James Francis Edward, Known variously as James III of England, James VIII of Scotland, the Old Pretender, the Melancholy Pretender… Deprived of his throne by the coup d’etat which deposed his father and installed William and Mary, and later by the Act of Settlement.
As for the “Augustan” period, like TomH I have never heard this term used for a historical period, but i believe it is correct.
The point is, King James did not invent the Union Flag, and that’s not why it’s popularly called the Union Jack.
You know, hibernicus, 1801 makes more sense to me. I remember that paintings from the U.S. War for Independence show a “simpler” British flag (since it did not have the fimbriations (extra lines) called for by the addition of Patrick’s cross.
(I read too hastily as I got hit with an abend and a bad compile as I was posting and never got back here.)
I remember having the same confusion about JFK in high school and asking my teacher about it one day, much to the amusement of my classmates as my first name is “John”. I’d never heard that “Jack” was a nickname of “John” and certainly no one had ever called me that, so it’s hardly a natural assumption, yes?
Incidentally, my father-in-law is named Jack. They were going to name him John, decided everyone was going to call him Jack anyway, and put “Jack” on the birth certificate.
As for “Henry/Harry”, I believe young Prince Henry of Britain is widely known as Harry, much as his older brother is called Wills.
jr8
“Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116”
– proposed name for the baby of a Swedish couple, denied by courts
It’s worth noting that in the United States “Jack” as a nickname for “John” is very common in the Northeast (including New England), but less so in the Southeast.
Case in point: My good friend Jack, who’s from McRae in southern Georgia, spent a few years living in New Jersey. His coworkers, perhaps not wanting to seem unduly familiar, at first tried to call him “John” and he had to explain that his name is Jack, just Jack.
John, in fact, is one of his brothers. So that the two names are interchangeable to Yankees clearly never even occurred to their parents.
There’s a Restoration Comedy, either The Beaux Stratagem or The Silent Woman, I think, in which one of the running jokes is about a character called John Daw. It’s never explicitly stated, but there are lots of bird jokes, which suggests that the idea that Jack = John would have been quite familiar to an audience of that time.
Actually, Porpentine, I think that was what I was thinking of. It’s a good ten years since I saw it and my memory is a little hazy. Why on earth I confused it with The Beux Stratagem, though, I don’t know.