Mary I (Bloody Mary)

Mary I, queen of England, was born on February 18, 1516, in Greenwich Palace in London, England. Her father, Henry VIII, of the House of Tudor, had also been born at Greenwich on June 28, 1491. Mary was the fifth child of Henry and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.

Although there was jubilation at Greenwich at Mary’s birth, Henry VIII was disappointed in that Catherine of Aragon had failed to deliver a son. Mary would be the only one of Catherine and Henry VIII’s children who would live to adulthood. In an age when monarchs were preferably men, young Mary’s purpose diplomatically was to secure a strategic nuptial alliance for her father.

In Henry VIII’s eyes, the only way to secure the throne in the Tudor family—and to make it a true dynasty—was to have a male son who would succeed him as king. Consequently, Henry began his quest to divorce Catherine of Aragon to marry again in the hopes of producing a male Tudor heir.

However, to assure the succession of the Tudors to the throne, Mary was recognized by her father as princess of Wales, which meant that, should her father die without male issue, she would succeed him as Queen Mary I.


In the end, Henry had his marriage to Catherine of Aragon dissolved, and he wed his mistress Anne Boleyn, who was crowned queen of England in 1533. Pregnant at the time of her marriage to Henry, she gave birth to the princess Elizabeth, the future Elizabeth I, in September 1533. Still the king determined to have his way in all things, Henry was frustrated in his pursuit of a male Tudor heir.

In 1534, Henry had Parliament pass the Act of Supremacy, which made him the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England, known as the Church of England. As far as Princess Mary was concerned, she was placed in almost double jeopardy, because she still held out for her mother and for the Catholic Church.

Boleyn was her bitter enemy, especially after the birth of Elizabeth as Mary’s rival for the throne, and it was feared that Boleyn would demand Mary’s execution. Finally, under the entreaty of the king’s chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, Mary assented to the Act of Supremacy.

When Anne Boleyn was executed for adultery in May 1536, much of the danger passed for Mary. Henry’s next wife, Jane Seymour, finally provided a male heir, Edward VI, in October 1537. Seymour began a reconciliation with Mary, who still had a spot in her father’s heart as his “chiefest jewel.”

Tragically, Jane would die soon after childbirth and Edward would only rule from 1547 to 1553, at which time Mary became queen. When Mary ascended the throne in July 1553, she trod lightly at first on the issue of religion, not wishing to shake England by revoking the Act of Settlement and the new order that had come with it.

However, Mary did have Henry’s divorce from her mother declared invalid, legally making Elizabeth a bastard. The half sisters carried on harsh competition for a rightful claim to the throne. Elizabeth was implicated in two plots against Mary, one led by Sir Thomas Wyatt in 1554 that caused Elizabeth to be sent temporarily to the Tower of London.

Eventually Mary’s affection for the Catholic Church brought personal disaster. In November 1554, Reginald Cardinal Poole brought from the Vatican the terms by which Rome would accept England back into the church—all those who had carried out the Act of Settlement must be judged as heretics and condemned to execution. Almost 300 would be executed, including Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, who had also approved of the divorce of Henry VIII from Catherine.

Mary sacrificed the affection of her people, not a few of whom had supported her during her years of exile. She compounded her error by marrying Philip II of Spain in July 1554. Mary’s legacy in England included the loss of Calais to France’s king Henry II in January 1558. It was the last possession England had left in France from the Hundred Years’ War.

Indeed, there is much reason to think that Philip only wed Mary to draw England into the enduring feud between Spain and France, hoping to tip the balance in favor of Spain. Plagued by ill health and foreign adventures, Mary I died in November 1558. Before her death, she had provided that Elizabeth would succeed her on the throne as the rightful queen.

John Locke

John Locke

Of all of the thinkers of modern times, few have had the wide impact of John Locke. Locke was born in Wrington, in Somerset, England, on August 29, 1632, during the political ferment that preceded the English Civil War (1642–49). At the time, Charles I was ruling without Parliament and exercising his firm belief in the doctrine of the divine right of kings.

This basically held that the king, anointed with holy oil at his coronation, was the representative of God on Earth and thus could commit no wrong in his rule. The idea of limiting the power of the monarch would dominate England through the rest of the 17th century and form the seminal basis of much of Locke’s great work.

Locke’s first significant educational experience was gained in the Westminster School, in 1646, while the English Civil War was at its height. Among noteworthy graduates of Westminster School were Jeremy Bentham (father of the utilitarian school of philosophy), Robert Cotton (founder of the Cottonian Library), England’s great poet John Dryden, and the historian Edward Gibbon, author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. At Westminster, Locke was one of the gifted King’s Scholars.

Locke was a ingusan student at Christ Church College, at Oxford University, in 1652, where he studied medicine, although he did not receive his bachelor’s in medicine until 1674. At Oxford, Locke became acquainted with the leading minds of his day, including Robert Boyle and Sir Isaac Netwon.


They left an indelible imprint upon Locke, who had found the medieval approach of studies of the ancient Greek philosophy Aristotle to be sterile and devoid of meaning for his times.

Initially, there was little to indicate that Locke would make his greatest contribution to the emerging study of the philosophy of politics. In 1666, while at Oxford, Locke met Anthony Ashley Cooper, the later earl of Shaftesbury, certainly one of the boldest—and most unscrupulous—figures in the great age of English political intrigue.

As Shaftesbury’s ambition launched him on what became a drive for power, Locke loyally followed his patron. Shaftesbury’s eventual fall from grace led Locke to return to complete his studies at Oxford for his bachelor’s degree in medicine. This was followed by a 15-month tour of France, which may have been occasioned in part by his close identification with the fallen earl.

In Holland, Locke actively joined English exiles seeking to bring down King Charles and his brother. Charles’s agents infiltrated the group. When Charles II died in 1685, James II began a reign that would lead to the Glorious Revolution and the rule of William and Mary.

It is likely that Locke, with his wide contacts, played a role in the intrigue that came to a climax upon William’s and Mary’s landing in England. The extent of Locke’s role in the machinations seems clear from the fact that he sailed on board the same ship with William and Mary as a close counselor.

Back in England, Locke penned two works that would shape the future of philosophy and government. In An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), he posited that human beings gain almost all knowledge through experience. Consequently, Locke became one of the founders of the empirical school of knowledge.

In helping to propagate the empirical view, he helped shape modern philosophy, removing forever the primacy of the teachings of Aristotle (against which he had rebelled years ago as a student at Oxford) and the medieval view of Thomas Aquinas.

Locke also looked at the political turmoil of his kala and attempted to apply his perspective of reason to government. He produced a clearly written document free from the use of biblical Scripture and frequent appeals to ancient guides like Aristotle. Locke’s views are related in Two Treatises on Government.

In the First Treatise, he attacks the divine right of kings, which formed the basis of the governments of Charles I, and to a lesser extent that of his son, James II. The Second Treatise on Government would have important relevance to the American Revolution because America’s founders based much of their opposition to the tyranny of George III on the writings of Locke.

Locke’s theory of government holds that man, once in a state of nature, where arbitrary force ruled, agreed to government as a way to seek protection for all from the willful use of force to dominate them, to replace the law of the jungle with the rule of law.

With his Two Treatises on Government, Locke had used the political turmoil of his time to write a document that would transcend his time. No more would people accept willful, dictatorial governing.

Instead, all administrations would govern under the revolutionary concept that their government was done by the consent of those they governed. Locke died on October 28, 1704, at Oates in the home of his friends, Sir Francis and Lady Masham.

James II - King of England

James II - King of England

James II was the second son of King Charles I and his wife, Queen Henrietta Maria. Like that of his elder brother, Charles, who had been born in 1630, James’s childhood was blighted by the events of the English Civil War. In 1645, the royalist city of Oxford was taken by the forces of Parliament, and the young James, duke of York, who lived there, was taken prisoner. In April 1648, James escaped London and fled to Holland.

On news of the execution of his father, Charles I, in January 1649, James’s elder brother, Charles, prince of Wales, was immediately proclaimed king. James would make his mark as a soldier. By the 1650s, Oliver Cromwell had gone far to becoming the leading member on the side of Parliament and soon styled himself the almost-regal Lord Protector.

James gained military service in the French army under the great Marshal Henri de Turenne, but when Cromwell entered England into an alliance with the French, James left the service of Louis XIV and joined the army of France’s enemies, the Spanish.

The next year marked the beginning of another chapter in James’s life. On May 29, 1660, his brother was welcomed into London on his 30th birthday as Charles II. When the English went to war with the Dutch in 1665, James proved himself on sea as the lord high admiral. James was an able and determined military leader in the naval battles against the Dutch.


In England, however, James did not fare as well. His open conversion in 1688 to Roman Catholicism alienated both of the growing parties in Parliament. Two Test Acts, requiring one in effect to pledge allegiance to the state-sponsored Anglican Church, barred Roman Catholics from serving in either of the two Houses of Parliament.

James, clearly perceiving this as an attack, resigned his office of lord high admiral in 1673. Attempts were made to press through Parliament an Exclusion Bill to kafe James from the throne, but the bill ultimately failed.

By the time Charles II died on February 6, 1685, the Tories and Whigs were both resolved to receive James as king (James VII of Scotland and James II of England). Both political parties were resigned to his practicing his Roman Catholic faith as long as he and his second wife, Mary of Modena, did so privately.

On April 23, 1685, he was crowned king in Westminster Abbey and Mary of Modena his queen. In June, James, duke of Monmouth, landed in England to claim the throne as the Protestant claimant. Monmouth’s forces were quickly defeated. Within three months, James began to squander the goodwill he had enjoyed at his coronation.

Rather than behaving magnanimously toward Monmouth, he had him beheaded as a common traitor. Additionally, he unleashed a political reign of terror, known as the Bloody Assizes in the West Country. In November 1685 James shut down Parliament to rid himself of the debates and challenges to his decisions.

James also seemed determined to disestablish the Anglican Church in England. Magdalen College, in Oxford University, became a Roman Catholic seminary to train native English Catholic priests. James also presented a Declaration of Indulgence designed to lift legal restrictions from those who did not profess the Anglican creed.

He required the declaration to be read in all Anglican churches and when the archbishop of Canterbury William Sancroft and six other Anglican bishops protested, they were imprisoned in the Tower of London.

While it appeared that the throne would go to James’s Protestant daughter Mary, or the hereditary ruler of the Netherlands, William of Orange, the English people hoped that the Protestant religion would survive James’s rule. However on June 10, 1688, a son was born and Whig and Tory leaders realized that a Catholic would be the next monarch of England.

On the day the bishops were acquitted, Thomas Osborne, the first earl of Danby, a Tory, and six other Tory and Whig party members signed a secret invitation requesting William to invade England and, with Mary, overthrow James. On November 5, 1688, helped by what would be called the “Protestant Wind,” William’s invasion fleet anchored at Torbay. Danby led a rising for William in the north of England, while rebellion broke out in other parts of the country.

The army’s leading commander, John Churchill, also gave his support to William. James fled England to seek asylum with Louis XIV in France in December 1688. William and Mary were welcomed in London and, on February 13, 1689, formally proclaimed king and queen of England by Parliament.

Henry VIII

Henry VIII

Henry VIII was king of England from 1509 to 1547. He is perhaps best known for his succession of wives, some of whom were put to death, and was a key figure in both English and religious history.

Early Life

Henry was born June 28, 1491, the second son of King Henry VII. Raised as a prince and second in succession to the throne, Henry was an intelligent and athletic youth. He was schooled in Latin, Greek, and French, his upbringing in a large degree under the control of his paternal grandmother, Margaret Beaufort, an intelligent and shrewd woman. By age 10, Henry was expected to attend and even preside at royal functions, officially receiving his brother’s betrothed bride and his own future first wife, Princess Catherine of Aragon, in 1501.

Henry’s life changed dramatically in 1502 when his older brother Prince Arthur died unexpectedly at age 16. Arthur had been married less than five months to Catherine of Aragon. A year later, Henry’s father began negotiations to allow Henry to marry his brother’s widow, which required special permission from the pope in Rome.

That year, at age 11, Henry became officially engaged to Catherine, though they were not married till after Henry became king. During those years, Catherine became a political pawn in the diplomatic negotiations between Spain and England, as Henry’s father threatened several times to cancel the engagement.


The Young King

When his father died in April 1509, Henry was officially crowned king of England, lord of Ireland, and king of France (a nominal title, since he only ruled a portion of France). Two months later, Henry married Catherine of Aragon.

The 18-year-old king made an impressive appearance at court, being extremely physically fit and robust and thrilled with jousting, hunting, and dancing. He was attentive to the responsibilities of governing, but avoided routine meetings, expecting his counselors to go to him at his convenience to report and present issues requiring Henry’s decision.

Chief among his counselors was Thomas Wolsey, who became Henry’s chief minister in 1512. His early years of marriage to Catherine were generally happy ones, but marred by the fact that his first child was stillborn, and his second child, a son, died within six weeks of his birth. In 1515, a daughter, Mary I (crowned Queen Mary in 1553), was born.

During this time, there were substantial changes in neighboring France and the rest of Europe. In 1515, King Louis XII of France died, and his son Francis I took the throne. In 1519, Emperor Maximilian died and his son Charles (nephew of Queen Catherine) became Emperor Charles V. The three young rulers were at times allies, and other times enemies (often two against the other) over the next 30 years.

After Charles’s accession, Henry made an official visit to both King Francis and Charles at elaborately planned events marked with enormous pomp and ceremony. Wolsey, increasing in personal power during these years, represented Henry ably in orchestrating the events, ensuring that Henry had the upper hand wherever possible.

These years also marked the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation in Germany, when the young priest Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenburg on October 31, 1517. Henry was fascinated by theology and sought to bring to his court men of great learning, including the esteemed scholar Erasmus of Rotterdam. At this time, Henry was completely opposed to the reformers, writing his own refutation of Protestant doctrine titled The Assertion of the Seven Sacraments, published in May 1521.

Henry’s Divorce from Catherine

By 1525, Henry could see that Catherine would never bear him a son. Catherine was already 40 years old, and only their daughter Mary had lived past early childhood. Henry was greatly concerned to ensure a male heir to the throne for he knew that others would claim the throne, especially under a queen.

Henry had an illegitimate son and considered the possibility of raising him to an official status but worried that this would simply aggravate the problem. Complicating matters was the fact that Henry had become enamored of a woman at his court named Anne Boleyn and was seeking to make her his mistress.

Finally in 1527, Henry decided to seek divorce from Queen Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn. This required papal dispensation, a matter complicated greatly by the fact that Charles V had recently invaded Rome, the home of the pope, and was understandably hostile to Henry’s desire to divorce Charles’s aunt.

The key figure in the negotiations with Pope Clement VII was Wolsey, now England’s cardinal and the second most powerful man in England after Henry. The argument crafted by Henry, Wolsey, and other councilors was that the marriage of Henry and Catherine was illegal, since she was previously married to Henry’s brother Arthur (even though a papal dispensation had been received for the marriage).

Clement was pressed by both Henry and Charles to decide one way or the other but succeeded in delaying a decision for nearly five years. Wolsey’s unsuccessful efforts to get a decision from Clement eventually led to his downfall and removal from office.

Breach with the Catholic Church

When informed by Anne Boleyn in 1533 that she was pregnant, a frustrated Henry decided to take matters into his own hands and declared that England had the authority to decide this matter, not a foreign pope.

The legal and political maneuvering to accomplish this was complex, as Henry was both trying to avoid open war with Charles and Francis and to ensure that the necessary acts of Parliament were done correctly. By May of 1533, the new archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, with the support of nearly all the English bishops, had declared Henry divorced from Catherine and recognized his marriage to Anne.

The breach with the Roman Catholic Church became complete in March 1534, with the passing of the Act of Supremacy, declaring that the king was, next to Christ, the “only Supreme Head in earth of the Church of England.” In order to ensure support for the act, an oath was administered to both church and civic officials.

Most took the oath, but a few notable men refused to take the oath, including the king’s own chancellor, Thomas More. More, Bishop Fisher, and several others were put to death for their refusal to take the oath. This marked the beginning of the present-day Anglican Church as well as the suppression of the Catholic Church in England.

Henry’s Subsequent Wives and Children

The hoped-for male heir did not come from Anne Boleyn. In September 1533, Anne bore Henry a daughter named Elizabeth, eventually crowned Queen Elizabeth I. Anne and Henry’s relationship slowly worsened after their marriage, but it was in April 1536 after Anne miscarried a baby boy that rumors of Anne’s infidelity surfaced.

Charges of infidelity and treason were brought against Anne and her supposed lovers (though it is not clear how truthful the charges were). Anne and several men were put to death in May 1536. Two weeks after Anne’s death, Henry married Jane Seymour, a woman he had been courting for several months. Jane bore a son, Edward VI, in September 1537 and died soon after from the effects of childbirth. Henry was not to have any more children.

Henry did have three more wives in succession. After a series of negotiations in 1540, Henry agreed to marry Anne of Cleves, the sister of an influential German duke. Assured that Anne was a great beauty, Henry was greatly disappointed upon meeting her, nearly putting off the marriage. Henry divorced her six months later in order to marry his new lover, Catherine Howard, in July 1540. His choice of Catherine was an unwise one.

Unbeknown to Henry, Catherine had several previous lovers and perhaps had continued a relationship with one of them after her marriage. This eventually came to the notice of Henry’s councillors, and with Henry’s consent, Catherine was tried and convicted of treason and executed in February 1542. In July 1543, Henry married Catherine Parr. Only Catherine Parr and Anne of Cleves outlived Henry.

By 1544 at age 53, Henry was an old man. He was substantially overweight, and his legs gave him great trouble with infections nearly killing him. He rallied at the prospect of invading France, which he did in July 1544, capturing the city of Boulogne at a high cost of men and supplies. War with France continued till 1546, when a treaty was signed between Henry and Francis I.

By this time, Henry could no longer walk or stand without assistance (though he could still be lifted onto a horse and enjoy a hunt). Later in 1546, Henry realized he had not long to live and set about eliminating opponents to the succession of his heirs, most notably the duke of Norfolk and his son, the earl of Surrey, who were convicted on charges of treason just before Henry’s own death.

Henry died on January 28, 1547. He was succeeded by his nine-year-old son, Edward VI.

Henry VII

Henry VII

Henry Tudor was born to Margaret Beaufort of the House of Lancaster—the “red roses” in 15th century England’s War of the Roses—and Edmund Tudor, the earl of Richmond, who died in Henry’s infancy. The War of the Roses came to a lull in 1471 when Edward IV (of the House of York, the opposing “white roses”) was restored to the throne—but his death 12 years later returned turmoil to England.

Encouraged by his Lancastrian maternal family, Henry contested the claim to the throne made by Richard III, the duke of Gloucester and Edward’s brother and most powerful general. It took two years, but Henry’s eventual victory ended the War of the Roses decisively and established the House of Tudor in the monarchy of England.

Peace and prosperity were Henry’s watchwords as king of England. Though his taxes were often high, they aimed not to line pockets but to restore the coffers depleted by civil war, and a treaty with the French that granted to them much of the territory they had gained during previous reigns brought substantial money to the royal treasury and spared the kingdom further fighting over matters now generations in the past.

Economic reforms presaged the weakening of the nobility’s financial power compared to that of the merchant class, which under Tudor rule would become more and more significant up through the English Renaissance (both Henry VIII and Elizabeth I were Tudor monarchs).


Henry also turned the Star Chamber—a court that had developed from the royal council—into a special tribunal whose sessions were closed to the public, which made them available to commoners who sought to make complaints against the nobility.

Although the Star Chamber could examine and overturn the decisions of lower courts, it was explicitly used by Henry to ensure the power to prosecute individuals considered untouchable by ordinary courts. It was not a new concept—similar courts had been used across Europe for centuries—but Henry’s application of it at the end of the War of Roses helped to turn the chaos of that period into the opportunity for a new order.

Though it was his son and successor, Henry VIII, who would split the Church of England off from the diocese of Rome, Henry VII in a sense got the ball rolling: When his oldest son died, he sought to marry his daughter-in-law, Catherine of Aragon, to Henry VIII, his younger son.

A papal dispensation was necessary, and although it was granted, the necessity lent a tense tenor to European affairs for most of a year. Eventually, Henry decided against the marriage, and the dispensation was not required—but this betrothal was instrumental in influencing young Henry VIII’s opinion of the pope’s influence in royal matters.

Henry IV

Henry IV

Henry was born in Pau, Béarn, Navarre, on December 13, 1552, to Antoine de Bourbon, duke of Vendôme (1518–62). Antoine was descended from the Capetian royal line, became Huguenot (Protestant), but then returned to Roman Catholicism.

Henry’s mother, Jeanne d’Albret, the Huguenot queen of Navarre (1528–72), raised Henry as a Huguenot in Béarn. Henry received a military education from French general Gaspard de Coligny (1519–72) and became the Huguenot leader in 1569.

Henry succeeded to the throne of Navarre upon his mother’s death on June 9, 1572. On August 18, 1572, he married Marguerite de Valois (1555–1615), his second cousin and childhood playmate. The marriage was arranged to alleviate the divisions wrought by the French Wars of Religion and reconcile the Roman Catholics with the Huguenots.

Queen Mother Catherine de Médicis (1519–89) forced King Charles IX (1550–74) and the future Henry III (1551–89) to order the Huguenot guests at the wedding to be killed. Some 3,000 Huguenots were killed in Paris, including de Coligny.


Despite a royal order to stop the killing, the slaughter spread throughout France, and 70,000 more Huguenots were killed. To save his life, Henry was forced to become Roman Catholic and stay confined to the court. He escaped and returned to Navarre and the Huguenot faith.

The Catholic League was formed in 1576 to oppose the Huguenots. It operated under the guidance of Henry, duke of Guise (1550–88), who controlled Henry III. Henry III and Guise fought Henry of Navarre unsuccessfully at the Battle of Coutras on October 20, 1587. Henry III was afraid of Guise’s popularity and his secret longing for the throne and ordered his assassination; he promptly left Paris under threat by Guise supporters.

Henry III reconciled with Henry in Navarre to gain his military support against the league and to win control over Paris. Together, they besieged Paris on July 30. Henry III was assassinated on August 2, 1589, and Henry of Navarre became king. The Catholic League, which was financially supported by Roman Catholic Spain, would not accept him as monarch and forced him to fight for the throne.

On July 25, 1592, Henry was encouraged by his mistress and mother of three of his illegitimate children, Gabrielle d’Estrée (1571–99), to repudiate his Protestant faith and permanently become Roman Catholic. He did so in July 1593.

He was immensely popular not only because he ended decades of war, but also because he was conciliatory and practical. Henry declared the Edict of Nantes in 1598, which established Roman Catholicism as the state religion and offered religious toleration to the Huguenots, who were heavily engaged in trade.

The Wars of Religion had taken an enormous toll on France, so Henry’s immediate goal was reconstruction. Rather than exhaust the treasury with more wars, Henry paid off the nobles who disagreed with him. He systemized finances and soon created a reserve of 18 million livres.

Henry’s marriage to Marguerite of Valois was annulled by Pope Clement VIII (1536–1605) in 1599. Henry married Marie de Médicis (1573–1642) on December 17, 1600. They had six children, the first of whom would become Louis XIII.

The couple welcomed Marguerite of Valois into their family; she helped rear the children and was very popular with the French people. Henry also had eight more illegitimate children with various other mistresses.

Henry sent Samuel de Champlain, Pierre Dugua, sieur de Monts to the New World to claim it for France. Henry’s foreign policy was meant to bring France to the forefront of power. He made alliances with Italy, the Swiss, and some Protestant German princes.

He was assassinated on May 14, 1610, by a religious fanatic. He was buried at the Saint Denis Basilica, the burial place of French monarchs. His legal son and heir, the future Louis XIII, was only nine years old, so Marie de Médicis served as regent until 1617.

Glorious Revolution

Glorious Revolution

The 1688 Glorious Revolution, sometimes known as the “Bloodless Revolution,” represented a culminating stage in Britain’s tumultuous 17th century history, a history characterised by the struggle between king and Parliament, and most notably, between Catholic and Protestant.

The crisis of 1688 came about following the succession of James II to the throne following the death of his brother, Charles II, in 1685. James was a committed Catholic; he hoped to strengthen the Catholic position if not restore it and return lost powers to the monarchy. James also wanted to transform and expand the army, which was dominated by a Protestant officer corps of aristocrats and gentlemen.

James desired more Catholic officers whose loyalty was to the Crown. A more Catholic army might help him pursue his political agenda. This aktivitas brought him into conflict with the Test Act, passed under Charles II, which required all those seeking military or civil posts to accept the Anglican Church and its teachings.


Following the earlier suppression of the Monmouth and Argyll rebellions, James was emboldened and started his campaign to reject the Test Act, and appointed Catholic loyalists to key state and university positions.

He issued a Declaration of Indulgence in 1687, which ended penal laws against Catholics, and followed this with a Second Declaration of Indulgence in 1688, which furthered the pro-Catholic policy and led to unrest among his bishops, and the alienation of both the Tories and Whigs in Parliament. James increased the political divides within the country, and when his wife, Mary of Modena, gave birth to a son on June 10, 1688, there was now the prospect of a Catholic succession.

The conspiracy to overthrow James began in earnest, and a mixed Tory and Whig parliamentary group approached the Dutch prince, William of Orange, and his wife, Mary, the Protestant daughter of James, to go to England to assume the throne. William agreed to accept the Crown in order to gain English resources for his war against Louis XIV of France.

William landed at Brixham, near Torbay in Devon, on November 5, 1688, with an army of some 14,000 composed mainly of Dutch, Brandenburger, Finnish, Swedish, and French troops. Although James’s army stationed on Salisbury Plain had double the manpower, his confidence failed, and on November 23, he withdrew toward London.

His meddling with the army now took its toll and many of his men deserted, including Lord Churchill (later duke of Marlborough), so that by December 10, his force was reduced to approximately 4,000 men. Lord Feversham, James’s leading commander, interpreted the situation as hopeless and disbanded his army without a fight.

On December 17, Dutch Guards took over Whitehall, the seat of government, and James attempted to flee the country. He was captured in Kent, but eventually was allowed to leave England. The taste for further regicide had passed.

In 1689, a Convention of Parliament decided that James’s departure was an abdication. William and Mary could now accept the throne on February 13, 1689, as legitimate joint rulers. To prevent future disruptions of this sort, Parliament passed a Declaration of Rights and a Bill of Rights in 1689.

These acts redefined the monarch’s position and authority in regard to his/her subjects, ending absolutism and any possibility of a Catholic monarchy. This redefinition of power created a constitutional monarchy, the form of government that continues today.

James however was not finished with his struggle to regain the throne. In 1689–90 he turned his attention to Scotland and Ireland, where he hoped to exploit nationalist and Catholic feeling. This first Jacobite rebellion in Scotland failed, and it led to the construction of Fort William to subdue the region.

In March 1689, James landed in Ireland with French troops thinking it would become a base to retake England. At Enniskillen, the Jacobites were pushed back. In June 1690, William landed his forces in Ireland and encountered James’s army at the Boyne on July 1, 1690.

William outflanked the Jacobite army, who were forced to retreat, while James once more fled to France. The remnants of James’s army continued to struggle on. They suffered further defeat at Aughrim on July 12, 1691, before surrendering totally that October.

The Glorious Revolution, according to some historians, was more of a coup d’etat than a revolution proper and might better be described as the Revolution of 1688. The after-effects were not bloodless. The revolution helped seal English rule over Ireland, the seed of future unrest. However, its most lasting effects were constitutional monarchy, the end of absolutism, and the ascendancy of Parliament as the nation’s paramount political force.