John Miller's main thesis in this biography is that the major failing of James II was lack of intellectual ability and an accompanying stubbornness regarding many of his personal beliefs. I find that Miller argues his thesis well. James seemed incapable of understanding the effects of his actions on those who disagreed with him. His strength, as Miller notes, was his military prowess and courage. It seemed to be the one area where James actually felt comfortable. But this did not at all translate into astute political leadership. I had two specific positive reactions to this book. First, it changed my incorrect view of James as a hardened tyrant. With a couple notable exceptions (the "Cameronians" in Scotland and the reaction in the West to Monmouth's rebellion), James was not prone to killing or persecuting those who disagreed with him. He just never understood them. His motives may not have been pure - his actions were often in the interest of keeping his Catholicism from becoming an issue. Nevertheless, the fairly common view of James, for example, the image given in Locke's beautiful Letter Concerning Toleration, is somewhat misleading. Possibly the Anglicans were right and James was ready to be brutal in imposing his views on others if he only had absolute power. However, Miller makes a good case that throughout his life James was much more accepting than commonly thought and that particular character trait followed him into the kingship. His motives may well have been tied to a certain type of ignorance and a failure of leadership but James was no Henry VIII.
The second positive response to the book was the way in which Miller highlights the power of James's conversion to Catholicism. His was a mind and set of emotions that felt absolutely secure in the highly structured Catholic world of his day. Everything is interpreted by James as God's will for him. This tended to make him stubborn and blind to those who may have seen God's will differently. The clash in his character, and the vacillations in his actions, between his belief in letting other people be and his absolute Catholic beliefs comes out time and again in the book. This often led to indecision and errors in actions which, when they failed, were again God's way of punishing him and, for him, had of course nothing to do with his own limited thought processes. James's vacillations between firmness and reconciliation, between trying to gain the support of Anglicans one day and Dissenters the next, was in the end not leadership at all. He never read well the response of others and this kind of intellectual blindness eventually did him in.
Miller's book draws out the complications that did exist in this uncomplex man. His complexities, such as they were, were the result of his simplicity. William's invasion was not just a return to the status quo in terms of those who wielded the power in England. It was also a reassertion of intelligent leadership. It was a reinforcement of the truth that the ship of state cannot function without a captain who knows what he is doing. This is a fine biography.
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