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biography
| name: |
James II (of England)
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| lived:
| (1633–1701)
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| biography:
| King of England and Ireland (1685–8), also king of Scotland, as James VII, born in London, UK, the second son of Charles I. Nine months before his father's execution, he escaped to Holland. At the Restoration (1660) he was made Lord High Admiral of England, and commanded the fleet in the Dutch Wars; but after becoming a convert to Catholicism he was forced to resign his post. The national ferment occasioned by the Popish Plot (1678) became so formidable that he had to retire to the European mainland, and several unsuccessful attempts were made to exclude him from the succession. During his reign his actions in favour of Catholicism raised general indignation, and William, Prince of Orange, his son-in-law and nephew, was formally asked by leading clerics and landowners to invade (1688). Deserted by ministers and troops, James escaped to France, where he was warmly received by Louis XIV. He made an ineffectual attempt to regain his throne in Ireland, which ended in the Battle of the Boyne (1690), and remained at St Germain until his death. |
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