WILLIAM III 1689-1702

• John Morill described the events of 1688-1689 as the 'Sensible Revolution'.
• In Edmund Burke's Reflections (1790) Burke contrasted the violent uprising of revolutionary France with the peaceful surrender of James II's throne to William of Orange.
• Edmund Burke believed that the Glorious Revolution restored the ancient constitution of England, involving Kings, Lords and Commons.
• William of Orange landed in Brixham on 5 November 1688.
• The official date of James II's abdication is the 23rd of December 1688, Mary and William were not crowned until the 4th of February 1689.
• The term of 'Glorious Revolution' was first coined by MP John Hampden in November of 1689.
• The fleet that bought William of Orange to England in November of 1688 was four times the size of the Spanish Armada (1588), carrying 21,000 men.
• On the 7th of December 1688 there was a violent skirmish at Reading between an advance guard of William's army and 600 of James's Irish dragoons.
• During December of 1688 there was English rumours of an impending massacre of Protestants at the hands of marauding Catholic Irish troops.
• Johnathon Israel viewed the arrival of William as a Dutch invasion, with a double intention to steal the English throne and undermine Louis XIV of France in an Anglo-Dutch alliance with Europe.
• In Scotland and Ireland the revolution was contested in the Battles of Killecrankie (27/7/89), the Boyne (11/7/89), and Aughrim (12/7/91).
• The Glencoe massacre of February 13th of 1692 led to the massacre of 38 Scottish men, women and children.
• Tim Harris argued that a 'bloodless revolution' was simply implausible in 'Reluctant Revolutionaries? The Scots and the Revolution of 1688-89' in 1999.
• Revisionists pointed out that demands embodied in the Bill of Rights (December 1689) e.g. regular parliaments were not underpinned with legal guarantees.
• The toleration afforded by the statute of 1689 was more restricted than James II's had been.
• Steven Pincus named the events of 1688-89 as the 'First Modern Revolution' that others e.g. the French revolution would follow.
• The model of Steven Pincus' modern revolution is:


  A struggle between two competing factions both intent on transforming the English state.
• The lapsing of the Licencing Act on the 17th April 1695 led to a flourishing political culture and gave way to freedom of expression.
• By the end of the 1690's there were regular and fiercely contested elections, an enlarged state and new institutions.
• The Bank of England was founded on the 27th of July 1694 in Walbrook.
• THE BILL OF RIGHTS 1689:


  1. The pretended power of suspending laws, or the execution of laws by regal authority, without consent of parliament, is illegal.
  2. The pretended power of dispensing with laws, or the execution of laws by regal authority, as it has been assumed and exercised of late, is illegal.
  3. The levying of money for or to the use of the Crown, by pretence of prerogative, without the grant of parliament is illegal.
  4. It is a right of the people to petition the king, therefore commitments and prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal.
• THE BILL OF RIGHTS 1689:


  5. The Raising or keeping of a standing army during peace time, without the consent of parliament is illegal.

  6. The elections of MPs are to be free.

  7. The freedom of speech, and debates of proceedings of parliament cannot be impeached or questioned in court.

  8. There will be no more excessive bail, fines nor cruel and unusual punishment.

  9. For the redress of all the grievances and the amending, strengthening and preservation of the laws, parliament must be held frequently.
• The exact phrasing of the Bill of Rights (1689) reads that 'Parlyaments ought to be held frequently'.
• The 8th article of the Bill of Rights i.e. 'nor cruel or unusual punishment' makes reference to the S.L branded into the cheek of William Prynne (1637) meaning 'Stigmata Laud', 'Seditious Libeler' and 'Sign of Laud'.