Pretender

The Old Pretender. James F. E. Stuart, son of James II. (1688–1766.)

The Young Pretender. Charles Edward Stuart, son of the “Old Pretender.” (1720–1788.)

“God bless the king, I mean the faith’s defender:

God bless—no harm in blessing—the Pretender.

Who that Pretender is, and who is king—

God bless us all!—that’s quite another thing.”

John Byrom.

Pretenders. Tanyoxarkēs, in the time of Cambyʹses, King of Persia, pretended to be Smerdis; but one of his wives felt his head while he was asleep, and discovered that he had no ears.

Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck, in the reign of Henry VIII.

Otrefief, a monk, pretended to be Demetrius, younger son of Czar Ivan Basilowitz II., murdered by Boris in 1598. In 1605 Demetrius “the False” became Czar, but was killed at Moscow the year following, in an insurrection.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.