James II (Penguin Monarchs) by David Womersley

Author:David Womersley
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141977072
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2015-02-08T16:00:00+00:00

The harsh treatment of Oates and its paradoxical effect on public opinion accurately set the keynote for James’s reign. The measures on which the new king would rely to cement and proclaim his authority in the event served only to undermine and weaken it.

As might have been expected, there were changes in the royal household. Halifax was made Lord President of the Council, but real power lay elsewhere. James’s two brothers-in-law, the Earl of Rochester and the Earl of Clarendon, were made respectively Lord Treasurer and Lord Privy Seal. Although they were both staunch members of the Church of England, James clearly believed that they could be trusted implicitly. More surprising was the rise of the Earl of Sunderland.4 Like Halifax, Sunderland had voted for Exclusion. But he had since insinuated himself into the confidence of the queen, and soon became the dominant figure in James’s administration. In private life a reckless gambler, Sunderland viewed politics in a similar light. He had no settled policies or durable commitments, just as a gambler has no deeper attachment to red than to black, or to spades than to clubs. His sole objective seems to have been to survive, if possible to thrive, and this dictated a particular stance towards the throne: ‘He wondered anybody would be so silly as to dispute with kings; for if they would not take good advice there was no way of dealing with them, but by running into their measures till they had ruined themselves.’5 This lack of challenge to James’s wishes would eventually give rise to a paranoid Jacobite interpretation of Sunderland’s conduct, namely that he was secretly in the counsels of William of Orange, and had encouraged James in policies which he knew would prove ruinous. So thought James’s natural son, the Duke of Berwick:

It is true, that on several occasions, perhaps too little circumspection had been used [in the pursuit of the King’s business], which had given rise to false ideas: but it is equally certain, that, independent of the indiscreet zeal of the catholics, the Earl of Sunderland had contributed to this more than any other person; and that, with a view of ruining the King, and of paving the way for the enterprizes of the Prince of Orange, who had long ago gained him over.6

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