Divorced, Beheaded, Died: The History of Britain's Kings and Queens in Bite-Sized Chunks by Kevin Flude
Authors: Kevin Flude
Tags: Historical, History, Biography & Autobiography, Reference, Europe, Great Britain, Royalty, Queens
Ads: Link
son-in-law, William.
James was born in 1633 at St James’s Palace in London. He was captured by the Roundheads in 1646, but managed to escape in 1648, disguised as a girl. He spent the next few years in exile, but he returned to England when his brother was restored to the throne in 1660. He had considerable experience of command, having served in the English, French and Spanish armies, and was made Lord High Admiral. Like his brother, he had widespread affairs and in 1660 was forced to marry Anne Hyde, daughter of the Earl of Clarendon, as she was pregnant. She went on to bear him eight children, but only two daughters, Mary and Anne, survived. James converted to Catholicism in the 1660s, which caused his brother tremendous difficulties. In 1673, James was forced to resign from office and went into exile briefly. When Anne died, he married the devoutly Catholic Mary of Modena, which further antagonized his Protestant opponents.
When Charles died in 1685, the country initially rallied to James, and Parliament supported him in the face of a dangerous Protestant rebellion led by Charles’s bastard son, the Duke of Monmouth. The revolt was brutally suppressed and James had his nephew Monmouth beheaded.
James sought to remove anti-Catholic laws by a policy of religious toleration. He expanded the army and forced the appointment of Catholics to prominent positions. The problem was that he pushed his reforms through too quickly. This alarmed the Protestants, who feared a king with a standing army bent on the restoration of Catholicism, which was linked in British minds with totalitarian rule. The situation deteriorated alarmingly when Mary of Modena, succeeding with her eleventh pregnancy, bore him a son, James. Protestants claimed the pregnancy was false and that another baby had been smuggled into the birthing room in a warming pan. Those who had been happy to accept a Catholic king in his late middle age felt that a Catholic dynasty threatened the end of the Church of England. English bishops refused to support James’s policy of tolerance and were imprisoned in the Tower, and anti-Catholic rioting took place in London and elsewhere.
To force a solution, leading Protestant lords invited James’s Protestant daughter, Mary, to take the throne. In November 1688 her husband and first cousin, William of Orange, landed in Torbay with an invasion force and marched slowly towards London. As they marched, James’s support gradually melted away. Eventually, he lost confidence and fled, although he was soon captured and returned to London. William encouraged him to go into exile and he was allowed to leave for France, effectively abdicating the throne. In 1690, James made an attempt to reclaim the crown with the support of the Catholic Irish, but his forces were crushed by William at the Battle of the Boyne and he returned to exile in France, where he died in 1701.
M ARY II
Reigned 1689–1694
AND W ILLIAM III
Reigned 1689– 1702
William and Mary are the only couple in British history who reigned as joint monarchs. When Mary was asked to take the throne on the abdication of her father James II in 1688, she insisted that her husband and cousin William should rule with her. As William was James II’s nephew and was third in line to the throne after Mary and her sister Anne, this was considered acceptable.
As Stadtholder of Holland, William was one of the leading Protestants in Europe. His marriage to Mary in 1677 sealed an alliance between two Protestant powers which had only recently been at war. The accession of Mary’s Catholic father, James II, to the throne of England in 1685 created some difficulties, but William sent troops to help James crush the Duke of Monmouth’s Protestant rebellion. However, by 1688 further concessions to Catholicism had alarmed the English and leading Protestant aristocrats invited William and Mary to take the throne.
William’s decision to invade in November of that year with some 20,000
James was born in 1633 at St James’s Palace in London. He was captured by the Roundheads in 1646, but managed to escape in 1648, disguised as a girl. He spent the next few years in exile, but he returned to England when his brother was restored to the throne in 1660. He had considerable experience of command, having served in the English, French and Spanish armies, and was made Lord High Admiral. Like his brother, he had widespread affairs and in 1660 was forced to marry Anne Hyde, daughter of the Earl of Clarendon, as she was pregnant. She went on to bear him eight children, but only two daughters, Mary and Anne, survived. James converted to Catholicism in the 1660s, which caused his brother tremendous difficulties. In 1673, James was forced to resign from office and went into exile briefly. When Anne died, he married the devoutly Catholic Mary of Modena, which further antagonized his Protestant opponents.
When Charles died in 1685, the country initially rallied to James, and Parliament supported him in the face of a dangerous Protestant rebellion led by Charles’s bastard son, the Duke of Monmouth. The revolt was brutally suppressed and James had his nephew Monmouth beheaded.
James sought to remove anti-Catholic laws by a policy of religious toleration. He expanded the army and forced the appointment of Catholics to prominent positions. The problem was that he pushed his reforms through too quickly. This alarmed the Protestants, who feared a king with a standing army bent on the restoration of Catholicism, which was linked in British minds with totalitarian rule. The situation deteriorated alarmingly when Mary of Modena, succeeding with her eleventh pregnancy, bore him a son, James. Protestants claimed the pregnancy was false and that another baby had been smuggled into the birthing room in a warming pan. Those who had been happy to accept a Catholic king in his late middle age felt that a Catholic dynasty threatened the end of the Church of England. English bishops refused to support James’s policy of tolerance and were imprisoned in the Tower, and anti-Catholic rioting took place in London and elsewhere.
To force a solution, leading Protestant lords invited James’s Protestant daughter, Mary, to take the throne. In November 1688 her husband and first cousin, William of Orange, landed in Torbay with an invasion force and marched slowly towards London. As they marched, James’s support gradually melted away. Eventually, he lost confidence and fled, although he was soon captured and returned to London. William encouraged him to go into exile and he was allowed to leave for France, effectively abdicating the throne. In 1690, James made an attempt to reclaim the crown with the support of the Catholic Irish, but his forces were crushed by William at the Battle of the Boyne and he returned to exile in France, where he died in 1701.
M ARY II
Reigned 1689–1694
AND W ILLIAM III
Reigned 1689– 1702
William and Mary are the only couple in British history who reigned as joint monarchs. When Mary was asked to take the throne on the abdication of her father James II in 1688, she insisted that her husband and cousin William should rule with her. As William was James II’s nephew and was third in line to the throne after Mary and her sister Anne, this was considered acceptable.
As Stadtholder of Holland, William was one of the leading Protestants in Europe. His marriage to Mary in 1677 sealed an alliance between two Protestant powers which had only recently been at war. The accession of Mary’s Catholic father, James II, to the throne of England in 1685 created some difficulties, but William sent troops to help James crush the Duke of Monmouth’s Protestant rebellion. However, by 1688 further concessions to Catholicism had alarmed the English and leading Protestant aristocrats invited William and Mary to take the throne.
William’s decision to invade in November of that year with some 20,000
Similar Books
