James II of England Timeline

After the collapse of the Commonwealth in 1660, the Stuart Restoration returned Charles II to the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland. James returned home from exile as heir presumptive to the throne.

Image source: Stuart Restoration

Although nearly everyone, including Anne Hyde's father, urged the couple not to marry, James and Anne married secretly, then went through an official marriage ceremony on 3 September 1660 in London, scandalising the court.

Image source: Anne Hyde

On 31 December 1660, following his brother's restoration, James was created Duke of Albany in Scotland, complementing his English title of Duke of York. On the same date, he was also created Duke of Normandy by King Louis XIV of France.

Image source: Duke of Albany

Only two of James and Anne Hyde's children survived: Mary, born 30 April 1662, and Anne, born 6 February 1665. Both would later reign as queens of England and Scotland, Mary jointly with her husband William III.

Image source: Mary II of England

James took Catholic Eucharist in 1668 or 1669, although his conversion was kept secret for almost a decade as he continued to attend Anglican services until 1676. This conversion caused growing concern about Catholic influence.

Anne Hyde, James's first wife and mother of Mary and Anne, died in 1671. Her death paved the way for James's second marriage to a Catholic princess two years later.

Growing fears of Roman Catholic influence at court led the English Parliament to introduce a new Test Act in 1673, requiring office-holders to take oaths against Catholicism and forcing James to resign key positions.

Image source: Test Acts 1673 & 1678

James and Mary of Modena were married by proxy in a Roman Catholic ceremony on 20 September 1673, reinforcing concerns about his Catholicism and deepening opposition among Protestant elites.

Image source: Mary of Modena

In 1677, King Charles II arranged for James's daughter Mary to marry the Protestant Prince William III of Orange, son of Charles's and James's sister Mary, a match that would prove fateful in 1688.

Image source: William III of England

His conversion to Catholicism caused growing concern, particularly during the Exclusion Crisis of 1679–81, when Whigs attempted to exclude him from the succession. In 1679, with the Exclusion Bill in danger of passing, Charles II dissolved Parliament; two further Parliaments elected in 1680 and 1681 were dissolved for the same reason.

Image source: Exclusion Crisis

In 1680, James was appointed Lord High Commissioner of Scotland and took up residence at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh to suppress an uprising and oversee the royal government there.

Image source: Holyrood Palace

In 1683, a plot was uncovered to assassinate Charles II and his brother and spark a republican revolution to re-establish a government of the Cromwellian style, boosting royalist sympathy for the Stuarts.

Image source: Rye House Plot

Taking advantage of James's rebounding popularity following the exposure of the Rye House Plot, Charles invited him back onto the Privy Council in 1684, restoring him closer to the centre of power.

James sent a letter to the Scottish Parliament at its opening in 1685 declaring his wish for new penal laws against refractory Presbyterians, lamenting that he was not present in person to promote such a law.

Image source: Church of Scotland

Charles II died on 6 February 1685 from apoplexy, after supposedly converting to Catholicism on his deathbed. James succeeded peacefully as King of England and Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII.

Image source: Charles II of England

Wishing to proceed quickly to the coronation, James and Mary were crowned at Westminster Abbey on 23 April 1685, cementing his accession despite lingering anxieties about his Catholic faith.

Image source: Coronation of James II and VII and Mary

The new Parliament that assembled in May 1685 gained the name of 'Loyal Parliament' and was initially favourable to James, who had stated that most former exclusionists would be forgiven if they acquiesced to his rule.

Image source: Loyal Parliament

Rebellions against James were quickly crushed: Argyll was captured at Inchinnan on 18 June 1685, and the Monmouth Rebellion was defeated shortly afterwards, leaving James seemingly secure on his throne.

Image source: Monmouth Rebellion

When even the previously supportive Parliament objected to James's measures, he ordered Parliament prorogued in November 1685, never to meet again in his reign — a decisive step towards absolutist rule.

At the beginning of 1686, two papers were found in Charles II's strong box and closet, in his own hand, stating arguments for Catholicism over Protestantism, which encouraged James in his religious policy.

In March 1686, James sent a letter to the Scottish Privy Council advocating toleration for Roman Catholics but not for rebellious Presbyterian Covenanters, revealing the selective nature of his tolerance policy.

Image source: Privy Council of Scotland

In May 1686, James sought to obtain a ruling from the English common-law courts that showed he had the power to dispense with Acts of Parliament, challenging constitutional constraints on royal authority.

In the summer of 1687, James attempted to increase support for his tolerationist policy through a speaking tour of the western counties of England, directly appealing to local elites and communities.

In 1687, James prepared to pack Parliament with his supporters so that it would repeal the Test Act and the Penal Laws, engineering the composition of Parliament to achieve his religious goals.

In 1687, James issued the Declaration of Indulgence, using his dispensing power to negate laws punishing both Roman Catholics and Protestant Dissenters, seeking broad support for religious toleration.

Image source: Declaration of Indulgence (1687)

In 1688, James ordered the Declaration read from the pulpits of every Anglican church, further alienating the Anglican bishops against their Supreme Governor and provoking clerical resistance.

During the first three months of 1688, hundreds of officials who gave negative replies when asked whether they would accept the Declaration of Indulgence were dismissed from their posts.

In April 1688, James re-issued the Declaration of Indulgence and subsequently ordered Anglican clergy to read it in their churches, intensifying confrontation with the Church of England.

On 30 June 1688, a group of seven Protestant nobles invited William, Prince of Orange, to come to England with an army, setting in motion the Glorious Revolution that would depose James.

Image source: Invitation to William

Finally, on 24 August 1688, James ordered the issue of writs for a general election, hoping a new Parliament would be more amenable to his policies as dissent turned into crisis.

Image source: 1689 English general election

When William landed in Brixham on 5 November 1688, many Protestant officers, including Churchill, defected to William, as did James's own daughter Anne, and James's army deserted him.

Image source: Glorious Revolution

After his army deserted, James went into exile in France on 23 December 1688, effectively ending his reign and opening the way for William and Mary to take the throne.

In February 1689, a special Convention Parliament held James had 'vacated' the English throne and installed William and Mary as joint monarchs, establishing that sovereignty derived from Parliament, not birth. It convened on 22 January 1689, and the Declaration was the basis for the later Bill of Rights enacted in 1689.

With the assistance of French troops, James landed in Ireland on 14 March 1689 in an attempt to recover his kingdoms, supported by a simultaneous rising in Scotland. He worked to build an army in Ireland.

Image source: Williamite War in Ireland

On 11 April 1689, the Parliament of Scotland declared James to have forfeited the throne of Scotland as well, following England's lead, and offered it to William and Mary.

Image source: Convention of Estates (1689)

James was ultimately defeated at the Battle of the Boyne on 1 July 1690 O.S. After this defeat he returned to France, where he spent the rest of his life in exile at Saint-Germain, protected by Louis XIV.

In 1692, James's last child, Louisa Maria Teresa, was born at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, giving hope to Jacobites who looked to his descendants for a restoration of the Stuart line.

Image source: Louisa Maria Stuart

Some supporters in England attempted to assassinate William III to restore James to the throne in 1696, but the plot failed and the backlash made James's cause less popular than ever.

Image source: 1696 Jacobite assassination plot

After Louis concluded peace with William in 1697, he ceased to offer much assistance to James, leaving the exiled king increasingly isolated at Saint-Germain.

Image source: Peace of Ryswick

James died on 16 September 1701 of a brain haemorrhage at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, aged 67. He was the last Catholic monarch of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

The Italian composer Angelo Olivieri was commissioned to write a Requiem mass in honour of James in 1702, reflecting continuing devotion among his followers after his death.

Image source: Andrew Olivieri

James's younger daughter Anne succeeded when William died in 1702, continuing the Protestant succession established by the Glorious Revolution and sidelining the Jacobite claim.

Image source: Anne, Queen of Great Britain

When Anne died in 1714, less than two months after the death of Sophia, she was succeeded by George I, Sophia's son, the Elector of Hanover and Anne's second cousin, firmly excluding the Stuarts.

Image source: George I of Great Britain

James Francis Edward Stuart led a rising in Scotland shortly after George I's accession in 1715, attempting to restore the Stuart line, but the rebellion was defeated.

Image source: Jacobite rising of 1715

In 1734, the Archbishop of Paris heard evidence to support James's canonisation, titling him a Servant of God, but nothing came of the cause for beatification.

Image source: Beatification

James's son Charles Edward Stuart led a final major Jacobite rising in 1745, but it was again defeated, ending serious hopes of a Stuart restoration.

Image source: Jacobite rising of 1745