"James II" dies before 1685

What if the then future King James II of Great Britain had died while his brother Charles II was still alive? For the sake of argument let's say that this hypothetical death occurs sometime between 1677-1685. Would his daughter Mary have ascended to the throne upon Charles' death? Or would there be some further complication that I'm ignoring here? What would the absence of James II's reign, and the subsequent Glorious Revolution have upon British history? What might Mary's reign look like here and how would it differ from the historical reign of William and Mary? What impact does the absence of Jacobitism have upon British history? Assuming that both Mary and Anne die without surviving children, would Parliament still pass something resembling the Act of Settlement here? In short, what happens here?
 
What if the then future King James II of Great Britain had died while his brother Charles II was still alive? For the sake of argument let's say that this hypothetical death occurs sometime between 1677-1685. Would his daughter Mary have ascended to the throne upon Charles' death? Or would there be some further complication that I'm ignoring here? What would the absence of James II's reign, and the subsequent Glorious Revolution have upon British history? What might Mary's reign look like here and how would it differ from the historical reign of William and Mary? What impact does the absence of Jacobitism have upon British history? Assuming that both Mary and Anne die without surviving children, would Parliament still pass something resembling the Act of Settlement here? In short, what happens here?


Mary would succeed, but William would be only her consort, not king in his own right. However, Mary will inherit the near-absolute powers that Charles had achieved by his death, so if she is guided by her husband on foreign policy, things don't change much at first.

$64,000 questions are whether either her death in 1694 or young Gloucester's in 1699 (both of smallpox) are butterflied away. If Mary survives, she could live into the 1720 and Anne may never reign. If Gloucester does, the implications are obvious.

If Anne does still become queen, big concern is whether Britain still comes into the Spanish Succession War. OTL there wan't much enthusiasm for it until Louis XIV recognised "James III" which won't happen now.

There may well be a law excluding Catholics from the succession. Either we get the House of Hanover or, just possibly, the Duke of Savoy sends his son to England to be educated as a Protestant - according to GM Trevelyan he contemplated doing this.

Could be bad news for Nonconformists. In this TL the Tories are likely to remain the dominant party. Charles had pretty well crushed the Whigs, and only the 1688 Revolution allowed them to recover. So the Toleration Act may not get passed, and the old "Clarendon Code" remain in force. Expect more emigration to America.
 
James was shipwrecked on his way to Scotland during one of the exclusion crises, and there was extensive loss of life, so that's a potential POD for bumping him off in this period before his accession.

It doesn't really matter who comes after Mary (Or Mary and Anne, if Mary dies early as she did IOTL) - I think the salient point is that the crown's still extensive powers would, without any Glorious Revolution (sic) be very substantially retained. The best bet for British absolutism would be to not have the powers of the crown swept up in the issue of 'Popery', as the Whigs succeeded in effecting IOTL - supporting excessive monarchical power essentially became unpatriotic and almost permanently finished off the Tories as a faction, excepting their revival under Anne. Ironically, a succession of Protestant monarchs are much more likely to manage to effect a permanent move in the direction of any kind of Louis Quatorzian settlement than James ever was.

I'd say it's fifty-fifty on whether Mary or Anne manage to produce an heir. (and remember, they don't have to produce a son - just an heir. A girl would suffice.) If they don't, then I can't see a Hannoverian succession with the Tories in the driving seat. Technically, they could pick practically anyone on the line of succession that they could convince to become Protestant, not just the Savoyards. I suspect that Mary being married to a foreign prince wouldn't help matters here; English/British involvement on the continent against the French would likely be weakened ITTL.

I can't see them falling back on the Stuart bastards. Monmouth is certainly out if he's still kicking about, but he's probably stupid enough to try to win the throne by force, which would only weaken the Whigs further. *Berwick is also out being both Catholic and a bastard, sadly so, as I suspect he would be quite effective.
 
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