James was a man of business and method, as well as a man of action. He had commanded a fleet with credit in the Dutch war; he had presided with success at the Admiralty till he was compelled to resign that office by the Test Act. He had ruled Scotland for a time with a very firm, if a rigid, hand. But no amount of mere administrative ability could make up for his entire want of judgment, foresight, and geniality.
The Tory party.
Yet on his accession, the new king had everything in his favour. The Tory party was still in the ascendency which it had enjoyed ever since the Whigs had been discredited by the Rye-House Plot. It was resolved to trust and support James as long as he behaved in a constitutional manner, and had a strong confidence in his honesty. Accordingly, the king's first Parliament granted him the liberal income of £1,900,000 a year, and protested its complete reliance on his wisdom and good intentions. Nor was any objection made when James sought out and punished the informers who had fabricated the Popish Plot, though their chastisement was very barbarous. Oates, their chief, received 1700 lashes twice within forty-eight hours, yet survived, in spite of a sentence which had obviously been intended to kill him.
Rebellion of Monmouth and Argyle.
The first real shock to the confidence of the nation in the king was caused by the cruelty with which he put down an insurrection which broke out against him in the summer that followed his accession. The late king's bastard son, James, Duke of Monmouth, the tool of Shaftesbury in 1680, was living in exile in Holland, along with many violent Whigs, who were charged, truly or falsely, with participation in the Rye-House Plot. Monmouth, a vain and presumptuous young man, could not read the signs of the times, and thought that all England would rise to overturn a Romanist king, if only a Protestant leader presented himself to lead the people. Without securing any tangible promises of support from the chiefs of the Whig party in England, he resolved to attempt an invasion. He was to be aided by Archibald, Earl of Argyle, the exiled chief of the Scottish Covenanters, who undertook to stir up a rising among his clansmen in the Highlands.
Argyle taken and executed.
Argyle landed in Scotland in May, 1685; Monmouth came ashore at Lyme, in Dorsetshire, in June. Each had brought a very small force with him, and relied wholly on the support he hoped to find at home. Argyle raised the Campbells, but found none else to join him; after a few days his men dispersed, and he was taken and beheaded.
Battle of Sedgemoor.—Monmouth executed.
Monmouth was at first more fortunate. He was well known and popular in Dorset and Somerset, and some thousands of countrymen came flocking to his banner, though none of the gentry would adhere to such a reckless adventurer. The duke appealed to all Protestants to aid him against a Papist king, declared that his mother had been the lawful wife of Charles II., and claimed the crown of England. But his proclamation did him no good, and his army of ploughmen and miners was but a half-armed rabble. Nevertheless, they fought bravely enough against James's regulars at Sedgemoor (July 5, 1685), and only dispersed when their leader fled in craven fear from the field. Monmouth was caught in disguise, and taken to London. He grovelled at the feet of James, and offered to submit to any indignity if his life might be spared. But the pitiless king, after chiding him for half an hour, sent him to the scaffold.
Kirke and Jeffreys.—"The Bloody Assize."