THE REIGN OF JAMES II. IN ENGLAND.--THE INVASION OF WILLIAM, PRINCE OF
ORANGE.--FROM 1685-1688.
The accession of James was not met by any overt act of opposition.
On the contrary, it was hailed by the rejoicings of the people, and
the parliamentary leaders of the High Church party, at that moment
plotting his expulsion, received him with the usual congratulations
and addresses of loyalty. The Catholics of England and Scotland, who
were still a respectable minority, felt their long-suppressed hopes
kindle anew, and by their Irish brethren the event was hailed with
undisguised satisfaction. Nothing could shake the loyalty of this
oppressed people to the house of Stuart. The cruel exactions, broken
pledges, and studied persecutions of the last three reigns were at
once forgotten. The advent of each false king after the other, had
been represented as sure to redress the grievances which the former
one had inflicted, and after every outrage they became more steadfast
in their devotion. If, during the rebellion of 1641, their attachment
to this house was sufficient to withdraw a large portion of them from
the standard of their native chiefs, then battling for their lands
and religious liberty, how then must they have felt when the house of
Stuart presented them a Catholic king, and one who gave unmistakable
signs that justice and toleration should at last be extended to them;
that persecution for conscience sake was at an end, and that the exiled
of many years might again return to their native land!
That James knew the dangers that beset him in England, there can
scarcely be a doubt; but the measures of redress which he contemplated
being just and beneficent, he believed they would in a short time
harmonize all interests. He had faith in his own justice, but
miscalculated in attributing so noble a sense to the dominant and
intolerant nobles by whom he was surrounded, and was still more
mistaken when he expressed an abiding faith in the justice of the
English people. Yet filled with the hope of marking a glorious page
in the annals of England, he assumed the sceptre with a bold and
kingly hand. His speech before the assembled council of the nation was
all that a generous or magnanimous people could desire, and all his
subsequent acts are marked by a strict adherence to the principles
which he then enunciated. "I will endeavor," said he, "to preserve the
government of Church and State in the manner by law established. I know
that the Church of England is favorable to monarchy, and those who are
members of it have made it appear on various occasions that they were
faithful subjects. I will take particular care to defend and support
it. I know likewise that the laws of the kingdom are sufficient to make
the king as great as I could wish. As I am determined to preserve the
prerogative of my crown, so I will never deprive others of what belongs
to them. I have often hazarded my life in defence of the nation; I am
still ready to expose it to preserve its rights."
He eschewed the tendency to despotic power which his enemies
had circulated, or any design to call in question the titles or
hereditaments of such as acquired lands through the Reformation. His
object was not to disrupt but to harmonize and adjust, and blend
all interests for an onward movement in civilization. He declared
civil liberty to be the right of Catholics and Protestants alike. He
proclaimed liberty of conscience, and took immediate action to secure
it by liberating several thousand Catholics confined in the prisons
of Ireland for non-attendance on Protestant worship, and also twelve
hundred Quakers who had been imprisoned for a like offence. He declared
the abolition of all penal laws, all religious test-oaths, and even
oaths of allegiance on the assumption of civil office. He extended
the same rights to the people of Ireland and Scotland as to those
of England, and enjoined the bishops to announce in their churches
that liberty of conscience was henceforth the law of the land. Here,
'tis said, he made his first royal blunder. Proclaiming liberty of
conscience from a pulpit is hardly in accordance with that right of
denouncing heresy and schism, which every church, whether founded
on human will or divine right, has asserted from the days of Abram.
But, then, on the other hand, the Church of England, which had been
proclaiming that and every thing else the royal reformers of the last
century chose to dictate, might have announced this liberal measure of
a king, the goodness of whose motives were well understood. But they
denounced the innovation as a license to sin, though he intended only
to have it announced that persecution for conscience sake had ceased in
his dominions. The order was obeyed by some of the bishops, but by the
majority it was stubbornly resisted. The king prosecuted for contumacy.
The judges in some cases executed the royal mandate and the bishops
were imprisoned; in others they refused, and bishops and judges joined
issue in a passive resistance. Still the king bated not a tittle of the
principle laid down. The establishment of civil and religious liberty
for all classes and denominations had been the great object of his
life, and he was not to be driven from his purpose. He believed that
the majority of the nobles were tired of persecution for conscience
sake, and wished for a restoration of social harmony. He believed that
the masses yearned for it, and he calculated on their loyalty. He
believed that the Restoration was a proof that legitimacy would never
again be assailed, and he took no precautions against conspiracy; nay,
he scouted the warnings of his friends, that one was ripening among the
members of his council, and that even his own children were spies upon
his actions, and plotting his destruction. But an event soon transpired
that removed his incredulity, and awakened him to a sense of the
difficulties and dangers that beset him.
The first rebellion of the Duke of Monmouth and its result have already
been noticed. On its suppression, the chief conspirators, Shaftesbury
and Argyle, fled to the continent. The former died shortly after, but
the latter linked his fortune to that of Monmouth, plotted on, and
gave direction to the ambition of this English favorite. Repairing to
Holland, it is said that they received both counsel and a promise of
aid from the Prince of Orange to attempt another invasion. After the
death of Charles, William detached himself from this conspiracy, for
his own pretensions to the British throne had become greater than those
of Monmouth, and indeed it is hard to reconcile the conduct of William
unless we accept a charge, which is not without supporters, and which
is greatly to that Prince's discredit:--that of urging the wayward Duke
to his destruction, and thus removing an obstacle to his own ambition.
However that be, William disconnected himself from the conspiracy, and
Monmouth soon after retired to Brussels, where he was joined by Argyle
and continued his preparations for an invasion. Getting counsel and
assistance from his partisans in England and Scotland, he prepared
for a descent at the earliest opportunity; and the excitement created
by the troubles between King James and the bishops gave him at once
both a hope and a pretext. With a fleet of three ships and one hundred
followers, he landed at Lyme, in Dorsetshire, and in a few days he had
a following of above two thousand men. He proclaimed the king a traitor
and a popish usurper, and called on the country to rise in opposition
to his rule. At Taunton he was presented with a pair of colors and a
copy of the Bible, by twenty young ladies, and assumed the title of
king. Here his army increased to six thousand. At Sedgemoor he attacked
the royal forces under Feversham and Churchill, and was completely
overthrown; and, flying for shelter through the country, he was taken
and finally executed. His evil genius, Argyle, met with a similar fate;
the greatest rigor was exercised against the scattered refugees of
this ill-advised rebellion, and many of the nobles of the land were
attainted of treason.
This event opened the eyes of the king to the dangers by which he was
surrounded. The army had shown signs of disaffection. Many of the
leaders of the Protestant party in Ireland and Scotland were known to
be connected with this conspiracy; even the members of his council
were more than suspected of complicity; and he saw that his rule could
only be established by the introduction of a Catholic element into the
army. Since the passage of the "Test Act," nearly all the Catholic
officers of the army and navy had been removed. Many of these were
men of distinguished ability, and he now determined to recall them to
the service. Accordingly, in his speech to Parliament on the 9th of
November, 1685, in allusion to the rebellion of Monmouth, he introduced
the proposition in the following words: "Let no man take exception,
that there are some officers in the army not qualified, according to
the _late Test_, for their employments; the gentlemen, I must tell you,
are most of them well-known to me, and having formerly served me on
several occasions (and always approved the loyalty of their principles
by their practice), I think them now fit to be employed under me; and
will deal plainly with you, that after having the benefit of their
services in such time of need and danger, I will neither expose them to
disgrace, nor myself to the want of them, if there should be another
rebellion to make them necessary to me. I am afraid some men may be
so wicked, to hope and expect that a difference may happen between
you and me upon this occasion. * * * I will not apprehend that such
a misfortune can befall us as a division, or even a coldness between
me and you; nor that any thing can shake you in your steadiness and
loyalty to me, who, by God's blessing, will ever make you all returns
of kindness and protection, with a resolution to venture even my own
life in the defence of the true interests of this kingdom."
It is scarcely necessary to say that this met the opposition of
Parliament; and so far from being received in the liberal and loyal
spirit which the king seems to have anticipated, it was denounced as a
measure for the abolition of the Protestant religion. The revocation of
the "_Edict of Nantes_," by Louis XIV., occurring about the same time,
had filled England with Protestant refugees, which gave strength to
the arguments of the opposition, and excited a spirit of retaliation
in the English people. The king, however, persevered, and tested the
legality of the "Test," in the person of Sir Edward Hales, who had
held the commission of colonel in the army, and who had lately become
a Catholic. The judges decided in his favor, but the king was accused
of intimidation. This opened the way to reform in the army, and
gratified the Catholics, but it raised the spirit of opposition among
the bishops and leaders of the High Church party in a corresponding
degree. Not deterred by this opposition, the king persevered in his
measures of redress; and called Dissenters and Catholics to office
wherever opportunity occurred; and, says Hume, "Not content with this
violent and dangerous innovation, he appointed certain regulators to
examine the qualifications of electors, and directions were given
them to exclude all such as adhered to the test and penal statutes."
In all of which one fails to see, notwithstanding the exaggeration of
Hume, any attempt at injustice, or proscription. It was in fact, from
beginning to end, an effort to establish equality and right on the one
part, and to preserve and perpetuate an odious ascendency on the other.
That many of the steps taken by the king to reach his object may have
been imprudent, and must, from the surrounding circumstances, have met
with bitter opposition, is not to be wondered at; but that his views
were right, and his object wise and magnanimous, cannot be denied.
The exclusion of Nonconformists, from social and legal equality, in
a former reign, produced a civil war, which most Protestant writers
vindicate as necessary, and it is hard to see why the same writers
advocate the permanent exclusion of the Catholics, who were certainly
entitled to equal consideration. Meanwhile the opposition ran high,
and the High Church party being now united by the death of Monmouth,
took council throughout the three kingdoms, and determined to call in
William Henry, Prince of Orange, as their last hope to preserve their
cherished and glorious ascendency.
The title--Prince of Orange--is derived from the town of Orange
(ancient Awrasio), in the southeast of France, department of Vaucluse.
In the middle ages this town was the capital of a principality, which
for a considerable period belonged to the house of Nassau; and William
Henry was then the incumbent both of the title and the domain. After
his death the title passed to his heir, the King of Prussia, and is
still retained in the royal family of Holland; but the principality
whence the title is derived, has been since ceded to France. The father
of William, who was Stadtholder of the Dutch provinces, died in 1650,
and the office, which was not inherent, but elective, remained in
abeyance, under the management of the brothers De Witt, until 1672,
when England and France declared war against Holland. William laid
claim to the office of his father, but was opposed by the De Witts.
The emergency pointed out William as the choice of those opposed to
the claims of France, and the De Witts, still opposing, became the
victims of an assassination, said to have been concocted by William.
This placed William at the head both of civil and military affairs,
which, however unscrupulous were the means of attainment, he conducted
with great ability, and saved Holland from subjugation to the French
king. From 1672 to 1677, the war continued with various success. At the
close of that year's campaign, William visited England by invitation,
and Charles, in order to terminate a war which was unpopular with the
majority of his nobles, acceded to the proposal of his counsellors,
to pave the way for an alliance with Holland, by espousing Mary, the
eldest daughter of James, then Duke of York, to the Stadtholder. This
marriage, which took place shortly after, gave William, who was then
both nephew and son-in-law to James, the right of heir-presumptive;
and, the immediate result of it was a peace between England and
Holland, at Nimeguen, in 1678.
William was a very ill-favored prince, weak of body, ungraceful in
gait and manner, and of a forbidding countenance at once expressive
of cruelty and unscrupulousness. He was not a statesman, nor yet an
able diplomatist, but possessed a keenness of perception, that enabled
him to see through the motives of men, a reticence of habit, which
protected him from importunity, and a will subservient to the call of
ambition. Yet though he was the acknowledged head of the Protestant
league, and conformed to the ceremonies of exterior worship, he was a
most confirmed sceptic, and averse to all religious disquisition. He,
however, possessed those qualities which the enemies of James most
desired. He was ambitious of power, an able soldier, the ostensible
champion of Protestantism, and the irreconcilable enemy of the French
monarch.
From the time of his marriage with Mary, he was ambitious of the
English throne, chiefly, 'tis said, that he might check the power
of his detested enemy, Louis, and the connection gave him a valid
title, should the king, his father-in-law, die without legitimate
male issue. The Duke of Monmouth, who was an English favorite, being
removed, and the Duke of Berwick, the natural son of James, and nephew
of Lord Churchill, afterwards Duke of Marlborough, cherishing no such
pretensions, William's fears were quieted, and it is even said that he
received the first advances of the High Church party with indifference.
But rumors of the queen's pregnancy excited the fears of William;
he became apprehensive, listened to their appeals, a conspiracy was
set on foot through the agency of Bishop Burnet, Sydney, Peyton, and
Gwynne, and he began to organize a military force for the invasion of
England. The materials were ready to his hand. "The Thirty Years' War"
had overspread Europe with adventurers from every nation, and he soon
gathered to his standard an army of the most daring spirits of the age,
consisting of Dutch, Danes, Swedes, Huguenots, and Germans, always
ready and eager for any enterprise that offered fame or fortune to
their arms.
On the 10th of June, 1688, while these preparations were carried
stealthily forward, the Queen of England gave birth to a son. This
event removed all hesitation on the part of the Prince of Orange, and
precipitated "the Revolution." From this time forward negotiations
between the Prince and the English conspirators were pressed with
earnestness and vigor; every concession demanded by the Prince was
yielded without question by the agents of the Church party, and he
bound himself to the invasion and the maintenance of Protestant
supremacy. Still the utmost secrecy was observed on both sides, and the
Earl of Sunderland, who was in the king's confidence, and at the same
time in league with William, kept the one impressed with a sense of
security, and apprised the other of all that transpired in the national
councils.
An incident which occurred at this time may serve to show the animus of
party spirit, and illustrate the intriguing and unscrupulous character
of William. It had been prearranged between the Prince and his English
partisans, that in case the queen gave birth to a son it should be
declared suppositious. Accordingly, William prepared an instrument
to that effect, to be published on his arrival in England; and yet,
with characteristic duplicity, he dispatched Zuylestein, ostensibly
to congratulate the king on the birth of his son,--the Prince of
Wales,--but covertly to complete arrangements with the heads of the
conspiracy in England.[3] By such artifices the king was kept in
complete ignorance of the storm gathering around him, until the summer
had nearly passed, when Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnell,--then deputy for
Ireland,--received information from the captain of a Dutch trading
vessel, of the extensive preparations going on in Holland, and of the
designs of the Prince of Orange on the English throne.[4] Tyrconnell
lost no time in communicating this intelligence to the king; and a
letter which he received shortly after from his minister at the Hague,
informing him that a powerful invasion must be soon expected, followed
by private information from the French king to the same effect, at last
opened his eyes to his real situation. M. Bonrepos, the envoy of Louis,
who brought this intelligence, accompanied it with the offer of 30,000
French troops, to suppress the invasion before it could make head;
but as the evil counsel of Sunderland still prevailed, on the ground
that such an armament from France would excite the indignation of his
English soldiers, and precipitate the catastrophe which he wished to
avoid, the generous offer of Louis was declined. James continued in a
state of the greatest bewilderment. All the boldness and decision of
his earlier years seemed to have deserted him; and at a time when only
men of approved loyalty should be trusted, he recalled to his service
the contumacious officials of the late reign, and so paved the way for
the success of the impending Revolution.
Preliminaries being arranged between William and his English adherents,
by the beginning of October, 1688, he collected his forces at
Holvoetsluys, a port in the south of Holland, lying over against the
eastern coast of England, and, under the advice of Bishop Burnet, put
to sea toward the end of the same month. His armament consisted of
fifty ships of war, twenty frigates, four hundred transports, and some
smaller craft, carrying 14,000 men, with arms and equipments for 20,000
more. The van and rear of this fleet were commanded by Admiral Herbert
and Vice-Admiral Evertzen, respectively, having the Prince of Orange
and his military adherents in the centre. All the ships carried the
English flag, having the arms of the Prince emblazoned at the top, with
the words:
"RELIGION AND LIBERTY,"
and at the bottom with the device of the house of Nassau,
"I WILL MAINTAIN."
In his train were many English, Irish, and Scotch refugees, and
three hundred Huguenot officers, the principal of whom were Marshal
Schomberg; his son, Count Schomberg; Caillemotte and his brother
Ruvigny; Mellioneire, Cambon, Tettau, and others of approved valor and
of great military experience.
During the voyage a storm arose, the whole fleet was scattered, some of
the ships foundered at sea, and the rest had to put back for several
days. William, however, continued his course, and arrived safe at
Torbay, in the county of Devon, on the 5th of November, 1688, with
about 700 followers. It being the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot,
he availed himself of the circumstance, and appealing to the passions
and prejudices of the people, stated the object of his invasion to be
the protection of the Protestant religion from the machinations of
"Popery." But this not having the desired effect, he felt somewhat
disconcerted, and after spending a few days in the exercise of his
marines and being joined by the remainder of his forces, he made the
necessary disposition and took up his march for Exeter. Here, finding
that the country gentlemen and clergy of the Established Church fled at
his approach, and that none of the leading conspirators came to meet
him, he began to think that he had been deceived by false promises;
and with a presence of mind that rarely deserted him, he at once had
recourse to intimidation. Accusing them of their twofold treachery,
he apprised them of his intention of furnishing the king with a list
of their names, and of then returning to Holland and abandoning them
to their fate. This soon aroused them to a sense of their position.
Lords Colchester and Godfrey fled from London in the night and joined
his standard; others came in after these, and with a force continually
increasing as he went, he continued his march towards London.
Upon receiving information of William's descent upon the English
coast, King James mustered an army of 30,000 men, and marched towards
Salisbury to oppose him. On the way, Lord Cornbury, under pretence of
attacking an outpost of the enemy, took his own regiment and three
others and abandoned the royal cause: further on, the Duke of Grafton,
Colonel Barclay, and Lord Churchill, Lieutenant-General of the Guards,
openly deserted. Seeing the defection continue, the king retired to
Andover, whence Prince George of Denmark, the young Duke of Ormond,
and other distinguished personages, fled in the night, and joined
the standard of the invader. Overwhelmed with shame and confusion he
returned to London, but here he found that his daughter, Anne, under
pretence of fearing his anger on account of her husband's defection,
had left the palace and taken refuge with his enemies. He had always
been a most affectionate and indulgent father. The ingratitude of his
elder daughter, though it pressed heavily on his heart, was borne
with becoming fortitude, but that of the younger, not having the same
extenuating causes, outraged all the dearest sensibilities of the
father; his spirit was broken, and, weeping in his bereavement, he
exclaimed: "God help me, my own children have forsaken me!" His queen
and infant son demanding his first attention, he committed them to the
care of the Count de Lausun, by whom they were conveyed in safety to
France, and dispatching Lord Feversham with a letter of remonstrance to
William, he determined to remain in London himself, and bide the issue
of events. But contrary to honorable usage, Feversham was imprisoned,
the palace was surrounded by Dutch guards, in the night, and the
king was notified that he should quit London by 12 o'clock next day.
Accordingly, he was sent under arrest to Rochester, whence he escaped
to Picardy, and arrived at St. Germains on the 25th of December,
deserted by all his family but the Duke of Berwick, and the Grand Prior
Fitzjames.
The departure of the king was a signal for the uprising of the London
mob; the Catholic inhabitants were forced to seek refuge in flight;
their property was marked out for destruction; the houses of the
Spanish and Florentine envoys were rifled, and William entered the
city by the blaze of the few religious houses which had been erected
during the short reign of the expatriate king. He lost no time in
arranging his terms of settlement with his new subjects and in opening
negotiations with the leaders of the Church party in Ireland and
Scotland. On the 12th of February, the Princess Mary joined him in
England, and they were proclaimed king and queen; the Prince of Wales
was debarred the right of succession, William was invested in the
administration, and his children by Mary--should he be blessed with
any--were to be endowed with the right of succession.