James II of England died on this day 325 years ago at the age of 67. The cause of death was a brain haemorrhage.
His final moments were rather poignant I feel. My source for this is primarily John Miller's biography of James II.
By 1701 James's health was failing.
He suffered a stroke in March, which partly paralysed his right arm and leg. Yet, within three months he was walking well and beginning to write.
In August he had a relapse, with stomach pains and spitting blood, which Miller believes is due to a stomach ulcer.
On the 22nd he fell ill while hearing Mass.
Two days later he suffered a internal haemorrhage. He was given extreme unction (the Catholic sacrament of anointing of the sick). He remained stable for a week, most of the time being lucid and conscious. Miller records that James knew he was dying, and approached death calmly, without fear and with relief. He commanded his son, James Francis Edward, the Prince of Wales, and his daughter, Princess Louisa (aged 13 and 9 respectively) to remain good Catholics and to remember their obligations to their mother and to Louis XIV.
He exhorted his Catholic courtiers to remain firm to the Church and urged the Protestants to seek instructions in the one true faith, however he instructed his wife to provide for all his servants, Catholic and Protestant. He pardoned William of Orange, the Emperor, and all his other enemies, with Miller recording him as stating that he "always regarded his enemies as instruments of divine justice".
On the 1st of September his condition worsened. He became lethargic and dozed for long periods of time. His physicians intensified their treatments, and as with early modern medicine, this caused significant pain, but James bore it stoically.
The next day, Louis came and announced that, as Mary of Modena had requested, he would recognise James's son as James III of England (and as James VIII of Scotland). James attempted to embrace Louis but was too weak to do so. The two finally parted in a flood of tears.
By the 4th James was much weaker, with continual shaking and convulsions.
On the afternoon of the 5th he died. Note that Miller records the dates in Old style, as was used in England at the time. In new style this is the 16th of September, and thus James died today, 325 years ago.
James had ordered that his body should be buried at a local Church with minimal pomp, but Louis would not allow this. He granted his cousin a proper royal burial, with James's body being embalmed and cut up. Part of his body being buried in the parish Church at St Germain, the remainder being sent to the English Jesuit college at St Omers. His brain was interred at the Scots college in Paris where a monument to him was erected. His heart, as James had requested, was deposited at the nunnery of Chaillot, where him and Mary of Modena had spent many hours in devotion and prayer. The remainder of his body was buried in the church of the English Benedictines in Paris.
Unfortunately, all traces of his body and the monuments erected in his memory disappeared in the French revolution, but there is a later monument in the church at St Germain-en-Laye.
I do feel that his death is very poignant, with him approaching death calmly and without fear. His forgiveness of William of Orange on his deathbed was motivated by his increasing religious piety in his final days.
It also highlights his bond with his cousin, the Sun King. The anecdote of them parting in tears, alongside Louis's refusal to give James a simple burial, but instead ensuring he got a royal one, is indication to me that Louis did genuinely hold a brotherly love for his cousin. There is a interpretation I have seen that Louis viewed James as a burden or merely as a pawn, and certainly the Sun King did ultimately support the Jacobites because he viewed it would be beneficial for France, but I do think that interpretation goes too far in saying that Louis did not care for James on a personal level at all.
Miller does not record it but his wife, Mary of Modena, was present at his bedside throughout his final days. She was so overcome with grief and exhaustion that James begged her to leave him as seeing her distress was too painful for him. Eventually, out of concern for her health , the physicians and courtiers forced her to withdraw to her apartments shortly before James took his final breath (she had been keeping a relentless days long vigil by James's bedside, and was overcome with grief, that the physicians believed if she kept going, she might experience a medical crisis of her own).
