1684. Titus Oates convicted of having libelled the duke of York, fined £100,000, and imprisoned in default of payment.
James II.
D. He was the brother of Charles II. B. at St. James’s, 1633. M. (1) Anne Hyde, daughter of Lord Clarendon; (2) Mary d’Este, sister of the duke of Modena. His reign ended Dec. 11, 1688. Dd. at St. Germains, Sept. 6, 1701. R. 3¾ years (1685 to 1688).
1685. Catholic worship publicly celebrated in the palace. Meeting of parliament; the majority of the members very favourable to the king. Rebellions of Argyle and Monmouth: the earl of Argyle landed in Scotland, and attempted to raise a rebellion, but was taken and executed; and the duke of Monmouth landed in Dorsetshire, raised a rebellion, and assumed the title of king, but was defeated at Sedgemoor, in Somersetshire (July 6), and afterwards executed. Jeffreys’ bloody campaign, during which he condemned a large number of persons for their share in the rebellion. Persecution of Dissenters. Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in France. The parliament was prorogued because it disapproved of the king’s violation of the Test Act, and of his maintaining a standing army.
1686. The judges servilely decided that the king could dispense with penal laws in particular cases—a decision which enabled him to confer offices in church and state on Catholics, contrary to the Act of Uniformity and the Test Act. Establishment of a court similar to the High Commission Court.
1687. Rochester, the king’s brother-in-law, deprived of the lord-treasurership because he would not become a Catholic. Declaration of Indulgence published, allowing Catholics and Protestant Dissenters to perform their religious services openly. The universities resisted the king’s attempts to infringe their rights.
1688. He re-issued the Declaration of Indulgence, and ordered the clergy to read it in the churches. Seven of the bishops presented a petition to him, praying that he would not insist on their distributing and reading the Declaration, and were on that account prosecuted for libel, but acquitted, to the great joy of the nation. Birth of the Old Pretender. William, prince of Orange, being invited to invade England, landed at Torbay; and James, distrusting his army, tried to escape from the country, but failed. Close of his reign (Dec. 11). THE REVOLUTION.
1688. William arrived in London, and James escaped to France. The peers, and a second chamber, consisting of members who had sat in Charles II.’s parliaments, together with the aldermen of London, and a deputation from the Common Council, requested William to call a Convention, and to take on himself the executive administration in the interim.
1689. The Convention declared the throne vacant, and offered the crown to William and Mary, the former of whom was to exercise the executive power; they also drew up a Declaration of Rights, which was subsequently embodied in the Bill of Rights. William and Mary accepted the crown (Feb. 13). THE REVOLUTION COMPLETED.