On the June 30th 1688, William of Orange, Stadtholder of the Netherlands,
received a coded letter from a group of seven notable Englishmen,
each identified only by number but meant convey a broad consensus from across England.
The letter told William of the English King, a Catholic and a tyrant,
and that the king's newborn son, was supposititious, a fraudulent heir.
The seven asked William to come to England and depose the tyrant,
and take the crown for himself and his wife,
and promised that they and their allies would rise up in support of William when he came.
There are two sides to this story.
The first from the perspective of the letter's signatories, the English story;
and the second from the perspective of its recipient, William’s story.
Let’s deal with the English side of the story first.
The English history books tell us a story of a hero arriving in London on a white horse
to overthrow a tyrant king and establish a fairer, parliamentary monarchy.
That tyrant King was James the Second.
During England's brief experiment with republicanism, the Royal James had spent time in exile,
serving in the armies of France and Spain.
Here he was exposed to the beliefs and ceremonies of the Roman Catholic Church.
After the restoration of the monarchy and his return to England, he converted to Catholicism.
His brother and King, Charles II, opposed James's conversion,
and ordered his children, Mary and Anne, to be raised in the Church of England.
Public knowledge of James’ faith would only come about in 1673,
when the English Parliament, fearing catholic influence at court, passed the Test Act,
requiring officials to take an oath denouncing some catholic practices
and take communion from the Church of England.
James refused and relinquished the post of Lord High Admiral, making his conversion public.
The English elite were … disappointed,
and Parliament attempted to pass laws to exclude James, the heir presumptive
since Charles had no children, from inheriting the Crowns. But their bills didn’t pass
and, in 1685, Charles died (converting to Catholicism on his deathbed) leaving James to become King.
But with the English Civil War still in living memory, a peaceful transition of power was seen as necessary
both now at the beginning of James’ reign and later at its end;
and besides It would all be a temporary foray into Catholic rule,
as his heir presumptive, Princess Mary, was a true Anglican thanks to his predecessor's orders,
and his second wife, Mary of Modena, had suffered ten miscarriages and infant deaths
it didn’t look likely that a new Catholic male heir would be produced to replace Mary int he line of succession.
So any terrible catholic things he did would surely be undone once she took the throne,
and at least in the view of protestants, James did do some terrible things.
He made a pair of proclamations called the Declaration of Indulgence,
a first step in establishing freedom of religion,
which suspended restrictions against Roman Catholics and others
and also ended the requirement of affirming religious oaths before gaining a government office,
that had outed him as Catholic years before. The Anglican population were not happy.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, along with six other Bishops
wrote to the King alleging that the declarations were unconstitutional
because they overruled restrictions placed by parliamentary statute. James regarded this as rebellion,
and had the bishops imprisoned in the Tower of London.
They were later acquitted, but his actions against them further alienated him from his Anglican subjects.
But before their acquittal, something even worse happened.
James celebrated the birth of a son, a new heir, who would be raised Catholic.
With Mary of Modena’s previous history of miscarriages and infant deaths,
rumours soon spread that the baby was an imposter smuggled into the bedchamber in a warming pan
These rumours were most likely false, but a rumour was enough for Jame's critics.
It was time for him to go!
But as at the beginning of his reign, a lawful transition of power was needed.
So in an effort to alleviate the nation of this problem,
the seven Englishmen we began with sent their letter to William of Orange.
Already somewhat of a champion of the protestant religion.
It might seem strange to request Dutch help but William had a lot going for him as a prospective saviour.
Most importantly he was a Protestant, and was also high in the in line of succession for the English throne,
after James’ new son and two surviving daughters.
And, in typical European nobel style, he was also married to his cousin,
James’ eldest daughter now next in line after the baby.
He and his wife had a strong legal claim, but also William was Stadtholder of the Netherlands,
and with that, he had another key requirement - an army.
So this brings us to the other side of our story, that of William’s perspective.
It may seem strange to consider his motivations, what prince wouldn’t want to become King,
but there is more to it than simple ambition. The letter he received was not a surprise.
In fact, he had requested it,
Although it is a subject of debate who's idea it actually was, the English, Mary or William's.
Nevertheless, William was a masterful politician, often several moves ahead of his adversaries
and to him, this was all about a bigger European problem:
The big blue blob, France was growing in power.
Louis the fourteenth had emerged from the Franco-Dutch War in 1678 as the most powerful monarch in Europe,
an absolute ruler, in true Catholic style, with numerous victories under his belt.
To check this growing power, the Dutch were in the early stages of forming a Grand Alliance against France,
but William reasoned the Dutch navy wouldn’t be able to defeat the French alone,
and definitely would not repel a combined Anglo-French invasion.
An Anglo-French alliance therefore would spell certain doom;
and William saw James’ moves in England as the first step towards re-Catholicisation,
something he couldn’t achieve without a secret alliance with France.
Then, in April 1688, France and England concluded a naval agreement
which to William looked like the beginning of an alliance.
But to counter, William needed to sack everything in his favour.
He had been trying to influence English politicians for well over a year,
and on receipt of his letter, this now had come to fruition
he had the assurances he needed to come in not as an invader, but as a liberator,
avoiding a potentially bloody conflict with English forces that would weaken his combined forces later
He drafted a decoration to the people of the British Isles to hammer this point home.
He wasn't coming for personal reasons, was coming to liberate,
free the houses of parliament, and protect the protestant religion.
But he needed two more things go his way before he set sail. He needed Louis to not intervene to save James,
and he needed approval, and money, from the Dutch provinces.
The first of these was easier,
he persuaded Leopold the First, the Holy Roman Emperor, to make peace with the Ottomans
and free up his forces for a campaign in the West. The empire joined an alliance against France,
opposing Louis’ plans to press his sister in laws claims in the Rhineland.
William had his distraction. Dutch approval was a little harder to come by though,
But when Louis seized the Dutch ships in French ports as a warning,
William pointed to his actions as irrefutable evidence of an imminent French invasion.
As French forces crossed into the Rhineland,
the provinces accepted William's argument that a preventive strike was needed.
A massive Dutch fleet set sail down the English channel, 463 ships of varying sizes sailed 25 abreast,
with troops firing musket volleys and bands playing music as they sailed.
William was sending a message. Really two.
To the English to the North a message of imminent liberation,
and to the French to the South a message that William would be coming ... with his new English Army.
He landed unopposed at Brixham
and began to distribute thousands of printed copies of his declaration, covering England with his propaganda.
and as he marched towards London he was met, for the most part, by defecting soldiers and citizens;
while James, after declining French assistance,
fearing that it would further alienate him from his subjects. fled to France.
English politicians took James's desertion as abdication, and William and Mary were crowded as co-regents
The first and only time this has happened in history.
A number of conditions were placed on the new monarchs,
conditions that later would be codified into law as the English Bill of Rights.
This made good on Williams promise to free parliament
and ensure laws could not be passed without parliament's consent,
and his promise to protect the protestant religion by excluding Catholics from the throne of England.
These limitations would have been familiar to William,
as Stadtholder, he was bound by the Act of Abjuration, the Dutch declaration of independence.
The origin of the similarities is simple.
This document was used as a model for these limitations and the later English Bill of Rights,
that in turn would influence other notable documents across an even larger body of water.
Fighting would happen the following year
when James returned to the predominantly Catholic Ireland to retake the throne.
But he failed. And Parliamentary supremacy had been achieved
and no Catholic would even sit on the English Throne again.
All in all, if you were a protestant, an Anglican, an Englishman
this peaceful transition away from Catholicism was a Glorious Revolution indeed.
This video was part of Project Revolution, a group collaboration of revolutionary proportions!
WIth videos on other political revolutions, like the much more violent French Revolution
that came after England's Glorious Revolution, been covered by This is Barris.
But also videos on other revolutionary ideas like The Scientific Revolution, been covered by KhAnubis,
and even some that event’s that didn’t end up as revolutions at all
like Jack Rackam’s video on the Münster Rebellion.
Check out the Playlist of all the videos in the usual places.
This video was made possible with the support of fantastic people like you on Pateron.
The theme tune is by Richard Jones.
And, as always, thanks to everyone who supports the channel.