James,
Duke of York, was the second son of Charles I, brother to Charles
II and successor to the English throne. At the Restoration in
1660, he returned to England after having served in both the French
and Spanish armies. There, he was married to Anne Hyde, daughter
of the 1st earl of Clarendon. He was made Lord High Admiral and
served in the Dutch Wars of both 1664 and 1672. Anne Hyde died
in 1671 leaving James with two Protestant daughters.
The
daughter of James and Anne, Mary was brought up the Protestant
Faith. In November of 1677, at the age of 
fifteen,
she was married to her first cousin, William of Orange, and shortly
after set sail for The Hague.
At
twelve years her senior, Mary found William to be repulsive. She
was terribly homesick living in Holland. After learning of her
husbands long time affair with one of her ladies-in-waiting, Elizabeth
Villiers, Mary became completely devoted to William and eventually
came to love both the man and his country.
Perhaps
as early as 1672, James became a Roman Catholic and, through the
influence of Louis XIV, in 1673 
married
Mary Beatrice d'Este of Modena, daughter of Alfonso IV, Duke of
Modena. Mary of Modena was a devout Roman Catholic and therefore
unpopular in Protestant England.
James'
resignation of admiral due to the Test Act coupled with his marriage
to the devout Roman Catholic, Mary of Modena, caused the pair
to become increasingly unpopular in England. The false accusations
of a Popish Plot to assassinate Charles II and to hasten the succession
of the Catholic James in 1678 brought about efforts of the Scottish
Presbyterian Whigs to exclude James from the succession. Charles
II supported his brother by preventing the passage of the Exclusion
Bill and dissolved Parliament. James was sent out of the country.
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