The Glorious Revolution

Cufflink, decorated with portraits of William and Mary, late 17th c.

Museum of London
1685: James II and Queen Mary

James II. By N. de Largillière, c.1686 Mary of Modena (detail). By W. Wissig, 1685

National Maritime Museum, Greenwich National Portrait Gallery, London
Monmouth’s Rebellion (1685):
• Radical Whigs persuade Monmouth
to return from exile in Holland and
lead a rebellion to depose James
• 11 June: Monmouth landed in
Dorset (West-Country, strong force
of dissenters); gathered supporters
among the middle/lower classes
• 6 July: decisive defeat at Sedgemoor;
he was captured two days later
• 15 July: executed. (“Do not hack
me”, he said to the executioner)
Monmouth’s Rebellion playing cards, 1685
The British Museum
The dreaded ‘Popish’ successor:
• Parliament (elected May 1685)
initially favourable; James promised
to forgive former exclusionists
• retained an enlarged standing army
& appointed several Catholic
commanders
• Protests in parliament; Nov 1685,
prorogued (would not meet again
during his reign)
• Suspended penal laws against
Catholics & Dissenters
• Appointed Catholic noblemen to
high positions & received the papal
nuncio at court James II. By Sir Godfrey Kneller, c.1685
National Portrait Gallery, London
The ‘Seven Bishops’:
• 1687: James issues a Declaration
of Indulgence; the clergy are
commanded to read it in their
churches
• The Archbishop of Canterbury
and six other bishops defied the
king’s order & were sent to the
Tower of London
• When they were acquitted after
their trial, they were received as
heroes in the city of London
The Seven Bishops. Unknown artist, 1688
National Portrait Gallery, London
1688: Birth of an heir
• Queen Mary had suffered several miscarriages and, as the
king was already in his 50s, Protestants could at least hope
that this pro-Catholic period would not last
• But on 10 June 1688, the Queen gave birth to a son. There
was now the prospect of a Catholic heir, and of an endless
succession of Catholic monarchs
• Whig propaganda set to work and spread the rumour that
the royal baby had been still-born, and a healthy male child
had been smuggled in
in a warming-pan to
secure the succession
16th c Florentine warming-pan
Victoria & Albert Museum
The ‘Immortal Seven’:
• As James’s pro-Catholic policy
developed, Whig leaders had
been corresponding secretly with
William of Orange, married to
James’s daughter Mary
• June 18: Whig leader Henry
Sidney wrote a letter of invitation
to William (subscribed by 5
other noblemen & a bishop)
• The ‘Immortal Seven’ (5 Whigs,
2 Tories) asked William to
invade England to support a
national rebellion Henry Sidney. By John Baptist de Medina, c.1681
Government Art Collection
The Letter of Invitation:
“. . . the people are so generally dissatisfied with the present
conduct of the government in relation to their religion,
liberties and properties (all which have been greatly
invaded), and they are in such expectation of their
prospects being daily worse, that your Highness may be
assured there are nineteen parts of twenty of the people
throughout the kingdom who are desirous of a change, and
who, we believe, would willingly contribute to it, if they
had such a protection to countenance their rising as would
secure them from being destroyed. . .”
The Glorious Revolution:
• 5 Nov: William landed at
Torbay
• Many Protestant officers in
James’s army defected to
William
• James despaired, threw the Great
Seal into the Thames & fled the
country
• 28 Dec: the ‘peers of the realm’
entrusted the provisional
government to William & made
provision for a new parliament
Willliam of Orange. Unknown artist, c.1690
National Portrait Gallery, London
William III & Mary II:
• Jan 1689: Convention
Parliament meets
• Parliament declares that James’s
flight is equivalent to an
abdication & offers the crown
to William and Mary
• February 1689: William &
Mary are proclaimed joint
monarchs
• Parliament drafts a Declaration
of Rights, to be accepted by the
new sovereigns
Willliam & Mary, 1689.
From the Guildbook of the Barber Surgeons
The British Library
The Bill of Rights (1689):
• Listed the abuses of James’s reign
and declared him to have abdicated
& left the throne vacant
• Vested the succession on the heirs
of Mary, and then her sister Anne
• Barred Roman Catholics from the
throne (& prohibited monarchs
from marrying Catholics)
• Asserted the rights of parliament,
imposing constitutional limits on
royal authority
The ‘Bloodless’ Revolution?
• March 1689: James lands in
Ireland with French troops

• The Irish Parliament supports

him, but he is defeated by
William’s forces at the Battle
of the Boyne (July 1690)
The Battle of the Boyne by Jan Wyck
The National Gallery of Ireland
 The Convention in Edinburgh
• Acting independently of James, members of the Scottish Parliament
called a Convention of Estates in Edinburgh. (not a meeting of
Parliament because only the king could call this.)
• This Convention stated that King James had forfeited the throne
through his own actions (i.e. leaving for France).
• In April 1689 they agreed to accept William and Mary as rulers of
Scotland.
• 1690: abolition of the Lord of the Articles (committees traditionally
used by kings to govern Scotland)
• 1690: The Act of Settlement: Presbyterianism formally adopted as
the system of government of the church of Scotland: W&M
promised to respect it.
 The Jacobites
• James’s followers (most from the Highlands: Catholics or
Episcolian)
• As soon as the Scottish Parliament chose William and
Mary, the Jacobites started to gather their forces.
• 1689: first Jacobite rebellion against the British crown
(W&M)
• 1st May 1690: the Jacobite army was defeated: end of the
first Jacobite rebellion.
• End 1691: all Highland clans sweared an oath of loyalty to
King William (James VII released them from their still
standing oaths to him)