James II c1690, by an unknown artist

According to reports in the UK media, Rachel Reeves, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, has resolved to replace the portraits of men that hang in the state room of her new official home, No.11 Downing Street, with portraits of, or painted by, women.

Apparently, first out the door will be James II. Looking at his portrait, it’s perhaps understandable why a 21st-century left-wing female cabinet minister wouldn’t want this king looking down his nose at her from the state room wall.

So who was the soon-to-be-jetisoned James? He’s probably one of Britain’s lesser-known monarchs, mostly because he reigned for only three years, from 1685 to 1688. He was deposed during the Glorious Revolution – by this time, the largely Protestant population would no longer tolerate Catholic monarchs who believed they answered only to God.

James II was the last Catholic monarch of England, Scotland and Ireland, and was part of the Stuart dynasty – the son of Charles I, grandson of James I, and great-grandson of Mary, Queen of Scots.

During the 17th century, England underwent dramatic political and religious upheaval, with the clash between Royalists and Parliamentarians ultimately leading to civil war and the beheading of King Charles I. A Commonwealth was subsequently established under Oliver Cromwell.

When Cromwell died, the people were ready to give the royals another chance (Cromwell’s rule had lacked fun). After a nine-month stint as Lord Protector, Cromwell’s son Richard (‘Tumbledown Dick’) renounced power, and Charles I’s eldest son, Charles II, returned from exile at the age of 30 to restore the monarchy. His younger brother James was made Duke of Albany in Scotland, and Duke of York in England.

The Duke created his first scandal by announcing his engagement to a commoner, Anne Hyde, the daughter of Charles II’s chief minister. It is said he promised to marry her when he was trying to seduce her, but no one expected him to be true to his word, even when she became pregant. But they married in secret, and their child was born two months later. Sadly, the baby boy died, as did five more of their children. Only two daughters survived, and Anne died in 1671.

In about 1668, James and Anne converted to Catholicism, though James kept this secret for almost 10 years during which he attended Anglican church services. When Charles II discovered his brother’s conversion, he objected, and ordered James to bring up his two daughters, Mary and Anne, in the Protestant faith.

The diarist Samuel Pepys wrote that James was fond of his children, in contrast to the usually distant royal parenting of the time. But it was common knowledge that James kept mistresses. He was described by one contemporary as ‘the most unguarded ogler of his time’, and the affronted Samuel Pepys noted that he ‘did eye my wife mightily’.

James remarried in 1673. His bride, the Italian princess Mary of Modena, was 15 to James’s 39. Over the course of their marriage, Mary would give birth to 12 children – only 2 survived into adulthood. (In total, James had 27 known children, 7 of them with 2 of his mistresses.)

Mary of Modena, James’s second wife, in 1685, the year of his accession, painted by Willem Wissing

Charles II made James Lord High Admiral, and he played a key role in the Anglo-Dutch wars of the time. More interestingly (unless you like war), Charles put James in charge of fire-fighting operations during the 1666 Great Fire of London. One witness wrote, ‘The Duke of York hath won the hearts of the people with his continual and indefatigable pains day and night in helping to quench the Fire.’

The Great Fire of London (1666), painted by an unknown artist in 1675. This is how the fire would have appeared from Tower Wharf – London Bridge is on the left of the picture, the Tower of London on the right.

Charles II died in 1685, and James inherited the throne, becoming James II of England and Ireland, and James VII of Scotland. Following in his father Charles I’s footsteps, James courted controversy and ultimately his reign was a disaster – but at least he kept his head.

It started out well. His subjects were happy to re-embrace the hereditory monarch tradition and tolerate his Catholicism, as they thought it unlikely he would produce more children, and his heir, Mary, and her husband, the Dutch prince William of Orange, were staunch Protestants.

However, James raised fears of a return to Catholicism when he began appointing Catholics to important military, academic and political posts. In 1687, matters intensified when he issued a declaration that aimed to reduce religious intolerance. A number of bishops who objected were charged with sedition, but were later acquitted. However, James had played his hand and the people were nervous.

Then, in 1688, Queen Mary gave birth to a male heir, James Stuart. Protestants were so alarmed (and surprised) that a rumour circulated claiming the baby was an illigitimate child of James’s and had been smuggled into the birthing chamber in a warming pan. The baby’s baptism into the Catholic faith raised the real prospect of a Catholic dynasty.

That same year, James pushed forward his attempts to impose his religious views on his subjects. Alarm bells were now well and truly ringing among the Protestant establishment.

James II appears to have forgotten the fate of his father, Charles I. His popularity was waning fast, and there were anti-Catholic riots around the country. It seemed that only the removal of this king would stop another slide into civil war. It was showdown time between Parliament and the Royalists – again.

Leading members of the Establishment invited James’s daughter Mary, and her husband William to invade England and install a Protestant monarchy. When they arrived from Holland, the King’s army deserted him, and he fled into exile in France, apparently dropping the Great Seal overboard into the Thames as he left. William of Orange and Mary became William III and Mary II, the country’s first, and to this day only, joint monarchs.

James wasn’t giving up without a fight, however. Just four months later, he landed in Ireland with a largely French army, but in 1690 was defeated at the Battle of the Boyne. He returned to France and lived out the rest of his life in exile, under the protection of King Louis XIV. He died in 1701, at the age of 67.

What do you think? Should James keep his place on the walls of Downing Street? He’s an interesting figure but … probably not!

This post is an edited version of an article I wrote for Royals Monthly magazine.