JAMES II. king of England, Scotland, &c. 1685, grandson of James I. succeeded his brother Char. II. It is remarkable, that this prince wanted neither courage nor political abilities whilst he was duke of York; on the contrary, he was eminent for both: but when he ascended the throne, he was no longer the same man. A bigot from his infancy to the Romish religion and to its hierarchy, he sacrificed every thing to establish them, in direct contradiction to the experience he had acquired, during the long reign of his brother, of the genius and character of the people he was to govern. Guided by the Jesuit Peters his confessor, and the infamous chancellor Jeffries, he violated every law enacted for the security of the Protestant religion; and then, unable to face the resentment of his
injured subjects, he fled like a coward, instead of disarming their rage by a dismission of his Popish ministers and priests. He rather chose to live and die a bigot, or, as he believed, a saint, than to support the dignity of his ancestors, or perish beneath the ruins of his throne. The consequence was the revolution in 1689. James II. died in France in 1710, aged 68. He wrote Memoirs of his own life and campaigns to the restoration; the original of which is preserved in the Scotch college at Paris. This piece is printed at the end of Ramsay's life of Marshal Turenne. 2. Memoirs of the English affairs, chiefly naval, from the year 1660 to 1673. 3. The royal sufferer, king James II. consisting of meditations, soliloquies, vows, &c. said to be composed by his majesty at St Germain. 4. Three letters; which were published by William Fuller, gent. in 1702, with other papers relating to the court of St Germain, and are said in the title-page to be printed by command.