JAMES II. A MADDENING KING
Although a Good Man, James II was a Bad King and behaved in such an
irritating and arbitrary way that by the end of his reign the people
had all gone mad.
JUDGE JEFFREYS
One of the first things that happened was a rebellion by Monmouth, an
indiscriminate son of Charles II who, landing incorrectly in Somerset,
was easily defeated at Newbury, Sedgehill, Marston Moor, Newbury,
etc. (see Civil War). The Rebels were ferociously dealt with by the
memorable Judge Jeffreys who was sent out by James as a Justice in Ire
in the West, where he made some furious remarks about the prisoners,
known as “The Bloody Asides.”
[Illustration: Bloody Asides]
MADNESSES OF JAMES II
James II further enraged his subjects by
(_a_) attempting to repeal the Habeas Corpus Act, saying that nobody
might have a body after all, and
(_b_) claiming the Dispensing Power which was a threat to revive
Pride’s Purge and do the dispensing of it himself;
(_c_) suspending (probably a modified form of hanging) the
Vice-Chancellor at Cambridge, who was apparently mad too, for
refusing to have a Benedictine.
ENGLAND’S ANSWER
The final and irreparable madness of the people was brought on by
James’s action in bringing to trial Seven Bishops (Bancroft, Sancroft
and Sacheveral others) for refusing to read Charles II’s Declaration
of Indulgence (which they thought would be dangerous under the
circumstances), and when in addition it became known that James had
confined his infant son and heir in a warming-pan the people lost
control of themselves altogether and, lighting an enormous number of
candles, declared that _the answer was an Orange_. James was thus
compelled to abdicate.