Introduction
The Glorious Revolution: Britain’s Fight for Liberty by Edward Vallance is a book that presents an elaborate account of the 1688 Britain revolution that was characterized by a lack of violence. In his book, Edward Vallance dealt with different interpretations according to his understanding of the Glorious Revolution. The revolution was actually peaceful but Vallance instead argued that the overthrow of James II was characterized by several instances of conflict and even cases of people losing life especially in Scotland and Ireland. This paper will discuss the interpretation of the historian’s work as compared to the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
Discussion
Background of the Glorious Revolution
King James III was involved in several political battles in England during his three years of tenure in office as the king of England. First, he was found involving himself in political battles between the Catholics and the protestants. Additionally, his direct involvement was noted when he participated in political battles that tried to define the divine rights of kings and those of the Parliament of England. The major problem that king James experienced was because his religion of Catholicism had made him isolate himself from the two major parties in England at that time. The low church Whigs attempted to remove King James from the throne. However, its failure to pass the exclusion bill of which would have removed the king from the throne led to fruitless efforts.
The supporters of James since he took over power were Anglican Tories. His Catholicism was an issue that led to concerns being raised by many people even though his daughters were protestants. However, problems arose while James tried to remove the penal laws. The Tories viewed this move as a way of breaking the establishment of the Church of England. As a result, James abandoned Tories, a move that seemed to show that he was trying to form his own party as a way to counter the influence of the Anglican Tories. Therefore, in 1687 James declared his support for a policy that referred to religious toleration. According to valance (2008), “he, therefore, allied himself with dissenters, Catholics, and nonconformists with an aim of advancing catholic emancipation”.
James further continued to make laws in his hands when he sought the common law of dispensing acts of parliament from the English courts1. The request was successful since eleven out of the twelve judges of the court made the rule in his favor. James’ political involvement in religion was a common behavior, for instance, he ordered the removal of John Sharp a catholic clergy who delivered a catholic sermon yet that had been banned by James. As noted by Valance (2008) “ James ordered the followers of Magdalene college in oxford to elect Anthony Farmer who was a catholic even though he was not eligible according to the statutes of the college”. The followers declined the order and instead decided to elect John Hough. James did not recognize the presidency of Hough and therefore sent some commissioners to install Farmer as the president and went on to convince the followers that they had made a wrong decision and they were therefore expected to apologize for that. Those followers who failed to apologize were ejected from the college and replaced with Catholics.
In 1687, James made efforts to repeal the penal laws and the Test Act by bringing many of his supporters to the parliament. James believed that the dissenters would give him support and as a result, he decided to ignore the support of the Tories and the Anglicans. James was annoyed since his plans were not successful and he, therefore, decide to instruct all the lord lieutenants in the provinces to issue messages to all peace commissions so that they consent to the Test Act. This was followed by the office of deputy lieutenants and those of the Justice for peace being reshuffled and as a result, those who had opposed James were all dismissed. James created an army that was huge and elevated the Catholics to senior positions in the army. In Ireland, the protestant armies were replaced with Catholics and this led him to have more than 34, 000 army officers in all the three kingdoms he ruled.
Major problems arose in 1688 when James fathered a son. This implied that the newborn son would be his successor. But before then, the reign of England would have been passed to James’ daughter Mary who was a protestant. Mary’s Husband was called William of Orange and they were both grandchildren of Charles one of England. William would therefore be third in the succession line. However, since the two had anti-catholic faith, there was a challenge to the English court that they would be both replaced by a catholic French heir.
According to Vallance (2008) William was also stadtholder of the main provinces of the Dutch Republic, then in the preliminary stages of joining the War of the Grand Alliance against France, in a context of international tensions caused by the revocation by Louis XIV of the Edict of Nantes and the disputed succession of Cologne and the Palatinate. This suited the desires of several English politicians who intended to depose James.2 William’s intelligence threatened James and as a result, James tried to form a way that they would both work together.
The collapse of the reign of king James started when their relationship with William started not to be beneficial. James tried to win the support of the Tories but this could not be successful since he had failed to endorse the Test Act. On the other hand, anti-Catholics had continually demonstrate in London and it was clear that those troops were not on the streets to fight but instead it was clear that some of his army officer did not have loyalty. He had also been warned in earlier occasions about the conspiracy within his army but he did not take any move to address the issue. The first incidence of blood shed was reported during the skirmishes that occurred in Wincanton when the royalists soldiers retreated after coming into confrontation with scouts. Most of his soldiers deserted thereby leaving him in much fear. At that point, James realized that his army was not reliable and therefore order it to be disbanded and provided an opportunity for fair election. James had to surrender to William after realizing that his own chief commander had deserted to William and even his own daughter, Princess Ann supported William.
Valance interpretation
Valance view of the glorious revolution was considered by many historians as an indication of the true history of what happened in England during the reign of King James II. The revolution has always been termed as peaceful or bloodless. The historian, Edward Vallance presented the revolution as a bloody massacre for the people of specific religions especially the Catholics and the Irishmen. Additionally, Vallance indicated the way the populace in England participated in the affairs of the government since King James provided a favourable environment for the citizens. When William of Orange overthrew James, the kingdom was largely dominated by the catholic religion. James had introduced all his catholic supporters in all the governance organs including the army. James did this by sacking those protestants who did not abide by his orders and thus replaced them with his catholic men.
Conclusion
Vallance work in the Glorious Revolution presented the circumstances of the revolutionary contrary to the history of England. The historian work dealt indicated that the revolution was characterized with blood shed especially by Christians. During the reign of King James who was a catholic, protestants voice was not heard but instead he sacked all those who failed to follow his orders. Vallance presented William and his wife Mary as the hero and heroin respectively who brought the revolution after a period of blood massacre. The historian indicated that William helped to bring revolution in England even though the protestants in Ireland suffered in the course of liberating their lives. Since William and James’ daughter Mary were protestants, this group of worshippers was able to live in freedom, which was not a common characteristic in their lives during the time of James.
Bibliography
Vallance, Edward. The Glorious Revolution: Britain’s Fight for Liberty. London: Pegasus Books, 2008.
Footnotes
- Vallance, Edward. The Glorious Revolution: Britain’s Fight for Liberty. London: Pegasus Books, 2008.
- Vallance, Edward. The Glorious Revolution: Britain’s Fight for Liberty. London: Pegasus Books, 2008.