1648 - Sent into exile
1659 - Married Anne Hyde
1665 - February - Second Dutch War
1665 - June 3rd - Battle of Lowestoft
1668 - James admitted to the Roman Communion
1671 - Anne Hyde died
1673 - Test Act: all Public officials must take sacrament from the Church of England
1673 - November 21st - Married Mary of Modena
1679 - Battle of Drumclog
1679 - June 22nd, Battle of Bothwel Bridge
1685 - February 4th, Charles II died, James VII crowned
1685 - July 5th - Battle of Sedgemoor
1685 - July 15th - Monmouth was executed
1686 - March 10th - General Pardon
1687 - Declaration of Toleration
1688 - Declaration of Indulgence refused by Archbishop Sancroft
1688 - June 10th, James Francis (heir to Throne) born
1688 - William of Orange invades England
1689 - April Scots Parliament declares the throne vacant
1690 - July 1st - Battle of Boyne

Following excert from David Cody, Associate Professor of English, Hartwick College

James II was born in 1633 and died in 1701: the second son of Charles I and Henrietta Maria, he succeeded his brother, Charles II, to the throne and reigned as king of Great Britain from 1685 until 1688, when he was overthrown in the Glorious Revolution. He became a Roman Catholic, probably as early as 1672. He was an able soldier and seaman, but, unfortunately for him, an inept politician. Upon his accession to the throne he promised to protect the Church of England and maintain the political and religious status quo, but in the event he could not resist the temptation to reintroduce Roman Catholicism in England. The revocation in 1685 of the Edict of Nantes had forced thousands of French Protestants to emigrate to England, intensifying the already vehement anti-Catholicism which existed there. James proceeded, ill-advisedly, to enlarge the standing army and to place Catholics within it in positions of command: after doing so, he stationed it where it threatened Protestant London. In 1687 his order to all Anglican bishops to read his declaration of indulgence from their pulpits--a declaration which, in practice, meant that Dissenters would still be persecuted while Catholicism would not only be tolerated but favored--was met with resistance by seven of the twenty-six bishops, including the Archbishop of Canterbury: those who refused to read it were thrown into the Tower of London, and immediately became national heroes. Freed after trial, they further inflamed public sentiment against him.

James's final downfall, however, came about as the result of fears about the succession to the throne. He had had two Protestant daughters by his first wife, and in the normal course of events the elder would have become Queen, but in 1688 his second, Roman Catholic, wife unexpectedly gave birth to a son: various powerful figures within and without the government, faced with the prospect of a tyrannical Catholic dynasty, treasonously invited William of Orange, the staunchly Protestant son of the daughter of Charles I, to assume the throne: James, finding himself bereft of political and military support, fled, though he stopped to throw the Great Seal of England into the Thames. He was captured by some fishermen, however, before he could cross the Channel, and was brought back, ignominiously, to London, but William, having no wish to make him a martyr or a center for Catholic resistance, contrived to let him escape again. It was announced that he had abdicated, and the throne was officially declared vacant, though it was of course immediately occupied by William and Mary. The unhappy James lived out his life in exile at the court of Louis XIV.

Scottish Parliament considered James VII to have abdicated the crown in April 1689 and agreed to crown William II as King.