James II of England

James II & VII[1]
King of England, Scots and Ireland (more...)
Portrait of King James II by Sir Godfrey Kneller
Reign	6 February 1685 – 11 December 1688
Coronation	23 April 1685 (England)
Predecessor	Charles II
Successor Jacobite:	William III and Mary II James III and VIII
Consort	Anne Hyde m. 1660; dec. 1671 Mary of Modena m. 1673; wid. 1701
Issue	Mary II Anne James FitzJames, Duke of Berwick James, Prince of Wales, "The Old Pretender" Louisa Maria Teresa Stuart
Detail Titles and styles
His Majesty King James II His Majesty The King 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(1633-10-14) St. James's Palace, London
Died	16 September 1701 (aged 67) Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
Burial	Saint-Germain-en-Laye

James II of England and Ireland, James VII of Scotland (14 October 1633 – 16 September 1701)^[2] was King of England, King of Scots,^[1] and King of Ireland from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Some of James's subjects were unhappy with James' belief in absolute monarchy and opposed his religious policies, leading a group of them to depose him in the Glorious Revolution. The Parliament of England deemed James to have abdicated on 11 December 1688. The Parliament of Scotland on 11 April 1689 declared him to have forfeited the throne. He was replaced not by his Catholic son, James Francis Edward, but by Mary II and William III. William and Mary became joint rulers in 1689. Mary was the eldest daughter of James and a Protestant. William was both his nephew and son-in-law. James II made one serious attempt to recover his crowns, when he landed in Ireland in 1689. But, after the defeat of the Jacobite forces by the Williamite forces at the Battle of the Boyne in the summer of 1690, James returned to France. He lived out the rest of his life under the protection of his cousin and ally, King Louis XIV.

James is best known for his belief in absolute monarchy and his attempts to create religious liberty for his subjects. Both of these went against the wishes of the English Parliament and of most of his subjects. Parliament, opposed to the growth of absolutism that was occurring in other European countries, as well as to the loss of legal supremacy for the Church of England, saw their opposition as a way to preserve what they regarded as traditional English liberties. This tension made James's three-year reign a struggle for supremacy between the English Parliament and the Crown, resulting in his ouster, the passage of the English Bill of Rights, and the Hanoverian succession.

Birth and early life

The future James II with his father, Charles I

James, the second surviving son of Charles I and Henrietta Maria of France, was born at St. James's Palace in London on 14 October 1633.^[3] Later that same year, James was baptized by William Laud, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury.^[4] James was educated by tutors, along with his brother, the future King Charles II, and the two sons of the Duke of Buckingham, George and Francis Villiers.^[5] At the age of three, James was appointed Lord High Admiral; the position was initially honorary, but would become a substantive office after the Restoration, when James was an adult.^[6]

Civil War

James was invested with the Order of the Garter in 1642,^[7] and created Duke of York on 22 January 1644.^[4] As the King's disputes with the English Parliament grew into the English Civil War James stayed in Oxford, a Royalist stronghold.^[8] When the city surrendered after the siege of Oxford in 1646, Parliamentary leaders ordered the Duke of York to be confined in St. James's Palace.^[9] In 1648, he escaped from the Palace and from there he went to The Hague in disguise.^[10] When Charles I was executed by the rebels in 1649, monarchists proclaimed James's older brother, Charles, as King Charles II.^[11] Charles II was recognized by the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of Ireland, and was crowned King of Scots at Scone, in Scotland in 1651. Although he was proclaimed King at Jersey, Charles was unable to secure the crown of England, and consequently fled to France and exile.^[11]

Exile in France

Turenne, James' commander in France

Like his brother, James sought refuge in France, serving in the French army under Turenne against the Fronde, and later against their Spanish allies.^[12] In the French army, James had his first true experience of battle where, according to one observer, he "ventures himself and chargeth gallantly where anything is to be done".^[12] In 1656, when his brother, Charles, entered into an alliance with Spain—an enemy of France—James was expelled from France and forced to leave Turenne's army.^[13] James quarrelled with his brother over the diplomatic choice of Spain over France. Exiled and poor, there was little that either Charles or James could do about the larger diplomatic situation, and James ultimately travelled to Bruges and (along with his younger brother, Henry) joined the Spanish army under Louis, Prince of Condé, fighting against his former French comrades at the Battle of the Dunes.^[14] During his term of service in the Spanish army, James became friendly with two Irish Catholic brothers in the Royalist entourage, Peter and Richard Talbot, and began to be somewhat estranged from his brother's Anglican advisers.^[15] In 1659, the French and Spanish made peace. James, doubtful of his brother's chances of regaining the throne, considered taking a Spanish offer to be an admiral in their navy.^[16] Ultimately, he declined the position; by the next year the situation in England had sufficiently changed, and Charles II was proclaimed King.^[17]

Restoration

Marriage

James and Anne Hyde in the 1660s, by Sir Peter Lely

After Oliver Cromwell's death in 1658 and the subsequent collapse of the Commonwealth in 1660, Charles II was restored to the English throne. Although James was the heir-presumptive, it seemed unlikely that he would inherit the crown, as Charles was still a young man capable of fathering children.^[18] Upon his brother's restoration, James was created Duke of Albany in Scotland, to go along with his English title, Duke of York. Upon his return to England, James produced an immediate controversy by announcing his engagement to Anne Hyde, the daughter of Charles's chief minister, Edward Hyde.^[19] In 1659, while attempting to seduce her, James promised he would marry Anne.^[20] Anne became pregnant in 1660, but following the Restoration and James's return to power, no one at the royal court expected a prince to marry a commoner, no matter what he had pledged beforehand.^[21] Although nearly everyone, including Anne's father, urged the two not to marry, they did so.^[21] The couple was married secretly, then went through an official marriage ceremony on 3 September 1660, in London. Their first child, Charles, was born less than two months later, but died in infancy, as did five further sons and daughters.^[21] Only two daughters survived: Mary (born 30 April 1662) and Anne (born 6 February 1665).^[22] Samuel Pepys wrote that James was fond of his children and his role as a father, writing that he played with them "like an ordinary father", a contrast to the distant parenting common to royals at the time.^[23] James's wife was devoted to him and influenced many of his decisions.^[24] Even so, he kept a variety of mistresses, including Arabella Churchill and Catherine Sedley, and was reputed to be "the most unguarded ogler of his time."^[25] Anne Hyde died in 1671.

Military and political offices

After the Restoration, James was confirmed as Lord High Admiral, an office that carried with it the subsidiary appointments of Governor of Portsmouth and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.^[26] James commanded the Royal Navy during the Second (1665–1667) and Third Anglo-Dutch Wars (1672–1674). Following the raid on the Medway in 1667, James oversaw the survey and re-fortification of the southern coast.^[27] The office of Lord High Admiral, combined with his revenue from post office and wine tariffs (granted him by Charles upon his restoration) gave James a sufficient salary to keep a sizeable court household.^[28]

Following its capture by the English in 1664, the Dutch territory of New Netherland was named the Province of New York in James's honour. After the founding, the duke gave the colony to proprieters, George Carteret and John Lord Berkeley. Fort Orange, 240 kilometres (150 miles) north on the Hudson River, was renamed Albany after James's Scottish title.^[21] In 1683, he became the governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, but did not take an active role in its governance.^[21] James also headed the Royal African Company, which participated in the slave trade.^[29]

Conversion to Catholicism

Mary of Modena, James's second wife

James's time in France had exposed him to the beliefs and ceremonies of Catholicism; he and his wife, Anne, became drawn to that faith.^[30] James took Eucharist in the Roman Catholic Church in 1668 or 1669, although his conversion was kept secret for some time and he continued to attend Anglican services until 1676.^[31] In spite of his conversion, James continued to associate primarily with Anglicans, including John Churchill and George Legge, as well as French Protestants, such as Louis de Duras, the Earl of Feversham.^[32]

Growing fears of Catholic influence at court led the English Parliament to introduce a new Test Act in 1673.^[33] 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 Catholic Church as "superstitious and idolatrous") and to receive the Eucharist under the auspices of the Church of England.^[34] James refused to perform both actions, instead choosing to relinquish the post of Lord High Admiral. His conversion to Catholicism was thereby made public.^[33]

Charles II opposed the conversion, ordering that James's daughters, Mary and Anne, be raised as Protestants.^[35] Nevertheless, he allowed James to marry the Catholic Mary of Modena, a fifteen-year-old Italian princess.^[36] James and Mary were married by proxy in a Catholic ceremony on 20 September 1673.^[37] On 21 November, Mary arrived in England and Nathaniel Crew, Bishop of Oxford, performed a brief Anglican service that did little more than recognise the Catholic marriage.^[38] Many of the English, distrustful of Catholicism, regarded the new Duchess of York as an agent of the Pope.^[39]

Exclusion Crisis

In 1677, James reluctantly consented to his daughter Mary's marriage to the Protestant William of Orange (who was also James' nephew). James acquiesced after his brother Charles and William had agreed upon the marriage.^[40] Despite the Protestant marriage, fears of a potential Catholic monarch persisted, intensified by the failure of Charles II and his wife, Catherine of Braganza, to produce any children. A defrocked Anglican clergyman, Titus Oates, spoke of a "Popish Plot" to kill Charles and put the Duke of York on the throne.^[41] The fabricated plot caused a wave of anti-Catholic hysteria to sweep across the nation.

The Duke of Monmouth was involved in plots against James

In England, the Earl of Shaftesbury, a former government minister and now a leading opponent of Catholicism, attempted to have James excluded from the line of succession.^[42] Some members of Parliament even proposed that the crown go to Charles' illegitimate son, James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth.^[43] In 1679, with the Exclusion Bill in danger of passing, Charles II dissolved Parliament.^[44] Two further Parliaments were elected in 1680 and 1681, but were dissolved for the same reason.^[45] The Exclusion Crisis contributed to the development of the English two-party system: the Whigs were those who supported the Bill, while the Tories were those who opposed it. Ultimately, the succession was not altered, but James was convinced to withdraw from all policy-making bodies and to accept a lesser role in his brother's government.^[46]

On the orders of the King, James left England for Brussels.^[47] In 1680, he was appointed Lord High Commissioner of Scotland and took up residence at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh in order to suppress an uprising and oversee royal government.^[48] James returned to England for a time when Charles was stricken ill and appeared to be near death.^[49] The hysteria of the accusations eventually faded, but James's relations with many in the English Parliament, including the Earl of Danby, a former ally, were forever strained and a solid segment turned against him.^[50]

Return to favour

In 1683, a plot was uncovered to assassinate Charles and James and spark a republican revolution to re-establish a government of the Cromwellian style.^[51] This conspiracy, known as the Rye House Plot, backfired upon its conspirators and provoked a wave of sympathy for the King and James.^[52] Several notable Whigs, including the Earl of Essex and the King's illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth, were implicated.^[51] Monmouth initially confessed to complicity in the plot, implicating fellow-plotters, but later recanted.^[51] Essex committed suicide and Monmouth, along with several others, was obliged to flee into Continental exile.^[53] Charles reacted to the plot by increasing repression of Whigs and dissenters.^[51] Taking advantage of James's rebounding popularity, Charles invited him back onto the privy council in 1684.^[54] While some in English Parliament remained wary of the possibility of a Catholic king, the threat of excluding James from the throne had passed.

Reign

Ascension to the throne

Statue of James II in Trafalgar Square, London

Charles died in 1685 after converting to Catholicism on his deathbed.^[55] Having no legitimate children, Charles was succeeded by his brother James, who reigned in England and Ireland as James II, and in Scotland as James VII. There was no initial opposition to his succession, and there were widespread reports of public rejoicing at the orderly succession.^[56] James wanted to proceed quickly to the coronation, and was crowned at Westminster Abbey on 23 April 1685.^[57] The new Parliament that assembled in May 1685 was initially favourable to James, and the new King sent word that even most of the former exclusionists would be forgiven if they acquiesced to his rule.^[56] Most of Charles's officers continued in office, the exceptions being the promotion of James's brothers-in-law, the Earls of Clarendon and Rochester, and the demotion of Halifax.^[58] Parliament granted James a generous life income, including all of the proceeds of tonnage and poundage and the customs duties.^[59] James worked harder as king than his brother had, but was less willing to compromise when his advisers disagreed.^[60]

Two rebellions

Main article: Monmouth Rebellion

Soon after becoming king, James faced a rebellion in southern England led by his nephew, the Duke of Monmouth, and another rebellion in Scotland led by Archibald Campbell, the Earl of Argyll.^[61] Argyll and Monmouth both began their expeditions from Holland, where James' nephew and son-in-law, William of Orange, had neglected to detain them or put a stop to their recruitment efforts.^[62] Argyll sailed to Scotland and, on arriving there, raised recruits mainly from amongst his own clan, the Campbells.^[63] The rebellion was quickly crushed, and Argyll himself was captured at Inchinnan on 18 June 1685.^[63] Having arrived with fewer than 300 men and unable to convince many more to flock to his standard, Argyll never posed a credible threat to James.^[64] He was executed on 30 June in Edinburgh.

Argyll's rebellion was coordinated with Monmouth's, but the latter was more dangerous to James. Monmouth proclaimed himself King at Lyme Regis on 11 June.^[65] He attempted to raise recruits but was unable to gather enough rebels to defeat even James's small standing army.^[66] Monmouth's rebellion attacked the King's forces at night, in an attempt at surprise, but was defeated at the Battle of Sedgemoor.^[66] The King's forces, led by Feversham and Churchill, quickly dispersed the ill-prepared rebels.^[66] Monmouth himself was captured and executed at the Tower of London on 15 July.^[67] The King's judges—most notably, George Jeffreys—condemned many of the rebels to transportation and indentured servitude in the West Indies in a series of trials that came to be known as the Bloody Assizes.^[68] Some 250 of the rebels were executed.^[69] While both rebellions were defeated easily enough, the effect on James was to harden his resolve against his enemies and to increase his suspicion of the Dutch.^[70]

Absolutism and religious liberty

To protect himself from further rebellions, James sought safety in an enlarged standing army.^[71] This alarmed his subjects, not only because of the trouble soldiers caused in the towns, but because it was against the English tradition to keep a professional army in peacetime.^[72] Even more alarming to Parliament was James's use of his dispensing power to allow Roman Catholics to command several regiments without having to take the oath mandated by the Test Act.^[71] When even the previously supportive Parliament objected to these measures, James ordered Parliament prorogued in November 1685, never to meet again in his reign.^[73]

Rochester, once amongst James's supporters, turned against him by 1688, along with most Anglicans

Religious tension grew from 1686. James allowed Roman Catholics to occupy the highest offices of the Kingdoms, and received at his court the papal nuncio, Ferdinando d'Adda, the first representative from Rome to London since the reign of Mary I.^[71] James's Jesuit confessor, Edward Petre, was a particular object of Protestant ire.^[74] When the King's Secretary of State, the Earl of Sunderland, began replacing office-holders at court with Catholic favourites, James began to lose the confidence of many of his Anglican supporters.^[75] Sunderland's purge of office-holders even extended to the King's Anglican brothers-in-law and their supporters.^[75]

In 1687, James issued the Declaration of Indulgence, also known as the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience, in which he used his suspending power to negate the effect of laws punishing Catholics and Protestant dissenters.^[76] James ordered the Declaration read from the pulpits of every Anglican church, further alienating the Anglican bishops against the Catholic governor of their church.^[77] While the Declaration elicited some thanks from Catholics and dissenters, it left the Established Church, the traditional ally of the monarchy, in the difficult position of being forced to erode its own privileges.^[77] James provoked further opposition by attempting to reduce the Anglican monopoly on education.^[78] At the University of Oxford, James offended Anglicans by allowing Catholics to hold important positions in Christ Church and University College, two of Oxford's largest colleges. He also attempted to force the Protestant Fellows of Magdalen College to elect Anthony Farmer, a man of generally ill repute who was believed to be secretly Catholic,^[79] as their president when the Protestant incumbent died, a violation of the Fellows' right to elect a candidate of their own choosing.^[78]

Glorious Revolution

Main article: Glorious Revolution

James' nephew, William, was invited to "save the Protestant religion"

In April 1688, James re-issued the Declaration of Indulgence, subsequently ordering Anglican clergymen to read it in their churches.^[80] 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.^[81] Public alarm increased when Queen Mary gave birth to a Catholic son and heir, James Francis Edward on 10 June of that year.^[82] When James's only possible successors were his two Protestant daughters, moderate Anglicans could see his pro-Catholic policies as a temporary aberration; the Prince's birth opened the possibility of a permanent Catholic dynasty, and led such men to reconsider their patience.^[83] Threatened by a Catholic dynasty, several influential Protestants claimed the child was "suppositious". They had already entered into negotiations with William, Prince of Orange, when it became known the Queen was pregnant, and the birth of James's son reinforced their convictions.^[84]

On 30 June 1688, a group of Protestant nobles, later known as the Immortal Seven, invited the Prince of Orange to come to England with an army.^[85] By September, it had become clear that William sought to invade.^[86] Believing that his own army would be adequate, James refused the assistance of Louis XIV, fearing that the English would oppose French intervention.^[86] When William arrived on 5 November 1688, many Protestant officers, including Churchill, defected and joined William, as did James's own daughter, Princess Anne.^[87] James lost his nerve, and declined to attack the invading army, despite his own numerical superiority.^[88] On 11 December, James attempted to flee to France, first throwing the Great Seal of the Realm into the River Thames.^[89] James was captured in Kent; later, he was released and placed under Dutch protective guard. Having no desire to make James a martyr, the Prince of Orange let him escape on 23 December.^[89] James was received by his cousin and ally, Louis XIV, who offered him a palace and a pension.

John Churchill had been a member of James's household for many years, but defected to William of Orange in 1688

William convened a Convention Parliament to decide how to handle James's flight. While the Parliament refused to depose him, they declared that James, having fled to France and dropped the Great Seal into the Thames, had effectively abdicated the throne, and that the throne had thereby become vacant.^[90] To fill this vacancy, James's daughter Mary was declared Queen; she was to rule jointly with her husband William, who would be King. The Parliament of Scotland on 11 April 1689, declared him to have forfeited the throne (due to the Scottish Parliament upholding of the belief in Divine Right of Kings, abdication was not a valid option).^[91] The English Parliament passed a Bill of Rights that 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.^[92] 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.^[93]

Later years

War in Ireland

Main article: Williamite War in Ireland

With the assistance of French troops, James landed in Ireland in March 1689.^[94] The Irish Parliament did not follow the example of the English Parliament; it declared that James remained King and passed a massive bill of attainder against those who had rebelled against him.^[95] At James's urging, the Irish Parliament passed an Act for Liberty of Conscience that granted religious freedom to all Catholics and Protestants in Ireland.^[96] James worked to build an army in Ireland, but was ultimately defeated at the Battle of the Boyne on 1 July 1690 when William arrived, personally leading an army to defeat James and reassert English control.^[97] James fled to France once more, departing from Kinsale, never to return to any of his former kingdoms.^[97] Because he deserted his Irish supporters, James became known in Ireland as Séamus an Chaca or 'James the be-shitten'.^[98]

Return to exile

The Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, James's home during his final exile

In France, James was allowed to live in the royal château of Saint-Germain-en-Laye.^[99] James' wife and some of his supporters fled with him, including the Earl of Melfort; most, but not all, were Catholic.^[100] In 1692, James' last child, Louisa Maria Teresa, was born.^[101] Some supporters in England attempted to restore James to the throne by assassinating William III in 1696, but the plot failed and the backlash made James' cause less popular.^[102] 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. After Louis concluded peace with William in 1697, he ceased to offer much in the way of assistance to James.^[103]

During his last years, James lived as an austere penitent.^[104] He died of a brain hemorrhage on 16 September 1701 at Saint-Germain-en-Laye.^[105] His body was laid to rest in a coffin at the Chapel of Saint Edmund in the Church of the English Benedictines in the Rue St. Jacques, Paris.^[105] In 1734, the Archbishop of Paris heard evidence to support James' canonization, but nothing came of it.^[105] During the French Revolution, James's tomb was raided and his remains scattered.^[106]

Succession

James' son was known as "James III and VIII" to his supporters, and "The Old Pretender" to his enemies

James' younger daughter Anne succeeded to the throne when William III died in 1702. The Act of Settlement 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.^[107] Thus, when Anne died in 1714 (fewer 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.^[107]

James' son James Francis Edward was recognised as King at his father's death by Louis XIV of France and James' remaining supporters (later known as Jacobites) as "James III and VIII."^[108] He led a rising in Scotland in 1715 shortly after George I's accession, but was defeated.^[109] Jacobites rose again in 1745 led by Charles Edward Stuart, James II's grandson, and were again defeated.^[110] Since then, no serious attempt to restore the Stuart heir has been made. Charles's claims passed to his younger brother Henry Benedict Stuart, the Dean of the College of Cardinals of the Catholic Church.^[111] Henry was the last of James II's legitimate descendants, and no relative has publicly acknowledged the Jacobite claim since then.^[112]

Historiography

Macaulay wrote in the Whiggish tradition

Belloc was a notable apologist for James II.

Historical analysis of James II has gone through considerable change since he was overthrown. Initially, Whiggish historians, led by Lord Macaulay, cast James as a cruel absolutist and his reign as "tyranny which approached to insanity".^[113] Subsequent scholars, such as G. M. Trevelyan and David Ogg, while more balanced than Macaulay, continued Macaulay's tradition into the twentieth century, characterizing James as a tyrant, his attempts at religious tolerance as a fraud, and his reign as an aberration in the course of British history.^[114] In 1892, A. W. Ward wrote for the Dictionary of National Biography that James was "obviously a political and religious bigot", although never devoid of "a vein of patriotic sentiment"; "his conversion to the church of Rome made the emancipation of his fellow-catholics in the first instance, and the recovery of England for catholicism in the second, the governing objects of his policy."^[115]

Hilaire Belloc broke with this tradition in 1928. Belloc cast James as an honorable man and a true advocate for freedom of conscience, and his enemies as "men in the small clique of great fortunes ... which destroyed the ancient monarchy of the English."^[116] Belloc's thesis failed to alter the course of historical opinion at the time, but by the 1960s and 1970s, Maurice Ashley and Stuart Prall began to reconsider James's motives in granting religious toleration, while still taking note of James's autocratic rule.^[117] These modern authors moved away from the school of thought that preached inevitability of the Glorious Revolution and the continuous march of progress and democracy. "[H]istory is,", Ashley wrote, "after all, the story of human beings and individuals, as well as of the classes and the masses."^[118] He cast James II and William III as "men of ideals as well as human weaknesses."^[118] John Miller, writing in 2000, accepted the claims of James's absolutism, but argued that "his main concern was to secure religious liberty and civil equality for Catholics. Any 'absolutist' methods ... were essentially means to that end."^[119] In 2004, W. A. Speck wrote in the new Oxford Dictionary of National Biography that "James was genuinely committed to religious toleration, but also sought to increase the power of the crown."^[120] He added that, unlike the government of the Netherlands, "James was too autocratic to combine freedom of conscience with popular government. He resisted any check on the monarch's power. That is why his heart was not in the concessions he had to make in 1688. He would rather live in exile with his principles intact than continue to reign as a limited monarch."^[120]

Tim Harris's conclusions from his 2006 book summarize the crossroads of modern scholarship on James II:

The jury will doubtless remain out on James for a long time…Was he an egotistical bigot…a tyrant who rode roughshod over the will of the vast majority of his subjects (at least in England and Scotland)…simply naïve, or even perhaps plain stupid, unable to appreciate the realities of political power…Or was he a well-intentioned and even enlightened ruler—an enlightened despot well ahead of his time, perhaps—who was merely trying to do what he thought was best for his subjects?^[121]

Titles and styles

Scottish and English Royalty
House of Stuart
James II & VII
Mary II
Anne
James Francis Edward Stuart
Grandchildren
Charles Edward Stuart
Henry Benedict Stuart

• 14 October 1633 – 6 February 1685: Prince James
• 27 January 1644 – 6 February 1685: The Duke of York
• 10 May 1659 – 6 February 1685: The Earl of Ulster
• 31 December 1660 – 6 February 1685: The Duke of Albany

• before 1 January 1665 – 6 February 1685: His Royal Highness^[122]

• 6 February 1685 – 11 December 1688: His Majesty The King
• 11 December 1688 – 16 September 1701: His Majesty King James II
  • Jacobite: His Majesty The King

The official style of James II was "James the Second, by the Grace of God, King of England, France and Ireland, King of Scots, 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.)

Half-Crown coin of James II, 1686

James was created "Duke of Normandy" by King Louis XIV of France, 31 December 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 probably was done as a political gesture of support for James - since his brother also would have claimed the title "Duke of Normandy".

Arms

Prior to his accession, James's arms were those of the kingdom (which he later inherited), differenced by a label argent of three points ermine, although it is noted that, when it become clear that his position as heir-presumptive was not under threat, a label argent of three points was sometimes used.^[123] 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).

In popular culture

Film and television

James has been portrayed on screen by:

• Josef Moser in the Austrian silent film Das Grinsende Gesicht (1921), based on the novel The Man Who Laughs by Victor Hugo
• Gibb McLaughlin in the silent film Nell Gwynne (1926), based on a novel by Joseph Shearing
• Sam De Grasse in the silent film The Man Who Laughs (1928), also based on the novel by Victor Hugo
• Lawrence Anderson in Nell Gwyn (1934)
• Vernon Steele in Captain Blood (1935), based on the novel by Rafael Sabatini
• Douglas Matthews in the BBC TV drama Thank You, Mr. Pepys (1938)
• Henry Oscar in Bonnie Prince Charlie (1948)
• John Westbrook in the BBC TV series The First Churchills (1969)
• Guy Henry in England, My England (1995), the story of the composer Henry Purcell
• Charlie Creed-Miles in the BBC TV miniseries Charles II: The Power & the Passion (2003)

Ancestors

Issue

See also

• Touch Pieces
• List of James II deserters to William of Orange

Notes

References

• Ashley, Maurice, The Glorious Revolution of 1688, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1966. ISBN 0-340-00896-2.
• Belloc, Hilaire, James the Second, J.B. Lippincott Co, Philadelphia 1928.
• Callow, John, The Making of King James II: The Formative Years of a King, Sutton Publishing, Ltd, Thrupp, Stroud, Gloucestershire, 2000. ISBN 0750923989.
• Clarke, James S. (Editor), The Life of James II, London, 1816
• Davis, Richard B. (Editor). (1963). William Fitzhugh and His Chesapeake World, 1676–1701. Chapel Hill: The Virginia Historical Society by University of North Carolina Press.
• Devine, T. M., The Scottish Nation 1700-2007, Penguin Books, London, 2006. ISBN 014102769X
• Hallam, Henry, The Constitutional History of England from the Accession of Henry VII to the Death of George II, W. Clowes & Sons, London, 1855.
• Harris, Tim, Revolution: The Great Crisis of the British Monarchy, 1685–1720, Penguin Books, Ltd., 2006. ISBN 0713997591.
• "James II," Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed. London, 1911: Cambridge University Press.
• Kenyon, J.P., The Stuart Constitution 1603–1688, Documents and Commentary, 2d ed., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1986. ISBN 0521313279.
• MacLeod, John, Dynasty, the Stuarts, 1560–1807, Hodder and Stoughton, London 1999. ISBN 0340707674.
• Macauley, Thomas Babington, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, 1848. Penguin Books Edition, New York 1968, 1986. ISBN 0140431330.
• Miller, John, James II, 3d. ed. Yale University Press, New Haven 2000. ISBN 0-300-08728-4
• McFerran, Noel S. (2003). "James II and VII."
• Prall, Stuart, The Bloodless Revolution: England, 1688, Anchor Books, Garden City, New York 1972.
• Royle, Trevor, The British Civil Wars: The Wars of the Three Kingdoms, 1638–1660, Little, Brown, 2004. ISBN 0312292937.
• Turner, Francis C., James II, Eyre and Spottiswoode, London, 1948
• Waller, Maureen, Ungrateful Daughters: The Stuart Princesses who Stole Their Father's Crown, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 2002. ISBN 031230711X.

External links

• James II Chronology
• King James II on Find-A-Grave

English Monarchs Monarchs Pre-Conquest Alfred the Great · Edward the Elder · Ælfweard · Athelstan the Glorious¶ · Edmund the Magnificent¶ · Eadred¶ · Eadwig the Fair¶ · Edgar the Peaceable¶ · Edward the Martyr · Ethelred the Unready · Sweyn Forkbeard · Edmund Ironside · Canute the Great¶ · Harold Harefoot · Harthacanute · Edward the Confessor · Harold Godwinson · Edgar the Atheling Monarchs Post-Conquest William I · William II · Henry I · Stephen · Matilda (disputed) · Henry II with Henry the Young King  · Richard I · John† · Henry III† · Edward I† · Edward II† · Edward III† · Richard II† · Henry IV† · Henry V† · Henry VI† · Edward IV† · Edward V† · Richard III† · Henry VII† · Henry VIII† · Edward VI† · Jane† · Mary I† · Elizabeth I† · James I‡ · Charles I‡ · Commonwealth · Charles II‡ · James II‡ · William III‡ with Mary II‡ · William III‡ · Anne‡ ¶Also Overlord of Britain. †Also Lord/Monarch of Ireland. ‡Also Monarch of Scotland and Ireland.

Pictish and Scottish Monarchs Monarchs of the Picts (traditional) Drest I · Talorc I · Nechtan I · Drest II · Galan · Drest III · Drest IV · Gartnait I · Cailtram · Talorc II · Drest V · Galam Cennalath · Bridei I · Gartnait II · Nechtan II · Cinioch · Gartnait III · Bridei II · Talorc III · Talorgan I · Gartnait IV · Drest VI · Bridei III · Taran · Bridei IV · Nechtan III · Drest VII · Alpín I · Óengus I · Bridei V · Ciniod I · Alpín II · Talorgan II · Drest VIII · Conall · Constantine · Óengus II · Drest IX · Uuen · Uurad · Bridei VI · Ciniod II · Bridei VII · Drest X Monarchs of the Scots (traditional) Kenneth I MacAlpin · Donald I · Constantine I · Áed · Giric · Eochaid · Donald II · Constantine II · Malcolm I · Indulf · Dub · Cuilén · Amlaíb · Kenneth II · Constantine III · Kenneth III · Malcolm II · Duncan I · Macbeth · Lulach · Malcolm III Canmore · Donald III · Duncan II · Donald III · Edgar · Alexander I · David I · Malcolm IV · William I · Alexander II · Alexander III · Margaret (disputed)  · First Interregnum · John · Second Interregnum · Robert I · David II · Robert II · Robert III · James I · James II · James III · James IV · James V · Mary I · James VI* · Charles I* · Charles II · The Covenanters · The Protectorate · Charles II* · James VII* · Mary II* · William II* · Anne* * also monarch of England and Ireland.