What Was the Glorious Revolution?

The Glorious Revolution, which took place in England in 1688, involved overthrowing Kings James II (also called James VII of Scotland) and replacing him with the William III of Orange-Nassau, the Dutch stadtholder and his wife, Mary. This revolution also caused a whole balance shift in how the country is governed.

Reason For James’ Unpopularity

Many Englishmen were dismayed when Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660 – they suspected that the Stuarts were absolutists and very Roman Catholic, and Charles’ unresponsiveness to Parliament as well as other Catholic ties didn’t help. The Whigs tried to ensure that there would be a Protestant successor by keeping James from ascending the throne, but they did not manage. When he ascended the throne, James II was openly Catholic and very friendly with France, which troubled the English greatly,  when his son was born, this excluded the protestant Mary from succession, killing all hopes of having a protestant monarch. The Parlaiment decided to call the help of Dutch stadtholder William III and his army.

The Bloodless Revolution

William III crossed the English channel after reaching an agreement with parliament. The Glorious Revolution is also called the “Bloodless Revolution” because there were only two minor clashes between the two armies, whereafter James II and his wife fled to France. William and Mary were established to the throne, but the revolution caused a great change in the distribution of power in the British constitution. The two co-monarchs accepted more restrictions from Parliament than any previous rulers and through the new constitution, it was established that future monarchs would also have to abide by the rules of Parliament.