James II is remembered today as not the greatest King in History.
He was eventually forced to leave his throne, and he left England following the glorious
revolution handing over the throne to his daughter and her husband.
He was a devout Catholic who’s religion caused him many problems as many people in
England were fearful of his Catholic influence across the nation.
But James II was married to a woman who was 25 years his junior, and their marriage it’s
believed was one which could today have been seen as inappropriate.
Mary of Modena was the second wife of King James II, but she was a princess in her own
right too.
But what is her story?
Mary Beatrice D’Este was the second child of the Duke of Modern Alfonso IV and his wife
Laura Martinozzi.
She was born in Modena in Italy, and her education was brilliant and she spoke fluent Italian
and French and she later also mastered English.
She was described as tall and admirably shaped, and she was wanted as a bridge for James,
the Duke of York.
James had lost his first wife, and was the youngest brother at the time of Charles II
the English King, and he was the heir.
It was looking unlikely that James would ever be King though as Charles just needed to have
a legitimate heir.
But this never occurred as Charles had 12 illegitimate children with his many mistresses.
The problem was that James was far older than Mary, who was roughly 25 years older than
her.
Her match with James was confirmed and the pair were married by proxy on the 30th September
1673.
She was not greeted well by Parliament in England which was made up of mostly Protestants,
and they feared a Catholic marriage believing it could be a papist plot against England.
The English public also disliked Mary of Modena, and she was labelled as ‘the pope’s daughter.’
Parliament even warned against having the marriage annulled and Charles II had to annul
parliament to deal with this.
James II was not the most attractive husband for Mary, he was much older and had many scars
from smallpox, but he also had a bad stutter.
Mary first saw her husband on the 23rd November 1673 on the day of their second marriage ceremony.
James was happy with Mary, but Mary disliked him at first and every time she saw him she
burst into tears.
But over time she warmed to him, and as the now Duchess of York she received £5000 money
to spend and her own household.
The couple’s first child named Catherine was born on the 10th January 1675, but she
died in infancy.
However scandal hit her household.
Her secretary Edward Colman was implicated in a plot against the King, known as the Popish
Plot.
Many people tried to bar her husband form the throne, and Mary and James’ reputation
was damaged by this.
The couple left England briefly, but when Charles II was ill they came back.
They were worried that Charles’ illegitimate son the Duke of Monmouth would try to take
the throne, but Charles did recover.
Later they England again, and James and Mary moved to Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh.
But later James II’s reputation was restored slightly, and he ascended to the throne following
his brother’s death.
Mary mourned her brother in law, and said ‘he was always Kind to me,’ but Mary and
James had a huge coronation.
But she was not the most well lady, as she was suffering with mental illness and bouts
of mania.
There was only one of her children to survive infancy by this time and that was Lady Isabella,
who then died in February 1681 which hit Mary hard.
But in February 1687, Queen Mary was outraged as her husband the King had an affair with
the Countess of Dorchester Catherine Sedley.
Her mother died shortly after this, and Mary became even wealthier.
But she greatly wanted a healthy and alive child.
She visited Bath to hope that the water would help her become pregnant, and she then became
pregnant in late 1687.
Protestants were worried that the child who they believed was male could be part of a
new Catholic dynasty to secure the future of England for years to come.
There were many rumours about this birth and pregnancy, including that she had a stillborn
child and the another child was smuggled into the birth chamber to replace the real child
that died.
But shortly after this, rebels in Parliament invited William of Orange the husband of James
II’s daughter Mary to invade England to begin a Protestant revolution which would
depose James II from the throne.
This happened, and was known as the Glorious Revolution, and James II and Mary were forced
to give up the crown of England and then they left the country to live in exile in France.
James II was deposed on the 11th December 1688, and Mary II and her husband William
III were made joint monarchs.
But James and Mary were backed by the French King and he allowed them to use on his great
chateaux’s to live in.
Mary came to Louis XIV’s court and she was very popular.
She became a close friend with the French King, and Mary dominated much of the female
members of the French court.
Her husband was excluded from French court as he was found to have been boring, but everyone
loved Mary.
There were efforts for James II to regain his throne, but these were later abandoned.
Mary wanted to be restored as the Queen, but was disappointed by the lack of action.
James II had a stroke in March 1701, and he died then of a seizure in September 1701.
This left Mary as a widow, and she dressed in mourning clothes for the rest of her life.
She then acted as regent for her son until he became 18, and James III as he was known
claimed the English, Scottish and Irish crowns and launched the Jacobite uprising to regain
what he believed was rightfully his.
The uprising later failed.
In her final years, she got very sick from cancer and she died in Pairs in France on
the 7th May 1718 at the age of 59.
So initially Mary of Modena was brought to England to marry a man 25 years older than
her, who she did not find attractive and did not like to begin with.
She was forced into this, and she could have married a younger and better suited man, but
through her marriage to James she became a Queen.
She was Queen for just around 3 years before she was deposed along with her husband, and
her fall from grace in England was made slightly easier by the fact she was liked at the French
court.
But Mary of Modena’s life was a very interesting one, and one that could have been incredibly
different if she’d married someone different.
She was a princess after all from a wealthy family who would have been seen as a catch
for many European monarchs.
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