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James II of England |
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James II of England |
James was genuinely committed to religious toleration, but also sought to increase the power of the crown. He wished that all his subjects could be as convinced as he was that the Catholic church was the one true church. He was also convinced that the established church was maintained artificially by penal laws which proscribed nonconformity. If these were removed, and conversions to Catholicism were encouraged, then many would take place … James underestimated the appeal of protestantism in general and the Church of England in particular. His was the zeal and even bigotry of a narrow-minded convert...adding that, unlike the government of the Netherlands, "James was too autocratic to combine freedom of conscience with popular government. He resisted any check on the monarch's power. That is why his heart was not in the concessions he had to make in 1688. He would rather live in exile with his principles intact than continue to reign as a limited monarch." Tim Harris's conclusions from his 2006 book reflect the crossroads of modern scholarship on James II:
The jury will doubtless remain out on James for a long time. What exactly was he trying to achieve? Was he an egotistical bigot who wanted to promote Catholicism at all costs and refused to listen to any who questioned him? Was he a tyrant who rode roughshod over the will of the vast majority of his subjects (at least in England and Scotland) and subverted the rule of law as he took his three kingdoms further down the road of monarchical absolutism? Was he simply naïve, or even perhaps plain stupid, unable to appreciate the realities of political power in early modern Britain and the fact that there were just some things a ruler—no matter how absolute in theory—could never get away with? Or was he a well-intentioned and even enlightened ruler—an enlightened despot well ahead of his time, perhaps—who was merely trying to do what he thought was best for his subjects?
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