James II and VII (14 October 1633 – 16 September 1701) was king of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1685 to 1688. He was King James II in England and Ireland, and King James VII in Scotland. He was also Duke of Normandy from 31 December 1660. He lost his kingdoms in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He did not succeed in taking them back in a war, and he spent the rest of his life in France.
The belief that James, not William III or Mary II, was the one true ruler became known as Jacobitism (from Jacobus or Iacobus, Latin for James). James made one serious attempt to recover his throne when he landed in Ireland in 1689. After his defeat at the Battle of the Boyne in the summer of 1690, he returned to France, living the rest of his life under the protection of King Louis XIV. His son James Francis Edward Stuart (The Old Pretender) and his grandson Charles Edward Stuart (The Young Pretender and Bonnie Prince Charlie) attempted to restore the Jacobite line after James's death, but failed.
↑J. L. Chester, The Marriage, Baptismal, and Burial Registers of the Collegiate Church or Abbey of St. Peter, Westminster, Volume 10 (Harleian Society, 1876), p. 201
![James II & VII[a]'s signature](File:JamesIISig.svg)
