James II of England

**James II and VII** (14 October 1633 – 16 September 1701) was king of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1685 to 1688. He was King James II in England and Ireland, and King James VII in Scotland. He was also Duke of Normandy from 31 December 1660. He lost his kingdoms in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He did not succeed in taking them back in a war, and he spent the rest of his life in France.

He was the last Roman Catholic king in the British Isles. Some of his people did not like his religious ideas, leading a group of them to disobey and fight against him. This was called the Glorious Revolution in England and Scotland. King James and his son, James Francis Edward went into exile. The king was replaced by his Protestant daughter, Queen Mary II, and her husband King William III and II. They became rulers in 1689.

The belief that James, not William III or Mary II, was the one true ruler became known as Jacobitism (from Jacobus or Iacobus, Latin for James). James made one serious attempt to recover his throne when he landed in Ireland in 1689. After his defeat at the Battle of the Boyne in the summer of 1690, he returned to France, living the rest of his life under the protection of King Louis XIV. His son James Francis Edward Stuart (The Old Pretender) and his grandson Charles Edward Stuart (The Young Pretender and Bonnie Prince Charlie) attempted to restore the Jacobite line after James's death, but failed.

## Issue

|Name|Birth|Death|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|colspan=4|***By Anne Hyde***|||
|Charles, Duke of Cambridge|22 October 1660|5 May 1661||
|Mary II|30 April 1662|28 December 1694|married 1677, William III, Prince of Orange; no issue|
|James, Duke of Cambridge|11 or 12 July 1663|20 June 1667||
|Anne|6 February 1665|1 August 1714|married 1683, Prince George of Denmark; no surviving issue|
|Charles, Duke of Kendal|4 July 1666|22 May 1667||
|Edgar, Duke of Cambridge|14 September 1667|8 June 1671||
|Henrietta|13 January 1669|15 November 1669||
|Catherine|9 February 1671|5 December 1671||
|colspan=4|***By Mary of Modena***|||
|Unnamed child|March or May 1674|miscarriage||
|Catherine Laura|10 January 1675|3 October 1675|died of convulsions.|
|Unnamed child|October 1675|stillborn||
|Isabel (or Isabella)|28 August 1676|2 or 4 March 1681|buried in Westminster Abbey on 4 March (Old Style) as "The Lady Isabella, daughter to the Duke of York"|
|Charles, Duke of Cambridge|7 November 1677|12 December 1677|died of smallpox|
|Elizabeth|c. 1678|||
|Unnamed child|February 1681|stillborn||
|Charlotte Maria|16 August 1682|16 October 1682|died of convulsions and buried in Westminster Abbey on 8 October (Old Style) as "The Lady Charlott-Marie, daughter to the Duke of York"|
|Unnamed child|October 1683|stillborn||
|Unnamed child|May 1684|miscarriage||
|James, Prince of Wales "the Old Pretender"|10 June 1688|1 January 1766|married 1719, Clementina Sobieska; had issue|
|Louisa Maria Teresa|28 June 1692|18 April 1712||
|colspan=4|***By Arabella Churchill ***|||
|Henrietta FitzJames|1667|3 April 1730|Married first Henry Waldegrave; had issue. Married secondly Piers Butler, 3rd Viscount Galmoye; no issue.|
|James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick|21 August 1670|12 June 1734|Married firstly Honora Bourke and had issue. Married secondly Ana Bulkely and had issue.|
|Henry FitzJames, 1st Duke of Albemarle|August 1673|December 1702|Married Marie Gabrielle d'Audibert de Lussan; had issue.|
|Arabella FitzJames|1674|7 November 1704|Became a nun under the name Ignatia.|
|colspan=4|***By Catherine Sedley***|||
|Catherine Darnley|c. 1681|13 March 1743|Alleged daughter. Married firstly, James Annesley, 3rd Earl of Anglesey and had issue. Married secondly, John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby and had issue.|
|James Darnley|1684|22 April 1685||
|Charles Darnley|||Died young.|

## Infobox (royalty)

- **name**: James II & VII
- **image**: James II by Peter Lely.jpg
- **caption**: Portrait by Peter Lely
- **succession**: King of England, List of Scottish monarchs, Scotland, and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland
- **moretext**: (Style of the British sovereign#Styles of English and Scottish sovereigns, more...)
- **reign**: 6 February 1685 –
- **coronation**: 23 April 1685
- **predecessor**: Charles II of England, Charles II
- **successor**: William III & II and Mary II
- **suc-type**: Successors
- **birth date**: 14 October 1633
(Old Style and New Style dates, N.S.: 24 October 1633)
- **birth place**: St James's Palace, London, England
- **death date**: 16 September 1701 (aged 67) (Old Style and New Style dates, N.S.)
- **death place**: Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Kingdom of France, France
- **issue-link**: #Issue
- **issue-pipe**: more...
- **house**: House of Stuart, Stuart
- **father**: Charles I of England
- **mother**: Henrietta Maria of France
- **burial place**: Church of the English Benedictines, Paris, France
- **signature**: JamesIISig.svg