Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that this has been brought up before...
WI one of the sons of the future King James II of England (at this time Duke of York) by his wife Anne Hyde managed to survive to adulthood? The couple had four sons, so it's quite possible. Assuming that King Charles II would, at the behest of Parliament, order that the boy be raised Protestant (as James' daughters in OTL), I imagine that this would have some very interesting consequences.
Would the Exclusion Bill had been more successful, or would Parliament have tolerated a Catholic king, knowing that there was a Protestant heir in the near future? What affects would this have on the British constitutional system, assuming for a minute that the prospective heir managed to possess the good sense of his uncle and the family penchant for absolutism?
I'm curious to start a discussion on this.
WI one of the sons of the future King James II of England (at this time Duke of York) by his wife Anne Hyde managed to survive to adulthood? The couple had four sons, so it's quite possible. Assuming that King Charles II would, at the behest of Parliament, order that the boy be raised Protestant (as James' daughters in OTL), I imagine that this would have some very interesting consequences.
Would the Exclusion Bill had been more successful, or would Parliament have tolerated a Catholic king, knowing that there was a Protestant heir in the near future? What affects would this have on the British constitutional system, assuming for a minute that the prospective heir managed to possess the good sense of his uncle and the family penchant for absolutism?
I'm curious to start a discussion on this.