Glorious Revolution 1688

England's Glorious Revolution is a fresh and engaging examination of the Revolution of 1688-1689, when the English people rose up and deposed King James II, placing William III and Mary II on the throne. Steven Pincus's introduction explains the context of the revolution, why these events were so stunning to contemporaries, and how the profound changes in political, economic, and foreign policies that ensued make it the first modern revolution. This volume offers 40 documents from a wide array of sources and perspectives including memoirs, letters, diary entries, political tracts, pamphlets, and newspaper accounts, many of which are not widely available. Document headnotes, questions for consideration, a chronology, a selected bibliography, and an index provide further pedagogical support.

Author K. Merle Chacksfield tells the story of the Revolution of 1688 ain the words, where possible, of those who were there at the time and who have left a written record of what they saw and knew. Sources include: Rev John Whittle, Dr Gilbert Burnet, Henry Hyde and Sir George Savile.

"The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, was the overthrow of King James II of England (James VII of Scotland and James II of Ireland) by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau (William of Orange). William's successful invasion of England with a Dutch fleet and army led to his ascending of the English throne as William III of England jointly with his wife Mary II of England."--Wikipedia.

Interdisciplinary interpretations of the Revolution and of the late Stuart and early Hanoverian world.

Historians have viewed England's Glorious Revolution of 1688-1689 as an un-revolutionary revolution--bloodless, consensual, aristocratic, and above all, sensible. Steve Pincus refutes this traditional view. He demonstrates that England's revolution was a European event, that it took place over a number of years, and that it had repercussions in India, North America, the West Indies, and throughout continental Europe. His rich narrative, based on new archival research, traces the transformation of English foreign policy, religious culture, and political economy that, he argues, was the intended consequence of the revolutionaries of 1688-1689. James II's modernization program emphasized centralized control, repression of dissidents, and territorial empire. The revolutionaries, by contrast, took advantage of the new economic possibilities to create a bureaucratic but participatory state, which emphasized its ideological break with the past and envisioned itself as continuing to evolve. All of this, argues Pincus, makes the Glorious Revolution--not the French Revolution--the first truly modern revolution.--From publisher description.

In 1688, a group of leading politicians invited the Dutch prince William of Orange over to England to challenge the rule of the catholic James II. When James's army deserted him he fled to France, leaving the throne open to William and Mary. During the following year a series of bills were passed which many believe marked the triumph of constitutional monarchy as a system of government. In this radical new interpretation of the Glorious Revolution, Edward Vallance challenges the view that it was a bloodless coup in the name of progress and wonders whether in fact it created as many problems as it addressed. Certainly in Scotland and Ireland the Revolution was characterised by warfare and massacre. Beautifully written, full of lively pen portraits of contemporary characters and evocative of the increasing climate of fear at the threat of popery, this new book fills a gap in the popular history market and sets to elevate Edward Vallance to the highest league of popular historians.

The Glorious Revolution of 1688 represented a crucial turning point in modern British history by decisively shifting political power from the monarchy to Parliament. In this cogent study, first published in 1972, Stuart Prall offers a well-balanced account of the Revolution, its roots, and its consequences. The events of 1688, Prall argues, cannot be viewed in isolation. Examining the tempestuous half-century that preceded and precipitated William and Mary's accession, he provides a comprehensive overview of the Revolution's context and of its historical meaning. "[Prall] insists that the Revolution of 1688 was the culmination of a long crisis begun back in 1640, and the revolution settlement was the resolution of problems which the Puritan Revolution and the Restoration had left unsolved. This is an admirable combination of analysis, commentary upon views of historians, and chronological narrative, starting with the Restoration in 1660 and continuing through the Act of Settlement in 1701."--Choice

The last successful invasion of England; mobs burning Catholic chapels; one king, James, driven from his palace by night while another, William, rode in at the head of a foreign army; the events of winter 1688 were among the most dramatic in our history. The settlement which followed would place England decisively on the path to freedom, toleration, parliamentary democracy and empire. Few moments have done so much to shape this country as the Glorious Revolution. But 1688 would change England in other ways as well. This was the time of Isaac Newton's scientific breakthroughs and John Locke's philosophy; the emergence of free market ideas and the end of press censorship. Closely researched, teeming with dramatic incident and vivid character and weaving political drama with the lives of scientists and revolutionaries, stockjobbers and refugees, The Last Revolution paints a vivid canvas of England's last great political struggle and brings to life the revolutionary world of the late seventeenth century.