The Declaration of Rights, tendered to William and Mary on their coronation (and
which would have an important influence on the US Constitution’s second and
eighth amendments), was a symbolically important statement of principle that
lacked legal machinery to back it up. For example, the demand for regular
parliaments was not secured until the passage of the Triennial Act in 1694. But if
the Revolution did not represent the advent of parliamentary “democracy”, it
certainly ushered in parliamentary government.
Needing regular parliamentary subsidies to fund his war against France, William
conceded greater and greater control to the two houses over government
expenditure. Parliamentary commissions of accounts were created which routed
out corruption and waste. The need to pay for the war led to the creation of new
financial institutions such as the Bank of England, founded in 1694.
The Revolution also clipped the monarch’s wings; the 1701 Act of Settlement
limiting royal powers of appointment and the royal power to wage war
independently. Ironically, this was less to guard against the threat of Catholic
absolutism, than to protect the English taxpayer from the prospect of another
Protestant warrior-prince like William succeeding to the throne. However, what the
Revolution did not prevent was the possibility of legislative tyranny. The threat of
an over-mighty parliament became a reality as the 1715 Septennial Act effectively
destroyed the Revolution’s commitment to regular elections.“In Ireland,
the bloody
shockwaves of
1688 would be felt
right up to
the present day”
Cirencester with the Duke of Beaufort’s
militia. On 7 December at Reading, as
William’s forces moved towards London, an
advance guard of the prince’s army some
250 men strong ran into a troop of 600 Irish
dragoon, leading to over 50 fatalities.
The disbanding of James’s army in the
winter of 1688 paradoxically heightened,
rather than soothed, public anxiety. The
first abortive flight of the king from
England on 11 December 1688 saw the city
descend into near anarchy. On the
morning of 13 December, London was
gripped by the rumour that James’s
disbanded Irish soldiers would cast off law
and discipline and begin a general
slaughter of the Protestant population.
The Irish Fright, as it came to be
known, spread rapidly across the country.
Rumours of Irish risings broke out in
Norfolk on the 13th and 14th of the
month, and in Surrey on the 14th and
15th. By 15 December, the news had
reached Yorkshire. The antiquary Ralph
Thoresby reported that in Leeds there were
reports that nearby Beeston was burning,
leading to a flight from the city. However,
Thoresby’s pregnant wife coolly climbed
to the attic window to report that Beeston
was untouched.
Violence, both real and imagined, was
then an integral part of the Revolution.
Only if the immediate causes of those
events are falsely restricted to the last two
years of King James’s reign can it be
presented as largely bloodless. Between
1678 and the Glorious Revolution, the
casualties of the dynastic struggle in
England alone numbered in the thousands.
In Scotland and Ireland, the human costs
were even higher. Moreover, the exclusively
Protestant nature of the revolution
settlement in Ireland would ensure that
the bloody shockwaves of 1688-9 would
be felt right up to the present day.GETTY IMAGES
A STRONGER PARLIAMENT
The lasting impact of the revolutionEdward Vallance is reader in early modern
history at Roehampton University. He is the
author of The Glorious Revolution: 1688 –
Britain’s Fight for Liberty (Abacus, 2007)William and Mary at the Bill of
Rights, prior to their coronation.
The bill invited them to become
joint sovereigns of England