Glorious Revolution: History and Background

The Glorious Revolution was the deposition of King James II in November 1688. He was replaced by his daughter Mary II and her Dutch husband, James's nephew William III of Orange. The two ruled as joint monarchs of England, Scotland, and Ireland until Mary's death in 1694, when William became ruler in his own right. Jacobitism, the political movement that aimed to restore the exiled James or his descendants of the House of Stuart to the throne, persisted into the late 18th century. Some historians consider William's invasion the last successful invasion of England.

Despite being a Roman Catholic, James had become king in February 1685 with widespread backing from the Protestant majorities in England and Scotland, as well as largely Catholic Ireland, but his policies quickly eroded support. The prospect of a Catholic dynasty following the birth of his son James Francis Edward Stuart on 10 June 1688 led some of his domestic opponents to issue the Invitation to William, seeking Dutch support to remove him.

The Dutch States General and William of Orange were concerned that James might support France in the Nine Years' War. Exploiting unrest in England and claiming to be responding to the invitation, William landed with an army in Devon on 5 November 1688. As William advanced on London, James's army disintegrated and he went into exile in France on 23 December. In April 1689, a Convention made William and Mary joint monarchs of England and Ireland. A separate but similar Scottish settlement was made in June 1689.

Domestically, the Revolution confirmed the primacy of Parliament over the Crown in both England and Scotland. In terms of external policy, until his death in 1702, William combined the roles of Dutch stadtholder and English and Scottish monarch. Both states thus became allies in resisting French expansion, an alliance which persisted for much of the 18th century, despite differing objectives.

Source and attribution

Text excerpted from Glorious Revolution by Wikipedia contributors, available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0. The extract is abridged and formatting has been adjusted; the adapted text on this page is shared under the same licence. Revision history.