James II and VII (14 October 1633^O.S. – 16 September 1701) was King of England and Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685 until he was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He was the last Roman Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland.

The second surviving son of Charles I, he ascended the throne upon the death of his brother, Charles II. Members of Britain's Protestant political elite increasingly suspected him of being pro-French and pro-Catholic and of having designs on becoming an absolute monarch. When he produced a Catholic heir, the tension exploded, and leading nobles called on his Protestant son-in-law and nephew William of Orange to land an invasion army from the Netherlands, which he did in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. James fled England (and thus was held to have abdicated). He was replaced by his eldest, Protestant daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange. James made one serious attempt to recover his crowns from William and Mary when he landed in Ireland in 1689. After the defeat of the Jacobite forces by the Williamites at the Battle of the Boyne in July 1690, James returned to France. He lived out the rest of his life as a pretender at a court sponsored by his cousin and ally, King Louis XIV.

The sixth season of American animated television series Adventure Time, created by Pendleton Ward, began airing on Cartoon Network in the United States following the series' fifth season. The series is based on a short produced for Frederator's Nicktoons Network animation incubator series Random! Cartoons. The season debuted on April 21, 2014 and finished on June 5, 2015. The season follows the adventures of Finn, a human boy, and his best friend and adoptive brother Jake, a dog with magical powers which allow him to shapeshift at will. Finn and Jake live in the post-apocalyptic Land of Ooo. Along the way, they interact with the other main characters of the show: Princess Bubblegum, The Ice King, and Marceline the Vampire Queen.

The season was storyboarded and written by Andy Ristaino, Cole Sanchez, Tom Herpich, Steve Wolfhard, Seo Kim, Somvilay Xayaphone, Graham Falk, Derek Ballard, Jesse Moynihan, Masaaki Yuasa, Adam Muto, Kent Osborne, Emily Partridge, Bert Youn, Madeleine Flores, Jillian Tamaki, Sam Alden, Sloane Leong, Brandon Graham, and David Ferguson. The season also featured Yuasa and Ferguson as guest animators for the episodes "Food Chain" and "Water Park Prank", respectively. This season was the last to feature Sanchez and Ristaino as storyboard artists; the former took a job on Clarence, and the latter became an Adventure Time background designer.

James II (10 August 1267 – 2 or 5 November 1327), called the Just (the fair), (Catalan: Jaume el Just, Spanish: Jaime el Justo) was the King of Sicily (as James I) from 1285 to 1296 and King of Aragon and Valencia and Count of Barcelona from 1291 to 1327. In 1297 he was granted the Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica. He used the Latin title Iacobus Dei gracia rex Aragonum, Valencie, Sardinie, et Corsice ac comes Barchinone. He was the second son of Peter III of Aragon and Constance of Sicily.

Reign

James was born at Valencia as the son of King Peter I and Queen Constance of Sicily.

He succeeded his father as King of Sicily in 1285. Upon the death of his brother Alfonso III in 1291, he succeeded also to the throne of the Crown of Aragon. He spent May of that year in Catania, inspiring the local monk Atanasiu di Iaci to write the Vinuta di re Iapicu about his time there. By a peace treaty with Charles II of Anjou in 1296, he agreed to give up Sicily, but the Sicilians instead installed his brother Frederick on the throne.

James II (Middle Scots: Iames Stewart; 16 October 1430 – 3 August 1460), who reigned as king of Scots from 1437 on, was the son of James I and Joan Beaufort. Nothing is known of his early life, but by his first birthday his twin and only brother, Alexander, who was also the older twin, had died, thus making James the heir apparent and Duke of Rothesay. Curiously enough, James held no other titles while Duke of Rothesay. On 21 February 1437, James I was assassinated and the six-year-old Duke of Rothesay immediately succeeded him as James II.

In 1449, nineteen-year-old James married fifteen-year-old Mary of Guelders, daughter of the Duke of Gelderland. She bore him seven children, six of whom survived into adulthood. Subsequently, the relations between Flanders and Scotland improved. James's nickname, Fiery Face, referred to a conspicuous vermilion birthmark on his face which appears to have been deemed by contemporaries an outward sign of a fiery temper.

James was a politic, and singularly successful king. He was popular with the commoners, with whom, like most of the Stewarts, he socialised often, in times of peace and war. His legislation has a markedly popular character. He does not appear to have inherited his father's taste for literature, which was "inherited" by at least two of his sisters; but the foundation of the university of Glasgow during his reign, by Bishop Turnbull, shows that he encouraged learning; and there are also traces of his endowments to St. Salvator's, the new college of Archbishop Kennedy at St Andrews. He possessed much of his father's restless energy. However, his murder of the Earl of Douglas leaves a stain on his reign.

Great Britain and Ireland was a set of special commemorative postage stamps issued by the Royal Mail in 2006. The stamps were the final part of the British Journey series, which had previously featured Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales. It was available as mint stamps, as a presentation pack, stamps cards, and a first day cover.

British Journey series

These stamps are the final issue in the British Journey series; which started in 2003 with Scotland, followed in 2004 with Northern Ireland and Wales, and South West England in 2005. The series was brought to a premature end with this issue due to a lack of popularity amongst collectors.

Stamp details

The stamps were issued as a block of stamps, five wide by two deep. The photographs selected for this issue show no sky but are intended to demonstrate the colours and textures of the United Kingdom. All values are first class.

Photos

The Kingdom of England ⁱ/ˈɪŋɡlənd/ was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from the 10th century—when it emerged from various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms—until 1707—when it was united with Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.

In the early 11th century the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, united by Æthelstan (r. 927–939), became part of the North Sea Empire of Cnut the Great, a personal union between England, Denmark and Norway. The Norman conquest of England in 1066 led to the transfer of the English capital city and chief royal residence from the Anglo-Saxon one at Winchester to Westminster, and the City of London quickly established itself as England's largest and principal commercial centre.

Histories of the kingdom of England from the Norman conquest of 1066 conventionally distinguish periods named after successive ruling dynasties: Norman 1066–1154, Plantagenet 1154–1485, Tudor 1485–1603 and Stuart 1603–1714 (interrupted by the Interregnum of 1649–1660). Dynastically, all English monarchs after 1066 ultimately claim descent from the Normans; the distinction of the Plantagenets is merely conventional, beginning with Henry II (reigned 1154-1189) as from that time, the Angevin kings became "more English in nature"; the houses of Lancaster and York are both Plantagenet cadet branches, the Tudor dynasty claimed descent from Edward III via John Beaufort and James VI and I of the House of Stuart claimed descent from Henry VII via Margaret Tudor.

England were a progressive rock group active in the late 1970s, and briefly reformed in 2006. The band is notable for their album Garden Shed released on Arista Records, and for keyboardist Robert Webb playing a Mellotron sawn in half.

Biography

The band was formed in 1975 by drummer Mark Ibbotson, and, after a variety of prototype groups, stabilised around a line-up of himself, bassist Martin Henderson, guitarist Jamie Moses and keyboardist Robert Webb. Moses and Webb had previously collaborated on an unreleased album. Ibbottson owned a Mk II Mellotron, which Webb took an interest in, later saying "it opens up possibilities. It's having control like the conductor of an orchestra." To make the instrument portable, Webb sawed the instrument in half, rehousing the left-hand manual and the right-hand tapes (which contained the lead sounds on a Mk II model) it in a new case. After a number of gigs at the Hazlitt Theatre in Maidstone, Moses quit and was replaced by Franc Holland. In March 1976, immediately following a showcase gig that resulted in a contract with Arista Records, Ibbotson quit the band and was replaced by Jode Leigh.