Glorious Revolution: Encyclopedia II - Glorious Revolution - History

Glorious Revolution - History

During his three year reign, King James II fell victim to the political battles in the British Isles between Catholicism and Protestantism on the one hand, and on the other, between the divine right of the Crown and the political rights of Parliament. James's greatest political problem was his Catholicism, which left him alienated from both parties in Parliament. Any attempts at reform by James were thus viewed with great 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 (Charles) 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 likely. Some leaders of the hitherto loyal Tory Party united with members of the opposition Whigs and set out to solve the crisis.

Glorious Revolution - Conspiracy and Dutch Landing

In 1686 a group of conspirators met at Charborough House, Dorset to plan the overthrow of "the tyrant race of Stuarts". In 1688, a further conspiracy, based at Whittington Moor, Derbyshire (see the Immortal Seven) was launched to depose James and replace him with his daughter Mary and her husband, William of Orange — both Protestants and both grandchildren of Charles I of England. William was stadtholder of the Netherlands, 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 laid careful plans over a number of months for an invasion. Landing with a large Dutch army at Brixham, Devon on November 5, 1688, William was greeted with much popular support, and local men joined his army. Meanwhile, in the North, many nobles also declared for William. James's forward forces gathered at Salisbury, and James went to join them on November 19. It rapidly became apparent that the troops were not eager to fight, and the loyalties of many of James's commanders were doubtful. A skirmish at Wincanton, Somerset, around this time saw the first bloodshed, with Royalist troops defeating a small party of scouts and then retreating; the total body count from both sides was approximately 15. In Salisbury a worried James was afflicted by a sudden serious nose bleed, which he took as an evil omen that led him to decide to order a general retreat of his army. On November 23, John Baron Churchill, one of James's chief commanders, deserted to William. A few days later, James's own daughter, Princess Anne, did the same. Both were serious losses. James returned to London on November 26. By December 4, William's forces were at Salisbury; by December 7 they had reached Hungerford, where they met with the King's Commissioners to negotiate. In reality, by that point James was simply playing for time as he already had decided to flee abroad. Convinced that his army was unreliable, he sent orders to disband it. December 10 saw the second engagement between the two sides with the Battle of Reading, a defeat for the King's men.

December 11 saw James attempt to escape, dropping The Great Seal in the Thames along the way. However, he was captured by fishermen near Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey. The same night witnessed mass panic in London in what was later termed Irish night. Rumours of an impending Irish army attack on London gripped the capital, and mobs rioted and looted the houses of Catholics and several foreign embassies.

Upon returning to London a few days later, James was welcomed by cheering crowds. He took heart at this, and attempted to recommence government, even presiding over a meeting of the Privy Council. Then he received a request from William to remove himself from London. James went under Dutch guard to Rochester in Kent on December 18, just as William entered London. James then escaped to France on December 23. The lax guard on James and the decision to allow him so near the coast indicates that William might have hoped that a successful escape would avoid the difficulty of deciding what to do with him, especially with the memory of the execution of Charles I still strong. By fleeing, James helped ensure that William's grip was secure.

Glorious Revolution - William made King

In 1689, the Convention Parliament convened and declared that James's flight amounted to abdication. William and Mary were offered the throne as joint rulers, an arrangement which they accepted (William demanded upon nothing less than the title of king: this demand by England's former enemy of the Third Anglo-Dutch War made more persuasive by his military advantage). On February 13, 1689, Mary II and William III jointly acceded to the throne of England. Although their succession to the English throne was relatively peaceful, much blood would be shed before William's authority was accepted in Ireland and Scotland.

Glorious Revolution - Jacobite Uprisings

main article Williamite war in Ireland, Jacobite Risings

James had cultivated support on the fringes of his Three Kingdoms - in Catholic Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland. Supporters of James, known as Jacobites there were prepared to resist what they saw as an illegal coup by force of arms. An uprising occurred in support of James in Scotland in 1689, the first Jacobite rebellion, led by John Graham of Claverhouse known as "Bonnie Dundee", who raised an army from Highlands clans. In Ireland, local Catholics led by Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, who had been discriminated against by previous English monarchs, took all the fortified places in the kingdom except Derry to hold the Kingdom for James. James himself landed in Ireland with 6000 French troops to try to regain the throne in the Williamite war in Ireland. The war raged from 1689–1691. James fled Ireland following a humiliating defeat at the Battle of the Boyne, but Jacobite resistance was not ended until after the battle of Aughrim in 1691, when over half of their army was killed or taken prisoner. The Irish Jacobites surrendered at the Treaty of Limerick on October 3rd 1691. England stayed relatively calm throughout, although some English Jacobites fought on his side in Ireland. The Jacobite uprising in the Scottish Highlands was quelled despite the Jacobite victory at the Battle of Killiecrankie, due to death of their leader, Claverhouse.

The events of 1688 and their aftermath can thus be seen as much more of a coup d'état, achieved by (largely Dutch) force of arms than an authentic revolution. Many, particularly in Ireland and Scotland, continued to see the Stuarts as the legitimate monarchs of the Three Kingdoms and there were further Jacobite rebellions in 1715 and 1745 in Scotland.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki