Glorious Revolution

The Glorious Revolution was an event in the history of England and of Scotland in 1688. Many people did not like King James II because he was a Catholic. A Protestant, William III of Orange-Nassau, James's nephew, took over as king and came to England with his wife, Queen Mary, the daughter of James II and William's first cousin. They let the old king escape to France. William signed the Bill of Rights and became king. That helped to make England become a constitutional monarchy.

King James II

Background

On the surface, it is a story about religion. However, it is also about the balance between the king and Parliament. The English Civil War had been fought because Charles I tried to rule as an absolute monarch. His son, Charles II, had been accepted back after he had agreed to limit his powers. However, his brother, the Duke of York, made it clear he wanted to get back the absolute power that their father, Charles I, had.

When Charles II died without any legitimate children in 1685, the Duke of York became King as James II in England and Ireland. He also became James VII in Scotland. He tried to give freedom of religion to Catholics and other non-Anglicans by making the Acts of Parliament invalid by royal decree.^[1] The Protestants did not like that,^[1] and several Protestant politicians and noblemen began talking with Mary's husband as early as 1687. In May 1688, James forced Anglican clergymen to read the Declaration of Indulgence, a statement that gave religious freedom to those who were not party of the Church of England. Protestants criticised it as a first step to a return to Catholicism.^[1]

Protestants became even more fearful when James's wife, Mary of Modena, gave birth to a son, James Francis Edward, in June 1688. They were afraid because the son, unlike Mary and Anne, would be raised a Catholic.^[2] Some said that the boy had been secretly carried into the Queen's room in a bed-warming pan instead of her stillborn baby.^[3] There was no proof to support that story, but Mary publicly doubted the boy's legitimacy. She sent a list of suspicious questions to her sister, Anne, about the boy's birth.^[4]

Conspiracy

On 30 June, the Immortal Seven secretly asked William, who was in the Netherlands with Mary, to come to England with an army.^[5] William, who was jealous of Mary's position and power, did not want to go at first.^[5] However, Mary told William that she did not want political power. She said that "she would be no more but his wife, and that she would do all that lay in her power to make him King for life".^[6]

Ironically, the Pope, the leader of the world's Catholics, supported William, despite being a Protestant, agaisnt James, who he thought was a puppet of Louis XIV of France. The Pope thought that Louis was too powerful and that William would weaken France.

William agreed to attack and declared that James's newborn son was the "pretended Prince of Wales". He also gave a list of what the English people wanted and claimed that he wanted only to have "a free and lawful Parliament assembled".^[7] The Dutch Army, which had been turned back by a storm in October, landed on 5 November.^[5] The English Army and Navy went over to William. The English people's confidence in James was very low and did not even try to save their king.^[8] On 11 December, the king tried to run away but failed. He tried to run away again on 23 December. His second attempt was successful, and James escaped to France. He lived there in exile until his death.^[1]

Mary was sad because of the deposition of her father, but William ordered her to look happy when they arrived in London. That made people think that she was being cold to her father. James also thought his daughter was unfaithful to him, which hurt Mary deeply.^[2][7]

In 1689, a Convention Parliament was called by William to discuss what to do.^[9] William felt uncomfortable about his position. He wanted to rule as a king, not simply as a husband of a queen. The only example of joint monarchy on the British Isles had been in the 16th century.with Queen Mary I and Spanish Prince Philip. When they married, it was agreed that Prince Philip would take the title of King only during his wife's lifetime and would not have much power. William wanted to remain King even after his wife's death. Some important people suggested making Mary the only ruler.^[9] However, Mary, who was faithful to her husband, refused.^[2][9]

Parliament decides

The Bill of Rights Ratified at the Revolution by King William, and Queen Mary, Previous to their Coronation (1783)

On 13 February 1689, Parliament passed the Declaration of Right, which said that James, by trying to run away on 11 December 1688, had abdicated and so no one was king.^[9][10] Normally, James's oldest son, James Francis Edward, would have been the heir. However, Parliament offered the crown to William and Mary as joint sovereigns instead. However, it was added, "The sole and full exercise of the regal (royal) power be only in and executed by the said Prince of Orange in the names of the said Prince and Princess during their joint lives".^[9] The declaration was later extended to exclude Catholics from rule because "It hath been found (discovered) by experience that it is inconsistent (not in harmony) with the safety and welfare of this Protestant kingdom to be governed by a papist prince".^[10]

William and Mary were crowned together at Westminster Abbey^[2] on 11 April 1689. The Archbishop of Canterbury usually performed coronations, but it was then William Sancroft, who felt that James II's removal had been wrong.^[11] Therefore, the Bishop of London, Henry Compton, crowned them instead.^[11][12] On the day of the coronation, the Convention of the Estates of Scotland at last declared that James was no longer King of Scotland. William and Mary were offered the separate Scottish Crown^[13] because the two kingdoms were not united until the Acts of Union in 1707.^[13] William and Mary accepted on 11 May.^[13]

Even after that was declared, there was still strong support for James in Scotland. John Graham of Clevehouse, the Viscount of Dundee, raised an army and won a victory at Killiecrankie on 27 July. However, Dundee's army suffered great losses, and he was seriously wounded at the start of the battle. That stopped the only effective resistance to William, and the revolt was quickly crushed. The next month, there was a great defeat for James at the Battle of Dunkeld.^[14][15]