Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/120

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JAMES II. 104 JAMES II. to William. Prince of Orange, signed by seven of tl>e leading Knglisli politicians, to bring an army into Kngland for tiie restoration of liberty and for llic support of Protestantism. On No- vember 5th William landed at Torbay with 14,000 men. .James fuund liimself deserted bj- the nobility, gentry, and army; even his own cliil- dren turiiid against liim. He retired to Franco, v.here he was hospitably received by Louis XIV., who settled a revenue upon liim. Early in March in the following year he made a hopeless attempt to regain his throne by invading Ireland with a small army, with which he had been furnished by the King of France. He waged war on the island for more than a year, and was linally totally defeated at the battle of the Boyne, .July, ItilM). Reluming to France, he continued to reside at SaintCiermain till his death, Sep- tember 0, 1701. During the greater part of his life he was as licentious as others of his rank, but in his last years of retirement he became a religious ascetic. Although he utterly failed in the duties of a sovereign, he was kind as a lather and loyal to friends. UiBLiooB.M'iiY. Life of James the Second, Kiiui of Eiu/laitd. Collected Qui of Mfmoirs Writ hH Jlis (Jim Hand, published by Clarke (Lon- don, ISlfl) ; Bromley, Collection of Original Koyal Letters (London, 1787); Burnet, History of the Reign of King James the Second (Oxford, 1852; id., Historg of His Otcn Time, Oxford, 183,3) ; Secret History of the Four Last Monarchs of Great Britain: Jatiics I., etc. (London, 1001) : Macpherson, Original I'apers, I. (London. 1775) ; Pepys, Diarg and Correspondence (4 vols., Lon- don, 1 800) : Kercsby, Travels and Memoirs (Lon- don, 1813) ; Mnie. de la Fayette, "Memoires de la CVnir de France," in Asse, Mcmoires de la Fagctte (Paris, 1800) ; id.. Character of the liigolled Prince (London, 1691): Raumer, "KiJnig .Jakob II. und Anna Hyde." in Historisches Taschen- hiich, 4th ser., vol. viii. (Leipzig. 1807) : Carte, J,ife of Ormonde (Oxford, 1851); Dalrymple, Memoirs of Great lirilain and Ireland (4th ed., London, 1873) ; Cavelli, Les dernicrs Stuarts fi Saint Germain-en-Lage (Paris, 1871): Klopp, Der Fall dcs Haiises Stuart, i.-xiv. (Vienna, 1875-88), exhaustive and accurate: Macaulay, Historg of England (New York, 1858) ; Hallani, Con.ttitntionai Historg of England (London, 1870). JAMES I. (1304-1437). King of Scotland from 140(i1ol437. He was the third son of Robert III., and in 1402 became heir to the throne on the death of his elder brother, the Duke of Rothesay, supposed to have been murdered at the instigation of his uncle, the Duke of Albany. In 1405 or 1400. while on his way to France, the vessel in which he embarked was taken by the English, and .Jrniies Avas carried to London and sent to the Tower. He was well treated, but held a prisoner for eighteen or nineteen years. In 1420 he accompanied Henry V. in bis expedi- tion to France. On the death of Robert ITL. in 1400. the government devolved on the Duke of .Mliany. and on his death, in 1420, his son ^lurdiich succeeded to the Regency. In 1424. on giving hostages for payment of £40.000. James was allowed to return to Scotland. Previous to leaving Kngland he married .Jane, daughter of the Earl of Somerset, fourth son of .John of Gaunt. To the excellent education which he had received in England James probably was indebted for the development of his very con- siderable powers of mind. His poems, Christ's Kirh on the Green, and others (the authorsliip of which, however, is disputed), and Kingis Quair (i.e. the King's quire or book), show him to have been possessed of high i)oelic talent. With the ads of his lirst Parliament, in 1424, the regular series of .Scotch statutes begins. Many excellent laws were passed for the regula- tionof trade, and for the internal economy of the Kingdom ; while these were followed up by an executive vigor which Scotland had never known before. No soor.cr did .James feel himself lirndy seated on the throne than he resolved to <'xecute vengeance on the .Uiaiiv familv. By a Parliament held at Perth, in 142.V the late Regent Murdoch, his fatherin-law. the Earl of Lennox and about twenty live other nobles of their family were founil guilty of certain crimes laid to their charge, and several of them were beheaded. The next few! years of .James's reign are among the mosl really peaceful in the historj' of Scotland pre- vious to the union of its crown with that of Eng- land : the ell'orts of the King being entirely directed to the repression of the internal disorders of the Kingdcmi, especially of the Highlands, where scarcely any law except that of the strongest had hitherto been known. In 143(i James's eldest daughter. Margaret, was married to the Dauphin of France, afterwards Loiiis XL Among those whom the severe policy of the King had oirende<l was Sir Robert Orahnm. who had been banished in 1435 and had sull'cred the loss of his estate. C)n Feliruary 20, 1437. at Perth, the royal cham- ber was invaded by a band of armed men headed by (iraham, and the King was dragged from his hiding-place and put to death. James Avas un- questionably the most able of the Stuart faniil}'. Both his intellectual and his practical abilities were of a very high order. His works have been edited bv Skeat for the Scottish Text Society (Edinburgh, 1884). JAMES n. (1430 GO). King of Scotl.and from 1437 to 1400. He was the son of .James I., and was crowned at Edinburgh in the sixth year of his age. Sir William Cri<-ht(in, the Cham-ellor, and Sir .lexandcr Livingstone contrived to keep possession of the person of Ihe young King, and consequently to wield the royal aiithority imtil he had reached his fourteenth year. The power of the House of Douglas had now risen to so great a height as almost to overshadow that of the Crown. In the hope of curbing it, Crichton had treacherously caused William, the young Earl of Douglas, and his brother to lie put to death. The policy of the act proved to be as bad as its spirit, for by the nuirriage of the heiress of the murdered youth with her cousin the family was restored to more than its former power. The young King, weary of the rule of Crichton. put himself under the control of another Earl of Douglas. Crichton and Livingstone were declared rebels, and their estates forfeited. T'nder the rule of the Earl, the Kingdom fell into complete an- archy, and became a scene of violence and dis- order. In 1440 .James married Mary of Oelder- land, and thereafter his character appears in a better light. Like most of the Stuarts, he pos- sessed great animal courage; he seems also to have possessed much of his father's clearness of perception in framing laws, and of his energy' in enforcing their observation. Chafing under the sway of Douglas, he resolved to assert his inde-