James II: The Restoration's Last Catholic King
Not Just the Tudors
History Hit
4.8 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 16 February 2026
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A king with unyielding faith. A nation on the brink. A crown lost to revolution.
King James II is often dismissed as the unfortunate monarch swept aside by William and Mary. But behind the Glorious Revolution lies a story of ambition, devotion, and downfall more dramatic than legend would suggest.
Professor Suzannah Lipscomb joins Dr. Breeze Barrington to uncover the man behind the myth. Was James a tyrant blinded by belief, or a visionary undone by his own time?
MORE:
The Restoration Queen: Maria of Modena
Diary of Samuel Pepys
Presented by Professor Suzannah Lipscomb. The researcher is Max Wintle. Edited and produced by Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.
All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Want to walk the halls of Anne Boleyn's childhood home or explore the castles that made up Henry |
| 0:06.8 | the 8th's English stronghold? With a subscription to history hit, you can dive into our Tudor |
| 0:12.1 | past alongside the world's leading historians and archaeologists. You also unlock hundreds of |
| 0:18.4 | hours of original documentaries with a brand new release |
| 0:21.8 | every single week. Covering everything from the ancient world to World War II, just visit |
| 0:28.1 | historyhit.com forward slash subscribe. |
| 0:34.9 | Hello, I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb and welcome welcome to Not Just the Tudors from History Hit, |
| 0:40.7 | the podcasts in which we explore everything from Anne Boleyn to the Aztecs, |
| 0:45.2 | from Holbein to the Huguenots, from Shakespeare to Samarise, |
| 0:49.8 | relieved by regular doses of murder, espionage and witchcraft. |
| 0:54.0 | Not in other words, just the Tudors, but most definitely also the Tudors. |
| 1:09.6 | All this month on Not Just the Tudors, we are delving into the stories of the monarchs of the Restoration. |
| 1:15.5 | The kings and queens who followed Charles II after he returned from exile to reclaim the throne in 1660 |
| 1:22.1 | and transform a war-weary Puritan nation into a vibrant world of theatre, science, politics and pleasure. |
| 1:30.0 | So far, we've looked at why Oliver Cromwell's Republic failed and the life and times of the |
| 1:34.7 | merry monarch himself. Do go back and listen to those episodes if you haven't done so already. |
| 1:40.2 | Today we turn our attention to the brief reign of Charles II's brother, James II. |
| 1:47.0 | When we hear about James II, it's often accompanied by a tone of inevitability. |
| 1:56.0 | The king who lost his throne, the Catholic who didn't fit, the ruler swept aside by the glorious revolution. |
| 2:02.3 | But what of James' story is far more gripping and far more human than that familiar ending suggests? |
| 2:09.0 | James was shaped by war, exile and lost long before he ever wore the crown. |
| 2:15.2 | As a child of the Stuart dynasty, he witnessed civil war tear Britain and Ireland apart, |
... |
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