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The Glorious Revolution (1688-1689), also known as the "bloodless revolution," is an event in which the Stuart king James II (James VII of Scotland) was removed from his thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland, and replaced by William of the House of Orange and his wife and joint sovereign Mary. It is sometimes referred to as the Bloodless Revolution which is largely true of William's succession to the English throne, although his struggles to gain the Scottish and Irish thrones were far from bloodless. According to J R Jones, this Revolution was "one of the most rapidly executed of all revolutions" 1. Modern history scholars prefer the more neutral "Revolution of 1688".
History During his three-year reign, King James II fell victim to the political battle in the British Isles between Catholicism and Protestantism, 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 deep 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 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 real, however. Leaders of the hitherto loyal Tory Party united with members of the opposition Whigs and set out to solve the crisis.
A conspiracy (see the Immortal Seven) was launched to depose James and replace him with his daughter Mary and her husband, William of Orange — both Protestants. 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 landed at Brixham, Devon on November 5, 1688 with a large Dutch army. James' nerve broke, his army under the future Duke of Marlborough deserted, and he fled to Kent where he was captured. The memory of the execution of Charles I still being strong, he was then allowed to leave for France.
In 1689, the Convention Parliament convened and declared that James' flight amounted to abdication. William and Mary were offered the throne as joint rulers, an arrangement which they accepted. Although their succession to the English throne was relatively peaceful an uprising occurred in support of James in Scotland, the first Jacobite rebellion, and in Ireland where James used local Catholic feeling to try to regain the throne in 1689–1690. It can thus be seen as much more of a coup d'état than an authentic revolution. England stayed calm throughout, the uprising in the Scottish Highlands was quelled despite the Jacobite victory at the Battle of Killiecrankie, and James was expelled from Ireland following the Battle of the Boyne.
The Glorious Revolution was one of the most important events in the long evolution of powers possessed by Parliament and by the Crown in England. With the passage of the Bill of Rights it stamped out any final possibility of a Catholic monarchy, and ended moves towards monarchical absolutism in the British Isles by circumscribing the monarch's powers.
The success of the Glorious Revolution came three years after the failure of the Monmouth Rebellion to overthrow the king.
Footnote - 1972, p. 3.
References - Jones, J. R. (1972). The Revolution of 1688 in England. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
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