The second son of Charles I, James VII (0f Scotland) and II (Of England, 1685-88) became a Catholic in 1671, leading to the first attempts to exclude him from succession. Attempts continued when the Whig opposition tried unsuccessfully to use the Exclusion Bill to secure the succession for the Duke of Monmouth, an illegitimate son of Charles II.In 1685, Monmouth\'s rebellion - a Protestant rising against James - was crushed at Sedgemoor in Somerset. Monmouth (an illegitimate son of Charles II) and 320 of his accomplices were executed. Despite James becoming king in 1685, the Whigs continued to exclude him, and in 1688, seven Whig and Tory peers invited William of Orange to \'defend the liberties of England\'. James fled to France.
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