James II of England

James II and VII was King of England and Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685 until he was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He was the last Catholic monarch of England, Scotland and Ireland. His reign is now remembered primarily for struggles over religious tolerance. However, it also involved the principles of absolutism and divine right of kings.

About James II of England in brief

James II and VII was King of England and Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685 until he was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He was the last Catholic monarch of England, Scotland and Ireland. His reign is now remembered primarily for struggles over religious tolerance. However, it also involved the principles of absolutism and divine right of kings. His deposition ended a century of political and civil strife by confirming the primacy of Parliament over the Crown. He spent the rest of his life in exile at Saint-Germain, protected by Louis XIV. Some historians have praised him for advocating religious tolerance, while more recent scholarship has attempted to reconcile those views. James was the second surviving son of King Charles I and his wife, Henrietta Maria of France, and was born at St James’s Palace in London on 14 October 1633. He inherited the thrones from his elder brother Charles II with widespread support in all three countries. James accompanied his father at the Battle of Edgehill, where he narrowly escaped capture by the Parliamentary army. When Charles I was executed by the rebels in 1649, James was proclaimed king of Ireland and the Parliament of Scotland and was crowned at Scone in 1651. Like his brother, James sought refuge in France, serving in the French army under Turenne, and later against the Spanish allies. In the first battle of the Fronde, James had his first experience of battle where he chargeth himself and gallantly did anything to be done to be in favour of the French.

James had a son and heir, James Francis Edward, who was baptised by William Laud, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury in 1642, and formally created Duke of York in January 1644. The King’s disputes with the English Parliament grew into the English Civil War. James landed in Ireland on 14 March 1689 in an attempt to recover his kingdoms, but despite a simultaneous rising in Scotland, in April a Scottish Convention followed that of England by finding that James had ‘forfeited’ the throne and offered it to William and Mary. In February 1689, a special Convention Parliament held that the king had ‘vacated’ the English throne and installedWilliam and Mary as joint monarchs, establishing the principle that sovereignty derived from Parliament, not birth. James’s army deserted, and he went into exile in France on 23 December. He subsequently stayed in Oxford, the chief Royalist stronghold, where he was made an M.A. by the University on 1 November 1642 and served as colonel of a volunteer regiment of foot. When the city surrendered after the siege of Oxford in 1646, Parliamentary leaders ordered the Duke ofYork to be confined in St James’s Palace. James escaped from the Palace in 1648 with the help of Joseph Bampfield, crossed the North Sea to The Hague, and became the king of Scotland. When his older brother was executed, James became the monarch and was proclaimed King of Ireland.

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