Who accounted for Yakov 2 Charles. James II - biography, facts from life, photos, background information

YAKOV II(James II) (1633-1701), in 1685-1688 King of England, Ireland and (as James VII) Scotland, the last English monarch from the Stuart dynasty in the direct male line. The son of King Charles I and Henrietta Maria, the younger brother of the future Charles II, Jacob was born at St. James's Palace in London on October 14, 1633, receiving the title of Duke of York in January 1634.

After the surrender of Oxford in 1646, he was taken prisoner by Parliamentary troops, but in 1648 he managed to escape. Initially, Jacob was in The Hague, and in 1649 he was reunited in Paris with his mother. In 1652, Jacob joined the French army, but in 1657 he was forced to go into the service of the Spaniards, as this was demanded by his brother Charles, who had concluded an alliance with Spain. Jacob commanded the English contingent, which fought stubbornly against the French and did not give up their positions in the so-called. Battle of the Dunes (near Dunkirk) June 14, 1658.

He returned to England in 1660, when the Restoration took place, along with his brother Charles II, who had ascended the throne, and was appointed Lord Admiral. In this post, Yakov showed great zeal and a sincere desire to improve the condition navy. He also proved to be a good naval commander, as evidenced by his victories over the Dutch at Lowestoft in 1665 and at Southwold Bay in 1672. New Amsterdam, which the British took from the Dutch in 1664, was named New York in his honor.

In 1660 Jacob married Anna Hyde, daughter of the Earl of Clarendon. Shortly before her death in 1671, she converted to Catholicism, which probably accelerated the conversion of Jacob himself to Catholicism, which he openly announced in 1672. Jacob was a supporter of a close alliance with Catholic France and naturally approved the Declaration of Toleration issued by Charles in 1672. In 1673, in accordance with the Test Act (Test Act, the law on the oath of renunciation of the recognition of papal authority and the dogma of transubstantiation), was forced to leave all his public posts. The hysteria caused in society by the imaginary "Papist conspiracy" made Jacob's position in England very difficult, and although he retired to the Netherlands, the House of Commons adopted in 1679 the so-called. "Bill of Suspension", which was supposed to prevent his ascension to the throne. However, this bill was rejected by the House of Lords, and when Charles died in 1685, James became king (as James II) with a parliament that was ready to cooperate with him in all matters except one: relief for Catholics and their admission to public office.

However, Jacob, sincere, but stubborn and straightforward in nature, decided to patronize the Catholics with all the means at his disposal. The repressive policies and the birth of a son (Jacob Stuart) by James's second wife, the Catholic Mary of Modena, after which many began to fear that the English crown would pass to a Catholic dynasty, hastened an invitation extended by a group of conspirators to his son-in-law, William of Orange, to come to England and rule it in as king. Few sympathized with William as the future king, but by his unwillingness to refuse patronage of the Catholics, Jacob missed the chance to reconcile the English nobility with him and was forced to flee to France.

With the support of France, he tried to regain his throne by landing in Ireland and relying on the local Catholics, but was defeated on the Boine River on July 1, 1690. Louis XIV gave Jacob a residence in Saint-Germain-en-Laye near Paris, where he remained until his death on September 6, 1701. Mary and Anna, daughters of Jacob from his first wife (both of them were raised as Protestants at the insistence of his brother Charles), became queens of England, the first rule jointly with her husband William III. His son Jacob (James Stewart), who claimed the throne as James III, is known in history as the Old Pretender.

So, in 1662, Charles II Stuart married Catherine, Infanta of Portugal. This marriage turned out to be childless, which is why after the death of Charles II his only brother, the Duke of York, who ascended the throne of Great Britain under the name of James II, inherited his throne.

Unfortunately, James II, a convinced Catholic, was a man wholly devoted to the interests of the Roman Catholic Church (papacy), and all the efforts of Charles II to force him to change his beliefs came to nothing. In its turn, English Parliament did his best to convince Charles II of the need to change his last will and deprive his brother of the right to the throne on the grounds that a Catholic king was just as unacceptable to Great Britain as a Protestant king was to France or Spain.

However, Charles II, who doted on his brother and tried in every way to delay the solution of the issue, succeeded in this and died calmly, without giving consent to such an act. Therefore, no one could resist the proclamation of James II as king and his accession to the throne of Great Britain.

Dreaming of the return of the papacy, James II appointed a papist professor at Oxford, openly accepted the papal legate, persuaded several of his papists to accept Catholicism, and also intended to cancel the measures directed against the papists, in other words, he committed actions that caused discontent and grumbling among the people. It should be noted that during the period of exile, Charles II had a son, who was named James and given the title of Duke of Monmouth. This James, objecting to being considered a bastard or illegitimate son, in view of the promise of Charles II to marry his mother, laid claim to the English throne. Gathering a small force, in 1685 he landed on the west coast of England and proclaimed himself king. However, having suffered a defeat at the first clash with the royal troops, he was taken prisoner, taken to the Tower and a few days later publicly beheaded on Tower Hill, which greatly contributed to strengthening the position of the king, who was ready to implement the policy of the Romans with even greater firmness. -Catholic Church.

The wife of James II, Queen Mary, from the clan of Modena, for a long time did not please him with the appearance of an heir. Finally, on June 10, 1688, the queen successfully settled as a prince, whom the king named James, conferring on him the title of Prince of Wales. The king announced the joyful event to all those in power in neighboring states, causing rejoicing among the papists, who believed that the time was not far off when Great Britain would return to the bosom of the Catholic Church. The endless stream of congratulations addressed to the royal couple, at first glance, was encouraging: it seemed that all the British were happy to consider the newborn prince as their future master. In fact, the most vile fakes were circulating, containing speculation about the so belated appearance of the prince into the world. In order to stop such rumors, on October 27, 1688, the king ordered all the courtiers who were in the palace during childbirth to certify the birth of a son whom he, James II, considers his rightful heir.

From his first marriage, the king had two daughters, brought up in the traditions of the Anglican Church. The eldest, Maria, born in 1662, in 1677 married William, Prince of Orange, and the youngest, Anna, born in 1664, in 1683 married George, Prince of Denmark. William, Prince of Orange, born in 1650, the son of Mary, daughter of the beheaded King Charles I, could rightfully claim the English throne, so some lords and princes of the church, having entered into secret negotiations with him, conveyed to him the news of the danger threatening England to fall again under the influence of the Pope, while expressing unequivocal concern about the unlawful deprivation of William's hereditary rights to the British crown. William of Orange, instantly understanding what they were driving at, turned for help to the united provinces of the Netherlands, which immediately equipped a navy for him, and already in November 1688, the prince left the Dutch harbor, initially heading north to send scouts on the wrong track , and only then turned to the west, towards the strait. For some time, the flotilla moved along the English coast in the same direction, while dispatches were constantly sent from all English ports in London with messages about the passage of the Dutch fleet. Couriers could not get into the city bypassing the large London Bridge, and therefore the bridge was breaking both from couriers who followed almost one after another, and from curious townspeople, greedy for news. The size of the flotilla of William of Orange easily convinced the Londoners of the futility of any resistance on the part of James II, which is why they decided to make every effort to prevent an armed conflict. Similar work was carried out in the army of King James, where it was decided to refuse to assist him in the fight against the prince, who landed in the west of England and marched directly towards London. Abandoned by everyone, James II sent the queen with a six-month-old child to France, and then he himself went after them.

The flight of the king gave Parliament an opportunity to announce that the king had abdicated, and on February 13, 1689, the Prince of Orange was proclaimed King of Great Britain under the name of William III. The people did not hide their joy. Fires blazed in the city, on which a jubilant crowd with wild gloating burned images of the Pope and the Jesuit Petersen, confessor and adviser to James II. Nostradamus mentions this in the 80th quatrain of the 3rd century:

"The unworthy will be expelled from the English throne,
His adviser will be thrown into the fire out of gloating:
His supporters will act so cleverly
That the Bastard will be half approved."

As for the expression “Unworthy” (as Nostradamus calls King James II), one should pay attention to the fact that this expression takes place in the first editions of the centuries published in France, however, in later ones, and especially those that came out in England, instead of "Unworthy" the expression "Worthy" appeared. By the way, the poetic meter allows both, according to the assessment of the king by different parties: the most worthy of all contenders for the throne, from the point of view of the papists, James II remained unworthy for the Protestants.

Let us turn to the 89th quatrain of the 4th century:

"The armed militia of London entered into a secret collusion
In the course of an exchange of opinions on the bridge about an enterprise being prepared against their king,
His satellites will taste death,
Another king will be chosen, a fair-haired one from Frisia."

Born November 14, 1650 in The Hague, King Wilhelm was from a province called Holland, or West Frisia. In his youth, he may have had blond hair, but there may be an allusion to his name (Guillaume is French for "Guillaume"). As for the unfortunate companions of King James II, all who became papists to please him had, following his sad example, leave England and emigrate to Ireland, where, as a result of a bloody war, they were finally broken by King William, and most of them cost a life. James II managed to escape this time as well; he went to France, where he died in September 1701. And six months later, on March 8, 1702, after him, King Wilhelm also departed to another world. Thus, none of the Protestant descendants of the beheaded King Charles I remained alive, with the exception of Princess Anne, who at that time was married to George, Prince of Denmark, who was immediately proclaimed Queen of Great Britain.
Her only son, William, Duke of Gloucester, who showed the most brilliant promises, to everyone's surprise, died suddenly at the eleventh year of his life on July 30, 1700, i.e. three years prior to this event. The death of his son prompted the then-living King William to show commendable concern for the preservation of the right of succession to the Protestant line of the Stuart dynasty, excluding papists from it forever. So, on March 22, 1701, Parliament passed a law according to which, in the event of the extinction of the line of Charles and the Protestant line of King James I, in the absence of direct heirs of William and Anna, the throne of Great Britain will be inherited by representatives of the line of Elizabeth in the person of the then still healthy daughter of Elizabeth, Sophia, Elector Brunswick, Lüneburg and Hanover with all her descendants, considered as the closest and legitimate heirs to the British crown.

Thus, this statutory succession along the Protestant line was subsequently reaffirmed.
parliament during the reign of Queen Anne, in particular, in 1707, when England and Scotland were solemnly transformed into a single state with a single parliament, the adopted order of succession was legally assigned to Elector Sophia and her direct descendants. Please note that Elector Sophia, granddaughter of King James I and mother of King George I, who died in May 1714 at the age of eighty-four, shortly before the death of Queen Anne, was born on October 13, 1630 in The Hague (Holland or West Frisia), in other words in the same place as King Wilhelm, a Friesian by birth. Thus, the prediction of Nostradamus was fulfilled twice: the first time in the person of the king, and the second in the person of the one whom he appointed as his heir.
Note that England - a country where the right of succession to the throne is regulated by hereditary law - twice found itself in such a state of crisis that Parliament, seeing no other way out, was forced to decide on the legislative consolidation of the right to the British crown (with an indication of a specific person) for the Protestant line, having set confessional affiliation as the main condition.

James II 1633-1701

James II was one of the most interesting personalities in the history of England and Scotland in the seventeenth century. The second son of Charles I, for many years he was only a "reserve" heir to the throne. An amazing ability to cause a scandal was combined in him with a genuine talent for military affairs and organizational skills. However, unlike his older brother, he failed to negotiate with his subjects, which, like for his father, had fatal consequences for him.

James II was born in London on October 15, 1633 and was named after his paternal grandfather, James I. As an infant, he received the title of Duke of York - traditional for the second son of English monarchs. When in the early 40s the conflict between the king and parliament flared up in full force, Karl decided that his eldest sons should accompany him during the next military campaigns. As a result, the prince, at that time still a teenager, led the life of a soldier: he spent most of his time in military camps, surrounded by royalist commanders. Together with his brother, he was almost captured by the forces of Parliament during the Battle of Edgehill. When the king's supporters captured Oxford, it was decided to take advantage of this opportunity and take care of the education of the prince, but he preferred physical exercise rather than reading. He still managed to master French, although this could have happened in childhood and be the merit of his mother and courtiers. When Oxford fell into the hands of the Parliamentarians in 1646, James became their prisoner. He was brought to London, where, together with his sister and younger brother Henry, he was imprisoned in St. James's Palace. The prince tried to escape several times. The first two attempts ended in failure, but as a result of the third in April 1648, he ended up in Holland.

Portrait of James II. Peter Lely, 17th century, private collection

JAKOV II STUART IN 1660 LEAD THE ENGLISH ADMIRALTY AND EXECUTED COMMAND DURING THE ANGLO-DUTCH WARS. AND ALSO LEAD THE REORGANIZATION AND EXPANSION OF THE MARINE DEPARTMENT.

Chess played by James II and presented to Samuel Pepys, 17th century, London Museum, England

Over the next four years, Jacob shuttled between his mother's court in Paris, the residence of his sister, the Duchess of Orange, in The Hague, and the island of Jersey, which continued to recognize the Stuarts as its rulers. He also supported Charles II in the preparation of his campaign in Scotland and tried to settle his financial problems by finding a reasonably wealthy bride. When his plans failed and his brother's Scottish campaign ended in defeat, the prince decided in 1652 to join the French army. Fighting under the Viscount Turenne, James gained valuable experience in military campaigning, which he wrote in his diary he hoped to use in the future to support the Stuarts' efforts to regain the crown. He completed the service on the orders of his brother, who wanted Yakov to be by his side. Later, Charles, in the hope of strong support from the Habsburgs, ordered that he enter the Spanish army.

For Jacob, this meant that he would fight with his former comrades in arms. Despite this, he performed well as an officer in the Spanish army. He spent a lot of time in the Netherlands, which allowed him to maintain regular contact with his sister Maria. During his stay at her court, Jacob had an affair with one of the ladies-in-waiting, Anna, the daughter of Edward Hyde, Karl's adviser. When it turned out that Anna was expecting a child, Yakov promised to marry her. After Karl found out about the promise, Yakov could no longer refuse his words.

The marriage caused a huge scandal, especially since Jacob's situation changed diametrically very soon. After the restoration of the monarchy in England in 1660, he became heir to the English and Scottish thrones, as well as Lord Admiral English fleet. Being the eldest living brother of the king, he became the second person in the country, and therefore could marry a woman who was significantly superior to Anna.

However, Charles was adamant, and the couple, who probably secretly married back in Holland, officially appeared before the altar in London in September 1660.

In subsequent years, Jacob, according to one Venetian diplomat, participated in state affairs to a very small extent and was primarily occupied with his own pleasures. He was known for having a large number of mistresses and was an avid hunter, although unlike his brother he avoided alcohol and never gambled. He also almost did not engage in politics, focusing his attention on the fleet, of which he was appointed commander. As Lord Admiral, he was responsible for the construction of new ships and the actions of the squadron during the military conflict with Holland. In September 1666, his brother instructed him to control the situation after the Great Fire of London - the detachments under his command stood guard over public order in the city, and Yakov himself coordinated fire extinguishing actions.

Most likely, in the late 60s, the prince began to lean towards Catholicism. It is not known exactly when he converted to the Catholic faith, but from the mid-70s it was already an open secret - the prince did not take part in Anglican services, he left the post of commander of the fleet so as not to take an oath that contradicted the teachings of the Catholic Church, and the Pope recognized him married in 1673 to a Catholic, daughter of the Duke of Modena, Maria Beatrice. (Anna died back in 1671, leaving James II with two daughters: Maria and Anna.)

Considering Jacob's position, the issue of his religion was of political importance, especially in connection with the rise of anti-Catholic sentiment in England. In 1678, there were rumors about a conspiracy of Catholics (Papist conspiracy), the purpose of which was allegedly to carry out a coup d'état. Most of society and politicians, fearing an increasingly real threat of a Catholic monarch ascending the throne, tried to exclude Jacob from the number of heirs. However, this met with resistance from Charles II, who blocked the introduction of appropriate changes to the laws. The political dispute around James significantly influenced the formation of two political camps, which in the future began to dominate the British political scene: supporters of the king, who did not agree to exclude James, Duke of York, from among the heirs to the throne, began to be called Tories, and their opponents, who sought to secure a successor King - Protestant, nicknamed the Whigs.

Since the situation was deadlocked, an appeal was prepared to Jacob, urging him to return to the bosom of the Anglican Church, but he refused. In this regard, the king agreed to remove the duke from public life for some time - in the spring of 1679, Jacob left for Brussels, and from October of that year until the spring of 1682 he was in Edinburgh, where he even managed to gain some popularity.

Upon his return to London, he again began to participate in political life and the affairs of the fleet, but could not agree with the opponents of Catholicism. When he became king in February 1685, the first weeks of his reign were rather calm. Moreover, the parliament he convened was disposed towards him positively, although this could be due to the desire to avoid at any cost civil war, which would have erupted if the king had not been able to pacify the rebellion under the leadership of the Earl of Argyll and the eldest illegitimate son of Charles II, James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, who declared himself a pretender to the throne, and called James a usurper. The rebellion was quickly suppressed - already in July, the rebels were captured, sentenced to death and beheaded.

However, the "honeymoon" of the king and his subjects did not last long - the actions of the monarch, who decisively weakened anti-Catholic legislation, and conflicts between courtiers and high-ranking politicians acted to the detriment of the king. Gradually, a well-organized opposition began to form at the court, which could count on the support of the royal son-in-law William, Duke of Orange. When it was announced that Maria Beatrice was pregnant, the situation escalated to the limit, and when the queen gave birth to a son, the opposition no longer intended to sit idly by. Seven of them (the so-called "Immortal Seven") turned to Wilhelm with an official request to launch a military invasion against England and seize power in the country. After a few weeks, it became clear that the duke was in fact ready for the occupation. However, this did not persuade Yakov to make concessions in relation to the increasingly strong opposition. The king, convinced that he was kept by providence (the evidence of which was supposedly the birth of a son and the fact that the first attempt to land William's troops on the English coast ended in failure due to bad weather), could not understand that his former supporters and even his own daughters were leaving him. In mid-December, the situation worsened so much that he had to flee London. During the escape, he was recognized and captured, but the detachment loyal to him managed to recapture him. The king returned to the capital, but soon, in the face of an approaching enemy, he had to flee again. This time his retreat was covered by the Dutch. On December 23, 1688, he managed (apparently with the tacit consent of his son-in-law) to lead his "defenders" and escape to the coast, from where he sailed to France.

Armor of King James II. Richard Holden, 1686, Royal Arsenal, UK, Leeds

In Paris, Jacob was already waiting for his wife, son, and several of his most faithful companions. The English refugees were accommodated in rather comfortable conditions in the castle of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where the former monarch had to spend the rest of his life. True, the hospitality of Louis XIV was not disinterested. For the French king, the defeat of William's army was highly desirable, so in March 1689, Jacob sailed to Ireland to lead the resistance forces there. The expedition ended in defeat. Jacob, defeated by the Orange forces at the Boyne, surrendered and returned to France.

JACOB II STUART WAS THE LAST ABSOLUTE RULE OF ENGLAND AND THE LAST CATHOLIC ON THE ENGLISH THRONE. HE CONVERTED TO CATHOLICITY IN 1668 OR 1669, BUT Kept IT SECRET FOR SOME YEARS.

The following years he devoted primarily to his family - in 1692, his youngest daughter, Louise Maria Teresa, was born - as well as writing religious treatises and memoirs. Their reading shows that he considered his failures in power and the ensuing exile to be retribution for misdeeds committed in his youth. He also never came to terms with the fact that his own daughters opposed him. When Louis XIV officially recognized William as King of England in 1697, James became so devout that his religious practices began to worry even his confessor, who feared for the health of the former king, which, in fact, was deteriorating inexorably. In August 1701, he was overtaken by an illness that turned out to be his last. Yakov died on September 5 after a two-week agony. His body was buried in the Parisian Benedictine church on Rue Saint-Jacques. The funeral at Westminster Abbey, to which he was entitled as the crowned monarch of England, never took place. During the French Revolution, the king's tomb was defiled, and his body was put on display for the amusement of onlookers for several months.

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As the second son of the King of England, James bore the title of Duke of York. The years of his childhood and youth fell on the era of the English Revolution. During the First Civil War, the prince was next to his father. After the defeat of the royalists (1646), Jacob was under the supervision of parliament, but later managed to organize his escape to Holland. The Duke of York, his sisters and Queen Henrietta Maria took refuge in France. Having matured, Jacob entered the military service of the King of France. He showed himself to be a brave warrior, under the command of Marshal Turenne he participated in the suppression of the Fronde, and later in the war with Spain. In 1655, the Mazarin government entered into an agreement with Cromwell and members of the English royal family were forced to leave France. The Duke of York entered the Spanish service: he commanded a regiment of English and Irish emigrants stationed in Flanders.

In 1660, the monarchy was restored in England and Charles II Stuart became king. The Duke of York returned to his homeland and headed the English Admiralty. Under his leadership, measures were taken to reorganize the maritime department. Updated british navy performed well during the Anglo-Dutch wars. The duke himself participated in naval battles during the wars with the Dutch. Commanding the fleet, in 1665 he defeated Admiral Ondam, in 1672 he fought with Admiral Michiel de Ruyter. Personal participation in hostilities earned Yakov popularity in England.

At the same time, the loyalty of the Duke of York to the Catholic religion repelled the British, mostly Protestants, from him. His devotion to Catholicism is explained both by his upbringing and by the circumstances of his life. Jacob was convinced that the horrors of the revolution punished England for betraying Catholicism, was grateful to the Catholic Church and the Catholic powers for the shelter they provided to the exiled Stuarts. While still in exile, Jacob secretly became engaged to the Catholic Anna Hyde (1638-1671), the daughter of the Earl of Clarendon, the closest adviser and later minister of Charles II. Anna was one of the court ladies of Mary Stuart, the wife of the ruler of Holland, William II of Orange. Returning to England, the Duke of York married her, although King Charles II objected to this marriage. Jacob Stewart and Anna Hyde had two daughters - Mary (1662-1694), who later became the wife of William III of Orange, and Anna (1665-1713), who married the Danish Prince George. In 1668, the Duke of York officially converted to Catholicism, but at the insistence of the king, both of his nieces - Anna and Mary - were brought up in the Anglican faith. In 1671, Anna Hyde died, but Jacob remarried a Catholic - the daughter of the Duke of Modena Mary (1658-1718).

A significant blow to the reputation of the Duke of York was the disclosure of a conspiracy in 1679, during the investigation of which the Whigs accused him of plotting the assassination of Charles II. The king was forced to order his brother to leave England, which began a campaign to deprive Jacob of the right to inherit the throne. The Duke of York was forced to spend several months in Brussels; then Charles II returned his younger brother from exile, but, not daring to let him live in London, appointed James as his governor in Scotland. In 1681, passions subsided a little, the disgraced duke returned to London and actually headed the government in last years reign of Charles II. It is with the influence of the Duke of York that the dissolution of Parliament in 1681 is associated, which refused to recognize Jacob as the heir to the throne. By the time of the death of his elder brother, all the levers of power were in the hands of the Duke of York and he freely ascended the throne under the name of James II Stuart.

In general, English society reacted negatively to the new king - a well-known champion of absolute monarchy and a devoted papist. However, the accession of James II to the throne was not opposed. The newly convened parliament, for the most part, consisted of Tories, who were ready to support the king in the fight against opposition-minded Whigs. With the support of parliament, James II made a decision to create a regular army, a number of decrees limited the freedom of the press, which was supposed to restrain the influence of the Whigs.

Just a few months after accession to the throne in Britain, armed uprisings began against the power of James II. The first to rise against the new king in May 1685 were the Scots, led by Earl Archibald of Argyll (1629-1685). The rebels hoped to raise all of southern (valley) and northern (mountain) Scotland against the Catholic king and the English authorities. However, there was no general uprising, the forces of the rebels were too weak and were quickly defeated. The conspirators, including Argyle, were captured and executed.

In June 1685, in the southwestern English counties of Devonshire, Somersetshire and Dorsetshire, an uprising broke out under the leadership of the Duke of Monmouth, the illegitimate son of Charles II. Even during the life of his father, the Whigs predicted Monmouth to the throne. In addition to the Whigs, local peasants and artisans came over to his side in large numbers. As the leader of the uprising, Monmouth showed indecision, missed the time for a campaign against London, and gave James II the opportunity to gather superior military forces. July 6, 1685 in a battle near the city of Bridgewater in Somersetshire, the rebels suffered a crushing defeat. Monmouth was taken prisoner and was soon executed.

The successful suppression of the rebellions added to the king's self-confidence. James II openly began to pursue an absolutist policy. A wave of terror overtook the former rebels, more than a hundred people were executed, eight hundred were sent to the West Indies on plantations. The backbone of the king's power was a permanent army of thirty thousand, the number of which was soon increased to 40 thousand people. Not only the British served in it, but also foreign mercenaries. In November 1685 Parliament was dissolved.

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In foreign policy, James II tried to pursue an independent policy and, unlike his older brother, did not look back at powerful France. As the father-in-law of the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange and regarding him as a future heir, he was wary of French conquest plans in the Netherlands. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes was used by James II for pragmatic purposes. Despite the displeasure of Louis XIV of Bourbon, he provided asylum in England to many wealthy French Huguenots who left France after 1685.

Being a zealous Catholic, the king sought to equalize the rights of his subjects - Protestants and Catholics. He obtained from the judges recognition of the right to suspend laws that prohibited Catholics from holding official positions. As a result, Catholics began to take up military and judicial positions. The king spared no effort and money for Catholic preaching in the country: Catholic priests returned to England, Jesuit schools appeared in London. James II did not aspire to the immediate and complete conversion of the country to Catholicism, his relations with Pope Innocent XI were cool, but the spread of Catholicism was perceived by his subjects with suspicion.

The "Declaration of Toleration" of April 2, 1687, repealed the repressive laws that had previously been issued in England against all dissenters, including Catholics. In English society, the act was perceived as another step towards the restoration of the dominance of the Roman Catholic Church, towards the transformation of Catholicism into the state religion. The declaration, repeated in 1688, caused a wave of protest on the part of the Tory nobles, who for the most part belonged to the Anglican Church. The bishops of the Anglican Church turned to the king with a petition, where their disagreement with the religious policy of the monarch was expressed. In response, James II ordered the arrest of seven bishops and accused them of distributing anti-royal pamphlets. This case rallied against the king and the Tories and the opposition Whigs. The protest swept not only London, but also the counties.

The restoration of Catholicism was opposed by broad sections of English society, primarily the priests of the Anglican Church and the Puritan bourgeoisie, who had been fighting the Roman Curia for decades. Even the conservative landlords feared that they would have to return the secularized lands of the Catholic monasteries. Catholicism for the English was a foreign religion - the religion of the French and Spaniards, with whom England had been at enmity for centuries. Thus, on anti-Catholic grounds, an alliance was formed against the king, which united representatives of the most diverse political and religious movements. Everyone wanted to get rid of the papist king as soon as possible.

On June 10, 1688, Queen Mary of Modena gave birth to James II of the heir - Prince James (Jacob). This event seriously changed the political balance of power. If earlier the eldest daughter of James II, the Protestant Mary and her Protestant husband William of Orange, were considered the heir to the throne, then with the advent of an heir, whose upbringing would be done by Catholics, the prospect of England returning to Catholicism began to seem quite real. In the summer of 1688, almost the entire nobility took up arms against the king, with the exception of a small stratum of Catholics. James II tried to reach a compromise with the opposition by announcing free parliamentary elections and reconcile with the Anglican bishops, but his efforts were belated.

On June 30, 1688, the leaders of the Whig and Tory parties turned to the son-in-law of James II, Prince William III of Orange, the stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, and an invitation to come to England with an army and, together with his wife Mary, the daughter of James II, take the royal throne, guaranteeing the subjects the preservation of religion and the rights of parliament. This plan for a coup d'état assumed the change of the monarch with the maximum observance of legitimate forms, by means of a "family rearrangement" of the reigning persons. Having recruited a twelve thousandth mercenary army, in early November 1688, Prince William landed in Torbay, one of the harbors in the southwest of England. November 8, he entered the city of Exeter and from there headed for London.

The officers and soldiers of the royal army went over to the side of William, as did the courtiers. Princess Anne supported the claims of her sister Mary and her husband. In the north, in Cheshire and Nottinghamshire, uprisings began against the rule of James II. All the major cities of England gave their support to the invasion. In December 1688, James II was forced to flee to France, where his wife and son were sent in advance. Louis XIV granted the Saint-Germain Palace to the exile and allocated a generous allowance. Mary III Stuart and William III of Orange became the new kings of England and Scotland.

Deposed from the throne, Jacob did not give up hope of regaining power. France, which waged war with England for the Palatinate Succession, supported the deposed king. In 1689, James II sailed to Ireland and raised the country's Catholic population against William III, but in 1690 his troops were defeated. In 1691, an attempt by France to support James II with a landing ended in the defeat of the French fleet. Subsequently, the former English king tried to organize a pan-European alliance against William III, but Louis XIV, who concluded the Peace of Ryswick with England in 1697, refused to support the claims of James II.

In the last years of his life, James II completely turned to religion, spending most of his time in Parisian monasteries. He was distinguished by a stern and domineering character. During military campaigns, he showed personal courage. Unlike his older brother Charles II, who was ready to make compromises in order to maintain power, James II remained true to his principles, beliefs, word and friends under any circumstances. After his death, he was buried in the parish church of Saint-Germain. During the French Revolution, the burial of James II was destroyed.