The Glorious Revolution 1688-1689

What was the Glorious Revolution?

It was the replacement of the reigning king, James II, with the joint monarchy of his protestant daughter Mary and her Dutch husband, William of Orange.

Causes After the accession of

James II in 1685, his overt Roman Catholicism alienated the majority of the population.

In 1687 he issued a Declaration of Indulgence, suspending the penal laws against dissenters and recusants. James II

Causes In April 1688, James II re-

issued the Declaration of Indulgence and ordered all clergymen to read it in their churches.

Archbishop of Canterbury, William Sancroft, and six other bishops were imprisoned when protested its illegality .

Later, at trial they were acquitted to the cheers of the London crowd.

The seven bishops

Causes Mary, James’s daughter

by his first wife, Anne Hyde, was a Protestant, married to William, the Protestant Prince of Orange.

This couple, were to be James’s successors on the throne.

England’s Protestant majority were satisfied about their future in the hands of William and Mary.

James II’s daughter, Mary

Causes

Unfortunatelly for them, on 10 June 1688, James Francis Edward was born.

He was the son of James II and his second wife Mary Beatrice and was baptized into Roman Catholic faith.

This opened the possibility of a permanent Catholic dynasty. The protestants were horrified.

Mary Beatrice and her son James Francis Edward

Reactions

On 30 June 1688, a group of seven Protestant nobles invited the Prince of Orange to come to England with an army.

William was willing to make the trip. Prince William of Orange

The revolution

William arrived on 5 November 1688. As soon as he landed at Torbay in Devonshire, people flocked to his support.

Many Protestant officers, including Churchill, defected and joined William, as did James's own daughter, Princess Anne.

The revolution

James lost his nerve and declined to attack the invading army, despite his army's numerical superiority

Later, he got away to France, where his wife, their newly-born son James and the generous hospitality of the court of King Louis the Fourteenth awaited him.

Consequences

A few weeks later Parliament decided that the throne was vacant in consequence of James’s flight.

They voted that William and Mary of Orange should be proclaimed King and Queen but under some conditions.

These conditions were set out in a document called the Bill of Rights which was signed by William and Mary in 1689.

Consequences Bill of Rights: This document limits on the

powers of the monarch and sets out the rights of Parliament

These new laws changed England from an absolute monarchy (where the monarch has power) to a constitutional monarchy (where they have not much more than a ceremonial role).

The British system of government has remained a constitutional monarchy ever since this time.