Talk:James II of England

Legacy

I don't want to muck up a pretty well-run page but there ought to be a section on things named after the guy. Inter alia, per page 239 in

• .

he was the namesake of James Island in the Galapagos Archipelago. It's officially Santiago Island now but the English name still shows up a lot and was granted by a pirate named Ambrosia. — LlywelynII 15:03, 2 May 2023 (UTC)

“Scottish Parliament”

Chapter 3.4: “On 11 April 1689, the Parliament of Scotland declared James to have forfeited the throne of Scotland as well.” If this sentence refers to the same event mentioned in the introduction of the article, the declaration was issued by the Convention, not exactly Parliament. Is that correct or was there a separate declaration by Parliament as well?—Oudeístalk 05:52, 6 December 2023 (UTC)

Requested move 15 February 2024

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: not moved. – robertsky (talk) 00:34, 23 February 2024 (UTC)

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James II of England → James VII and IIJames VII and II – He was not only the king of England. He was also the king of Scotland and Ireland. James VII and II is both more accurate than the current title and also completely unambiguous, so you can get rid of the territorial designation that only refers to one of his realms, since there was only one James VII and II. The Scottish number should go first for consistency with James VI and I. DieOuTransvaal (talk) 23:25, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

• Oppose and close per WP:SNOW. Per WP:NCROY, when there are multiple states we use the most commonly associated realm. Векочел (talk) 02:20, 16 February 2024 (UTC)
• Oppose per WP:COMMONNAME: unlike his grandfather who is commonly known by both numerals due to his long reign over Scotland before the union of the crowns, the majority of reliable sources refer to this James by his English numeral only. Rosbif73 (talk) 08:56, 16 February 2024 (UTC)
• Comment - I can understand why you've nominated this page for renaming. All the monarch bios are extremely inconsistent in how they're named. The "Name # of country" style was disregarded, thus bringing about the inconsistencies. GoodDay (talk) 15:16, 17 February 2024 (UTC)
• Oppose. Very clear WP:COMMONNAME. -- Necrothesp (talk) 15:53, 22 February 2024 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Naval service in battle

I find it strange that this article makes no mention of James' active service as an admiral in the navy. He was standing alongside three courtiers who had their heads taken off by a chain shot at the Battle of Lowestoft, spattering the Duke of York (as he then was) with blood and brains. At the Battle of Solebay, HMS Prince was surrounded by Dutch ships and other British warships could not get close to give assistance as the winds were virtually calm. In this desperate position, James went up and down the ship encouraging the men. The captain of Prince was killed a short distance away from James, as were other's in James' entourage. The main topmast was taken out by a Dutch cannon ball, making the ship uncontrollable. She was towed away from the enemy by her boats and James transferred to St Michael and returned to the battle, becoming heavily engaged, having to transfer his flag for a second time later in the battle.

The way the article reads, one could get the impression that James carried out his activities as an admiral from the safety of a desk in Whitehall. This is obviously a substantial misrepresentation of his role.

The sources I have used in making these comments are , particularly pg 192Template:Sndbut the whole book is relevantTemplate:Sndand Journals and Narratives of the Third Dutch War, Navy Records Society, Vol 86 (1946), R.C. Anderson (ed.), the journals of John Narborough. I appreciate the latter is a primary source, but plenty of other histories are available.
ThoughtIdRetired _TIR 22:25, 8 June 2025 (UTC)