abstract
| - Robert V of Scotland (born 20 August 1927) is a Scottish-born statesman and former noble, who was the fifth Spalding King of Scotland from 1959 until his forced abdication in 1969. While his teen-aged son, Henry, served as Royal Steward for eight days after his father's overthrow prior to the abolition of the monarchy, Robert V is generally regarded as the last king of Scotland. Toppled in the military coup that is regarded as the beginning of the Scottish Civil War, Robert was forced to flee Scotland to England, where he currently resides. In the wake of the Scottish Civil War, the Spalding clan was banned by law from returning to the country, a law that has since been reversed (although Robert, in a frail state for for nearly a decade, has yet to make good on the legality of his return, choosing instead to remain in London). Throughout the Connery Era in Scotland, the King-in-exile was a vocal critic of the regime, going so far as to brand it "an illegitimate farce of a national government" and "a blight of which the Scottish people never deserve." In leading an initiative in England to raise money to send to Scottish refugees in Northern England during the 1980's, he received the Peace Award of the English Republic in 1987. Few people in the world were as steadfast in condemning the Connery regime as Robert and his family. Robert, his Scottish citizenship revoked in the coup, became a card-carrying Tory in England, where he was granted citizenship in 1980.
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