Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Glorious Revolution

Episode Date: January 20, 2023

In 1688, a palace coup took place in England.  The King of England and Scotland was usurped and was replaced by his daughter and her husband from the Netherlands.  The act forever changed the British Monarchy and created an alternative line of succession to the throne, which still exists today. Learn more bout the Glorious revolution, why it happened, and its ramifications on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Subscribe to the podcast!  https://link.chtbl.com/EverythingEverywhere?sid=ShowNotes -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Charles Daniel Associate Producers: Peter Bennett & Thor Thomsen   Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Update your podcast app at newpodcastapps.com Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/EverythingEverywhere Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/everythingeverywheredaily Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/everything-everywhere-daily-podcast/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1688, a palace coup took place in England. The King of England in Scotland was usurped and was replaced by his daughter and her husband from the Netherlands. This act forever changed the British monarchy and created an alternative line of secession to the throne, which still exists today. Learn more about the glorious revolution, why it happened, and its ramifications on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong?

Throughline is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the Thurline podcast from NPR. The Glorious Revolution, as with so many things in 17th century England, was an issue of religion. To understand how and why the glorious revolution happened, we need to understand the Religious Revolution. religious situation in England, and in particular, the religious situation of the monarchy. So here's a brief summary of the situation in England and Scotland and how they got there.

It all started when Henry VIII wanted to get a divorce because his wife, Catherine of Aragon, couldn't bear him a son. The Pope refused to grant him an annulment, so in 1531, he split with the Catholic Church and put himself at the head of a new Protestant Church of England. He was succeeded by his son Edward V. 6th, who ascended to the throne at the age of 10 and died at the age of who was also raised a Protestant. However, the crown then went to Henry's eldest daughter, Mary, who was Catholic, and the daughter of Catherine. She tried to reverse the English Reformation and was very draconian in her efforts, burning 280

Protestants at the stake. She had no heirs and was succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth, who was the daughter of Anne Boleyn and was Protestant. She established a more formal Church of England that was superficially similar to Catholicism. She also didn't have an heir, and the next in line to the English throne was the king of Scotland, James the 6th, who was now James I the 1st of England. James was

very Protestant, despite his mother being Catholic, and expressed sympathy for the Puritan cause. He was succeeded by his son Charles, who was a Catholic, and you can see all the religious flip-flopping going on with the throne at this point. By this time, England had become a profoundly Protestant country,

and Charles faced a rebellion that resulted in his beheading and the creation of the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell. After 11 years, they decided they wanted a monarchy back and installed Charles II on the throne, who was technically Protestant but had Catholic sympathies, and some people believe he may have been secretly Catholic and private. When Charles II died, he had a ton of children, but none of them were legitimate. So the crown was passed to his younger brother, James, who was Catholic. He was

originally Protestant, but married a Catholic wife while he was in exile and converted. James I second took the throne in 1685, and this is where the story of the glorious revolution begins. By the time James took the throne, it had been about 150 years since Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church, and England was even more Protestant than it was when they executed Charles I. James appointed Catholic officers to the army, and he had very close relations with Catholic France. In April 1688, James issued the Declaration of Indulgence, which suspended laws against Catholics, and basically provided them freedom of religion, and all of the first. extended this to dissenting Protestant factions as well.

Later that year, he dissolved Parliament in an attempt to get a new parliament that would support him. He created a series of rules which would ensure that only his supporters would be able to get elected. In June, however, something even bigger happened. James had two daughters with his first wife, who were raised Protestant at the behest of Charles II, Mary and Anne. However, when James' first wife died, he married another Catholic and had a son with her who would now be the heir to the throne. This boy would be the first wife. be raised Catholic. The birth of this son, also named James, made the Protestant elites in the country very nervous. This potentially would be the start of a Catholic dynasty ruling Protestant

England as the baby Catholic James was now next in line to the throne, not the Protestant Mary. England now found itself in a situation similar to where they found themselves under Charles I. A Catholic king was ruling a very disaffected Protestant country. This time, however, nobody wanted another bloody civil war and to behead another king. Seven high-ranking English officials, known as the Immortal Seven, sought help from the Netherlands in the form of William the Prince of Orange, who was, coincidentally, the husband of Mary, who just a few months earlier had been the presumptive heir to the throne.

William had had his eyes on England for years, but didn't want to make a move unless he had the support of powerful factions in the country. Now he had that. With the support of Protestant elites, he assembled an armada to invade England. James began to prepare defenses for an invasion. However, things did not go well for him. William's forces landed in southern England on November 5, 1688. His plan wasn't so much to engage James's forces and defeat them in battle, so much as he was just willing to let the regime collapse. And it was a good plan. Many of James's top military officers

abandoned him for William, including some members of his family. And when he sent troops out to meet Williams forces in battle, they all defected. And at top of that, his health was deteriorating. With things falling apart around him, James began to backpedal on many of his initiatives. He reversed his proposals for Parliament and agreed to free and open elections. On December 9th, he sent his newborn son, the Prince of Wales, and the Queen on a ship to France. And the next day, he intended to follow them on a separate ship. However, that never happened, as the day after he set out on December 11th, he was captured in the town of Favorisham. News of the king's capture and his attempt to flee the country caused him to lose much of the support he had.

His allies viewed his attempt to flee as cowardice. William, for his part, didn't particularly mind if James fled England. It would get rid of him without having to dirty his hands. He actually suggested James moved to a community closer to the sea and then gave orders to the military to just let him go if he tried to leave, which he did on December 23rd. William held all the cards at this point. A new parliament was elected and assembled on January 22nd, 6th.5th. The question before the Parliament was, what to do next with their king having fled to France, who was going to rule? Back in continental Europe, the French were threatening the Netherlands,

and William was threatening to leave England if he wasn't declared the joint monarch. So, Parliament passed two of the most important pieces of legislation in British history. The first was the Declaration of Right. This was a list of grievances of what King James did, and also delineated limits on the power of the crown and established the rights of the people. Many of the rights were only given to Protestants, and the document also completely outlawed the Catholic Church, so freedoms were limited. The bill also presented the throne to William and Mary collectively. They also passed the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights further solidifies the rights of the people and also established the rules of secession for the monarchy.

It also banned Catholics from holding the throne and declared that James had abdicated the throne by his act of fleeing the country to France. The Declaration of Rights and the Bill of Rights were huge changes in the system of government, probably the biggest since the signing of the Magna Carta 470 years earlier. While the monarch was still powerful, it was a big step towards establishing the primacy of the Parliament and towards establishing a constitutional monarchy, which is what the country has today. The change in monarchy also had implications for the colonies in North America. There were uprisings in New York and Boston, and it also removed anti-Puritan laws which were set up by King James. Unlike the previous joint rule of Philip II of Spain and Queen Mary

I. William's rule wasn't limited to the lifespan of Mary the second. Mary died in 1695, just four and a half years after ascending to the crown. William ruled until 1702, without an heir, and when he died, the crown has passed to Mary's sister, Anne. Needless to say, this change in the monarchy didn't sit well with everyone. Many people didn't recognize William and Mary as the legitimate monarchs. These people became known as Jacobites. The Jacobites were mostly Catholics, but there were also Protestants

who felt that the parliament didn't have the power to replace the monarch with whoever they wanted. The Jacobites were active in trying to restore the House of Stuart to the monarchy for decades, with Jacobite revivals popping up here and there through the end of the 19th century. King James died in 1701, and his son, James Francis Edward Stewart,

claimed the throne and was recognized by the Jacobites as the legitimate king. He was often known as the old pretender. He pressed his claim for 65 years until his death in 1766 when his son, Charles Edward Stewart, became the new claimant. He was known as the Young Pretender or Bonnie Prince Charlie. The song by Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean is a Jacobite song about Bonnie Prince Charlie. The Jacobite claim to the throne never went anywhere despite several plots and attempts to bring the Stewart's back. After Charles died, the claim went to his brother Henry Benedict Stewart, who was a Catholic cardinal, and he was the last direct descendant of King James. The Jacobite line of succession actually still exists today. However, it's long

been intertwined with European royal families who have few ties to Britain, and none of them actually claims the crown anymore. The current person who would be the Jacobite successor would be Franz, the Duke of Bavaria. He's currently 89 years old, and his successor would be his 85-year-old brother. What's interesting is that next in line after him would be his daughter, Sophie, the hereditary princess of Liechtenstein, who is the wife of the heir apparent to the Liechtenstein crown. That means that at some point, the Liechtenstein line of succession will be the British Jacobite line of succession. I'll conclude by noting the name that's given to this event, the Glorious Revolution. The phrase, glorious revolution, is really just

PR spin put on events by the winners. Catholic and other neutral historians simply called the Revolution of 1688. Others called it the bloodless revolution, which is really not accurate as there were some minor skirmishes and there were some people that were killed. Most historians don't consider the events of 1688 to be a revolution so much as a coup or even a Dutch invasion supported by English aristocrats. Whether you call it the glorious revolution or the revolution of 1688, the events which transpired were extremely important.

They ended the religious uncertainty of the British monarchy and put the country on a path that in many respects they are still on today. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. I just want to thank everyone, including the show's producers, who support the show over on Patreon. If you'd like to support the show, just head over to patreon.com, which is currently the only place where you can get show merchandise.

Also, if you want to talk to other listeners about the show, head over to our Facebook group or Discord server, both of which have links in the show notes.