King James II to Queen Anne

The years 1685 to 1714, during which the monarchs mentioned in the title had their reigns, were of vital importance in the history of Great Britain, because the consequences of what took place had a huge effect on the British Constitution down to the present day.

In 1685 King Charles II died without leaving any legitimate heirs other than his brother James. Charles, who had been restored to the throne after the 11-year interregnum of Oliver Cromwell, had the good sense to balance his own desires with those of Parliament and, although they sometimes clashed, he had the skill to avoid the sort of conflict that led to his own father (Charles I) losing his head. Above all, Charles knew that the country was now firmly Protestant and, despite suspicions that he had Catholic sympathies (his mother was the Catholic Henrietta Maria, the sister of Louis XIII of France), he was wise enough to keep his own religious beliefs, such as they were, out of the public domain.

Despite having a Catholic mother, James’s own Catholicism came about from conversion, due to the years he had spent in exile in France along with other members of the Royal family. He had two daughters by his first wife (Anne Hyde) who had been brought up as Protestants, and these offered some sort of safeguard that the monarchy, and thus the country, would not revert to Catholicism in the long term.

However, as it became clear that Charles’s successor would be his brother, strenuous moves were made to exclude James from the throne. Parliament had debated an “Exclusion Bill” that eventually failed at Charles’s insistence, and also led to the emergence of two political groups, the Tories and the Whigs, who respectively opposed and supported the Bill.

When James did succeed to the throne in February 1685 he did so smoothly enough, being generally welcomed as king in the belief that he would recognise that England was now a Protestant country and not seek to rock the boat. At first there was little cause for alarm, with James being happy to call a Parliament and to re-appoint most of his brother’s ministers.

However, Charles’s illegitimate son James, Duke of Monmouth, who would have benefitted from the Exclusion Bill had it been passed, had other ideas and landed in Dorset in June with a view to raising an army to defeat his uncle. He failed in his bid, losing the Battle of Sedgemoor on 6th July and being executed shortly afterwards.

James’s reaction was extreme, in that Monmouth’s supporters were harshly dealt with at the “Bloody Assizes” that followed, and James began to take steps that seemed to fulfil the fears that had been expressed before he became king. It seemed to many people that James now had every intention of reigning as a Catholic dictator, not calling a Parliament throughout the rest of his reign and being kept in power by a standing army.

During the next three years James installed many Catholics in positions of high office, ignoring the Acts that prevented this from happening.

Things came to a head when his second wife, the Catholic Mary of Modena, gave birth to a healthy son in June 1688. The prospect of a Catholic successor was too much for seven leading Protestants, who sent an invitation to Prince William of Orange, James’s son-in-law, to bring an army to overthrow King James.

William landed, like the Duke of Monmouth, in Dorset, but had far more success. William was not required to fight a battle, because the people had become totally disillusioned with James II and welcomed the prospect of a Protestant alternative. James saw sense at last and left the country in December 1688 for France, never to return. The event, known as the “Glorious Revolution” was therefore a bloodless one.

Another short interregnum followed, with the new monarchy only taking effect after some debate in a “Convention Parliament” called by William to decide the constitutional position. The solution was a dual monarchy, for the first and only time in British history, with William reigning as King William III and his wife Mary, James’s elder Protestant daughter, becoming Queen Mary II. However, Mary had little interest in exercising power and was, in effect, consort to William. In any case she only lived for five more years, dying in December 1694 from smallpox. William continued to reign alone until his death in March 1702.

William and Mary did not reign unchallenged. For one thing, the deposed James II made a renewed bid for the throne by landing in Ireland in the hope of raising a Catholic army to defeat William. This bid ended in failure when he was defeated at the Battle of the Boyne in July 1690.

This conflict was part of the wider “Nine Years War” that occupied William, on and off, until 1697. This had been fought between Catholic France (under Louis XIV) and the Protestant nations of Europe, one of the outcomes being Louis’s eventual recognition of William as king of England, Scotland and Ireland.

When William died, Mary’s sister Anne became Queen, but before this event it had long been clear that the further succession was in doubt. Anne had been given precedence over any further children born to William (he did not re-marry) under the Bill of Rights passed in 1689, which also established that no future monarch could be a Catholic. The Act also placed certain limitations on royal power that have applied ever since.

However, the chances of Anne (whose husband was Prince George of Denmark) producing an heir looked very slim, as she proved incapable of producing a healthy child, despite undergoing 18 pregnancies. Her best hope was Prince William, Duke of Gloucester, but he was never strong and died in July 1700.

This occasioned the Act of Settlement of 1701 which decreed that the next suitable related Protestant should succeed on Anne’s death. This turned out to be George of Hanover, who became King George I in August 1714 and established the royal line that continues down to the present day.

Queen Anne’s reign was notable for the complex War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14) in which British troops, under the Duke of Marlborough, were victorious at battles including Blenheim and Ramillies.

An offshoot of this war, known generally as “Queen Anne’s War” was fought in North America and led to Britain gaining control of several territories including Newfoundland and maintaining control of their New England colonies.

In 1707 the Act of Union brought together the Kingdoms of England and Scotland, thus making Anne the first Queen of Great Britain.

The reigns and William and Mary and Anne were notable for a flourishing of the arts in Britain, most notably in architecture, landscape gardening and interior design. This was an age during which considerable wealth was acquired by merchants and aristocrats, and the houses they built and the furniture they acquired are much admired today.