Chapter 19
Chapter 19 of History of England, in words of one syllable. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Catherine Phipps. History of England, in words of one syllable, by Helen W. Pearson.
Chapter 19, James II. James II was at least so far true in that he made his faith known. He was a Catholic, and he had not the grace by which Charles II had won English hearts. He was grave, sad, and stern. The Duke of Monmouth came back and found some to call him king in the west of England.
Groups of girls in white met him with wreaths, but that did not help him win his cause. He lost the fight at Sedgemoor and fled. He was found in a smock-frock in a ditch. They took him to London, where the court went on to try him, and he was hung. James was most harsh with all who had lent aid to Monmouth.
He sent a man by the name of Jeffreys to try them all, and most were hung. This man was so fierce and coarse that his trip is known since as the Bloody Assize. So the reign of James II was harsh from the first. He gave the best posts in the church and state to Roman Catholics, and the Protestants saw this with more and more fear.
James had no son, but he had two girls, the Princess Mary, who was wed to the young Prince of Orange, and Anne, who was the wife of Prince George of Denmark. He was a dull man, and it was the mode to laugh at him, but he had a son of whom there was much hope.
But James II took it in his head to take a new wife. She was a princess from Italy and a Roman Catholic. So when she had a son, the Protestants, who did not want more Catholic kings, said they thought that this child was not the true son of the king and queen, and all the land was in a sad state. Then William of Orange came, and crowds
went at once on his side, till James saw that it was not safe for his wife and child in England. So he sent them to France, and stayed on for a while. But when he heard that Anne had gone on the side of the Prince of Orange, tears came in his eyes and he said, God help me, my own child leaves me. So he got off in plain clothes and went to France, where he had Saint-Germain for a home. It was on the 4th of November, 1688, William of Orange set his foot on shore, and from that time
came the change known as the English Revolution. Parliament gave the crown to William and Mary, but all the Roman Catholics were still of course for James. They were known as Jacobites. They thought that no one had a right to have his place and they would not take the oath to serve the new rule.
Archbishop Sancroft, Bishop Kerr and some more would not take the oath but gave up all their wealth and their high posts and led lives of hard work and want. From time to time James strove to get his crown back and Louis, King of France, gave him aid but all in vain.
As most of his friends, the Roman Catholics, were in Ireland, he went there to fight. He got on well in the south, but in the north they would not help him. He laid siege to Londonderry, but it held out for more than three months, so that all were like to die for want of food. Then England came to their aid.
William came with troops, and there the two met and fought on the banks of the Boyne on the 1st of July, 1690. James was put to root and had to leave Ireland. All his friends there paid dear for the aid they gave him. In the meantime, while William of Orange fought the French in Holland, there was great grief at the death of Mary from smallpox.
She had left no child. Parliament said that William could be king, and on his death Princess Anne should be queen, and they made an act that no Roman Catholic, nor one who was wed to a Roman Catholic,
should sit on England's throne. The English Tories did not like this act, as they had not much love for King William. He was a thin, spare man, with sharp, rough ways. He was not in good health, and that may have made him more sharp. He kept the reins, though, with a strong hand, but he was at war with France all the time.
Then there rose a great war at this time as to who should have the Spanish throne, and of course William was not on the French side. But ere he went out to fight in this fresh war, as he rode one day, his horse trod in a molehill and threw him. This hurt his weak chest so much that he did not live but a few days. The Jacobins were glad of his death.
End of chapter 19
