How did the type of monarch of Louis XIv and James II effect their nations?

After the restoration of his brother Charles II to the English throne in 1660, James was created duke of Albany. He became lord high admiral and did much to maintain the efficiency and improve the organization of the navy. He also showed considerable interest in colonial ventures; it was on his initiative that New Amsterdam was seized from the Dutch in 1664 and renamed New York in his honour. He commanded the fleet in the opening campaigns of the Second and Third Dutch wars. This was to be his last taste of active military command until 1688.

Between 1679 and 1684, England's impotence and the emperor Leopold I's preoccupation with a Turkish advance to Vienna had allowed Louis XIV to seize Luxembourg, Strasbourg, Casale Monferrato, and other places vital to the defense of the Spanish Netherlands, the German Rhineland, and northern Italy.