son Prince Charles Edward Stuart, Duke of Rothesay (fondly known as ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’). At the battle of Culloden the Scots suffered a crushing defeat and were afterward persecuted brutally by the English regime, many Scots fled with their families to settle in America and Canada. The use of tartan, the filleadh-mòr and kilt was outlawed and the speaking of Gaelic impeded. The social, economic, political and cultural persecution of Scotland has continued to the present day.

After Culloden, Prince Charles Edward (later Charles III) barely escaped into exile where he ended his days in Italy. After the death of his brother King Henry, the Senior descendants of Charles I’s daughter Henrietta inherited the Rights to the Throne of Scotland. The Royal House of Stuart has continued through this line until today, now represented by Prince Francis, Duke of Bavaria, de jure HM King Francis II, King of Scots.

The Order of the Lion Rampant
Our organisation champions & cherishes the principles and ideals of a Chivalric Order and is structured along the lines thereof: its members as metaphorical Knights defending the Rights of their Monarch, his subjects and what they know to be true.

Our Cause To see the Head of the Royal House of Scotland, the Declaration of Arbroath, the Three Estates, the Committee of the Articles and all Scots legislation (pre-1689) restored and operative under a Constitutional Monarchy governing an independent Kingdom of Scots.

Further, to bring this Cause to a wider public knowledge through publicity, events and our traditions, and to stage fund-raising events to finance better publicity of these legal and historical issues.
Membership of The Order is open to all interested parties; particularly Scots and those of Scottish background or descent. All that we expect is that potential Members (as Knights of the Order) believe wholeheartedly in the principles and tenets of the Order.

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