England, like any monarchy, has had its fair shair of good rulers and bad rulers. It has even had a few that many would consider really, really bad, such as James II. James was disliked for a variety of reasons, the most notable is that he was Catholic. While there's nothing wrong with Catholicism, the English people were devoutly of the English Church, which itself was a form of Protestantism "created" by Henry XIII. James II openly broke active laws like Test Act and appointed Catholics to positions in the military, the Universities of Caimbridge and Oxford, and government positions too. Not to mention the 7 Bishops case. Needless to say, the populace was unhappy.
In the beginning, the English were not too upset, as James II had two daughters from his first wife, both of whom were Protestant. However, James II's wife had passed on, and he remarried, to a Catholic princess. At this point, the populace said "uh oh." "Uh Oh" indeed. On June 10, 1688, James's new wife, Mary of Modena gave birth to a son, James Francis Edward Stuart.
This did not bode well for the followers of the Church of England. Since the reign of King Henry VIII, the church had flip-flopped and toggled from Protestantism to Catholicism and back again. It was stabalized as Protestant thanks to Queen Elizabeth I. However, it now looked like a Catholic dynasty was emerging. The people were not happy. Hilarity did not ensue.
What did ensue was perhaps the most scathing and vicious lie ever devised by the slanderous mouth of mankind. The rumor was that the baby, little Jimmy Frankie Eddie Stu, was not James II's, nor his wife's. It stated that the baby, while it was a boy, died in childbirth and that James II had "acquired" a substitute child under some means, whether he bought it from someone living in the countryside or had stolen it depending on which version of the rumor one had heard.
Ouch.
During the middle ages, and even well into the Colonial period, aristocrats often had the kitchen in a different building close to the main house. The food, after it was cooked, was placed into pewter bowls or plates and covered with a cloth, in order to keep the food warm. The pewter dishes, called warming pans or warming bowls, were placed into the dumbwaiter and sent up to the dining hall. The baby was said to have been smuggled into the castle under one of the many warming pans brought to the King for dinner.
This was a lie, a rumor. Completely 100% not true. !True. False, etc. However, it did show the people's dislike for King James II. When James II decided to bolt from the throne on the approach of William Of Orange, Parliament decided that James II did not abdicate himself from the throne, but his entire Catholic side of the family. Parliament then bequethed the crown, after it was fished out of the River Thames, to both William and his wife, James II's eldest protestant daughter, Mary.