James II, king of Aragón and count of Barcelona

James II, c.1260–1327, king of Aragón and count of Barcelona (1291–1327), king of Sicily (1285–95). He succeeded his father, Peter III, in Sicily and his brother, Alfonso III, in Aragón. James defended Sicily against the claims of Charles II Charles II (Charles the Lame), 1248–1309, king of Naples (1285–1309), count of Anjou and Provence, son and successor of Charles I . In the war of the Sicilian Vespers between Charles I and Peter III of Aragón for possession of Sicily, Charles was
..... Click the link for more information. of Naples until 1295, when he relinquished the island in exchange for the title to Sardinia and Corsica. (Sardinia was annexed in 1323–24, but he did not take Corsica.) James later supported Charles against the former's own brother, who had been proclaimed king of Sicily as Frederick II Frederick II, 1272–1337, king of Sicily (1296–1337), 3d son of Peter III of Aragón. When his brother, who was king of Sicily, became (1291) king of Aragón as James II , Frederick was his regent in Sicily.
..... Click the link for more information. . James was succeeded in Aragón by his son Alfonso IV.

James II, king of England, Scotland, and Ireland

James II, 1633–1701, king of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1685–88); second son of Charles I, brother and successor of Charles II Charles II, 1630–85, king of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1660–85), eldest surviving son of Charles I and Henrietta Maria.

Early Life

..... Click the link for more information. .

Early Life

As the young duke of York James was surrendered (1646) to the parliamentary forces at the end of the first civil war, but he escaped (1648) to the Continent and served in the French (1652–55) and Spanish (1658) armies. At the Restoration (1660) he returned to England, married Anne Hyde, daughter of the 1st earl of Clarendon, and was made lord high admiral, in which capacity he served (1665, 1672) in the Dutch Wars Dutch Wars, series of conflicts between the English and Dutch during the mid to late 17th cent. The wars had their roots in the Anglo-Dutch commercial rivalry, although the last of the three wars was a wider conflict in which French interests played a primary role.
..... Click the link for more information. . Charles II granted him sweeping proprietary rights in America, and the captured Dutch settlement New Amsterdam was renamed (1664) New York in his honor.

Effect of James's Catholicism

James was converted to Roman Catholicism probably in 1668—a step that was to have grave consequences. After his resignation (1673) as admiral because of the Test Act Test Act, 1673, English statute that excluded from public office (both military and civil) all those who refused to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, who refused to receive the communion according to the rites of the Church of England, or who refused to
..... Click the link for more information. and his marriage (1673) to the staunchly Catholic Mary of Modena Mary of Modena (mŏd`ĭnə), 1658–1718, queen consort of James II of England; daughter of Alfonso IV, duke of Modena.
..... Click the link for more information. (his first wife having died in 1671), he became increasingly unpopular in England. James consented to the marriage (1677) of his daughter Mary (later Mary II Mary II, 1662–94, queen of England, wife of William III . The daughter of James II by his first wife, Anne Hyde, she was brought up a Protestant despite her father's adoption of Roman Catholicism.
..... Click the link for more information. ) to the Protestant prince of Orange (later William III 3)), William was able to drive the French out of the Netherlands. He made peace with England in 1674 and finally with France in 1678. Thereafter he endeavored to build up a European coalition to prevent further French aggression.
..... Click the link for more information. ), and the couple became the heirs presumptive, after James, to the English throne. In the anti-Catholic hysteria that accompanied the false accusations of Titus Oates Oates, Titus, 1649–1705, English conspirator. An Anglican priest whose whole career was marked with intrigue and scandal, he joined forces with one Israel Tonge to invent the story of the Popish Plot of 1678.
..... Click the link for more information. about the Popish Plot (1678), efforts were made by the so-called Whigs Whig, English political party. The name, originally a term of abuse first used for Scottish Presbyterians in the 17th cent., seems to have been a shortened form of whiggamor [cattle driver]. It was applied (c.
..... Click the link for more information. to exclude James from the succession. Charles stood by his brother, preventing passage of the Exclusion Bill, but sent him out of the country. After a period as commissioner (1680–82) in Scotland, James returned to England, and particularly after the Rye House Plot Rye House Plot, 1683, conspiracy to assassinate Charles II of England and his brother James, duke of York (later James II), as they passed by Rumbold's Rye House in Hertfordshire on the road from Newmarket to London.
..... Click the link for more information. (1683) his fortunes rose.

Reign

When Charles died in 1685, James succeeded peacefully to the throne. An uprising led by the duke of Monmouth Monmouth, James Scott, duke of (mŏn`məth)
..... Click the link for more information. was crushed (1685), but the severe reprisals of the Bloody Assizes under Baron Jeffreys of Wem Jeffreys of Wem, George Jeffreys, 1st Baron, 1645?–1689, English judge under Charles II and James II .
..... Click the link for more information. added to the animosity toward James. The king favored autocratic methods, proroguing the hostile Parliament (1685), reviving the old ecclesiastical court of high commission, and interfering with the courts and with local town and county government. His principal object was to fill positions of authority and influence with Roman Catholics, and to this end he issued two declarations of indulgence (1687, 1688), suspending the laws against Catholics and dissenters.

Defiance and dislike of him grew, fed by the trial (1688) of seven bishops who had refused to read his second declaration. The birth of a son, who would have succeeded instead of the Protestant William and Mary, helped to bring the opposition to a head. William of Orange was invited to England by Whig and Tory Tory (tô`rē), English political party.
..... Click the link for more information. leaders. The unpopular, autocratic, and Catholic king had few loyal followers and was unable to defend himself. He fled, was captured, and was allowed to escape to France, and William and Mary took the throne. The so-called Glorious Revolution Glorious Revolution, in English history, the events of 1688–89 that resulted in the deposition of James II and the accession of William III and Mary II to the English throne. It is also called the Bloodless Revolution.
..... Click the link for more information. had succeeded.

Attempts at Restoration

James made an effort to restore himself by landing in Ireland in 1689 and leading his many Catholic followers there, but the effort failed at the battle of the Boyne Boyne, river, c.70 mi (110 km) long, rising in the Bog of Allen, Co. Kildare, E Republic of Ireland, and flowing NE through Co. Meath, past Trim, to the Irish Sea near Drogheda. Salmon is caught in the river.
..... Click the link for more information. (1690). Other projects for restoration failed, and James's supporter, Louis XIV, recognized William III in the Treaty of Ryswick (1697). The cause of James's son and grandson was upheld later by the Jacobites Jacobites (jăk`əbīts')
..... Click the link for more information. long after James had died in inglorious exile.

Bibliography

See his early memoirs (tr. 1962); biographies by H. Belloc (1928, repr. 1971), F. G. Turner (1948), and V. Buranelli (1962); D. Ogg, England in the Reigns of James II and William III (1955, repr. 1969); J. P. Kenyon, The Stuarts (1958, repr. 1966); J. Childs, The Army, James II and the Glorious Revolution (1981).

James II, king of Majorca

James II, 1315–49, king of Majorca (1324–49), count of Roussillon and Cerdagne, lord of Montpellier; grandson of James I, nephew and successor of Sancho IV. In 1329 he declared himself a vassal of the Aragonese crown. Accusing James of illegal acts, Peter IV of Aragón invaded and conquered Majorca (1343) and Roussillon (1344) and annexed them to Aragón. James tried to recover his kingdom, but was defeated and killed in battle on Majorca. His son, James III, tried unsuccessfully to recover the kingdom in 1375.

James II, king of Scotland

James II, 1430–60, king of Scotland (1437–60), son and successor of James I. During his minority successive earls of Douglas vied for power with factions led by Sir William Crichton and Sir Alexander Livingstone. The power of the Douglases was temporarily broken (1440) by the judicial murder of William Douglas Douglas, William, 6th earl of Douglas, 1423?–1440, Scottish nobleman, eldest son of Archibald Douglas, 5th earl of Douglas.
..... Click the link for more information. , the 6th earl, but the king later allied himself with William Douglas, the 8th earl, to overthrow Crichton and Livingstone. By 1450, James ruled in his own right. When in 1452 the king discovered Douglas in a conspiracy, James called him to Stirling, charged him with betrayal, and stabbed him. After the resulting rebellion, the king attainted James Douglas Douglas, James, 9th earl of Douglas, 1426–88, Scottish nobleman, last earl of Douglas. Following the murder of his brother William, the 8th earl, by James II , he led a rebellion against the king in
..... Click the link for more information. , the 9th earl, and seized the Douglas lands. During his reign James improved the justice courts and regulated the coinage. A Lancastrian partisan in the Wars of the Roses Roses, Wars of the, traditional name given to the intermittent struggle (1455–85) for the throne of England between the noble houses of York (whose badge was a white rose) and Lancaster (later associated with the red rose).
..... Click the link for more information. , he invaded England and was accidentally killed at the siege of Roxburgh. His son James III succeeded him.

James II

Spanish Jaime known as James the Just

(born c. 1264—died Nov. 3, 1327, Barcelona, Aragon) King of Aragon (1295–1327) and king of Sicily (as James I, 1285–95). He inherited the Sicilian crown on the death of his father (1285); when his brother died (1291) he inherited Aragon. He resigned Sicily (1295) and married the daughter of the king of Naples in order to make peace with the Angevins. Sardinia and Corsica were given to him in compensation for Sicily, but he was able to occupy only Sardinia (1324).

James II

(born Oct. 14, 1633, London, Eng.—died Sept. 16/17, 1701, Saint-Germain, France) King of Great Britain (1685–88). He was brother and successor to Charles II. In the English Civil Wars he escaped to the Netherlands (1648). After the Restoration (1660) he returned to England and became lord high admiral in the Anglo-Dutch Wars. He converted to Catholicism c. 1668, and he resigned in 1673 rather than take the Test Act oath. By 1678 his Catholicism had created a climate of hysteria about a Popish Plot to assassinate Charles and put James on the throne, and successive Parliaments sought to exclude him from succession. By the time Charles died (1685), James came to the throne with little opposition and strong support from the Anglicans. Rebellions caused him to fill the army and high offices with Roman Catholics and suspend a hostile Parliament. The birth of his son, a possible Catholic heir, brought about the Glorious Revolution in 1688, and he fled to France. In 1689 he landed in Ireland to regain his throne, but his army was defeated at the Battle of the Boyne, and he returned to exile in France.

James II

(born Oct. 16, 1430, Edinburgh, Scot.—died Aug. 3, 1460, Roxburgh Castle, Roxburgh) King of Scotland (1437–60). He succeeded to the throne on the assassination of his father, James I of Scotland. Because he was so young, the strong central authority his father had established quickly collapsed, and his first adult task was the restoration of monarchical authority. He strove to dominate the powerful Douglas family, and in 1452 he stabbed to death William, earl of Douglas, at Stirling Castle. He established a strong central government and improved the administration of justice. Turning his attention to the English, who had renewed their claims to rule Scotland, he attacked English outposts in Scotland and was killed during a siege of Roxburgh Castle.