James II, unknown artist, National Portrait Gallery, London
James II, 1685-88 (Rachel Vachon)
Born on October 14, 1633 to Charles I and Henrietta Maria, James
II was only their second surviving son and the last monarch to rule from the
direct Stuart family line from 1685 - 1688. He served as the Duke of York and
took up refuge in Oxford during the English Civil Wars. After the cities defeat
and his father’s execution in 1649, though, James II fled to the continent with
his brother and mother and joined the French army where he distinguished
himself as a competent soldier and leader almost immediately. Later going on to
command the right wing of the Spanish army, as well, at the Battle of the
Dunes. But once Cromwell had died and his brother, Charles II, was restored to
the English throne as King in 1660, James II returned to England with the title
of Duke of Albany and took a special interest in commanding the Royal Navy as
Lord High Admiral from 1660 – 1673. At this time, he also married Anne Hyde,
daughter of Clarendon, Charles II’s chief minister, with whom he had two
surviving children with, Mary and Anne.
Cerca 1669
James II experienced his first significant upset with the public when he converted
to Catholicism (supposedly after having been influenced by his time in France
and Spain), but he agreed to continue raising Mary and Anne as Protestants and
continued to attend Anglican services for quite some time afterwards. In 1677,
he even consented to his daughter Mary’s marriage to the Protestant William of
Orange. However, this was greatly overshadowed by his marriage to a 15-year-old
Catholic princess, Mary of Modena, following Anne Hyde’s dead in 1671 –
creating a widespread panic over the possibility of one day producing a
Catholic heir to the throne.
In an
attempt to quell this, Parliament pass the Test Act in 1673, excluding
Catholics from political office, as well as introducing the Exclusion Bill,
which would substitute James’ succession to the throne with Charles’
illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth. The hysteria reached its peak around
1678 when a conspiracy theory known as the Popish Plot began to circulate –
claiming that Jesuits were planning to assassinate Charles so that James could
finally take the throne and Catholic rule would establish itself in England
once and for all. Charles dissolved the Parliament before this Exclusion Bill could
pass, and made no move otherwise to hinder his brother’s succession, so upon his
death James was officially crowned King on April 23, 1685.
And he was immediately met with
opposition, having to face two rebellions the summer of that very same year. One
led by the Duke of Argyll in attempt to remove his reign over Scotland, and a
second, much larger one led by the Duke of Monmouth himself. But the rebellions
were swiftly defeated, and the Monmouth rebels were punished by Judge Jeffrey’s
notorious Bloody Assizes. King James then issued the Declaration of Indulgence,
which suspended the Test Act, and proceeded to appoint Catholic supporters all
throughout the government and military, including Parliament, while handing
Oxford and various other academic positions over to the church as well. To make
matters even worse, it was announced that Mary of Modena had given birth to a
son, James Francis Edward, in June of 1688 – solidifying everyone’s fears of a
Catholic succession.
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