William of Orange lands in Brixham in 1688 with an estimated army of 21,000 Dutch troopsINGLORIOUS AND BLOODY
Revolutionary violence spread throughout Scotland and IrelandIn Ireland and Scotland, the Revolution was militarily contested and its settlements
politically and religiously divisive. This was a reflection of the low priority given to
Scottish and Irish affairs by both James and William: England was the main prize
in the struggle. For James II and VII, Catholic Ireland and highland Scotland were
“launching pads” for an invasion of England. For William, Jacobite rebellion, a
distraction from the continental war with Louis XIV, had to be suppressed. James’s
personal involvement in the conflict ended with William’s victory at the battle of the
Boyne on I July 1690, but war in Ireland continued until capitulation of the besieged
Jacobites at Limerick on 3 October 1691. Irish Protestants disregarded the peace
terms of the Treaty of Limerick and established a monopoly over land ownership
and political power. In Scotland, Jacobite victory at Killiecrankie on 27 July 1689 was
followed by military defeats, until peace was agreed at Achallader in June 1691. Yet
bloodshed continued with the Campbells’ slaughter of MacDonalds at Glencoe on
13 February 1692, on the pretext that they had not taken the required oath to William.the paranoia aroused by the threat of
Catholic insurrection, inflamed by the
supposed murder of the magistrate Sir
Edmund Berry Godfrey by popish
assassins, led to the deaths of over 40
individuals, either executed, dying in
prison or as from violent assaults. This
number included high-profiles figures
such as Edward Coleman, the Duke of
York’s secretary, and the Roman Catholic
Archbishop of Armagh. Outside of the
capital, the plot initiated what was
virtually a pogrom against Roman
Catholic priests. The nonconformist
minister Philip Henry reported that two
priests were hung, drawn and quartered,
one at Denbigh and one at Chester “as were
several others in other counties”.
Parliamentary schemes to prevent James
from inheriting the throne were defeated
by Charles II’s snap dissolution of the
Oxford parliament in 1681. The failure of
“Exclusion” led some to take more
desperate measures. In June 1685, shortly
after the succession to the throne of his
uncle James, Charles II’s eldest illegitimate
son, the exiled Duke of Monmouth,
returned to England to lead an armed
rebellion to seize the crown from the
Catholic king. The Duke’s army, mainly
made up of poor labourers, cloth workers
and farmhands, was routed on the night of
5-6 July by the king’s professional forces at
the battle of Sedgemoor. Perhaps as much
as a third of Monmouth’s 3,500-strong
army may have been slaughtered in theWilliam III leading his army to victory over King James in the battle of the BoyneALAMY X2