Isabel Stuart was a daughter of the future King James II of England and his second wife Mary of Modena.
Background
Isabel was born at Street James"s Palace in London. She was the second daughter of James and Mary, after her sister Catherine Laura who died eleven months before Isabel"s birth. Isabel had two older half-sisters from her father"s first marriage to Anne Hyde: Mary and Anne.
Both would become reigning Queens of England.
Foreign the majority of her lifetime, Isabel was the royal couple"s only child and thus fourth in line to the throne (behind her father, Mary and Anne).
Career
In 1678, Isabel was joined by another sister, Elizabeth, who was also short-lived. Her family had a portrait painted of her by Sir Peter Lely. The royal couple were accompanied by Isabel and Anne.
They feared that the King"s eldest illegitimate son, James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth and commander of England"s armed forces, might usurp the crown if Charles died in their absence.
Monmouth enjoyed the support of the Exclusionists, who held a majority in the House of Commons of England. Charles survived but, feeling the family returned to court too soon, sent James and Mary to Edinburgh, where for the next three years they stayed on-and-off in the dilapidated Holyrood Palace, while Anne and Isabel stayed in London on Charles"s orders.
The couple were recalled to London in February 1680, only to return again to Edinburgh that autumn. This time they went on a more honourable footing: James was created King"s Commissioner to Scotland.
Separation from Isabel caused her mother to sink into a state of sadness, exacerbated by the passing of the Exclusion bill in the Commons.
Lady Isabel, thus far the only one of Mary"s children to survive infancy, died of natural causes in February 1681, five months before her fifth birthday, at Street James"s Palace, the place of her birth. She was buried at Westminster Abbey. Isabel"s death plunged Mary into a religious mania, worrying her physician.
The accuser, a pamphleteer, was executed by order of the King.
Four years Isabel"s death, her father succeeded as King of England.