Author Description

This is a full account of the last attempt to restore James II to the throne, which he lost to William and Mary in 1688. The Assassination Plot of 1696 aroused enormous contemporary interest, and here re-emerges as a fascinating episode of considerable importance for our appreciation of the political world of the 1690s. But the book is as much concerned with personalities as events, and offers a compelling narrative of day-to-day life in late seventeenth-century England as well as insights into the personalities and political attitudes of William III and the exiled James II. Early in 1696, Louis XIV lent ships and men to James to help him regain his kingdom. To coincide with the French invasion, a rising was secretly organized by the Jacobites in England. However, as neither side would take the initiative the murder of William III, planned by a group of Jacobites in London, was seen as a way out of the deadlock. The plot was betrayed on the eve of the murder attempt and most of the conspirators were apprehended.