nglish navy,
but from the ultimate effect it was to have upon the designs of Louis
XIV. and the fortune of the general war which his aggressions were
preparing. James II. was peculiarly interested in the navy, being
himself a seaman, and having commanded in chief at Lowestoft and
Southwold Bay. He knew its actual depressed condition; and the
measures he at once took to restore it, both in numbers and
efficiency, were thoughtful and thorough. In the three years of his
reign very much indeed was done to prepare a weapon which was first
proved against himself and his best friend.

The accession of James II., which promised fairly for Louis,
precipitated the action of Europe against him. The House of Stuart,
closely allied to the King of France, and sympathizing with his
absolutist rule, had used the still great power of the sovereign to
check the political and religious enmity of the English nation to
France. James II. added to the same political sympathies a strength of
Roman Catholic fervor which led him into acts peculiarly fitted to
revolt the feeling of the English people, with the final result of
driving him from the throne, and calling to it, by the voice of
Parliament, his daughter Mary, whose husband was William of Orange.

In the same year that James became king, a vast diplomatic combination
against France began. This movement had two sides, religious and
political. The Protestant States were enraged at the increasing
persecutions of the French Protestants, and their feelings became
stronger as the policy of James of England showed itself more and more
bent toward Rome. The Protestant northern States, Holland, Sweden, and
Brandenburg, drew together in alliances; and they counted for support
upon the Emperor of Austria and Germany, upon Spain and other Roman
Catholic States whose motives were political apprehension and anger.
The emperor had latterly been successful against the Turks, thus
freeing his hands for a move against France. July 9, 1686, there was
signed at Augsburg a secret agreement between the emperor, the kings
of Spain and Sweden, and a number of German princes. Its object was at
first defensive only against France, but it could readily be turned
into an offensive alliance. This compact took the name of the League
of Augsburg, and from it the general war which followed two years
later was called the War of the League of Augsburg.

The next year, 1687, saw yet greater successes of the Empire over