BBC History - The Life & Times Of The Stuarts 2016_

History describes the overthrow of James II and VII by

William of Orange as peaceful. But Edward Vallance

explains how bloodshed was an integral part

A NOT SO

BLOODLESS

REVOLUTION

Restoration and revolution / Revolution

O

n 5 November 1688,

the Dutch Stadtholder

(governor), the

Protestant William,

Prince of Orange,

landed in Brixham,

Devon, with an

invasion fleet four times the size of the

Spanish Armada a hundred years earlier.

With his sizeable army, William began

to march upon London. His father-in-law

James II and VII went to meet him but, in

spite of having a larger force, lost his nerve

for battle. Debilitated by incessant

nosebleeds that laid him up for days and

shaken by defections from his officer

ranks, James avoided confrontation.

Fearing for his own and his family’s safety,

the king tried to flee the country on 11

December but was captured in Kent. A few

days later he managed to escape to France.

In just a few weeks, a foreign power had, in

effect, succeeded in invading England for

the first time in 600 years.

However, William was here by

invitation. He owed his swift progress to a

request he had received six months

before. In June 1688, seven English

peers, opposed to the policies of King

James, had written to the Stadtholder

asking for his assistance – to help

them overturn their monarch’s pro-

Catholic policies. And as William’s forces

advanced upon London, many of James’s

officers defected to the Protestant prince.

As James fled, he apparently threw the

Great Seal of the Realm into the Thames.

With the throne vacant and unrest in the

city, the government was temporarily

placed in the hands of the Prince of

Orange, and a convention of peers and

MPs was summoned to decide how to

settle the kingdom. On 13 February 1689,

William and his English wife Mary, the

Protestant daughter of James II and VII,

were crowned William III and Mary II,

joint monarchs of England. As well, they

were tendered a document called the

Declaration of Rights which listed the

country’s grievances. They accepted the

Scottish throne a few weeks later (where he

was styled William II).

Defenders of the constitution

By the 18th century, these events had come

to be known as the Glorious, or Bloodless,

Revolution. The events of 1688–9 became

This contemporary illustration shows

the Duke of Monmouth, Charles II’s

illegitimate son, being executed

ALAMY, BRIDGEMAN IMAGES