Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 29.djvu/189

 of England 16 May; and, when the English fleet arrived off Schevening, he was enthusiastically received on board (23 May;, i. 127; cf. , Rebellion, vii. 498). He hoisted his flag on the London, landed with the king at Dover on 25 May, and accompanied him to London.

It was proposed in parliament to raise estates for James and the Duke of Gloucester ‘out of the confiscations of such traitors as they daily convict’ (Hist. MSS. Comm. App. to 5th Rep. pp. 18, 205). In the end (1663) it proved more convenient to settle on him the revenues of the post-office, amounting to 21,000l. a year (, Historical Notes, 1856, ii. 732). Although James had not yet caused public scandal in his relations with women, like his brother, he gave proof of a similar temperament with less discrimination. His amour with Lady Anne Carnegie (afterwards Lady Southesk), according to Pepys (v. 250), dated from the king's first coming-in; and soon after the acknowledgment of his marriage with Anne Hyde (concluded 3 Sept. 1660), he engaged in fresh inconstancies [for circumstances of this marriage, see ]. But the duchess gradually obtained a strong ascendency over him. The marriage was certainly unpopular, and James attributed to it much of the opposition soon excited against himself. Meanwhile James paid unrequited attentions to the beautiful Miss Hamilton, to the elder Miss Jennings—afterwards married to Tyrconnel, who, as Dick Talbot, was (according to, i. 416) looked upon as the chief manager of the duke's intrigues—to Lady Robarts, and to Lady Chesterfield (, ii. 76, 117, 130; cf. Memoirs of Grammont).

James took a keen interest from the first in public affairs. Early in 1661 he was in London during the outbreak of Venner's plot, and at his recommendation the disbandment of the troops was stayed; this proved the beginning, under the name of guards, of the regular army (, Constitutional History, 10th edit. ii. 314–15). He was, however, chiefly interested in the affairs of the navy. On his appointment as lord high admiral the navy board was reconstituted and enlarged. Sir William Coventry [q. v.] became secretary. Otherwise few changes were made among the heads of the official body. In January 1662 were issued his general ‘Instructions,’ afterwards (1717) printed from an imperfect copy as ‘The Œconomy of H.M.'s Navy Office.’ They are stated to have remained in force till the reorganisation of the admiralty at the beginning of the present century. His general interest in naval matters is acknowledged by Pepys, and is shown by his ‘Original Letters and other Royal Authorities,’ published under the pretentious title of ‘Memoirs of the English Affairs, chiefly Naval, 1660–73,’ probably the handiwork of Pepys. He was unable to remedy the flagrant evils in the administration of the navy, more especially as they were largely caused by want of money (, i. 314). About 1663 he obtained a grant of 800,000l., which was chiefly spent in naval stores (Life, i. 399). The inefficiency caused in the service by the employment of land-officers was distinctly encouraged by James's own example (cf., i. 306–7, , Life, ii. 326, and , Samuel Pepys, 1880).

Particular inquiries were made by the duke in the early part of 1664 into the condition of the fleet (, ii. 453, 473), when he was advocating a Dutch war, in opposition to Clarendon (, Life, ii. 237 seqq.). Besides his sympathy with the house of Orange, he had become governor of the Royal African Company (about 1664), and was thus particularly alive to the prevailing mercantile jealousies (ib. ii. 234–6; cf. Life, i. 399). As early as 1661 the name of Jamesfort had been given to a fort taken from the Dutch on the Guinea Coast by Sir Robert Holmes [q. v.], and when in 1664 the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam on Long Island was reduced, Charles II in March granted his brother a patent of it, and renamed it New York. While De Ruyter was making reprisals, the duke took advantage of the zeal for naval service among the young nobility by admitting as many volunteers as possible on his flagship (, Life, ii. 356). Mutual declarations of war having been issued (January and February 1665), the English fleet, commanded by the Duke of York, set sail for the Texel; but after maintaining a blockade of the Dutch ports for about a month, was driven home by stress of weather. Hereupon the Dutch put to sea in great force under Opdam, and gave battle to the duke in Solebay off Lowestoft early in the morning of 3 June. After a protracted conflict, in which the duke's ship, the Royal Charles, closely engaged Opdam's, which finally blew up, the Dutch fell into hopeless confusion, and only a portion of their fleet was brought off by Van Tromp. The English losses were small, and the victory if pressed home might very probably have ended the war. The duke, who had borne himself bravely in the fight, had gone to bed, leaving orders that the fleet should keep its course. Henry Brouncker, a groom of his bedchamber [see under ], afterwards delivered an order purporting to come from James, to slacken sail and thus allow the