THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION

JAMES II

• After living under Louis XIV's reign, James II attempted to become an absolute monarch in his own country, which annoyed the English.
• He revoked the charters of towns, didn't listen to Parliament, and practiced Catholicism.

OVERTHROW OF THE KING

• James's Catholic Spanish wife gave birth to a son, and the Protestants did not want a Catholic heir.
• Bishops and Whig Party leaders had the Protestant Dutch William of Orange and his wife (and James's daughter) Mary Stuart invade England.
• This nearly bloodless coup was know as the Glorious Revolution.

A CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY

• King William III and Queen Mary II ruled as co-monarchs under the Declaration of Rights.
• The Whigs now had more power, including the power to levy taxes.
• Parliament members based their beliefs on political philosopher John Locke, who argued that the legitimacy of government rests on the consent of the governed and that individuals have inalienable natural rights to life, liberty, and property.

REBELLION IN MASSACHUSETTS

• After learning about the English coup, the Puritans forced the authoritarian Governor Andros back to England.
• Negotiating with the Americans, William & Mary broke up the Dominion of New England, but rather than recreating the Puritan Massachusetts Bay, they turned the area into a royal colony.
• The charter allowed the monarchs to appoint the governor, gave suffrage to all male property owners, and removed restrictions on the Church of England.

REBELLION IN MARYLAND

• Due to failing tobacco prices, Protestant farmers were becoming poor.
• Meanwhile, they were paying higher taxes to the Catholics.
• A Protestant association removed the Catholic governor, and the Lords of Trade suspended Lord Baltimore's proprietorship, replacing it with an Anglican royal colony.
• In 1715, the Lord Baltimore Benedict Calvert converted to the Church of England and restored the Calvert proprietorship.

REBELLION IN NEW YORK

• The Dutch Jacob Leisler led the rebellion against the Dominion of New England, and enjoyed broad support.
• Soon, he alienated English-speaking New Yorkers, and William and Mary appointed Henry Sloughter as governor.
• Leisler was indicted for treason, hanged and decapitated; this ethnic vengeance corrupted New York politics for a generation.