James II: A Study in Kingship

It is not easy to like James II. He was utterly humourless and so obsessed with his rightness that he showed virtually no interest in the views of others. Yet in many ways he was a man more sinned against than sinning. If he failed to understand his subjects, they were full of misconceptions about him. Most of his contemporaries claimed that he wanted to destroy the English church and constitution and to impose Catholicism and absolutism. Although historians have had much more evidence than James's contemporaries on which to base their judgements, most have used that evidence selectively, to support the traditional interpretation, rather than critically, to build up a more balanced and objective picture. This study attempts to treat James sympathetically, but without sentiment. It was his misfortune that he was often not believed when he was sincere. his Protestant subjects assumed that, as a Catholic, he would seek to establish Catholicism and absolutism by force, join with Louis XIV against the Protestant states of Europe and cut his Protestant daughter and son-in-law out of the succession. Thus few believed his frequent expressions of aversion to religious persecution. Few believed his assurances that he would use only those powers which the judges said were legally his. Few believed him when he said that he had no alliance with France and wished to preserve the peace of Europe. Few believed his protestations that he would never alter the succession, and when his queen had a son, few believed that the child was genuine. Based on a wider range of sources than previous biographies, including archival material from France, Italy and Ireland, this book is a vital reassessment of James's reign.