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 February 1685 until he was deposed in the 1688 Glorious Revolution. The last Catholic monarch of England, Scotland, and Ireland, his reign was marked by conflicts over religion, absolutism and the divine right of kings; his deposition ended a century of political and civil strife by confirming the primacy of the English Parliament over the Crown.
James was the second surviving son of Charles I of England and Henrietta Maria of France, and was created Duke of York at birth. At the age of 51, he succeeded to the throne with widespread support on the death of his elder brother, Charles II. The general public was reluctant to undermine the principle of hereditary succession after the trauma of the brief republican Commonwealth of England 25 years before, and believed that a Catholic monarchy was purely temporary. However, tolerance of James's personal views did not extend to Catholicism in general, and both the English and Scottish parliaments refused to pass measures viewed as undermining the primacy of the Protestant religion. His attempts to impose them by absolutist decrees as a matter of his perceived divine right met with opposition.
In June 1688, two events turned dissent into a crisis. Firstly, the birth of James's son and heir James Francis Edward Stuart on 10 June raised the prospect of a Catholic dynasty, displacing his Protestant daughter Mary, who had been heir presumptive. Secondly, the state prosecution of the Seven Bishops was seen as an assault on the Church of England, and their acquittal on 30 June destroyed his political authority. Ensuing anti-Catholic riots in England and Scotland led to a general feeling that only James's removal could prevent another civil war. Leading members of the English political class invited William of Orange, James's nephew and son-in-law, to assume the English throne. When William landed in Brixham on 5 November 1688, James's army deserted and he went into exile in France on 23 December. In February 1689, a special Convention Parliament held James had "vacated" the English throne and installed William and Mary as joint monarchs, thereby establishing the principle that sovereignty derived from Parliament, not birth. 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 England in ruling that James had "forfeited" the throne, which was offered to William and Mary.
After his defeat at the Battle of the Boyne in July 1690, James returned to France, where he spent the rest of his life in exile at Saint-Germain, protected by Louis XIV. While contemporary opponents often portrayed him as an absolutist tyrant, some 20th-century historians have praised James for advocating religious tolerance, although more recent scholarship has tended to take a middle ground between these views.
Early life
Birth
James was born on 14 October 1633 at St James's Palace in London, the second surviving son of King Charles I and his wife, Henrietta Maria of France. Later that same year, he was baptised by William Laud, the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury. He was educated by private tutors, along with his older brother, the future King Charles II, and the two sons of the Duke of Buckingham, George and Francis Villiers. At the age of three, James was appointed Lord High Admiral; the position was initially honorary, but became a substantive office after the Restoration, when James was an adult. He was designated Duke of York at birth, invested with the Order of the Garter in 1642, and formally created Duke of York in January 1644.Wars of the Three Kingdoms
In August 1642, long running political disputes between Charles I and his opponents in Parliament led to the First English Civil War. James and his brother Charles were present at the Battle of Edgehill in October, and narrowly escaped capture by Parliamentarian cavalry. He spent most of the next four years in the Royalist wartime capital of Oxford, where he was made a Master of Arts by the University on 1 November 1642 and served as colonel of a volunteer regiment of foot. Following the surrender of Oxford in June 1646, James was taken to London and held with his younger siblings Henry, Elizabeth and Henrietta in St James's Palace.Frustrated by their inability to agree terms with Charles I, and with his brother Charles out of reach in France, Parliament considered making James king. James was ordered by his father to escape, and, with the help of Joseph Bampfield, in April 1648 successfully evaded his guards and crossed the North Sea to The Hague. Following their victory in the 1648 Second English Civil War, Parliament ordered the execution of Charles I in January 1649. The Covenanter regime proclaimed Charles II King of Scotland, and after lengthy negotiations agreed to provide troops to restore him to the English throne. The invasion ended in defeat at Worcester in September 1651. Although Charles managed to escape capture and to return to the exiled court in Paris, the Royalist cause appeared hopeless.
Exile in France
James, like his brother, sought refuge in France, serving in the French army under Turenne against the Fronde, and later against their Spanish allies. In the French army James had his first true experience of battle, in which, according to one observer, he "ventures himself and chargeth gallantly where anything is to be done". Turenne's favour led to James being given command of a captured Irish regiment in December 1652, then appointed Lieutenant-General in 1654.In 1657, France, then engaged in the Franco-Spanish War, agreed an alliance with the Commonwealth of England, and when Charles responded by signing a treaty with Spain, James was expelled from France. James quarrelled with his brother over this choice, but ultimately joined Spanish forces in Flanders led by the French exile Condé. Given command of six regiments of British volunteers, he fought against his former French comrades at the Battle of the Dunes.
After France and Spain made peace with the 1659 Treaty of the Pyrenees, James considered taking a Spanish offer to be an admiral in their navy, but declined the position. Soon after, the 1660 Stuart Restoration returned his brother to the English throne as Charles II.
Restoration
First marriage
After the collapse of the Commonwealth in 1660, Charles II was restored to the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland. 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. On 31 December 1660, following 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 prompted an immediate controversy by announcing his engagement to Anne Hyde, the daughter of Charles's chief minister, Edward Hyde.In 1659, while trying to seduce her, James promised he would marry Anne. 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. Although nearly everyone, including Anne's father, urged the two not to marry, the couple married secretly, then went through an official marriage ceremony on 3 September 1660 in London.
The couple's first child, Charles, was born less than two months later, but died in infancy, as did five further children. Only two daughters survived: Mary and Anne. Samuel Pepys wrote that James was fond of his children and his role as a father, and played with them "like an ordinary private father of a child", a contrast to the distant parenting common with royalty at the time.
James's wife was devoted to him and influenced many of his decisions. Even so, he kept mistresses, including Arabella Churchill and Catherine Sedley, and was reputed to be "the most unguarded ogler of his time". Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary that James "did eye my wife mightily". James's taste in women was often maligned, with Gilbert Burnet famously remarking that James's mistresses must have been "given him by his priests as a penance". Anne Hyde died in 1671.
Military and other 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. In October 1660, Charles II appointed his brother the Governor of the Royal Adventurers into Africa. The company had senior courtiers, ministers and admirals among its investors. Its purpose was to exploit trade opportunities in West Africa. Gold, ivory, redwood and other products from the region were sought-after cargoes. The slave trade to the Americas represented only 25 per cent of its income in 1665, but over its lifetime, it went on to carry more enslaved Africans across the Atlantic than "any other single institution".To achieve a dominant commercial presence on the West African coast, it was believed that the Dutch needed to be displaced from their trading posts there. The company sent ships to capture them, supported, in 1664, by the Royal Navy frigate, under the command of Robert Holmes. This was a major cause of the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
The Navy was used in later years to assist the company, showing a distinct blurring of the responsibilities between the state and a commercial enterprise. James continued in his role in the company until after the Glorious Revolution, when he was forced to resign.
James was very active in his role in the Royal Navy. Immediately after the Restoration, he worked on confirming the posts of ships' officers and officials in the administration of the Navy, and making new appointments to replace those ousted by the change in regime. He was a regular attendee at meetings of the Admiralty committees. In the Second Anglo-Dutch War, he commanded the fleet at the Battle of Lowestoft, being in the thick of the fighting. Three courtiers standing beside him on the deck of were decapitated by one chain shot from the Dutch flagship, spattering James with blood and brains. After this event, and perhaps with the security of the Royal succession in mind, the King removed James from active service for the rest of the war. The same sequence was repeated in the Third Anglo-Dutch War, with James commanding the fleet at the Battle of Solebay, where he had to move his flag twice as his successive flagships were disabled by enemy action, the captain of the first,, being killed beside him. In the midst of the intense fighting, James strode along the deck, encouraging the gun crews. James's undoubtedly brave performance in this battle is marred by some accusing him of issuing unclear orders to the French squadron. As before, he was removed from front-line service after this battle.
Following the raid on the Medway in 1667, James oversaw the survey and re-fortification of the southern coast. The office of Lord High Admiral, combined with his revenue from post office and wine tariffs, gave James enough money to keep a sizable court household.
In 1664, Charles II granted American territory between the Delaware and Connecticut rivers to James. Following its capture by the British, the former Dutch territory of New Netherland and its principal port, New Amsterdam, were renamed the Province and City of New York in James's honour. James gave part of the colony to proprietors George Carteret and John Berkeley. Fort Orange, north on the Hudson River, was renamed Albany after James's Scottish title. In 1683, James became the Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, but did not take an active role in its governance.
In September 1666, Charles II put James in charge of firefighting operations during the Great Fire of London, in the absence of action by Lord Mayor Thomas Bloodworth. This was not a political office, but his actions and leadership were noteworthy. "The Duke of York hath won the hearts of the people with his continual and indefatigable pains day and night in helping to quench the Fire", wrote a witness in a letter on 8 September.
In 1672, the Royal African Company received a new charter from Charles II. It set up forts and factories, maintained troops, and exercised martial law in West Africa in pursuit of trade in gold, silver and African slaves. In the 1680s, the RAC transported about 5,000 slaves a year to markets primarily in the English Caribbean across the Atlantic. Many were branded on the chest with the letters "DY" for "Duke of York", the RAC's Governor.