Megan Mallory
World History E-Core
Period 5
~ What
was the Glorious Revolution? ~
Three hundred years ago, around
When he entered the boat, the King was clutching the Great Seal of England,
recently received back from his hated and cruel Lord Chancellor, the infamous George Jeffreys.
As the boat glided to the middle of the river, the King with his own hands
flung the Great Seal into the water, where it sank. The following spring
the Great Seal would be accidently retrieved by
fishermen who caught it in their net, “Heaven seeming by this accident to
declare that the laws, the constitution, and the sovereignty of
Prior to crossing the river, the King in another destructive act had
personally thrown the writ necessary for summoning a scheduled Parliament into
the flames of a palace fireplace.
Mistakenly confident that government functions now would be paralyzed in his
absence, the King arrived at the opposite shore and mounted a horse waiting in
the darkness to take him to the seacoast where a sloop was supposed to
transport him and his companions across the
What Was the Glorious Revolution of
1688?
This attempt of King James II to flee
The 300th anniversary of the Glorious Revolution has attracted little
attention, even though it is landmark in history. The Glorious Revolution
checked the power of the monarchy, paved the way for the rise of cabinet
government and parliamentary democracy, and resulted in enacted of the English
Bill of Rights-some of whose provisions (such as those forbidding cruel and
unusual punishments, excessive fines, or excessive bail) later found their way
into the American Bill of Rights in our Federal Constitution.
Englishmen living 300 years ago believed that the Glorious Revolution was “a
thing that cannot be paralleled in history,” whose greatness would be
recognized “till time shall be no more.” They undoubtedly would be
surprised to discover that the tricentennial had and
gone with so little public awareness or interest.
The Glorious Revolution was the political and governmental upheaval that
shook
The Glorious Revolution of 1688, swift, bloodless, and one of the mildest,
most benignant revolutions in history, began in the spring of 1688 with several
conspiracies against James II by his political enemies and various military
officers, and became irresistible by Nov. 5, when the Prince of Orange’s
invasion fleet appeared off the coast of Devonshire in western England and
began landing an army in which history records as the last successful invasion
of England. It is said James II was in the presence of his courtiers when
he opened and read the dispatch confirming William’s landing. All the
blood is said to have left his cheeks, and he dropped the dispatch and was
speechless for some time.
The Glorious Revolution ended three months later on Feb. 13, 1689, when
William and Mary were officially proclaimed the new monarchs in London by a
convention specially assembled in lieu of a Parliament. By then the
deposed James II was living in exile in France, a guest of French King Louis
XIV.
The term “Glorious Revolution” was coined less than a month after the
accession of William and Mary. The term first appeared in a letter
written by one of the deposed James II’s former ministers
of state, dated
Some Events in the Miraculous Year
1688
When the year 1688 began, King James II was 54 years old, prematurely aged,
one of those dull, stubborn persons who cannot learn from their mistakes.
He had been on the throne for three years. As the year progressed, James
committed a series of major blunders and illegalities which steadily eroded his
political support, leaving him isolated and unpopular.
In April 1688 James provoked the crisis by issuing a royal proclamation purporting
to suspend enforcement of certain laws duly enacted by Parliament. He
also announced his intention of filling up government offices with fellow
Catholics, even though Catholics were disqualified from holding offices under
anti-Catholic laws then on the books.
In May 1688 James II aggravated matters by ordering the Church of England to
read the royal proclamation during divine services. On Friday, May 18 the
77-year old Archbishop of Canterbury, William Sancroft,
and six other Anglican bishops privately presented the King with a respectful
petition begging to be excused from this. James flew into a rage.
When the proclamation was not read in the churches as he had directed, James
had the Seven Bishops (as they were soon known) arrested on Friday, June 8 and
confined in the Tower of London for exactly one week, then released on bail to
await trial on misdemeanor charges for having presented their petition to the
King. To James II, humble petitioning was seditious libel. The
arrest, imprisonment, and prosecution of the bishops amazed the English people.
The Trial of the Seven Bishops in the Court of King’s Bench was the greatest
and most memorable common law trial in history. The trial began on
Friday, June 29, and amidst cheers the jury returned a verdict of acquittal the
next day. The trial occurred in the midst of growing public excitement
and consternation, and was attended by an overflowing crowd, including many
peers of the realm. The acquittal was widely viewed as a crushing rebuke
to James II, who predictable comment on the
acquittal was: “So much the worse for them.”
While the bishops were in the Tower another unexpected event happened.
James II was thought to be “diseased,” and his wife was thought incapable of having healthy children and also thought
not to be pregnant. But suddenly Queen Mary of
William of
Meanwhile, across the water in
William, 37 years old, was married to Mary, the daughter of James II.
Until the birth of James II’s son on June 10, May was
first in line to the English throne.
William himself was third in line to the English throne before the birth of
James II’s son, and fourth
afterward. William had long been closely involved in English politics
with English politicians. By 1688 he had become the acknowledged leader
of much of James II’s political opposition.
Unlike James II, who was tall, handsome, and fair, William was short,
sickly, and noted for his aquiline nose. Imperturbable, laconic, sagacious,
William was one one of the greatest of all European
statesmen, and individual of extraordinary daring and foresight. His life
was dedicated to humbling the might of
In May 1688 a representative of one of the conspiracies against James II
paid a secret visit to William at
William’s fleet of 50 warships and 300 transports carrying 7,000 sailors,
14,000 troops, 4,000 horses, and hundreds of tons of supplies, set sail from
Holland on Thursday, November 1. William himself sailed on board a
warship that led the fleet. The winds blew favorably, and soon the
invasion fleet was in the
The story is told that upon setting foot on land, William, a gloomy
Calvinist who seldom wisecracked, turned to his chaplain and joked: “Well,
Doctor, what do you think of predestination now?”
Once his army was safely on English soil, William began an unhurried march
toward
The King of
Queen Mary of
On the morning of Wednesday, Dec. 12, the
King and his party were taken to a nearby fishing village, where the King was
recognized and they were detained in a private house until Saturday, Dec. 15.
During the time he was detained, James II suffered a nervous
breakdown. He wept. He beseeched. He even feigned
happiness. One who saw the King in the village wrote: “I observed a smile
on his [the King’s] face, of an extraordinary size and shape, so forced,
awkward, and unpleasant to look upon, that I can truly say I never saw anything
like it.”
James II Successfully Escapes to
James II returned to his palace in
Among other deputations, a group of distinguished lawyers came to greet
William once he was lodged in St. James’s Palace, where James II’s son had been born six months earlier, and where
William had married Mary back in 1677. Speaking to John Maynard, a famous
90-year old lawyer, William said complimentarily: “Sir, you must have survived
all the lawyers of your time.” Maynard’s brilliant reply impressed
everyone present: “And had Your Highness not come over, I should have survived
the laws too.”
James II went to
The deposed James II remained in French exile until his death in 1701.
He was the last English sovereign to claim to rule by divine