James Iii

James III is the most enigmatic of the Stewart kings of Scotland. Variously characterised as artistic, peace-loving, morbidly suspicious, treacherous, pious, lecherous and lazy, King James was much criticised by contemporaries and later chroniclers for his failure to do his job in the manner expected of him, and particularly for his reliance on low-born favourites to the exclusion of his 'natural' counsellors, the nobility. Specific complaints included debasement of the coinage, royal hoarding of money, failure to staunch feuds and to enforce criminal justice. Yet James III has also been seen as a major patron of the arts, as Scotland's first Renaissance king, and as the architect of an intelligent and forward-looking foreign policy. In this new study, the author explores all these areas and seeks to explain why King James was challenged by a huge rebellion in 1482, which he narrowly survived, and why he succumbed to a further rising in 1488, which placed his eldest son on the throne as James IV.

Reproduction of the original.

The History of England from the Accession of James II is the five-volume work by Lord Macaulay. It covers the 17-year period from 1685 to 1702, encompassing the reign of James II, the Glorious Revolution, the coregency of William III and Mary II, and up to William III's death. Macaulay's approach to writing the History was innovative for his period. He consciously fused the picturesque, dramatic style of classical historians such as Thucydides and Tacitus with the learned and factual approach of his 18th-century precursors such as Hume, following the plan laid out in his own 1828 "Essay on History".The History is famous for its brilliant ringing prose and for its confident, sometimes dogmatic, emphasis on a progressive model of British history. According to this view, England threw off superstition, autocracy and confusion to create a balanced constitution and a forward-looking culture combined with freedom of belief and expression._x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_

Forced out of power in the"Glorious Revolution" of 1688, and defeated in the subsequent battle of the Boyne by William of Orange, the short reign of James II has an importance that reaches far beyond his three years in power. An ardent Roman Catholic, his efforts to return England to the Catholic faith resonate to this day in Northern Ireland. Similarly, his attacks on the representative institutions that had been developing since the Restoration, alienated an initially enthusiastic parliament. William Speck looks at all these issues through the figure of the King. Far more broad-ranging than other histories of James II, the book examines James' role in the American colonies - assigned to him by his brother Charles II - his role in Scotland between 1679 and 1862, and his final exercise of power in Ireland.