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James II of England and VII of Scotland ascended the throne after the death of his brother Charles II who had no legitimate children. As a convert to Catholicism, his ascension caused tension among MPs and the public who were concerned about a return to papal rule and how a Catholic could be the Supreme Governor of the Anglican Church. His reign was beset with struggles over religious tolerance, rebellions and confirmed the primacy of parliament over the crown.
Born: 14th October 1633, St James Palace, London
Died: 16th September 1701, Chateau de Saint Germain-en-Laye, France (67)
Reign: 6th Feb 1685-23rd Dec 1688
Parents: Charles I and Henrietta Maria
Predecessor: Charles II (brother)
Successor: Mary II (daughter) and William III/ II (son in law), the pair were co-rulers.
Spouse: Anne Hyde (1660-1671), Mary of Modena
Children: Charles, Duke of Cambridge; Mary II Queen of England; James, Duke of Cambridge; Anne, Queen of Great Britain; Charles, Duke of Kendal; Edgar, Duke of Cambridge; Isabel Stuart; Charles, Duke of Cambridge; James Stuart; Louisa Stuart. (Also acknowledged 3 illegitimate children.)
Royal House: Stuart
Although initially well received as king because of a general belief in ascension rights, James is often remembered as being an unpopular ruler and was eventually removed from his throne and replaced by a king of parliament’s choosing.
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James II was the second surviving son of Charles I and Henrietta Maria of France. He was born at St James’ Palace in London and on birth was designated Duke of York. By the age of three, he was appointed Lord High Admiral, which was a ceremonial position until the restoration, when it became an actual role within government. He was educated alongside his brother, however while he was still young, civil war broke out in England between his father and parliament.
Though he spent most of the civil war in Oxford, where his father had based his court while London was under parliamentary control, James was present at the Battle of Edgehill alongside his brother. As he grew older, he became a prominent member of society in and around Oxford, being made Master of the Arts at the university in 1642.
As the war began to tip in favour of the parliamentarians, James’ father, Charles I, surrendered. His mother and oldest sister had already left the country for France, which was under the rule of his cousin, King Louis XIV, his older brother Charles soon joined them, leaving James and three of his younger siblings in Oxford. The four of them were taken into the care of parliament and moved to St James’ Palace, where his father was also being held. During initial negotiations, parliament did consider replacing Charles I with James, as he was the oldest son remaining in the country, however, negotiations fell apart and the Second English Civil War broke out. James fled England, making his way to the Hague. The royalist army was defeated once again and Charles I was executed, England became a Commonwealth under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell.
Following the death of his father, James made his way to France where he was reunited with his brother, mother and older sister. The family remained in France where Charles made attempts to reclaim the crown, until France allied itself with Oliver Cromwell. Charles and James were both expelled from France and made their way to Spain, where they both became prominent members of the Spanish army. It was here that James had his first experience of military leadership. He was given command of his own regiment and later, was joined by his younger brother Henry. The pair continued in service to the Spanish Army and moved around Europe.
When Oliver Cromwell died, the commonwealth collapsed, and Charles II was restored to the English throne in 1660 with James as his heir presumptive. At the time, it was believed to be unlikely that James would ascend, as Charles was young and already had multiple illegitimate children.
Once Charles was crowned, James regained his title of Duke of York and was also given the title of Duke of Albany. He was confirmed as the Lord High Admiral and would see active service in this role.
On James’ return to England, he immediately caused a royal scandal by seducing and impregnating Anne Hyde, the daughter of his brother’s Chief Minister. Prior to the restoration, James had promised to marry Anne, but as she was a commoner and he a prince, no one actually believed he would go through with it. The pair were married in a secret catholic ceremony and their first child was born less than two months later. An official, public wedding took place shortly after their first and they would go on to have a further five children, but only two survived. Their daughters, Mary and Anne, would both go on to sit on the throne. James was said to have been very fond of his daughters and, in contrast to many royal parents, spent a good deal of time, playing with them and assisting with their lessons. To avoid a real scandal, Charles gave Anne’s father extra powers, and he became one of the most powerful people in Charles’ government. Despite Anne Hyde’s devotion to James, he openly kept several mistresses, including Arabella Churchill, yes, a direct ancestor of that Winston Churchill, and Catherine Sedley, the Countess of Dorchester.
During Charles’ reign, the brothers participated in the Anglo-Dutch Wars that were going on at the time. In the Second Anglo-Dutch War, James was given command of the Royal Navy, a role that would directly lead to Britain’s involvement in the slave trade. James was quickly becoming a very wealthy man and by the Third Anglo-Dutch War was in charge of a sizeable household and several important stretches of land, including some American territory taken from the Dutch. The city of New Amsterdam became James’ property and was renamed New York in his honour.
As a member of Charles’ court, James was seen as a popular and well liked individual, no doubt helped by his displays of bravery during conflict and his role in aiding citizens in the Great Fire of London. The fire, one of the biggest incidents to occur in the city, broke out in September of 1666 and both the king and James stepped up to help with the evacuation and fighting of the fire. His actions gained him a lot of respect and public support.
Though James, like the rest of his siblings had been raised as a Protestant and had received a humanist education, he converted to Catholicism during his exile in France. It is said that while living at his cousin’s court, he had become very interested in the beliefs and ceremonies of the religion and both he and Anne Hyde converted in secret. The pair continued to attend Anglican services until well into the 1670s, when parliamentary fears that there would be a catholic influence over the government introduced the Test Act, which would require all military and civil officials to denounce Catholicism and pledge allegiance to the Anglican church. James refused, exposing his secret and renouncing his post of Lord High Admiral.
Despite being committed enough to his religion to relinquish his post, he continued to associate primarily with Anglicans, not just because government and court were dominated with Anglicans, but because many of his friends and peers continued to promote Protestantism.
After publicly confirming his support of Catholicism, Charles, in a bid to avoid another royal scandal, ordered that James’ daughters be raised in the Church of England and publicly denounced his brother’s conversion. Despite, this, he did allow a Catholic match for James’ second marriage, this time to the 15 year old Italian princess, Mary of Modena. The pair were married by proxy in a Catholic ceremony in September 1673. The young Mary arrived in England in November and a brief Anglican ceremony took place. The British people, though tolerant of James’ personal Catholicism, were not tolerant of Catholicism in general and were distrustful of the new princess, seeing her as an agent of the Pope.
Parliament, now more concerned than ever that a catholic would ascend the throne following Charles and his wife’s inability to produce an heir, attempted to bring in an act to exclude James from the line of succession. An Exclusion Crisis followed, which led to the development of a two-party system in Britain. Charles tried to assuage parliamentary fears by ordering that James’ oldest daughter Mary marry her cousin, the protestant Prince William III of Orange. William of Orange was the son of James and Charles’ sister, James was reluctant to agree but was forced to consent. The crisis deepened with the pro-exclusion MPs calling for Charles’ illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth to be named heir instead. On the orders of the king, James left England for Brussels, where he stayed for several years, in the hope that the bill would cool off. He later returned and was made Lord High Commissioner of Scotland and was stationed at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh.
It wasn’t just parliament who was concerned about a new catholic dynasty. A plot was uncovered which sought to murder both Charles and James. Several MPs and the Duke of Monmouth were implicated and James received a wave of sympathy from the public, paving the way for him to return to the Privy Council. After this, whatever parliament wanted, there was no way of successfully introducing an exclusion bill.
Charles died in 1685 with no legitimate children resulting in James ascending to the throne. Titled as James II of England and James VII of Scotland, initially, there was little opposition to the ascension. The new parliament was initially favourable to James and he made few changes to the council and government, keeping most of Charles’ officers. Parliament granted him a generous life income and despite his later difficulties, it is believed that he worked much harder as king than his brother had but was also less willing to compromise.
Soon after becoming king, James faced a two-pronged rebellion, one in the south led by his nephew, the Duke of Monmouth, and one in Scotland raised by Archibald Campbell, the Earl of Argyll.
Both the Duke and the Earl had set out from Holland, where William III failed to detain them, send word to James or stop them recruiting supporters. Though both were coordinated, Monmouth’s rebellion posed more of a threat as he had a claim to the throne. Argyll made his way to Scotland and raised recruits mainly from his own clan. The uprising was squashed quickly and he was captured, as he already had an outstanding death warrant out for him, James ordered that he be executed within three days of his capture.
While Argyll was causing problems in the north, Monmouth declared himself King in Lyme Regis and formed an army in the south, undertaking his campaigns at night to cause the most disruption. James’ army met him at the Battle of Sedgemoor and he was overpowered. Many of the rebels were executed, while others were sold as slaves. Monmouth was captured and executed in the Tower of London.
While James easily defeated both rebellions, it made him very suspicious of his Dutch relatives.
As a result of these rebellions, James enlarged his own personal army, which alarmed parliament and the public, not only because the soldiers terrorised local towns and villages, but also because it was against tradition to keep a professional army during peacetime. James used his dispensing powers to allow Catholics to command regiments without having to take the oath mandated by the Test Act. Parliament objected, so James prorogued parliament and they never met again during his reign.
Though he himself was catholic, James was known to promote religious tolerance, though his record of this was inconsistent. At one point, he advocated for the repeal of the Penal Laws in all three kingdoms and then later declared his wish for new Penal Laws against Presbyterians. He wrote to his Scottish Privy Council appealing for the toleration for Catholics, but not others, something that would later be referred to as the Killing Time.
Throughout his reign, James gave Catholics the highest offices in the kingdom and was the first monarch since Mary I to receive a representative from Rome. Later, he issued the Declaration of Indulgence, which used his dispensing powers to negate the effects of the laws punishing catholic and protestant dissenters and the following summer, embarked on a tour of the country, where he tried to rise support for a more tolerant policy. It is noted that in Scotland particularly, he provided partial toleration and used his powers to grant relief to Catholics and partial relief to Presbyterians. By 1688, he ordered his declaration of tolerance to be read from the pulpits of every Anglican Church and tried to bring more Catholics into education, granting them positions at Oxford University, something that upset bishops and lecturers alike.
It was James’ religious policy that ultimately led to his downfall. In 1687, James attempted to fill parliament with his own supporters so he could repeal the Test Act and the Penal Laws by issuing an order for a general election the following year. However, he soon realised that parliament were negotiating with his nephew and son – in – law, William of Orange, to depose him. He withdrew the order for an election and set about trying to win public support.
Things started to go really wrong for James in 1688. Firstly, he and Mary of Modena had their first son, James Francis Edward Stuart, raising the prospect of a catholic dynasty and excluding his first born daughter Mary and William III who were parliament’s preferred candidates. When his only possible successors were his two protestant daughters, Anglicans could see his policies as a temporary measure, but the birth of the prince, made them rush to find a solution.
The same year, the Seven Bishop’s Incident took place, where bishops asking for a reconsideration on religious policy were arrested. These two events resulted in the Glorious Revolution.
Anti-catholic sentiment led to a general feeling that the only way to avoid another civil war would be to remove James from power.
On 30th June 1688, parliament invited the Prince of Orange, the husband of James’ oldest daughter Mary and son of his sister, to England with an army. By the September, it was clear to everyone that William III intended to invade and James, believing his own army would be adequate, declined offers of help from his cousin, King Louis. However, when William arrived in Devon in November, many of James’ supporters changed sides, including his daughter Anne, who joined forces with her sister and brother-in-law.
James declined to attack the invading army, despite having a greater number of men and instead tried to flee to France. He was captured in Kent, but William allowed him to escape to avoid making him a martyr, James made his way to France with his family and returned to Louis’ court.
Once his victory was secure, William summoned a Convention Parliament to decide on the next course of act. Parliament were wary of officially deposing James, instead deciding that as he had thrown the Great Seal into the River Thames and fled to France that he had effective abdicated, leaving the throne vacant. Together, parliament decided to make William and Mary co-rulers, declaring them as the new king and queen, with the Scottish parliament following suit shortly after.
The Convention Parliament issued a Declaration of Right on 12th February that year, denouncing James for abusing his power and created limitations on royal authority, citing the prosecution of the seven bishops and James’ army as reasons. The declaration became the basis of the Bill of Rights which was later enacted in law in 1689. The bill also declared that no Roman Catholic could ascend the English throne and no English Monarch could marry a catholic, making James the final catholic monarch.
Once James had regained his wits, he attempted to win back his throne, leaving for Ireland with a troop of French soldiers. The Irish parliament didn’t follow the example of England and Scotland, refusing to acknowledge Mary and William while James still lived. A bill was passed in Ireland which punished anyone acting against James and declaring him to still be king.
At his urging, the Irish parliament granted religious freedom to everyone and allowed him to build an army.
William personally led an army to Ireland to defeat James, with the two meeting for the Battle of the Boyne. James fled France once more and never returned to the British Isles. Because of his desertion, the Irish rescinded their support and historians have since had an unfavourable view of him.
Following the Battle of the Boyne, James returned to France where Louis granted him a royal palace and a pension. He took up residence at the Chateau of Saint Germaine en Laye, on the outskirts of Paris, with his wife, supporters and some of his children. Most of those in his household were catholic and continued to practise as such. It was while he was in exile that James and Mary had their final child.
While he was generally viewed as an unpopular monarch towards the end of his reign, there were still some supporters left in England, who attempted to assassinate William, however nothing came of the plot and James’ popularity waned. King Louis XIV petitioned for James to become king of Poland, but James refused, believing that he still had a chance to return to the English throne. Louis’ support reduced to housing and a wage after he and William became allies.
James spent his final years living as an austere penitent. He addressed several missives to his son and hoped that he might one day return to England to govern. He believed that Catholics should hold government posts and would write manifestos to that effect. He died of a brain haemorrhage at the age of 67. He has multiple burial places, his heart was placed in a locket and given to a convent and his brain was given to a college in Paris. His entrails were put into two urns and sent to two different churches and the flesh from his right arm donated to nuns. The rest of his body was laid to rest at St Edmund’s Chapel in the church of the English Benedictines in France. James was not buried but was instead laid to rest in a side chapel with lights burning around his coffin until the French Revolution when his tomb was raided.
William and Mary were named as co monarchs by English parliament. They ruled together until Mary’s death when William continued as King. James’ youngest daughter from his first marriage, Anne succeeded when William died in 1702. The Act of Settlement stated that if the line of succession were extinguished, then the crown would go to Sophia, the Electress of Hanover and her heirs. Sophia was a sister of James and Charles and was a protestant. There were other more direct relatives, however they were Roman Catholic and so, by law, were not permitted to ascend. When Anne died, two months after Sophia, she was succeeded by George I, Sophia’s son, the first of Britain’s Hanovarian monarchs.
James’ son, James Francis Edward was recognised as the true King of England by the French on James’ death and a band of supporters calling themselves the Jacobites began plotting to restore him. The Jacobite Revolution took place in Scotland shortly after George’s coronation but was defeated. A second revolution took place in 1745, again in Scotland, this time led by Charles Edward Stuart, James’ grandson who was known in Scotland as Bonnie Prince Charlie. They were again defeated in one of Scotland’s bloodiest battles. Charles escaped, making his way back to France and from then on, there were no serious attempts to restore the Stuart line.
Ravenscraig Castle, Fife, Scotland
St James’ Palace, London
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