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English King Charles II and his allies, known as “Tories,” successfully fended off several attempts in 1679-81 by “Whigs” to exclude Charles’ brother, James, Duke of York, from the line of succession to the throne because James was Catholic. By 1682 Charles was again firmly in charge at Whitehall.
A mere six years later, at the end of 1688, Prince William of Orange, the Protestant stadtholder, war hero of the Dutch Republic and husband of now King James II’s daughter Mary, landed more than 20,000 men brought in 500 ships along the Channel coast of England. In a matter of weeks William drove James to flee the country and persuaded Parliament to name him King William III of England, all without the shedding of (much) blood. Mary would be Queen, and the two monarchs would be known to history and college students in Virginia as William and Mary. The questions are, why did William invade England, why was he able to become King without bloodshed, and what were the consequences? This episode aspires to answer the first two questions, and hints at some of the answers to the third, many of which are important to the history of the Americans and be critical background to episodes coming up!
[Errata: “Winston” not “William.” Doh!]
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Prerequisite: #208 What You Need to Know About English Politics in the 1680s 1: The Exclusion Crisis
Primary references for this episode (Commission earned for Amazon purchases through the episode notes on our website)
Jonathan Healey, The Blazing World: A New History of Revolutionary England 1603-1689
Michael Barone, Our First Revolution: The Remarkable British Upheaval That Inspired America’s Founding Fathers
Argyll’s Rising (Wikipedia entry)
