1-625-651 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Duke of York (1633-1701), the future King James II, 1808. James II was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1685 to 1688 and was the last Roman Catholic monarch to reign over Britain. Many of his subjects distrusted his religious policies and autocratic tendencies, leading a group of them to depose him in the Glorious Revolution in 1688. He was replaced by his Protestant daughter and son-in-law, Mary II and William III, who became joint rulers in 1689. James made one serious attempt to recover his crowns, when he landed in Ireland in 1689. After his defeat at the Battle of the Boyne in the summer of 1690, James returned to France where he lived out the rest of his life under the protection of his cousin and ally, King Louis XIV.