The Glorious Revolution and the English Bill of Rights

Date

1688–1689

Category

Politics & governance

Region

Kingdom of England

Era

Early Modern

Significance

Between November 1688 and the spring of 1689 the Catholic king James II of England was deposed and replaced by his Protestant daughter Mary II and her Dutch husband William III of Orange, in what became known as the Glorious Revolution.

Alarmed by James's open Catholicism, his suspension of laws against religious dissenters, and the birth of a Catholic heir, leading politicians invited William to intervene. William landed with an army in November 1688; James, deserted by his support, fled to France, and in April 1689 William and Mary were crowned joint sovereigns. The settlement was sealed by the Bill of Rights of December 1689, which barred Catholics from the throne, prohibited the monarch from suspending laws, levying taxes or maintaining a standing army without parliamentary consent, and guaranteed free elections, regular parliaments, freedom of speech in Parliament and protection from cruel and unusual punishment. The revolution decisively subordinated the crown to Parliament, establishing constitutional monarchy and the principle of government bound by law. Together with the Toleration Act of 1689, it shaped a distinctive English path toward limited, representative government that profoundly influenced later constitutional and revolutionary thought in Europe and the Americas.

Empires active in 1688–1689

• Mughal Empire
  1526 CE – 1857 CE
• Portuguese Empire
  1415 CE – 1999 CE
• Spanish Empire
  1492 CE – 1976 CE
• Solomonic dynasty
  1270 CE – 1974 CE
• Ottoman Empire
  1299 CE – 1922 CE
• Qing Dynasty
  1636 CE – 1912 CE

Related politics & governance events

• Peace of Westphalia ends the Thirty Years' War
  October 1648
• The Declaration of Independence
  4 July 1776
• The United States Constitution drafted and ratified
  17 September 1787
• The storming of the Bastille and the outbreak of the French Revolution
  14 July 1789
• Louis XIV Promulgates the Code Noir
  March 1685
• Louis XIV moves the royal court to Versailles
  6 May 1682

Also relevant

• Battle of Feyiase and the rise of the Asante Empire
  1701

Further reading

Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire

The wider story

Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire

Roger Crowley

Fast-paced narrative of Portugal's seaborne empire.

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