During his three-year reign, King James II fell victim to the political battle in the British Isles between Catholicism and Protestantism, between the divine right of the Crown and the political rights of Parliament. James's greatest problem was his Catholicism which left him alienated from both parties in parliament. Any attempts at reform by James were thus viewed with deep suspicion. James also pursued a number of untenable policies, such as a desire for a standing army and a pursuit of religious toleration. While his brother and predecessor, Charles II, had done the same, he had not been an overt Catholic like James. Matters came to a head in 1688 when James fathered a sonPrince James Francis Edward Stuart or Stewart ( June 10, 1688 January 1, 1766) was a claimant of the thrones of Scotland and England ( September 16, 1701 January 1, 1766) who is more commonly referred to as The Old Pretender . His Jacobite supporters refe. Until then, the throne would have passed to his Protestant daughter, Mary. The prospect of a Catholic dynasty in Britain was now real, however. Leaders of the hitherto loyal Tory PartyThe term Tory derives from the Tory Party the ancestor of the modern UK Conservative Party. To this day it is often used as a shortened alternative for Conservative. A similar usage for Tory exists in Canada to describe the Conservative Party. It was also united with members of the opposition Whigs, and set out to solve the crisis.

A conspiracy (see the Immortal SevenThe Immortal Seven were seven notable English citizens who issued the Invitation to William a document asking William of Orange to depose James II in favour of William's wife Mary, culminating in the Glorious Revolution. It was carried to William by Lord) was launched to depose James and replace him with his daughter Mary and her husband, William of Orange — both Protestants. William was stadtholderA stadtholder ( Dutch: stadhouder was the person that ruled an area in the name of the land owner, in the Netherlands (which includes present-day Belgium) from the 15th to the 18th century. After some of the Dutch provinces declared their independence in of the Netherlands, then in the early stages of a war with the French: the War of the Grand AllianceThe War of the Grand Alliance (also known as the War of the League of Augsburg the War of the English Succession and the Nine Years War was a major war fought in Europe and America from 1688 to 1697, between France and the League of Augsburg (which, by 16. Jumping at the chance to add England to his alliance, William and Mary landed at BrixhamBrixham is a small town in the county of Devon in the southwest of England. Brixham is at the southern end of Torbay, across the bay from Torquay and is a famous fishing port, which along with tourism are its major industries. It is considered to be a pre, Devon on November 5, 1688 with a large Dutch army. James's nerve broke, his army under the future Duke of Marlborough deserted, and he fled to Kent where he was captured. The memory of the execution of Charles I still being strong, he was then allowed to leave for France.

In 1689, the Convention Parliament convened and declared that James's flight amounted to abdication. William and Mary were offered the throne as joint rulers, an arrangement which they accepted. Although their sucession to the English throne was relatively peaceful an uprising occurred in support of James in Scotland, the first Jacobite rebellion, and in Ireland where James used local Catholic feeling to try to regain the throne in 1689– 1690. It can thus be seen as much more of a coup d'état than an authentic revolution. England stayed calm throughout, the uprising in the Scottish Highlands was quelled despite the Jacobite victory at the Battle of Killiecrankie, and James was expelled from Ireland following the Battle of the Boyne.

The Glorious Revolution was one of the most important events in the long evolution of powers possessed by Parliament and by the Crown in England. With the passage of the Bill of Rights it stamped out any final possibility of a Catholic monarchy, and ended moves towards monarchical absolutism in the British Isles by circumscribing the monarch's powers.

The success of the Glorious Revolution came three years after the failure of the Monmouth Rebellion to overthrow the king.