On this day in 1688, William of Orange landed in Devon with a Dutch army to kick off the Glorious Revolution and depose King James II

19 comments

  1. Seventeenth-century England was not what one could call a place of peace, harmony and tolerance. In fact, it was full of fundamentalist religious nutcases.

    The biggest evil in the land was Popery. Englanders were convinced that Europe’s Roman Catholics were plotting to take over the country by fair means or foul, and create a state subjugated to the tyranny of a foreign monarch. And not just any foreign monarch. The worst kind of foreign monarch: a French monarch.

    After Charles II died in 1685, the throne passed to his suspiciously Catholic brother, James II. This upset a lot of people. His ‘Declaration of Indulgence’, which suspended legal penalties against religious dissenters, didn’t go down well at all. It was seen as a way of making Catholicism acceptable.

    And so a plot began to overthrow the king and install an acceptable foreign monarch – ie, a good protestant monarch – in his place.In June 1688, seven people – Henry Sidney (AKA the Earl of Romney), Edward Russell (AKA Earl of Orford), the Bishop of London, Richard Lumley (AKA Viscount Lumley, AKA Earl of Scarbrough), Thomas Osborne (AKA Earl of Danby), Charles Talbot (AKA Earl of Shrewsbury) and William Cavendish (AKA Earl of Devonshire) – formally invited William of Orange, Stadtholder of the Netherlands and husband of the king’s daughter, Mary, to rustle up an army and invade. Which he did.

    And so on this day in 1688, he and his 15,000-strong army landed at Brixham, in Devon. They marched to London virtually unopposed, and King James fled. In the revolution’s wake, the Bill of Rights was passed, in which Parliament’s power was strengthened and the monarch’s reduced.

    And a certain amount of religious freedom was allowed with the passing of the Toleration Act.It is often called the Glorious Revolution. It is also often called a “bloodless” revolution. But things are not seen quite that way in many parts of Scotland and Ireland, where quite a lot of blood was shed in its wake.

    [The Glorious Revolution](https://moneyweek.com/354886/5-november-1688-glorious-revolution-dutch-army-deposes-the-king/)

  3. Very proud moment for the Dutch imo. The propaganda is still very strong today, some English still think their island hasnt got invaded since Norman times, and they simply ‘invited’ the Dutch.

    This was a full invasion by Dutch forces, not to conquer but essentially to make sure the Republic would survive for a long time to come. Historians agree on this.

    When you look at it from a Dutch perspective, it was at the time the protestant hegemon but a small country. France, Spain would eventually overrun it, because 1672 also called the Rampjaar in Dutch wouldnt be a 1 time event.

    By installing a protestant government in England the Dutch would survive. It payed a heavy price for it tough. All the financial institutions, investors and others made the cross to London, essentially ending the Dutch Golden Age.

  7. The fact that this post seems to elicit mainly serious historical responses makes me hopeful we will be able to discuss brexit in a similar matter in 300 years…

    Edit. There still seems to be nationalistic tension around this subject so I retract my statement above.

    What is fascinating though is that our boy Willem brought a printing press with him when he invaded… England. He used it to spread propaganda in his favour and influence public opinion.

  12. Sooo **”Last time England was successfully invaded was in 1066.”** was a lie!?

    I have been lied to my entire life…

  13. Anybody have some good book recommendations on this? I have a thing for this whole development, from the crowning of James II to William being in power.

  16. The Dutch who seem obsessed with it being an invasion for the glory of the Netherland republic seem to miss of all credible context against it being an invasion.

    1) This was a religous conflict not national

    2) William came to be and accapted being consitutional monarchy

    3) William wasnt invited just because of him but because of his wife British Mary, a protestant.

    4) English protestants were happy to tolerate James, as Mary would be queen but then he went and stupidly had a son

    5) James was abusing his power and was out either way

    6) 7 of the most powerful protestant English invited William

    Truthully it was neither a revolution or invasion. It was a protestant coup. No English or Dutch action, only Catholics on Protestants. Anyone viewing these conflicts through the eyes of nation states is being ignorant of the time.

  17. I wonder, if Willem managed to get an heir, would this eventually have led to Britain and the Netherlands being a personal union and eventually one country like Austria-Hungary?

Leave a Reply