First marriage in the 1660s, by Sir Peter Lely After the collapse of the
Commonwealth in 1660, Charles II was restored to the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland. Although James was the
heir presumptive, it seemed unlikely that he would inherit the Crown, as Charles was still a young man capable of fathering children. On 31 December 1660, following his brother's restoration, James was created
Duke of Albany in Scotland, to go along with his English title, Duke of York. Upon his return to England, James prompted an immediate controversy by announcing his engagement to
Anne Hyde, the daughter of Charles's chief minister,
Edward Hyde. In 1659, while trying to seduce her, James promised he would marry Anne. Anne became pregnant in 1660, but following the
Restoration and James's return to power, no one at the royal court expected a prince to marry a
commoner, no matter what he had pledged beforehand. Although nearly everyone, including Anne's father, urged the two not to marry, the couple married secretly, then went through an official marriage ceremony on 3 September 1660 in London. The couple's first child,
Charles, was born less than two months later, but died in infancy, as did five further children. Only two daughters survived:
Mary (born 30 April 1662) and
Anne (born 6 February 1665).
Samuel Pepys wrote that James was fond of his children and his role as a father, and played with them "like an ordinary private father of a child", a contrast to the distant parenting common with royalty at the time. James's wife was devoted to him and influenced many of his decisions. Even so, he kept mistresses, including
Arabella Churchill and
Catherine Sedley, and was reputed to be "the most unguarded ogler of his time". Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary that James "did eye my wife mightily". James's taste in women was often maligned, with
Gilbert Burnet famously remarking that James's mistresses must have been "given [to] him by his priests as a penance". Anne Hyde died in 1671.
Military and other offices After the Restoration, James was confirmed as Lord High Admiral, an office that carried with it the subsidiary appointments of Governor of
Portsmouth and
Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. In October 1660, Charles II appointed his brother the Governor of the Royal Adventurers into Africa ("the company" which was later reformed as the
Royal African Company in 1672). The company had senior courtiers (including the King), ministers and admirals among its investors. Its purpose was to exploit trade opportunities in West Africa. Gold, ivory, redwood and other products from the region were sought-after cargoes, but by 1665, the
slave trade to the Americas represented 25 per cent of its income. Over its lifetime, the
Royal African Company carried more enslaved Africans across the Atlantic than "any other single institution". To achieve a dominant commercial presence on the West African coast, it was believed that the Dutch needed to be displaced from their trading posts there. The company sent ships to capture them, supported, in 1664, by the Royal Navy frigate , under the command of
Robert Holmes. This was a major cause of the
Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665–1667). The Navy was used in later years to assist the company, showing a distinct blurring of the responsibilities between the state and a commercial enterprise. James continued in his role in the company until after the Glorious Revolution, when he was forced to resign. James was very active in his role in the Royal Navy. Immediately after the Restoration, he worked on confirming the posts of ships' officers and officials in the administration of the Navy, and making new appointments to replace those ousted by the change in regime. He was a regular attendee at meetings of the Admiralty committees. In the Second Anglo-Dutch War, he commanded the fleet at the
Battle of Lowestoft, being in the thick of the fighting. Three courtiers standing beside him on the deck of were decapitated by one chain shot from the Dutch flagship, spattering James with blood and brains. After this event, and perhaps with the security of the Royal succession in mind, the King removed James from active service for the rest of the war. The same sequence was repeated in the
Third Anglo-Dutch War (1672–1674), with James commanding the fleet at the
Battle of Solebay, where he had to move his flag twice as his successive flagships were disabled by enemy action, the captain of the first, , being killed beside him. In the midst of the intense fighting, James strode along the deck, encouraging the gun crews. James's undoubtedly brave performance in this battle is marred by some accusing him of issuing unclear orders to the French squadron (allies of the British fleet). As before, he was removed from front-line service after this battle. Following the
raid on the Medway in 1667, James oversaw the survey and re-fortification of the southern coast. The office of Lord High Admiral, combined with his revenue from post office and wine tariffs (positions granted him by Charles II upon his restoration), gave James enough money to keep a sizable court household. In 1664, Charles II granted American territory between the
Delaware and
Connecticut rivers to James. Following its capture by the British, the former Dutch territory of
New Netherland and its principal port,
New Amsterdam, were renamed the
Province and
City of New York in James's honour. James gave part of the colony to proprietors
George Carteret and
John Berkeley.
Fort Orange, north on the
Hudson River, was renamed
Albany after James's Scottish title. In 1683, James became the Governor of the
Hudson's Bay Company, but did not take an active role in its governance. In September 1666, Charles II put James in charge of firefighting operations during the
Great Fire of London, in the absence of action by Lord Mayor
Thomas Bloodworth. This was not a political office, but his actions and leadership were noteworthy. "The Duke of York hath won the hearts of the people with his continual and indefatigable pains day and night in helping to quench the Fire", wrote a witness in a letter on 8 September. In 1672, the Royal African Company received a new charter from Charles II. It set up forts and factories, maintained troops, and exercised martial law in West Africa in pursuit of trade in gold, silver and African slaves. In the 1680s, the RAC transported about 5,000 slaves a year to markets primarily in the English Caribbean across the Atlantic. Many were
branded on the chest with the letters "DY" for "Duke of York", the RAC's Governor.
Conversion to Roman Catholicism and second marriage James's time in France had exposed him to the beliefs and ceremonies of the Roman Catholic Church, and both he and his wife Anne became drawn to that faith. James took Catholic
Eucharist in 1668 or 1669, although his conversion was kept secret for almost a decade as he continued to attend Anglican services until 1676. In spite of his conversion, James continued to associate primarily with Anglicans, including
John Churchill and
George Legge, as well as
French Protestants such as
Louis de Duras, 2nd Earl of Feversham. Growing fears of Roman Catholic influence at court led the English Parliament to introduce a new
Test Act in 1673. Under this Act, all civil and military officials were required to take an oath (in which they were required to disavow the doctrine of
transubstantiation and denounce certain practices of the Roman Church as superstitious and idolatrous) and to receive the Eucharist under the auspices of the
Church of England. James refused to perform either action, instead choosing to relinquish the post of Lord High Admiral. His conversion to Roman Catholicism was thereby made public. King Charles II opposed James's conversion, ordering that James's daughters, Mary and Anne, be raised in the Church of England. Nevertheless, he allowed the widowed James to marry
Mary of Modena, a fifteen-year-old Italian princess. James and Mary were
married by proxy in a Roman Catholic ceremony on 20 September 1673. On 21 November, Mary arrived in England and
Nathaniel Crew,
Bishop of Oxford, performed a brief Anglican service that did little more than recognise the marriage by proxy. Many British people, distrustful of Catholicism, regarded the new Duchess of York as an agent of the
Papacy. James was noted for his deep devotion, once remarking, "If occasion were, I hope God would give me his grace to suffer death for the true Catholic religion as well as banishment."
Exclusion Crisis In 1677, King Charles II arranged for James's daughter Mary to marry the Protestant Prince
William III of Orange, son of Charles's and James's sister
Mary. James reluctantly acquiesced after his brother and nephew had agreed to the marriage. Despite the Protestant marriage, fears of a potential Catholic monarch persisted, intensified by the failure of Charles II and his wife,
Catherine of Braganza, to produce any children. A
defrocked Anglican clergyman,
Titus Oates, spoke of a "
Popish Plot" to kill Charles and to put the Duke of York on the throne. The fabricated plot caused a wave of anti-Catholic hysteria to sweep across the nation. was involved in plots against James. In England, the
Earl of Shaftesbury, a former government minister and now a leading opponent of Catholicism, proposed an
Exclusion Bill that would have excluded James from the line of succession. Some members of Parliament even proposed to pass the crown to Charles's illegitimate son,
James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth. In 1679, with the Exclusion Bill in danger of passing, Charles II dissolved Parliament. Two further
Parliaments were elected in 1680 and 1681, but were dissolved for the same reason. The Exclusion Crisis contributed to the development of the English two-party system: the
Whigs were those who supported the Bill, while the
Tories were those who opposed it. Ultimately, the succession was not altered, but James was convinced to withdraw from all policy-making bodies and to accept a lesser role in his brother's government. On the orders of the King, James left England for
Brussels. In 1680, he was appointed
Lord High Commissioner of Scotland and took up residence at the
Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh to suppress an uprising and oversee the royal government. James returned to England for a time when Charles was stricken ill and appeared to be near death. The hysteria of the accusations eventually faded, but James's relations with many in the English Parliament, including the
Earl of Danby, a former ally, were forever strained and a solid segment turned against him. On 6 May 1682, James narrowly escaped the sinking of
HMS Gloucester, in which between 130 and 250 people perished. James argued with the pilot about the navigation of the ship before it ran aground on a sandbank, and then delayed abandoning ship, which may have contributed to the death toll.
Return to favour In 1683, a plot was uncovered to assassinate Charles II and his brother and spark a
republican revolution to re-establish a government of the
Cromwellian style. The conspiracy, known as the
Rye House Plot, backfired upon its conspirators and provoked a wave of sympathy for the King and James. Several notable
Whigs, including the
Earl of Essex and the Duke of Monmouth, were implicated. Monmouth initially confessed to complicity in the plot and implicated fellow conspirators, but later recanted. Essex committed suicide, and Monmouth, along with several others, was obliged to flee into exile in continental Europe. Charles II reacted to the plot by increasing the repression of Whigs and
dissenters. Taking advantage of James's rebounding popularity, Charles invited him back onto the
Privy Council in 1684. While some in the English Parliament remained wary of the possibility of a Roman Catholic king, the threat of excluding James from the throne had passed. ==Reign==