The Last Catholic - King James II of England Quiz

Answer: Lord High Admiral

The Lord High Admiral was officially the head of the English navy and James was given this title in an honorary capacity at the age of three. At this time, control of the Navy resided in the hands of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, a group of courtiers exercising the powers of the Lord High Admiral.

In 1638, the post was substantively awarded to Algernon Percy, Earl of Northumberland.

Answer: The Hague

Together with a group of associates, James, then aged just 14, sailed down the River Thames and was picked up by a Dutch vessel that took them to Flushing (Vlissingen) in the Dutch Republic. They landed safely in the Netherlands on 23 April 1648, with a warm welcome from James's brother-in-law, William II of Orange.

Answer: Dutch Army

James's exile led him from the Dutch Republic to end up at the court of his cousin, Louis XIV of France. While in France, James acquired a commission in the French Army under Marshal-General Turenne. During his service with the French, James exhibited significant bravery in battle, with Turenne eventually appointing him Lieutenant-General in 1654.

However, in 1656, when France entered an alliance with England under Oliver Cromwell, James was forced to leave France and ended up in the Spanish Netherlands where he fought for Spain against his former French comrades-in-arms at the Battle of the Dunes in 1658.

Answer: The Earl of Clarendon

James had been conducting a liaison with Anne Hyde, daughter of Charles II's Lord Chancellor Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, since the late 1650s. It is rumoured that he had promised her marriage to persuade her to sleep with him. Although he was not sincere, when Anne fell pregnant with his child, James was forced to fulfil this agreement, supposedly at the instigation of his brother the King. Reports about James's feelings on his marriage are mixed, as he was in fact very fond of Anne, but had hoped for marriage to a princess.

Answer: Jamestown

The Dutch colony of New Netherland, together with its main port of New Amsterdam, was obtained by England in 1664. Subsequent to this, as part of the settlement of land that Charles II made to his brother, the colony was renamed New York. Similarly, the village of Beverwijck and the settlement of Esopus, which were also part of James's lands in America, were renamed Albany (1664) and Ulster County (1683), after two of his other titles (Duke of Albany and Earl of Ulster).

Answer: Lowestoft

Following the Restoration, James was substantively made Lord High Admiral, the post to which he had originally been appointed at the age of three. In this capacity, he was on active service aboard ship on occasion, seeing action at Lowestoft and also at the Battle of Solebay in 1672, but he was also responsible for the overall running of the navy, amongst which other tasks he oversaw the refortification of Southern England following the Dutch raid on the River Medway in 1667.

Answer: Maintaining law and order

When fire spread across London, residents of the City widely believed that it was an act of terrorism, blaming the French, the Dutch and Roman Catholics. Consequently, foreigners and those suspected of Papism were targeted by angry mobs, and acts of extreme violence were committed in an anarchical scenario.

This forced James to command some of his men to divert their attention from firefighting to preventing the horrendous acts being committed.

Answer: Test Act

The Test Act (sometimes labelled the Popish Recusants Act), required public officials to swear that they did not believe in transubstantiation, and to accept the Anglican sacrament. As James felt unable to swear such an oath, he resigned his position as Lord High Admiral.

This made public his conversion, and subsequently brought about concern over the possibility of a Catholic monarch, as James was the heir presumptive to the throne. The Anglican-dominated Parliament attempted on several occasions to exclude James from the succession, culminating in what became known as the Exclusion Crisis of 1679-81, which brought about the genesis of the modern two-party political system in the UK.

Answer: Newmarket Racecourse

The Rye House Plot aimed to resolve the continuing concerns regarding the succession of a Catholic to the throne. A popular alternative to James as king was Charles II's eldest illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth, and the plotters hoped to place him on the throne. Monmouth himself is widely believed to have been involved in the plot, initially admitting it but later denying it. Tensions between James and Monmouth had been evident for several years, but this incident brought matters to a head, and even led the King to view his son, whom he had previously had an excellent relationship with, in a different light.

Answer: Duke of Monmouth

The Duke of Monmouth, the "strapping first fruit of Charles II's loins", had always hoped to become king. The opposition to his uncle James's Catholicism brought new optimism in the Duke, and he believed that great numbers would flock to his banner. However, when Monmouth landed in England, few joined in his cause, and his rebellion was quickly foiled by forces loyal to the King. James showed no mercy to his nephew, and speedily ordered his execution, despite many pleas for clemency, including from the Dowager Queen Catherine. Monmouth was beheaded on Tower Hill on 15 July 1685.

Answer: Nosebleed

At this time of his life, James's mental health was suffering, and leading to physical consequences. His nosebleeds are believed to have been caused by hypertension, and were indicative of the stress he was under in a situation such as this, when William of Orange was a great threat to James's realm.

The planned engagement by James's troops did not take place due to the incapacity of their leader, which persuaded a number of his senior commanders to defect to William's banner. There was increasingly little hope for James's success in retaining his throne.

Answer: The Great Seal of the Realm

Although there is no proof, the popular myth is that during his initial flight from Whitehall, James dropped the matrix (mould) of the Great Seal into the River Thames, thinking this would hamper efforts to call a parliament that would officially legislate his removal. James himself wrote in 1693 that he had destroyed the matrix, without detailing specifically how he accomplished this.

Answer: Four

James fathered eight children from his first marriage to Anne Hyde, with four boys and four girls being born over the course of eleven years. Of these, only the two eldest daughters, Mary and Anne, survived longer than four years. From his second marriage to Mary of Modena, James had seven children, with only the final two, James Francis Edward and Louisa Maria Teresa, surviving. Louisa, his last child, was born in 1692 during his exile in Paris.

Answer: Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye

During his exile, many remained loyal to James, and attempts occurred to restore him to the throne. In 1690, he led a force of predominantly Scottish and Irish Catholics against William's army at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland, while in 1696, an attempt was made in James's name to assassinate William.

In the same year, Louis XIV offered to make James King of Poland, which James declined for fear that this would prevent him reclaiming the throne of England. However, James reportedly lost enthusiasm for his restoration, although he provided his son with instructions on how he should govern.

Answer: Brain haemorrhage

After his death, despite James having explicitly stated in his will a wish to be buried in the parish church of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, his body was divided up, with elements going to a number of different locations. His heart was presented to the Convent of the Visitandine Nuns at Chaillot, while his brain went to the Scots College in Paris.

His entrails were placed in two separate urns, with one given to the parish church at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and the other to English Jesuit College at Saint-Omer, and flesh from his arm went to the English Augustinian nuns of the Rue St Jacques.

The rest of his body was interred in the English Benedictine Church in Paris, with the hope that it would one day be removed and reburied in Westminster Abbey. However, this was not to be; his body remained in Paris until the tomb was ransacked during the French Revolution.