Who Was King James II of England & VII of Scotland, Part Two

In fear of the so called Exclusion Bill being passed, Charles II dissolved Parliament in 1679, this was to happen again in 1680 and 1681. This Exclusion Crisis was a major contributor to development of the English two party system, the Whigs who supported the Bill and the Tories who opposed it. In 1680, James was appointed as Lord High Commissioner of Scotland in order to suppress a rising and impose royal government. In 1683, a plot was uncovered that had planned to assassinate Charles and James, the plot back-fired and provoked a wave of sympathy for Charles and James. Charles died in 1685, after converting to Catholicism on his deathbed, he was succeeded by James, who ascended to the throne as James II of England and Ireland and James VII of Scotland. There was no initial opposition, in fact there were widespread reports of public rejoicing at the orderly succession. Within weeks, James faced co-ordinated rebellions from Archibald Campbell, Earl of Argyll in Scotland and from his nephew, the Duke of Monmouth in southern England. He easily crushed them both and Argyll and Monmouth were executed. James decided to set up a standing army to protect himself, this worried the general public as it was against tradition to keep an army during peacetime, also many regiments were under Catholic commanders. Parliament objected but James simply suspended it, it would not sit again during his reign. James began bolstering the privileges of Catholics which had the effect of disenfranchising Protestants even further. Fears grew even further when Queen Mary gave birth to a Catholic son and heir.

About the Author:

Russell Shortt is a travel consultant with Exploring Ireland, the leading specialists in customised, private escorted tours, escorted coach tours and independent self drive tours of Ireland. Article source: http://www.exploringireland.net