Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 29.djvu/187

 by James, and portraits of the king by the former are also at Windsor, Holyrood, and Hampton Court. From a miniature by Hilliard (1617) Vandyck painted a portrait, which was engraved by F. White. A painting by George Jameson belongs to the Marquis of Lothian. Prints were engraved by Vertue after Van Somer, and by R. White after Cornelius Janssen.



JAMES II (1633–1701), king of England, Scotland, and Ireland, second son of Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria, was born at St. James's Palace 14 (not 15) Oct. 1633. Soon after his christening he was created duke of York and Albany. At Easter 1642 he was, in defiance of the prohibition of parliament, taken by the Marquis of Hertford to York, whence he was, 22 April, sent forward to Hull, with the object of facilitating the king's entrance on the following day. He was allowed to return unmolested with his father, when admission was refused (, Rebellion, ii. 385). After narrowly escaping capture at Edgehill, he accompanied the king to Oxford, where he remained almost continuously till the surrender of the city, 24 June 1646. In accordance with the articles of capitulation, he was handed over to the parliamentary commissioners. Sir George Ratcliffe remained in attendance upon him till he was removed to London, when all his servants, down to a favourite dwarf, were dismissed. He was now, with the Duke of Gloucester and the Princess Elizabeth, placed under the guardianship of the Earl of Northumberland (Life, i. 29–30). The children were allowed to visit their father in June 1647 at Caversham, and in August at Hampton Court and Sion House (, Rebellion, v. 453–4, 471; cf. Life, p. 51). Attempts, made at the king's instigation, to effect the Duke of York's escape in the winters of 1646–7 and 1647–8 failed. The duke was examined by a committee of both houses, and permitted to remain at St. James's Palace, where he discreetly refused to receive even a secret letter from the queen. His escape was effected under cover of a game at hide and seek, 20 April 1648. He was taken to the river and, disguised in women's clothes, to Middelburg and Dort. He settled at the Hague with his sister the Princess of Orange, which led to a coolness between him and his brother Charles, and many quarrels followed among his attendants (Life, i. 33–7, 43–4;, Rebellion, vi. 33–6, 139–40; arts. supra, , and , first ).

Early in January 1649 James, by his mother's orders, quitted the Hague for Paris, which he reached 13 Feb., and spent some months there and at St. Germains. On 19 Sept. he accompanied Prince Charles to Jersey, and showed some seamanship on the occasion (Life, i. 47). At Jersey he spent nearly a twelvemonth, in the course of which he lost another favourite dwarf, ‘M. Bequers’ (, Journal ap. Hist. MSS. Comm. 2nd Rep. App. (1871), p. 164). On his return he soon tired of his dependence upon the queen-dowager (, Correspondence, iv. 203). It is quite unproved that his mother at this time sought to convert him (, p. 17). He disliked Sir Edward Herbert and Sir George Ratcliffe, while Lord Byron's moderating influence was overpowered by Berkeley (, Life, i. 