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James then ordered the suspension of Henry Compton, the anti-Catholic Bishop of London; several other Anglicans in political office were dismissed. In the Declaration of Indulgence (1687), he suspended laws punishing Roman Catholics and other religious dissenters. (It is unclear if James issued the Declaration to gain the political support of the dissenters, or if he was truly committed to the principle of freedom of religion.) James also dissolved Parliament in 1687, afterwards reforming the government so as to reduce the power of the nobility.

The King also provoked opposition by his policies relating to the University of Oxford. He offended Anglicans by allowing Catholics to hold important positions in Christ Church and University College, two of Oxford's largest colleges. Even more unpopularly, he dismissed the Protestant Fellows of Magdalen College, appointing Roman Catholics including Bishop Parker in their place. Controversially, James accredited the Papal Nuncio and granted public offices to four Catholic bishops.

James granted three Londoners and Virginia Catholic George Brent rights of religious freedom for the settlement of French Huguenots on the 30,000 acre (121 km?) Brenttown (Brenton) tract in old Prince William County, Virginia in 1687. Richard Foote, nephew of Nicholas Hayward (one of the founding partners), settled at Chotank in King George County, Virginia to manage the project. Nicholas Hayward marketed Brenttown to English Catholics after the Glorious Revolution eliminated most political reasons for French Protestants to leave England.

Glorious Revolution

In April 1688, James re-issued the Declaration of Indulgence, subsequently ordering Anglican clergymen to read it in their churches. When the Archbishop of Canterbury William Sancroft and six other bishops (known as the Seven Bishops) submitted a petition requesting the reconsideration of the King's religious policies, they were arrested and tried for seditious libel, but were acquitted. Public alarm increased with the birth of a Catholic son and heir, James Francis Edward, to Queen Mary in June, 1688. (Some charged that the son was "suppositious", having been substituted for a stillborn child. There is, however, no reliable evidence to support such an allegation.) Threatened by a Catholic dynasty, several influential Protestants entered into negotiations with William, Prince of Orange, who was James's son-in-law. William had been hailed as a Protestant champion, having fought with the powerful Roman Catholic King of France, Louis XIV.

On 30 June 1688—the same day the bishops were acquitted—a group of Protestant nobles, known as the Immortal Seven, requested the Prince of Orange to come to England with an army. By September, it had become clear that William sought to invade; yet, James refused the assistance of Louis XIV, fearing that the English would oppose French intervention. James, furthermore, believed that his own army would be adequate, but proved too complacent; for when the Prince of Orange arrived on 5 November 1688, all of the King's Protestant officers defected. His own daughter, Anne, joined the invading forces, leading to considerable anguish on the part of the King. On 11 December, James attempted to flee to France, first throwing the Great Seal of the Realm into the River Thames. He was, however, caught in Kent. Having no desire to make James a martyr, the Prince of Orange let him escape on 23 December. James was received by Louis XIV, who offered him a palace and a generous pension.

When James left the Realm, no Parliament was in session. Although a Parliament could normally be called by the reigning monarch, the Prince of Orange convened an irregular Convention Parliament. (The procedure of calling a Convention Parliament had been previously used when succession to the Throne was unclear; it was a Convention Parliament which restored Charles II to the Throne following the English Civil War.) The Convention declared, on 12 February 1689, that James's attempt to flee on 11 December constituted an abdication of the government, and that the Throne had then become vacant (instead of passing to James II's son, James Francis Edward). James's daughter Mary was declared Queen; she was to rule jointly with her husband William III. The Scottish Estates followed suit on 11 April of the same year.

William and Mary subsequently granted their assent to an Act commonly referred to as the Bill of Rights. The Act confirmed the earlier Declaration of Right, in which the Convention Parliament had declared that James's flight constituted an abdication, and that William III and Mary II were to be King and Queen. The Bill of Rights also charged James II with abusing his power; amongst other things, it criticised the suspension of the Test Acts, the prosecution of the Seven Bishops for merely petitioning the Crown, the establishment of a standing army and the imposition of cruel punishments. The Act, furthermore, settled the question of succession to the Crown. First in the line of succession were the children of William and Mary (if any), to be followed by the Princess Anne and her children, and finally by the children of William by any subsequent marriage.

Later years

With a French army on his side, James landed in Ireland in March 1689. The Irish Parliament did not follow the example of the English Parliament; it declared that James remained King. He was, however, defeated at the Battle of the Boyne on 1 July 1690. He fled to France after the defeat departing from Kinsale, his cowardice leading to the dissolution of much of his support and earning him the nickname SÈamus · Chaca ("James the Shit") in Ireland.

In France, James was allowed to live in the royal ch’teau of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. An attempt was made to restore him to the Throne by assassinating William III in 1696, but the plot failed. Louis XIV's offer to have James elected King of Poland in the same year was rejected, for James feared that acceptance of the Polish Crown might (in the minds of the English People) render him incapable of being King of England. Thereafter, Louis ceased to offer assistance to James; his decision was formalised by the Treaty of Ryswick (an agreement with William III) in 1697. During his last years, James lived as an austere penitent. He died of a brain hemorrhage in 1701 at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where he was buried.

Legacy

James's younger daughter Anne succeeded to the throne when William III died in 1702. (Mary II had died in 1694.) The Act of Settlement 1701 provided that, if the line of succession established in the Bill of Rights were to be extinguished, then the Crown would go to a distant German cousin, Sophia, Electress of Hanover, and to her Protestant heirs. Thus, when Anne died in 1714 (shortly after Sophia), the Crown was inherited by George I, Sophia's son.

The son of James II, James Francis Edward Stuart (known to his supporters as "James III and VIII" and to his opponents as the "Old Pretender"), took up the Jacobite cause. He led a rising in Scotland in 1715 shortly after George I's accession, but was defeated. Further risings were also defeated; since the rising of 1745 led by Charles Edward Stuart, no serious attempt to restore the Stuart heir has been made, although some individuals still adhere to the philosophy of Jacobitism.

James Francis Edward died in 1766, when he was succeeded by his eldest son, Charles Edward Stuart (known to his supporters as "Charles III" and to his opponents as the "Young Pretender"). Charles in turn was succeeded by his younger brother Henry Benedict Stuart, a cardinal of the Catholic Church. Henry was the last of James II's legitimate descendants. At his death in 1807 the Jacobite claim devolved upon the senior descendant of King Charles I, King Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia. Presently, James II's heir is Franz, Duke of Bavaria. Although the Duke of Bavaria has not claimed the throne, he is recognised by Jacobites as "Francis II."

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