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Glorious Revolution

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[Page 8] Young Ben Franklin regurgitates his knowledge of history to the interesting stranger who talks like a schoolmaster, Enoch Root talks about the coming of William and Mary and the Glorious Revolution. At his Institute, and peevish still, Daniel Waterhouse refers to this event when Enoch Root talks about the revolution in the birth of Science.

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Glorious Revolution

Paraphrased from JP Kenyon

Those events of 1688-89 that resulted in the deposition of James II of England and the accession of William III and Mary II to the English throne. It is also called the Bloodless Revolution. The restoration of Charles II in 1660 was met with misgivings by many Englishmen who suspected the Stuarts of Roman Catholic and absolutist leanings. Charles II increased this distrust by not being responsive to Parliament, by his toleration of Catholic dissent, and by favoring alliances with Catholic powers in Europe.

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William and Mary

A parliamentary group, the Whigs , tried to ensure a Protestant successor by excluding James, duke of York (later James II), from the throne, but they were unsuccessful. After James's accession (1685) his overt Catholicism and the birth of a Catholic prince who would succeed to the throne united the hitherto loyal Tories (see Tory ) with the Whigs in common opposition to James. Seven Whig and Tory leaders sent an invitation to the Dutch prince William of Orange and his consort, Mary, Protestant daughter of James, to come to England. William landed at Torbay in Devonshire with an army. James's forces, under John Churchill (later duke of Marlborough), deserted him, and James fled to France (Dec., 1688).

There was some debate in England on how to transfer power; whether to recall James on strict conditions or under a regency, whether to depose him outright, or whether to treat his flight as an abdication. The last course was decided upon, and early in 1689 William and Mary accepted the invitation of Parliament to rule as joint sovereigns. The Declaration of Rights and the Bill of Rights (1689) redefined the relationship between monarch and subjects and barred any future Catholic succession to the throne. The royal power to suspend and dispense with law was abolished, and the crown was forbidden to levy taxation or maintain a standing army in peacetime without parliamentary consent. The provisions of the Bill of Rights were, in effect, the conditions upon which the throne was offered to and accepted by William and Mary. These events were a milestone in the gradual process by which practical power shifted from the monarch to Parliament. The theoretical ascendancy of Parliament was never thereafter successfully challenged.

The Glorious Revolution

edited ftom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Glorious Revolution was a largely non-violent revolution (also sometimes called the "Bloodless Revolution"), 1688-1689, in which the Stuart king was removed from the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and replaced by William of the House of Orange and his wife and joint sovereign Mary.

During his three-year reign, King James II fell victim to the political battle in Britain between Catholicism and Protestantism, between the divine right of the Crown and the political rights of Parliament. James' greatest problem was his Catholicism which left him alienated from both parties in parliament. Any attempts at reform by James were thus viewed with deep suspicion. James also pursued a number of untenable policies, such as a desire for a standing army and a pursuit of religious toleration. While his brother and predecessor, Charles II, had done the same, he had not been an overt Catholic like James. Matters came to a head in 1688 when James fathered a son. Until then, the throne would have passed to his Protestant daughter, Mary. The prospect of a Catholic dynasty in Britain was now real, however. Leaders of the hitherto loyal Tory Party united with members of the opposition Whigs, and set out to solve the crisis.

A conspiracy was launched to depose James and replace him with his daughter Mary and her husband, William of Orange -- both Protestants. William was leader of the Dutch, then in the early stages of a war with the French: the War of the Grand Alliance. Jumping at the chance to add England to his alliance, William and Mary landed at Brixham, Devon on November 5, 1688 with a large Dutch army. James' nerve broke, his army under the future Duke of Marlborough deserted, and he fled to Kent where he was captured. The memory of the execution of Charles I still being strong, he was then allowed to leave for France.

Aside: The War of the Grand Alliance (War of the League of Augsburg or the Nine Years War) was a war which lasted from 1688 to 1697. The war was fought between France and the League of Augsburg (which, by 1689, was known as the "Grand Alliance"). France had expected assistance from England, during this war; but, after the Glorious Revolution (1689) -- England sided with the League of Augsburg, thus forming the Grand Alliance. This war was fought, not only in Europe, but also in North America; where it is known as King William's War. The period was marked by famine and recession. The war was ended by the Treaty of Ryswick (1697).

Historians like H.A.L. Fisher wax about how wonderful the Glorious Revolution was -- forgetting it was an invasion -- and a really big invasion at that.[1]

In 1689, the Convention Parliament convened and declared that James' flight amounted to abdication. William and Mary were offered the throne as joint rulers, an arrangement which they accepted. Despite an uprising in support of James in Scotland, the first Jacobite rebellion, and in Ireland where James used local Catholic feeling to try to regain the throne in 1689-1690, the revolution was remarkably bloodless. It can thus be seen as much more of a coup d'état than an authentic revolution. England stayed calm throughout, the uprising in the Scottish Highlands was quelled despite the Jacobite victory at the Battle of Killiecrankie, and James was expelled from Ireland following the Battle of the Boyne.

The Glorious Revolution was one of the most important events in the long evolution of powers possessed by Parliament and by the Crown in England. With the passage of the Bill of Rights it stamped out any final possibility of a Catholic monarchy, and ended moves towards monarchical absolutism in the British Isles by circumscribing the monarch's powers.

The success of the Glorious Revolution came three years after the failure of the Monmouth Rebellion to overthrow the king.

  1. David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd George of Dwyfor, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1916-1922 H.A.L. Fisher - President of the Board of Education in George's 2nd Government
  2. Another bio of James II and presentation of his Jacobite heritage until the 21st Century