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James II an announcement of exceptions, to which Macaulay (ii. 642) attributes a decisive influence upon the debates of the Convention parliament (see, iii. 509). Other diplomatic overtures made by James and Melfort, who acted as his prime minister, were equally unsuccessful. Help from Louis XIV was out of the question until the French king was at peace with the emperor (Les derniers Stuarts, ii. 514). James's vice-chamberlain, Colonel Porter, was sent (February 1689) to Rome to request the support of Pope Innocent XI (ib. pp. 482 seqq., 489–490, 492–4). James also appealed to the Emperor Leopold I (ib. ii. 495 seqq.), and applied to several Italian courts (ib. pp. 515 seqq.). The project of a European crusade on his behalf proved one of James's most complete delusions (ib. ii. 498–501; cf. State Papers, 1660–89, pp. 446; Life, ii. 326–7). In August William III joined the grand alliance.

Some English statesmen were equally deluded in believing that James might be restored if only he would desert the papists. A reaction undoubtedly set in, and competent observers thought a landing by James in either England or Scotland had even chances of success ( ap., iv. 388). Louis XIV, however, urged an expedition to Ireland.

In January 1689 James was in communication with Tyrconnel in Ireland. The French government sent thither an agent in whom James placed great confidence (St. Ruth), and James soon followed in person. Accompanied by Berwick, Powis, Doncaster, Dover, Melfort, d'Avaux, the French ambassador, Bishop Cartwright, and half a dozen inevitable jesuits (Les derniers Stuarts, ii. 527), he sailed from Brest on 17 March with ships and men furnished by Louis. While on board he addressed a tardy manifesto to his Scottish subjects, peremptorily ordering a return to their allegiance by the end of the month (Life, ii. 325, 342–3). He landed at Kinsale 12 March, and two days later was met at Cork by Tyrconnel, who inspired him with great hopefulness (Les derniers Stuarts, ii. 278). On 24 March he made his entry into Dublin; on the following day summoned a parliament for 7 May, and then left Dublin to take part in the siege of Londonderry. He twice changed his mind on the way, and finally, when his summons of surrender was refused, returned to Dublin, where he ordered a Te Deum for a naval skirmish in Bantry Bay. On 7 May he opened the Irish parliament with a speech insisting on his intention to grant liberty of conscience and asking for the relief of those injured by the Act of Settlement (Life, ii. 355–6). An act of toleration was accordingly passed, followed by a corresponding declaration. Other acts annulled the supreme authority of the English parliament, and transferred the greater part of the tithes to the catholic clergy. Very numerous confiscations followed. After temporising, he assented to the repeal of the Act of Settlement and to the wholesale Act of Attainder. The persecutions and emigrations which ensued, the raising of the siege of Londonderry (1 Aug.), the almost simultaneous defeat of the Irish army and consequent raising of the siege of Enniskillen, and the news from Scotland of the dispersion of the clans after Killiecrankie impaired the strength of the Jacobite cause, and in the middle of August Schomberg landed at Belfast.

James's exchequer was empty, notwithstanding the debasement of the coin (see, i. 304–8), and he was a helpless, though reluctant, tool in the hands of the Irish party. James joined his army at Drogheda (10 Sept.), but Schomberg refused to give battle to his superior forces, and in November both armies went into winter quarters. James hopefully contemplated a descent upon Scotland or England in the spring (, iii. 36). But he did nothing to improve the discipline of his troops, though in the spring of 1690 they were reinforced by a French force under Lauzun. Shortly after the opening of the campaign William III himself took the command of his army. James, in deference to Lauzun's advice, left Dublin 16 June and advanced as far as Dundalk. He then fell back to encamp, about twenty-six thousand strong, in a better position on the south side of the Boyne, pitching his own tent on the height of Donore. In the battle of the Boyne (1 July) James, by his own showing (Life, ii. 395–401), played an irresolute part. When the day was decided he was prevailed upon by Lauzun to quit the field, and he reached Dublin the same night. He hastily summoned the members of his council present in Dublin, and early on the following evening bade farewell to the lord mayor and chief catholic citizens. He then rode, ‘leisurely’ (ib. p. 403), to Bray and through the Wicklow hills to Arklow, where alarming rumours induced him to ‘mend his pace.’ From Waterford, which he reached early on 3 July, he sailed to Kinsale, where he found a squadron of small French vessels. He landed about 23 July at Brest (, iii. 179), and there he heard of the French victory off Beachy Head (30 June). This, as he afterwards declared, convinced him of the wisdom of his plan of withdrawing from Ireland in order to attempt a landing in England (Life, ii. 408–9; cf. ib. p. 401). Louis XIV