James II of England

James was born 14 October 1633, the second surviving son of Charles I and Henrietta Maria of France, created Duke of York at birth. He took the throne in February 1685 at 51 after his brother Charles II died, welcomed widely because the public still recoiled from the republican Commonwealth and assumed a Catholic king would be temporary. That tolerance didn't extend to policy: when James tried forcing Catholic-friendly measures by decree - invoking divine right - both English and Scottish parliaments blocked him. Two blows in June 1688 turned dissent to crisis: his son James Francis Edward was born on the 10th, promising a Catholic dynasty over his Protestant daughter Mary, and the state trial of the Seven Bishops ended in acquittal on the 30th, destroying what authority he had left. William of Orange landed at Brixham on 5 November; James's army deserted and he fled to France on 23 December. Parliament declared he had "vacated" the throne and installed William and Mary in February 1689, making sovereignty a gift of Parliament, not blood. James tried once more, landing in Ireland in March 1689, but after his defeat at the Boyne in July 1690 he returned to France