Two allies in the effort to bring religious toleration and freedom of conscience to England were born on the same date, in 1633 and 1644, respectively: James, the Duke of York (later James II) and William Penn, the Quaker founder of Pennsylvania.
On October 14, 1633, King Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria welcomed the birth of their second son and third child, further securing the succession. James was titled the Duke of York. During the English Civil War he was captured by Fairfax but escaped to Holland.
Anne Hyde, the Duchess of York had also become a Catholic and died in
1671--James then married Mary Beatrice of Modena, a Catholic Italian princess.
Of course, the crucial event of his life--at least as it influenced his reign--was the birth of his only son, James Francis Edward on June 10, 1688. In combination with his efforts to make religious toleration and freedom of conscience the law the in England, this birth of a Catholic prince led to the Glorious Revolution, as his daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange deposed him in 1688.
His reputation for courage in battle suffered after the invasion of William
of Orange. He panicked and fled for France. Before the Battle of the Boyne he
suffered nose bleeds and did not execute a successful battle plan. The
Encyclopedia Britannica in 1910 offered this harsh assessment:
"The political ineptitude of James is clear; he often showed firmness
when conciliation was needful, and weakness when resolution alone could have
saved the day. Moreover, though he mismanaged almost every political problem
with which he personally dealt, he was singularly tactless and impatient of
advice. But in general political morality he was not below his age, and in his
advocacy of toleration decidedly above it. He was more honest and sincere than
Charles II, more genuinely patriotic in his foreign policy, and more consistent
in his religious attitude. That his brother retained the throne while James lost
it is an ironical demonstration that a more pitiless fate awaits the ruler whose
faults are of the intellect, than one whose faults are of the heart."
The line, "But in general political morality he was not below his age, and
in his advocacy of toleration decidedly above it" does give James the credit he
deserves although it does not go far enough. James did not just advocate
toleration or tolerance; his Declaration of Indulgence addresses freedom of
conscience for his subjects.
Also, as I have alluded to Edward Corps' The Court in Exile
before, he seems to have repented both for the moral harm he did in being
unfaithful to both his wives and for the political errors he made in ruling
while he lived in France at St. Germain-en-Laye. James became prayerful and
devout, and more sincerely lived up to his religious beliefs.
James II's ally in the campaign for religious liberty and freedom of conscience was William Penn, born on November 14 in 1644. He was an early Quaker leader, the founder of Pennsylvania, and, in a way, the founder of Philadelphia, according to this wikipedia article. On October 21, 1692William and Mary removed him from the governorship of Pennsylvania, accusing him of being a Papist--all because he had worked with James II on religious freedom in England.
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