25 Most Evil People of the 16th Century CE

Key Facts

Other names
Born	1633
Location	St James Palace, London
Bloodline	House of Stuart
Married	Anne Hyde, Mary of Modena
Children
Position	King of England, Scotland, Ireland (1685-1688)
Died	Sept 1701 (Aged 68)

Source of Facts and Important Announcement

Status	Under Article 64.6 of the Covenant of One-Heaven (Pactum De Singularis Caelum) by Special Qualification shall be known as a Saint, with all sins and evil acts they performed forgiven.
Date of formal Beatification	Day of Redemption UCA[E1:Y1:A1:S1:M9:D1] also known as Fri, 21 Dec 2012.
Source of Facts	Self Confession and Revelation of Sainthood by the Deceased Spirit as condition of their confirmation as a true Saint.

Background

James was born the second son of Charles I and Henrietta Maria of France. At age of 3, he was appointed the honorary title Lord High Admiral.

In 1642, at the age of 9, James was invested into the Order of the Garter and two years later in 1644 was named Duke of York. As the dispute between Parliament decayed into the English Civil War, James remained at Oxford-- a Royalist stronghold. When the city surrendered in 1646, James was taken back to London and placed under house arrest at St, James's Palace. In 1648, he escaped to the Hague.

When his father (Charles I) was executed by Oliver Cromwell in 1649, his older brother Charles II was proclaimed the new King. Charles was recognized by both Scotland and Ireland and was crowned King of the Scots at Scone in 1651 but was forced to flee to France.

James also remained in refuge in France and served under French military leader Turenne. However, when his brother Charles entered into an agreement with Spain in 1656, James was expelled from France. He then joined the Spanish army--against his former French comrades at the Battle of Dunes.

After Oliver Cromwell's death in 1658 and the subsequent collapse of the Commonwealth in 1660, Charles II was restored to the English throne. Upon his brother's restoration, James was created Duke of Albany in Scotland, to go along with his English title, Duke of York.

Upon his return to England, James produced an immediate controversy by announcing his engagement to Anne Hyde, the daughter of Charles' chief minister, Edward Hyde. Only two daughters survived: Mary (born 30 April 1662) and Anne (born 6 February 1665). Anne herself died in 1671.

After the Restoration, James was confirmed as Lord High Admiral, an office that carried with it the subsidiary appointments of Governor of Portsmouth and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. James commanded the Royal Navy during the Second (1665–67) and Third Anglo-Dutch Wars (1672–74). Following the raid on the Medway in 1667, James oversaw the survey and re-fortification of the southern coast.

Following its capture by the English in 1664, the Dutch territory of New Netherland was named the Province of New York in James's honour. After the founding, the duke gave the colony to proprieters, George Carteret and John Lord Berkeley. Fort Orange, 240 kilometres (150 miles) north on the Hudson River, was renamed Albany after James's Scottish title.

In 1683, he became the governor of the Hudson's Bay Company. James also founded the Royal African Company, arguably one of the largest and most profitable slave trading companies in history.

In 1683, a plot was uncovered to assassinate Charles and James and spark a republican revolution to re-establish a government of the Cromwellian style. This conspiracy, known as the Rye House Plot, backfired upon its conspirators and provoked a wave of sympathy for the King and James. Several notable Whigs, including the Earl of Essex and the King's illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth, were implicated.

Charles died in 1685 after converting to Catholicism on his deathbed. Having no legitimate children, Charles was succeeded by his brother James, who reigned in England and Ireland as James II, and in Scotland as James VII.

Soon after becoming king, James faced a rebellion in southern England led by his nephew, the Duke of Monmouth, and another rebellion in Scotland led by Archibald Campbell, the Earl of Argyll. rebellion was quickly crushed, and Argyll himself was captured at Inchinnan on 18 June 1685. Monomeath himself was captured and executed at the Tower of London on 15 July 1685.

To protect himself from further rebellions, James sought safety in an enlarged standing army.

Religious tension grew from 1686. James allowed Roman Catholics to occupy the highest offices of the Kingdoms, and received at his court the papal nuncio, Ferdinando d'Adda, the first official court representative from Rome to London since the reign of Mary I. James also appointed Jesuit Edward Petre S.J. as his confessor.

In 1687, James issued the Declaration of Indulgence, also known as the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience, in which he used his suspending power to negate the effect of laws punishing Catholics and Protestant dissenters.

On 30 June 1688, a group of Protestant nobles, later known as the Immortal Seven, invited the Prince of Orange to come to England with an army. When William arrived on 5 November 1688, many Protestant officers, including Churchill, defected and joined William, as did James's own daughter, Princess Anne. On 11 December, James escaped to France into the Court of King Louis XIV who provided him a palace and pension.

The reconvened English Parliament then crowned William of Orange as the new King, in spite of James having not abdicating-- a convoluted tale was created to claim that James "accidentally" dropped the Great Seal of the Realm into the River Thames, thereby losing his right to be King--a ridiculous fancy.

With the assistance of French troops, James landed in Ireland in March 1689. At James's urging, the Irish Parliament passed an Act for Liberty of Conscience that granted religious freedom to all Catholics and Protestants in Ireland. However, James was defeated at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. James escaped once more to France.

James died in exile in 1701. His daughter Anne succeeded him when William III died in 1702.


Home
People