Reign of King James II

Historical Context Essay

Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

Resources

The second surviving son of King Charles I and Henrietta Maria, James Stuart was born at St James's Palace in 1633, and when his elder brother, King Charles II , died in 1685 he succeeded to the English throne as James II, and to the Scottish as James VIII. James was a convert to Roman Catholicism, which alienated the Anglican majority during his reign, as well as a proponent of the monarch's Divine Right (

jure divino

) at a time when the city merchants and landed oligarchs in Parliament were becoming ascendant. Consequently, James was forcibly removed from royal office by the Glorious Revolution in 1688, whereby Parliament invited William of Orange and James's daughter Mary onto the throne as guarantors that the English crown would remain Protestant. James thereafter kept an exiled court…

1831 words

Citation: Seager, Nicholas. "Reign of King James II". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 February 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=643, accessed 19 March 2024.]

643 Reign of King James II 2 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.