In
1683, Louis XIV invaded and looted the Province of Orange and
persecuted the Protestants only to lead to William's undying hatred
of him. In the same year on the 23rd of June, Sir James Caldwell,
grandson of William of Straiton, was made a baronet of Ireland,
a Noble's title usually granted for military or other honorable
service directly to a feudal superior.
When
Charles died on February 6th 1685, his brother succeeded peacefully
to the throne as James II, King of England. The new king favored
autocratic methods, reviving the old ecclesiastical court of high
commission and interfering with the courts and with local town
and county government. He became obsessed with the idea of a Catholic
England and began to fill positions of authority and influence
with Roman Catholics.
On
October 18 of that same year, Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes,
which had guaranteed freedom of worship to French Protestants
known as Huguenots. 50,000 Huguenot families fled France to Switzerland,
Germany, England, America, Ireland, and to Holland where many
would join armies of William of Orange.
Within
three years, both the old nobility and emerging commercial class
had been totally alienated by James II. Mary of Modena gave birth
to a male heir, James Francis Edward, which interfered with Parliament's
wish that James' Protestant daughter, Mary, would succeed to the
throne upon the death of her father.
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