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James II of England

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: British History
1500-1750; Monarchs of Great Britain

                     James VII/II
   King of England, Scotland and Ireland (more...)
   Godfrey Kneller, 1684
   Godfrey Kneller, 1684
      Reign    6 February 1685 — 11 December 1688
   Coronation  23 April 1685
   Predecessor Charles II
    Successor  William III & Mary II
               Jacobitism: "James III/VIII"
     Consort   Mary of Modena ( 1658 — 1718)
                         Issue
   Mary II
   Anne
   James Francis Edward Stuart
                        Detail
   Titles
   HM The King
   HM The Duke of Normandy
   The Duke of York
   Prince James
   Royal house House of Stuart
     Father    Charles I of England
     Mother    Henrietta Maria of France
      Born     14 October 1633
               St. James's Palace, London
      Died     16 September 1701 (aged 67)
               Saint-Germain-en-Laye
     Burial    Saint-Germain-en-Laye

   James II of England (VII of Scotland; 14 October 1633 – 16 September
   1701) became King of England, King of Scots, and King of Ireland on 6
   February 1685, and Duke of Normandy on 31 December 1660. He was the
   last Roman Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdom of Scotland,
   Kingdom of England, and Kingdom of Ireland. Many of his subjects
   distrusted his religious policies and despotism, leading a group of
   them to depose him in the Glorious Revolution. He was replaced not by
   his Roman Catholic son, James Francis Edward, but by his Protestant
   daughter and son-in-law, Mary II and William III, who became joint
   rulers in 1689.

   The belief that James — not William III or Mary II — was the legitimate
   ruler became known as Jacobitism (from Jacobus or Iacobus, Latin for
   James). James made one serious attempt to recover his throne, when he
   landed in Ireland in 1689. After his defeat at the Battle of the Boyne
   in the summer of 1690, he returned to France, living out the rest of
   his life under the protection of King Louis XIV. His son James Francis
   Edward Stuart (The Old Pretender) and his grandson Charles Edward
   Stuart (The Young Pretender and Bonnie Prince Charlie) attempted to
   restore the Jacobite line after James's death, but failed. James'
   personal motto was "A deo rex, a rege lex," Latin for "From God comes
   the King, from the King comes the Law."

Early life

   James, the second surviving son of Charles I and Henrietta Maria of
   France, was born at St. James's Palace in 1633 and created Duke of York
   in 1644. During the English Civil War he stayed in Oxford, a Royalist
   stronghold. When the city surrendered in 1646, the Duke of York was
   confined in St James's Palace by parliamentary command. In 1648, he
   escaped from the Palace, from there he went to The Hague in disguise.
   When Charles I was executed by the rebels in 1649, monarchists
   proclaimed the Duke of York's elder brother, Charles, as King Charles
   II. Charles II was recognised by the Parliament of Scotland and the
   Parliament of Ireland, and was crowned King of Scots at Scone, in
   Scotland, in 1651. He was, however, unable to secure the Crown of
   England, and consequently fled to France.

   Like his brother, James sought refuge in France, serving in the French
   army under Turenne. In 1656, when his brother, Charles, entered into an
   alliance with Spain—an enemy of France—he joined the Spanish army under
   Louis, Prince of Condé.

   In 1660, with Oliver Cromwell dead, Charles II was restored to the
   English Throne. Though James was the heir-presumptive, it seemed
   unlikely that he would actually inherit the Crown, for Charles was
   still a young man capable of fathering children. In September 1660,
   James (who was also created Duke of Albany in Scotland) wed Lady Anne
   Hyde, the daughter of Charles's chief minister, Edward Hyde, 1st Earl
   of Clarendon.

   James was appointed Lord High Admiral and commanded the Royal Navy
   during the Second (1665–1667) and Third Anglo-Dutch Wars (1672–1674).
   Following its capture by the English in 1664, the Dutch territory of
   New Netherland was named New York in his honour. Fort Orange, 240
   kilometres (150 miles) up the River Hudson, was renamed Albany in his
   honour as well. James also headed the Royal African Company, which
   participated in the slave trade.

Religion

   James was admitted to the Roman Catholic Church in about 1668 or 1669,
   although this was kept secret for some time. However, growing fears of
   Catholic influence at court, led to the introduction by Parliament of a
   new Test Act in 1673. Under this Act, all civil and military officials
   were required to take an oath (in which they were required not only to
   disavow the doctrine of transubstantiation, but also denounce certain
   practices of the Roman Catholic Church as "superstitious and
   idolatrous") and receive communion under the auspices of the Church of
   England. James refused to perform both actions, instead choosing to
   relinquish the post of Lord High Admiral. His conversion to Catholicism
   was now openly known.

   Charles II opposed the conversion, ordering that James' children be
   raised as Protestants. Nevertheless, in 1673, he allowed James (whose
   first wife had died in 1671) to marry the Catholic Mary of Modena. Many
   English people, distrustful of Catholicism, regarded the new Duchess of
   York as an agent of the Pope.

   In 1677, James attempted to appease Protestants by allowing his
   daughter, Mary, to marry the Protestant Prince of Orange, William III
   (who was also his nephew). Despite the concession, fears of a Catholic
   monarch persisted, intensified by the failed pregnancies of Charles
   II's wife, Catherine of Braganza. A defrocked Anglican clergyman, Titus
   Oates, falsely spoke of a " Popish Plot" to kill Charles and put the
   Duke of York on the Throne. The fabricated plot caused a wave of
   anti-Catholic hysteria to sweep across the nation. On the orders of the
   King, the Duke of York left England for Brussels. In 1680, he was
   appointed Lord High Commissioner of Scotland and took up his residence
   at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh.
           British Royalty
           House of Stuart
           James II & VII
      Mary II
       Anne
       James Francis Edward Stuart
   Grandchildren
       Charles Edward Stuart
       Henry Benedict Stuart

   In England, attempts were made by Anthony Ashley Cooper, the Earl of
   Shaftesbury, a former government minister, and now the leading enemy of
   James and a Catholic succession, to have him excluded from the line of
   succession. Some even proposed that the Crown go to Charles II's
   illegitimate son, James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth. When, in 1679, the
   Exclusion Bill was in danger of passing, Charles II dissolved the
   English Parliament. (The Exclusion Bill crisis contributed to the
   development of the English two-party system; the Whigs were those who
   supported the Bill, whilst the Tories were those who opposed it.) Two
   further Parliaments were elected in 1680 and 1681, but were dissolved
   for the same reason.

   The Rye House Plot of 1683, a Protestant conspiracy to assassinate both
   Charles and the Duke of York, failed utterly; it increased popular
   sympathy for the King and his brother. James once again found himself
   influential in government, and his brother restored him to the office
   of Lord High Admiral in 1684.

Reign


                                            Monarchical Styles of
                                            King James II of England
                                             Reference style  His Majesty
                                              Spoken style    Your Majesty
                                            Alternative style Sir


                                              Monarchical Styles of
                                              King James VII of Scotland
                                               Reference style  His Grace
                                                Spoken style    Your Grace
                                              Alternative style Sir

   Statue of James II in Trafalgar Square, London. This dates from 1686
   and is attributed to the studio of Grinling Gibbons. It is one of only
   two known public statues of the monarch - the other resides at
   University College, Oxford. (January 2006)
   Statue of James II in Trafalgar Square, London. This dates from 1686
   and is attributed to the studio of Grinling Gibbons. It is one of only
   two known public statues of the monarch - the other resides at
   University College, Oxford. (January 2006)

   Charles died sine prole legitima (without legitimate offspring) in
   1685, converting to Roman Catholicism on his deathbed. He was succeeded
   by his brother, who reigned in England and Ireland as James II, and in
   Scotland as James VII. James was crowned at Westminster Abbey on April
   23, 1685. At first, there was little overt opposition to the new
   Sovereign. The new Parliament which assembled in May 1685 seemed
   favourable to James, agreeing to grant him a large income.

   James, however, faced the Monmouth Rebellion (led by Charles II's
   illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth). James Scott, 1st Duke of
   Monmouth declared himself King on June 20, 1685, but was afterwards
   defeated at the Battle of Sedgemoor. Monmouth was executed at the Tower
   of London soon afterwards. The king's judges—most notably, George
   Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys (the "Hanging Judge")—punished the rebels
   brutally. Judge Jeffreys' Bloody Assizes provoked little comment at the
   time and were seen by many as an appropriate response to an armed
   rebellion.

   To protect himself from further rebellions, James sought to establish a
   large standing army. By putting Roman Catholics in charge of several
   regiments, the King was drawn into a conflict with Parliament.
   Parliament was prorogued in November 1685, never to meet again during
   James's brief reign.

   Religious tension intensified from 1686. James controversially allowed
   Roman Catholics to occupy the highest offices of the Kingdom, and
   received at his court the papal nuncio, the first representative from
   Rome to London since the reign of Mary I. James's Jesuit confessor,
   Edward Petre, was a particular object of Protestant ire and when James
   ordered the suspension of several Anglicans from political office,
   including Henry Compton, the anti-Catholic Bishop of London, he lost
   much of his previous support.

   In the Declaration of Indulgence (1687), also known as the Declaration
   for Liberty of Conscience, James suspended laws punishing Roman
   Catholics and Protestant dissenters. (It is unclear if James issued the
   Declaration to gain the political support of the dissenters, or if he
   was truly committed to the principle of freedom of religion.) The King
   also provoked opposition by his policies relating to the University of
   Oxford. He offended Anglicans by allowing Catholics to hold important
   positions in Christ Church and University College, two of Oxford's
   largest colleges. Even more unpopularly, he dismissed the Protestant
   Fellows of Magdalen College, appointing Roman Catholics including
   Bishop Parker in their place.

Glorious Revolution

   Half-Crown coin of James II, 1686. The inscription reads IACOBUS II DEI
   GRATIA (James II by the Grace of God)
   Half-Crown coin of James II, 1686. The inscription reads IACOBUS II DEI
   GRATIA (James II by the Grace of God)

   In April 1688, James re-issued the Declaration of Indulgence,
   subsequently ordering Anglican clergymen to read it in their churches.
   When the Archbishop of Canterbury William Sancroft and six other
   bishops (known as the Seven Bishops) submitted a petition requesting
   the reconsideration of the King's religious policies, they were
   arrested and tried for seditious libel. Public alarm increased with the
   birth of a Catholic son and heir, James Francis Edward, to Queen Mary
   in June, 1688. (Some falsely charged that the son was "suppositious",
   having been substituted for a stillborn child.) Threatened by a
   Catholic dynasty, several influential Protestants entered into
   negotiations with William, Prince of Orange, who was James's son-in-law
   and nephew.

   On June 30, 1688, a group of Protestant nobles, known as the Immortal
   Seven, requested the Prince of Orange to come to England with an army.
   By September, it had become clear that William sought to invade. James
   refused the assistance of Louis XIV, fearing that the English would
   oppose French intervention. Furthermore, he believed that his own army
   would be adequate. But the King was too complacent; when William
   arrived on November 5, 1688, many Protestant officers defected and
   joined William. His own daughter, Anne, left the court, leading to
   considerable anguish on the part of the King. On December 11, 1688,
   James attempted to flee to France, first throwing the Great Seal of the
   Realm into the River Thames. He was, however, caught in Kent. Having no
   desire to make James a martyr, the Prince of Orange let him escape on
   December 23, 1688. James was received by Louis XIV, who offered him a
   palace and a generous pension.

   William convened an irregular Convention Parliament. (The procedure of
   calling a Convention Parliament had been previously used when
   succession to the Throne was unclear; it was a Convention Parliament
   which restored Charles II to the Throne following the English Civil War
   and republican Commonwealth.) The Convention declared, on February 12,
   1689, that James's attempt to flee on December 11, 1688 constituted an
   abdication of the government, and that the Throne had then become
   vacant (instead of passing to James II's son, James Francis Edward).
   Essentially, this was a Deposition Parliament. James's daughter Mary
   was declared Queen; she was to rule jointly with her husband William
   III. The Scottish Estates followed suit on April 11, 1689.

   William and Mary subsequently granted their assent to an Act commonly
   referred to as the Bill of Rights. The Act confirmed the earlier
   Declaration of Right, in which the Convention Parliament had declared
   that James's flight constituted an abdication, and that William III and
   Mary II were to be King and Queen. The Bill of Rights also charged
   James II with abusing his power; amongst other things, it criticised
   the suspension of the Test Acts, the prosecution of the Seven Bishops
   for merely petitioning the Crown, the establishment of a standing army
   and the imposition of cruel punishments. The Bill also stipulated that
   no Catholic would henceforth be permitted to ascend to the English
   throne, nor could any English monarch marry a Catholic. The Act,
   furthermore, settled the question of succession to the Crown. First in
   the line of succession were the children of William and Mary (if any),
   to be followed by the Princess Anne and her children, and finally by
   the children of William by any subsequent marriage.

Later years

   With a French army on his side, James landed in Ireland in March 1689.
   The Irish Parliament did not follow the example of the English
   Parliament; it declared that James remained King. At James' urging, the
   Irish Parliament passed an Act for Liberty of Conscience which granted
   religious freedom to all Catholics and Protestants in Ireland. The king
   was, however, defeated at the Battle of the Boyne by William III on 1
   July 1690.

   In France, James was allowed to live in the royal château of
   Saint-Germain-en-Laye. An attempt was made to restore him to the Throne
   by assassinating William III in 1696, but the plot failed. Louis XIV's
   offer to have James elected King of Poland in the same year was
   rejected, for James feared that acceptance of the Polish Crown might
   (in the minds of the English People) render him incapable of being King
   of England. Thereafter, Louis ceased to offer assistance to James.

   During his last years, James lived as an austere penitent. He died of a
   brain hemorrhage on 16 September 1701 at Saint-Germain-en-Laye. His
   body was laid in a coffin at the Chapel of Saint Edmund in the Church
   of the English Benedictines in the Rue St. Jacques, Paris. However,
   during the French Revolution, his body was desecrated and the remains
   were lost.

Legacy

   James's younger daughter Anne succeeded to the throne when William III
   died in 1702. (Mary II had died in 1694.) The Act of Settlement 1701
   provided that, if the line of succession established in the Bill of
   Rights were to be extinguished, then the Crown would go to a German
   cousin, Sophia, Electress of Hanover, and to her Protestant heirs.
   Thus, when Anne died in 1714 (less than two months after the death of
   Sophia), the Crown was inherited by George I, Sophia's son, the Elector
   of Hanover and Anne's second cousin.

   The son of James II, James Francis Edward Stuart (known to his
   supporters as "James III and VIII" and to his opponents as the "Old
   Pretender"), took up the Jacobite cause. He led a rising in Scotland in
   1715 shortly after George I's accession, but was defeated. Further
   risings were also defeated and since the rising of 1745 led by Charles
   Edward Stuart, no serious attempt to restore the Stuart heir has been
   made, although some individuals still adhere to the philosophy of
   Jacobitism.

   James Francis Edward died in 1766, when he was succeeded by his eldest
   son, Charles Edward Stuart (known to his supporters as "Charles III"
   and to his opponents as the "Young Pretender"). Charles in turn was
   succeeded by his younger brother Henry Benedict Stuart, a cardinal of
   the Catholic Church. Henry was the last of James II's legitimate
   descendants. At his death in 1807 the Jacobite claim devolved upon the
   senior descendant of King Charles I, King Charles Emmanuel IV of
   Sardinia. Presently, James II's heir is Franz, Duke of Bavaria.
   Although the Duke of Bavaria has not claimed the throne, he is
   recognised by Jacobites as "Francis II".

Style and arms

   The official style of James II was "James the Second, by the Grace of
   God, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the
   Faith, etc." (The claim to France was only nominal, and was asserted by
   every English King from Edward III to George III, regardless of the
   amount of French territory actually controlled.) His arms as King were:
   Quarterly, I and IV Grandquarterly, Azure three fleurs-de-lis Or (for
   France) and Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or (for
   England); II Or a lion rampant within a tressure flory-counter-flory
   Gules (for Scotland); III Azure a harp Or stringed Argent (for
   Ireland). James was created " Duke of Normandy" by King Louis XIV of
   France, December 31, 1660. This was a few months after the restoration
   of his brother Charles II to the English and Irish thrones (Charles II
   had been crowned King of Scotland in 1651), and was probably done as a
   political gesture of support for James - since his brother also would
   have claimed the title "Duke of Normandy."

Ancestors

   CAPTION: James II's ancestors in three generations

   James II of England, Ireland, and Scotland Father:
   Charles I of England Paternal Grandfather:
   James I of England Paternal Great-grandfather:
   Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley
   Paternal Great-grandmother:
   Mary I of Scotland
   Paternal Grandmother:
   Anne of Denmark Paternal Great-grandfather:
   Frederick II of Denmark
   Paternal Great-grandmother:
   Sofie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
   Mother:
   Henrietta Maria of France Maternal Grandfather:
   Henry IV of France Maternal Great-grandfather:
   Antoine of Navarre
   Maternal Great-grandmother:
   Jeanne III of Navarre
   Maternal Grandmother:
   Marie de' Medici Maternal Great-grandfather:
   Francesco I de' Medici
   Maternal Great-grandmother:
   Johanna of Austria

Issue

   Name Birth Death Notes
   By Anne Hyde
   Charles, Duke of Cambridge 22 October 1660 5 May 1661
   Mary II 30 April 1662 28 December 1694 married 1677, William III,
   Prince of Orange; no issue
   James, Duke of Cambridge 12 July 1663 20 June 1667
   Anne 6 February 1665 1 August 1714 married 1683, Prince George of
   Denmark; no surviving issue
   Charles, Duke of Kendal 4 July 1666 22 May 1667
   Edgar, Duke of Cambridge 14 September 1667 15 November 1669
   Henrietta 13 January 1669 15 November 1669
   Catherine 9 February 1671 5 December 1671
   By Mary of Modena
   Catherine Laura 10 January 1675 3 October 1676 died of convulsions.
   Isabel 28 August 1676 2 March 1681
   Charles, Duke of Cambridge 7 November 1677 12 December 1677 died of
   smallpox
   Elizabeth 1678 c. 1678
   Charlotte Maria 16 August 1682 16 October 1682 died of convulsions
   James, Prince of Wales 10 June 1688 1 January 1766 married 1719, Mary
   Sobieski; had issue
   Louise 28 June 1692 20 April 1712
   By Arabella Churchill
   Henrietta FitzJames 1667 3 April 1730 Married first Henry Waldegrave;
   had issue. Married secondly Piers Butler, 3rd Viscount Galmoye; no
   issue.
   James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick 21 August 1670 12 June 1734
   Henry FitzJames, 1st Duke of Albemarle August, 1673 December, 1702
   Arabella FitzJames 1674 7 November 1704 Became a nun; no issue.
   By Catherine Sedley
   Catherine Darnley c. 1681 13 March 1743 Alleged daughter. Married
   firstly, James Annesley, 3rd Earl of Anglesey and had issue,
   married secondly, John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby
   and had issue.
   James Darnley 1684 1685
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