14 October: King James II

Born on this date in 1633 was James II, the last Roman Catholic monarch of Britain.

1. James was the second surviving son of King Charles I and his wife, Henrietta Maria of France, born at St. James's Palace in London on 14 October 1633. His elder brother was the future King Charles II.
2. He was designated Duke of York at birth and formally invested at the age of 11. He was appointed Lord High Admiral at the age of three. In 1660, following the restoration of Charles I, James was created Duke of Albany in Scotland.
3. During the English Civil War he fought with his father at the Battle of Edgehill and was almost captured by the Parliamentary army. Later, he was held prisoner in St. James's Palace, but managed to escape by dressing as a woman and fleeing to the Hague.
4. He served in the French army after that where he showed himself to be a brave soldier who "ventures himself and chargeth gallantly where anything is to be done".
5. In 1660, it seemed highly unlikely James would ever be king. Charles II was still a young man and it was assumed he would have children. Even so, it caused a scandal when he promised to marry Anne Hyde, the daughter of Charles's chief minister, Edward Hyde. James got her pregnant, and kept his promise despite virtually everyone advising him not to marry a commoner. He and Anne married in secret. Their first child, a son, was born two months later but didn't survive. Of the eight children they had, only two daughters survived, Mary and Anne. James was reported to be a hands-on father who, unlike most royals of the time, played with his children. He also had children by two mistresses, Arabella Churchill and Catherine Sedley.
6. In 1666, the king put him in charge of dealing with the Great Fire of London, when the Lord Mayor of London failed to do anything. "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 contemporary witness.
7. James and Anne converted to Catholicism somewhere around 1668 but kept their conversion secret for almost a decade. James continued to attend Anglican services while practising as a Catholic on the quiet. It was only when Parliament passed the Test Act in 1673 that he “came out” as a Catholic. The act demanded that all civil and military officials had to take a oath renouncing the Catholic faith. As Lord High Admiral, James was required to take the oath. He refused, and gave up the post. Charles II wasn't happy about it, and ordered that James's daughters should be brought up as Anglicans. He did, however, allow James, who was widowed by then, to marry a Catholic princess called Mary of Modena. Some members of Parliament believed that, because he'd become a Catholic, James should be excluded from the line of succession. It was this disagreement which led to the two party system which still operates in Parliament today. The Whigs were the ones who wanted James excluded while the Tories did not.
8. Since Charles II had no legitimate children, when he died, James succeeded him as James II, and James VII in Scotland. At first, everything seemed fine. James worked harder than his brother had, but wasn't as compliant when his advisors disagreed with him. He saw off a couple of rebellions from the Duke of Monmouth and Archibald Campbell, the Earl of Argyll. 250 of Monmouth's followers were executed and still more deported after a series of trials we now know as the Bloody Assizes. Because of the trial, James beefed up his army, something that just wasn't done in peacetime before this.
9. James also set about getting the Anglican church to accept his Catholic policies, which didn't go down well with the Archbishop of Canterbury and several other bishops. James fired them all. At first, all this was regarded as a temporary blip – the only heirs James had were his two daughters, who'd been raised as Anglicans, and the eldest had married a protestant – her cousin William. Once James popped his clogs, normality would be restored. Or so they thought. In 1688, Mary of Modena had a baby – a son called James Francis Edward. This would mean a Catholic dynasty. In order to avoid that, some protestants claimed Mary had not given birth to James Jr at all but he was someone else's baby who'd been smuggled into her bedroom inside a warming pan. When that didn't work, a more traditional solution was sought – inviting James's son in law William of Orange to raise a protestant army and invade. James fled to France, and by doing so was deemed to have abdicated. His daughter Mary therefore succeeded to the throne and she and her husband ruled jointly as William and Mary.
10. James lived out the rest of his life in the royal château of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. He was offered the job of King of Poland by Louis XIV, but turned it down, as he was still hopeful he might get England back. He even wrote instructions to his son on how to govern England should that happen. He died aged 67 of a brain haemorrhage in 1701.

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