Extract 3: Enrolment of the Declaration of the 12 February of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons [the ‘Declaration of Rights’], with the king’s answer. Catalogue ref: C 212/18/1

This document is the Declaration of Rights, also known as the Bill of Rights, which was created by the English Parliament in February 1689. It established the rights of the English citizens and the responsibilities of the monarchy.

The Ecclesiastical Commission was an English court of enquiry set up by James II in July 1686. It was given jurisdiction over the governance of the Church of England and allowed to try offences punishable under church law. It was designed to remove any opposition to James II’s religious policy favouring a return to Catholicism.

Extract 2: Enrolment of the Declaration of the 12 February of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons [the ‘Declaration of Rights’], with the king’s answer. Catalogue ref: C 212/18/1

This document is the Declaration of Rights, also known as the Bill of Rights, which was created by the English Parliament in February 1689. It established the rights of the English citizens and the responsibilities of the monarchy.

The Ecclesiastical Commission was an English court of enquiry set up by James II in July 1686. It was given jurisdiction over the governance of the Church of England and allowed to try offences punishable under church law. It was designed to remove any opposition to James II’s religious policy favouring a return to Catholicism.

Extract 1: Enrolment of the Declaration of the 12 February of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons [the ‘Declaration of Rights’], with the king’s answer. Catalogue ref: C 212/18/1

This document is the Declaration of Rights, also known as the Bill of Rights, which was created by the English Parliament in February 1689. It established the rights of the English citizens and the responsibilities of the monarchy.

The Ecclesiastical Commission was an English court of enquiry set up by James II in July 1686. It was given jurisdiction over the governance of the Church of England and allowed to try offences punishable under church law. It was designed to remove any opposition to James II’s religious policy favouring a return to Catholicism.

An untitled, printed pamphlet by Elinor James c1645-1781), November 1688. Catalogue ref: SP 31/4/201

This pamphlet, published in late 1688, is an Address to the House of Lords.

Elinor James wrote over ninety pamphlets on different political, religious or commercial matters. She commented on the Glorious Revolution, the Union of England and Scotland in 1707 and the Jacobite uprising of 1715. She opposed the coronation of William III. She was imprisoned and fined in 1689 for publishing a pamphlet declaring his reign to be illegitimate.

A printed handbill entitled: ‘Six Mature Articles’, Dec 1688-Jan 1689. Catalogue ref: SP 31/4/217

This document outlines William’s motives for coming to England, and the specific object of his expedition.

James Francis Edward Stuart (1688-1766) was born to James II (1633-1701) and his second wife, Mary of Modena (1658-1718) on 10 June 1688. His birth was a subject of national controversy.

An extract from a letter sent from the ‘Immortal Seven’ to the Prince of Orange inviting him to become King of England, 30 June 1688. Catalogue ref: SP 8/1/224.

This extract comes from a document that was written in June 1688. This letter was written by a group that later became known as the ‘Immortal Seven’. This included: Edward Russell, Henry Sidney, Lord Richard Lumley, Henry Compton, Bishop of London, Charles Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, William Cavendish, Earl of Devonshire, and Thomas Osborne, Earl of Danby. In this letter, they invite William of Orange to invade England and promise that they will support him when he arrives.

In early 1689, James II, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, was deposed by Parliament and replaced by his daughter, Mary, and her husband, the Dutch prince William of Orange.

Since James II ascended the throne in 1685, he had fuelled the interconnected fears of Catholicism and arbitrary government within England, a deeply Protestant country. As a determined Catholic, James had granted Catholics many rights, including the freedom to worship openly, to hold public office, and even to be members of the privy council. His continuous use of the royal prerogative to achieve his own political and religious ends was central to his downfall.

In June 1688, James’ second wife Mary of Modena gave birth to a son, destroying English hopes that Mary, the king’s Protestant daughter, would ascend the throne after the death of James II. Instead, they faced the prospect of another Catholic king. This, combined with James II’s continued authoritarian behaviour, led to several peers (the ‘Immortal Seven’) asking the Dutch prince William of Orange to invade England. On 5 November 1688, William arrived with his army on English shores.

In December 1688, James II fled to France. After being presented with the Declaration of Rights, which stressed the need for a contractual model of kingship and government, William and Mary accepted the throne on the 13 February 1689.

Use documents in this lesson to explore the causes of Glorious Revolution and its impact on the British monarchy. Also find out about the effects of the Glorious Revolution on Ireland and the American colonies.

The Glorious Revolution of 1688-89 replaced James II with the joint monarchy of his daughter Mary and her Dutch husband, William of Orange, both Protestants. James II’s behaviour from his ascension to the crown in 1685 suggested Catholic absolutism, which aroused fear in England, a deeply Protestant country. While James II’s determination to impose an authoritarian form of government was gently resisted, there were two key factors that urged a group of English peers (the Immortal Seven) to contact the Dutch prince William of Orange. The birth of James II’s son, James Edward Stuart, on 10 June 1688, scuppered hopes that James II’s protestant daughter Mary might soon occupy the throne. Secondly, the peers feared that James would revoke the Test Acts, which barred Catholics from public office.

William of Orange was well prepared. Despite his declared motivations for invading England as a merciful crusade, he had other pragmatic and political reasons to intervene. He was aware the Dutch Republic was under threat from the French King Louis XIV and wanted to further an English alliance to prevent the expansion of the French Empire.

Helped along by the ‘Protestant wind’, William landed at Torbay on 5 November 1688 with a substantial army. When he arrived, anti-Catholic riots broke out across the nation. Despite his initial control of capital, and a standing army of 53,000 men, James II fled London in December. He was captured by Kent fishermen near Sheerness, but was kept under purposefully light guard, and successfully fled the country on the 23 December. The path was now clear for William and Mary to take the throne. However, before they did so, a ‘Convention Parliament’ was held on 22 January 1689, where the details of the Declaration of Rights, later formalised in law as the Bill of Rights, was discussed and agreed. The Declaration of Rights was a pragmatic agreement that enshrined a constitutional form of monarchy in England, in which the principles of royal succession were abandoned, and the king was fiscally shackled to parliament, changing the face of the British monarchy irrevocably.

The revolution had far reaching consequences beyond England, as this lesson demonstrates. In Ireland and Scotland, the revolution was not, as the Whig historians would call it, ‘bloodless’. In both countries, it was religiously and politically divisive. William III’s expedition to Ireland and the Battle of the Boyne is a key example of Anglo-Irish conflict in the 1690s. The Irish were subject to the rule of Anglo-Irish landed gentry and an unpopular Episcopal church, cementing an Anglo-Irish resentment and hatred that would become entrenched in centuries to come.

The Glorious Revolution was also a transatlantic phenomenon, as American colonies experienced political unrest and the uneasy transfer of power. New York is a notable example. Originally founded as a Dutch colony, New York was actually allocated to James II as a proprietor when the English took it from the Dutch in 1664 and he was Duke of York (hence the name), so he had a longstanding relationship with the colony. In 1688 New York was not homogenously British, but was also home to the Dutch, French Huguenots, indigenous peoples, and a small Black population. The overthrow of the Jacobite government in New York and the establishment of the Dutch captain Jacob Leisler as the Governor of New York was the start of a significant political fracture in the colony. Some believed Leisler acted in William and Mary’s best interests to maintain stability in New York, while those against Leisler accused him of arbitrary and unprincipled behaviour. Eventually, Leisler was executed in 1691 for treason. The period entrenched existing divisions between the English and Dutch population in the colony, which would fester even beyond the American Revolution (1775-1783).

Extracts from the newspaper ‘The Times’ containing Sir Robert Peel’s letter to the Electors of Tamworth, July 1847. Catalogue ref: PRO 30/12/23/8.

[From the papers of Edward Law, 1^st Earl of Ellenborough]

This newspaper extract relates to Robert Peel’s address to the electors of his constituency of Tamworth, Staffordshire, after his resignation as Prime Minister in 1846. He remained the MP for Tamworth until his death in 1850.

Anti-Corn Law petitions from the Ouseburn district upon Tyne, Newcastle, 5 October 1841. Catalogue ref: HO 44/52/60

This petition from the people of Ouseburn in North England is addressed to Queen Victoria and described the effects of the Corn Laws on their area.

Printed broadside sheet entitled: ‘Corn Laws: one of the Causes of Public Distress’, 1830. Catalogue ref: HO 44/20/23

This printed broadside sheet describes the aims of the Corn Laws and the effects on the British public.