Why was James II and VII (same person), the last Roman Catholic monarch of Britain, not forced to convert to Anglicanism?
score:4
There was a Restoration of King Charles II in 1660 that resulted from the collapse of the Cromwell regime through the death of Oliver Cromwell, and the inability of his son to grasp the reins of power.
The restoration of the Anglican church as initially seen as a "compromise" between the pro-Cromwell Presbyterians, the "centrist" Anglicans, and the Catholics *the other extreme), who included Charles II and his brother James II.
During Charles' lifetime, opinion was split was to whether Charles II's (and James') catholicism would be tolerated, with the Tories for, and the Whigs against the position. There was an uneasy "truce" on this matter because of Charles II's personal popularity.
After Charles II died, James II who inherited throne was unpopular, and his unpopularity led to the Glorious Revolution and the revocation of his right, and that of all future kings,to be anything other than Anglican, possibly even to this day. The reason that James II was not "forced" to convert to Anglcism was because after he was overthrown, he chose exile instead.
Upvote:-2
In a nutshell, Elizabeth died without children.
The Scottish King, James VI was invited to take the English crown and merge the Scottish and English crowns together.
James was a Protestant so this posed no problem. He became James I of England. As he was already James VI of Scotland, both numbers were used.
His son is Charles I who is the king executed during the English Civil War. Charles I is followed by his oldest son Charles II who returns from exile in France. He is well liked but dies childless.
The younger son James II and VII then becomes King. Problem is, James had become a Catholic while in exile in France. Suddenly, after 150 years of protestant rule a Catholic is back on the throne.
He lasts about 3 years until the Protestant establishment in both England and Scotland make an alliance with Holland and bring over William of Orange who has Anglo-Scottish royal blood.
A number of important events happen around this time.
Darien disaster - Scotland attempts to create a colony in the new world. It fails and the investors lose pretty much everything. Scotland practically bankrupts itself and is forced into parliamentary union with England to cover its debts.
It's made law that Catholics cannot be monarch.
Battle of the Boyne - last real chance of Catholics to turn the war around ends in their defeat. The last Catholic armies are allowed to flee to France which takes much of the Irish aristocracy out of the country - flight of the wild geese.
William of Orange is the reason the color orange is used in Ireland to represent the protestants including on the Irish flag.
The name James in Latin is Jacobus. Those who supported the exiled King became known as Jacobites. They launch several rebellions over the next 50 years ending with the defeat of Prince Charles Stuart's army at Culloden in 1746.
After that the Jacobites were finished and there was no chance of a Catholic monarch reigning in Britain.
Upvote:-1
This question was extensively debated during the reign of his predecessor Charles II and defined the politics of the late 1670s and early 1680s. You can read extensively about this by searching on the phrase "Exclusion Crisis". Simply put, those who wanted to exclude James from the succession lost that particular battle at that time.
Upvote:3
To answer this one, go back a little to January 1649. This is a speech by James II's father, Charles I, at his trial.
I would know by what power I am called hither... I would know by what authority, I mean lawful; there are many unlawful authorities in the world; thieves and robbers by the high - ways ...
Remember, I am your King, your lawful King, and what sins you bring upon your heads, and the judgement of God upon this land. Think well upon it, I say, think well upon it, before you go further from one sin to a greater ...
I have a trust committed to me by God, by old and lawful descent, I will not betray it, to answer a new unlawful authority; therefore resolve me that, and you shall hear more of me. I do stand m ore for the liberty of my people, than any here that come to be my pretended judges ... I do not come here as submitting to the Court. I will stand as much for the privilege of the House of Commons, rightly understood, as any man here whatsoever: I see no House of Lords here, that may constitute a Parliament.
Let me see a legal authority warranted by the Word of God, the Scriptures, or warranted by the constitutions of the Kingdom, and I will answer.
Going back a little further still, before the civil war, the King's opponents tried to challenge the legality of the Ship Money tax in the courts, on the grounds that taxes not approved by parliament were illegal. In 1636, a judge in this case called Lord Berkeley made the following comment in his decision.
The law, knows no such king-yoking policy. The law is an old and trusty servant of the king's; it is his instrument or means which he useth to govern his people by. I never read or heard that Lex was Rex, but it is common and most true that Rex is Lex, for he is Lex loquens, a living, a speaking, an acting law.
In 1660, the restoration swept away all innovations made by the Commonwealth. In the eyes of most Britons, the treasonous ideas of the parliamentarians had been discredited by the lawlessness, tyranny and hardship of the past two decades.
So, you ask why, in the 1680s, the king was not 'forced' to convert to Anglicanism. He could not be forced to do anything, except unlawfully by force, which would break the state. After putting to end, as they saw it, an era of chaos caused by treason against the king, Britain's elite were understandably reluctant to make the same mistake again.
Upvote:8
The law requiring that the monarch be Protestant was passed in 1701 (This was ultimately due to James' behaviour which led to his deposition) As such, the answer is, because there was no such requirement.
More post
- 📝 What was the societal structure of Celtic culture in the Hallstatt period?
- 📝 Why are baseball pitches that miss the strike zone called "balls"?
- 📝 Did Tirol annex land (right flank of Val d'Avigna) from Switzerland between 1859 and 1869?
- 📝 Were the Barons who pushed King John to Sign the Magna Carta descended from the Normans?
- 📝 Where there any female soldiers in the Soviet army who partook in the mass rapes in eastern Germany?
- 📝 How were maps drawn and printed in the late 19th-early 20th centuries?
- 📝 When was the first national anthem?
- 📝 Was the Maltese Falcon a real historical artifact?
- 📝 Was Castro City ever a city?
- 📝 What kind of radio equipment is depicted in this Vietnam era picture?
- 📝 What's the origin of celebrating the anniversary of the death of a famous person rather than their birth?
- 📝 Why didn't the Germanic tribes harry the Roman troops to distraction when Caesar built the bridges across the Rhine?
- 📝 What is the "bag on a stick" Hercules is holding in this picture?
- 📝 How did the maximum strengths of alcoholic beverages in Western Europe increase from wine which Romans watered to 80 proof to absinthe?
- 📝 What's the origin of the movement to withdraw the United Kingdom from the European Union?
- 📝 When and why did round coins become a practical standard?
- 📝 How did Mongol nomads acquire metal weapons?
- 📝 Is there a name for the WPA Art Style?
- 📝 Know of any historical tales in which a man kills the woman he loves as a sacrifice in the name of duty, religion, etc.?
- 📝 How densely populated were the Americas prior to European colonization?
- 📝 Did any civil resistence against the allied occupation of Japan exist?
- 📝 Was "the modern c**ktail" intended to mask the foul taste of Prohibition-era liquor?
- 📝 What language did Nazi German occupying forces speak in France?
- 📝 Are there any contemporary diaries about the Yugoslav Wars?
- 📝 After their rise to power in 1932, were any of the elections or referenda under the Nazis legitimate?
- 📝 How big was the Golden Horde?
- 📝 Was Bohemia part of the Frankish Empire in 814?
- 📝 Under European feudalism, were the distribution of armies (vassals and fiefdoms) based on a coherent idea?
- 📝 What were the plans for governance of the Jerusalem International Zone?
- 📝 Why have the economies of North and South Korea diverged since 1970?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Why was James II and VII (same person), the last Roman Catholic monarch of Britain, not forced to convert to Anglicanism?
- 📝 Why was Roman painting so inferior to the sculpture and architecture of the same period?
- 📝 Who was the last person "Hanged, Drawn, and Quartered" under British jurisdiction?
- 📝 Why was ancient Christianity more successful than the Roman pantheon and Judaism in gaining followers?
- 📝 When was the last moment that Dutch, German and Swiss German were the same language?
- 📝 Why was Africa colonized last of the continents in the Age of Discovery?
- 📝 Why were the drawings of Colossus burnt after WW2 and why was its very existence "of course" kept secret?
- 📝 Why were British ships not of the same quality as French and Spanish ships until the latter part of the 18th century?
- 📝 When was the last time a reigning monarch personally participated in battle?
- 📝 Why was the Roman Empire considered an empire rather than a kingdom (again)?
- 📝 What was the average height of Roman men and women?
- 📝 When and why was the samurai class abolished?
- 📝 How and why was the boundary between West and East Berlin decided to be where it was?
- 📝 Why was the US so pro-China and so anti-Japan before WW2?
- 📝 Why was the Red Army successful against the Japanese in 1939 but perform poorly against Finland 1939-40 and early part of WW2?
- 📝 Why was the Cold War carried out over the whole world instead of between Siberia and Alaska?
- 📝 What was the life expectancy of an ancient Roman child and adult?
- 📝 Why was the last battle of the War of 1812 fought fully half a year after the official end of the war?
- 📝 Why was slavery profitable in the Southern colonies and not New England?
- 📝 Who was the richest person in the world at the start and end of WW2?
- 📝 Why did Japan not withdraw from China as its pacific front was crumbling and the threat of US invasion imminent?
- 📝 After the USS Reuben James was sunk (1941 Oct 31) by Germany, why didn't the USA join the war?
- 📝 Why was an SS commander dismissed and charged for the mistreatment of Jewish prisoners?
- 📝 Why did the Sassanid and the Eastern Roman Empire fail to make a lasting peace?
- 📝 Why was the government expenditures of the Roman Empire very low compared to modern governments?
- 📝 Why was Bulgaria at war with both the Allied and the Axis at the end of WWII?
- 📝 Inquiry into the nature and roots of the temporal power of the Roman Catholic Pope:
- 📝 Why did antique guns and swords from the Franco-Prussian War make part of the demilitarization program to which Germany was subjected?
- 📝 Why was Italy unified under the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia and not under a stronger state?
- 📝 Why was the first production PzKpfw V (Panther) called the Ausf.D, and the second production version called the Ausf.A?