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squeezing the life out of intricate social and doctrinal questions. One looks forward eagerly to the promised second volume. GERAINT H. JENKINS Aberystwyth. JAMEs II. By Maurice Ashley. Dent, 1977. Pp. 342, 16 plates, 3 maps. £ 7.50. The last scholarly biography of James II, by F. C. Turner, was published in 1948 and, although this has stood the test of time remarkably well, the volume of new work on the later Stuart period during the last thirty years justifies the attempt at a fresh appraisal in depth of this enigmatic king. It is this which Dr. Ashley aims to supply. Unfortunately, it cannot be said that he succeeds in this aim. Apart from his expansion in this book of a distinctly one-sided view of James's religious policy, first propounded in an article in 1963, Dr. Ashley tells us little that is new. The life of James is built up from a superficial narrative of events, containing very little analysis even of key problems. Many important insights into James's policy, such as the implications of the dismissal of the Hyde brothers early in 1687 and the significance of the content of the Declarations of Indulgence, are glossed over without comment. Assumptions are also made without proof. Although an Appendix fully exposes its limitations, the Jacobite Life of James, written after his death, is used extensively and uncritically in the body of the book to support a number of dubious propositions, such as the otherwise wholly unsubstantiated 'fact' that Charles II became a 'confessed Catholic' in 1669. And, in addition, there are numerous typographical and factual errors. All this might not matter so much if the central thesis of the book-that James was simply a sincere exponent of religious toleration, aiming at no more than equality of treatment for all Christians-were convincingly sustained. But this is far from being the case. The great majority of James's contemporaries, Nonconformists as well as Anglicans (to say nothing of subsequent historians), believed that he was aiming at the re-establishment of 'Popery' in England and that he was prepared to resort to increasingly arbitrary means to achieve this end. Dr. Ashley assures us that this is 'not true', that this view is 'no longer tenable', but the evidence he adduces, based largely on James's own assertions, hardly justifies these confident claims. No one doubts that James professed support for a general toler- ation both during his reign and, more doubtfully, before, but actions speak louder than words and judged by his actions in a number of contexts, particularly during the early part of his reign before it became politically expedient to woo the nonconformists, it seems extremely doubtful whether James's disinterested commitment to toleration in principle can seriously be maintained. And two can play at the word game. Dr. Ashley reports James's statement to the French ambassador at the opening of his reign that his ultimate aim as king was simply 'to obtain liberty of conscience for all Roman Catholics'. But a month later-a fact which Dr. Ashley does not mention -James is reported to