He was the illegitimate son of James II & VII, King of England, Scotland and Ireland, a monarch of the House of Stuart.

[1] After the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the 1st Duke of Berwick followed his father into exile, and much of the family's history since then has been in Spain and France, with several members of the family serving in a military capacity.

The house has two main branches: This branch gained the Spanish title of Duke of Alba after the death in 1802 of the childless María Cayetana de Silva, 13th Duchess of Alba.

Upon the death of the 10th Duke of Berwick in 1953, his Spanish titles (including the dukedoms of Alba and of Liria) went to his daughter while the Jacobite dukedom of Berwick went to his nephew (who was already the 19th Duke of Peñaranda de Duero), due to differences between the Spanish and Jacobite succession laws (male-preference primogeniture and agnatic primogeniture respectively).

The current holder of the Jacobite dukedom is Jacobo Hernando Fitz-James Stuart y Gómez, 12th Duke of Berwick.