Glorious Revolution

1. The Glorious
Revolution

2. Fear of Catholic Tyranny.
 The Glorious Revolution replaced the reigning of King James II.
 The revolution settlement established the supremacy of parliament over
the crown.
 Britain was on the path towards
constitutional monarchy and
parliamentary democracy.

3. Rebellion
 King James II issued a declaration of indulgence, suspending penal laws against
Catholics.
 He formally dissolved his parliament.
 Seven leading bishops refused to follow the order to read the King’s declaration of
indulgence from their pulpits.
 As a consequence, James responded by having them arrested for seditious libel and taken
to the Tower of London.

4. Dutch Invasion
 Two factors moved James’ opponents to urge William of Orange to
intervene militarily:
 The birth of a healthy catholic daughter dashed hopes that the crown would
soon pass to James’ protestant daughter, Mary.
 William’s co-conspirators believed that the parliament that James planned
would repeal the Test Acts.

5. Revolution
 James had made military preparations for the defence of England.

6.  But, James’ own army was infiltrated by one of the members of the Orangist
conspiracy, Lord Cornbury, who was one of the first to defect to William.
 The final betrayal came on the King’s return to his capital when he found that
his daughter, Princess Anne, had absconded to join the Orangist side.
 James made an attempt to escape, but he was captured by Kent Fishermen.
 The King’s capture was an inconvenient for William, so with the Prince’s
connivance, James fled the country successfully.

7.  Before William and Mary were offered the crown, they were presented with a document
called the Declaration of Rights, later enshrined in law as the Bill of Rights, which
affirmed a number of constitutional principles.
 After great pressure from
William himself, parliament agreed
that he would rule as joint monarch
with Mary, so then, William and Mary
formally accepted the throne.