| Background |
| BIRTH DATE: October 14, 1633 PLACE OF BIRTH: St. James Palace, London, England TIME OF REIGN: 1685-1688 DATE OF DEATH: September 6, 1701 BURIAL PLACE: St. Germain-en-Laye, France. James the II was the son of Charles I, King of England, and Henrietta Maria the Princess of France and the Queen of England. James II married twice. His first marriage was to Anne Hyde on November 24, 1659. Their four sons and four daughters were: Charles, Mary, James, Anne, another Charles, Edgar, Henrietta, and Catherine. Anne Hyde died in 1671. James' second marriage was with Mary Beatrice of Modena on November 21, 1673. She bore him two sons and five daughters, and they were: Catherine, Isabella, Charles, Charlotte, Elizabeth, James Francis Edward, and Louisa. In 1668 James II converted to Catholicsim. In 1673 he became increasingly unpopular in England, after resignation as an admiral because of his opposition to the Test Act and his marriage to a Catholic Mary of Modena. James II took over the throne of England after his brother Charles II's death in February of 1685. In the Glorious Revolution of 1688 James II was overthrown. He lived in exile at the court of Louis XIV. The English Parliament wrote the Bill of Rights of 1689, it defined the relationship between a monarch and his subjects and banned any future Catholic succession to the English throne. |
| King James II |