JAMES II

Autograph letter signed as Duke of York ("Votre tres affectionne cousin Jacques"), to "Mon Cousin" [probably Louis XIV], Brussels, 23 September 1659 - 'I WILL NEVER FORGET THE KINDNESS YOU HAVE SHOWN ME'

Footnotes

'I WILL NEVER FORGET THE KINDNESS YOU HAVE SHOWN ME': The future James II writes, as Duke of York, to his French cousin, a year after the death of Oliver Cromwell.

Anticipating the success of Sir George Booth's uprising to restore Charles II to the throne a month earlier, James had travelled to Boulogne hoping to be recalled to England but, after the rebellion was crushed, he returned to Brussels where this letter was written. James had previously fought for France under Turenne but, after the French signed a treaty with Cromwell, he was forced to leave and found himself fighting for the Spanish in Flanders against his old allies. By 1659 France's victory over the Spanish brought peace and the possibility, expressed here in the most sincere of terms, of renewed ties of friendship with France at a time when the Restoration of the monarchy in England seemed far from certain.

Sir John Berkeley, an ardent Royalist, was appointed Master of the Duke of York's household in 1652, whereupon he assumed full powers and styled himself 'intendant'. Before the civil war he had undertaken an important diplomatic mission to Sweden for Charles I and after assisting the King in his flight to the Isle of Wight, he himself fled to France where he became a close confidant of the Duke of York. He served by James's side under Turenne and in Flanders but despite his position of trust he was an unpopular figure. His arrogance and influence over the Duke "...exacerbated the factionalism at the exiled court..." and caused "...suspicion that his old contacts with Cromwell and the army grandees had not been entirely relinquished..." (D.W. Hayton, ODNB).