History and Culture: The Monarchy
You'll find a word reference box with the meaning of some words at the end of the page
From James II to the joint monarchs
When James II came to the throne in 1685 he began to place Catholics in positions of authority in the army and universities. James had two protestant daughters, Mary and Anne, who were his heirs. James married the Catholic Mary of Modena and in 1688 he became the father of a Catholic son who took precedence over Mary as James's successor.
The two opposing parties in Parliament, the Whigs and the Tories, were alarmed because another civil war could break out. So they began to negotiate with William of Orange whose Protestant wife Mary, James II's daughter, was next in succession to the throne. James, his wife and son fled to France. In January 1689 William and Mary become joint monarchs as William III and Mary II at the request of Parliament. A revolution had taken place as the monarch had been chosen by Parliament. Because this revolution had succeeded without any fighting, it was known as the 'Bloodless' or 'Glorious' Revolution.
The Toleration Act (1689) introduced more religious tolerance by granting freedom to worship to dissenting Protestants but excluded Catholics and Unitarians. The Bill of Right (1689) re-enacted freedoms that had been stated by Manga Carta and the Petition of Right, and it established that the king could impose taxes, raise an army and suspend laws only with parliamentary consent. A Triennal Act asserted that Parliament should last for three years.
In 1694 Mary died and since the couple had no children, Parliament passed the Act of Settlement in 1701 which excluded Catholics from the throne and declared that Anne and her heirs would succeed William. Anne became queen when William died a year later.
Queen Anne's reign
Anne was a popular queen, both English and Anglican. In 1707 the Act of Union was passed by which the kingdom of England of Scotland, established by James I, was replaced by the United Kingdom of Great Britain with a single Parliament in Westminster. Ireland was subordinate to Westminster. In foreign policy, the Treaty of Utrecht was signed with France in 1713 at the end of the War of the Spanish Succession, in which England was involved against France. It required the French to recognize the Protestant succession and expel the exiled Stuarts. It gave England the French possessions in Canada and the monopoly of the slave trade with Spanish America.
The British Empire was emerging. By 1714 British ships brought timber from America, sugar and tea from the West Indies as well as oriental carpets, Chinese porcelain, and spices from the Far East. English traders could send their goods around the British Isles free of customs duties, which made European good more expensive.
When Queen Anne died in 1714, George I, Elector of Hanover and James I's great-grandson, inherited two kingdoms and twelve colonies.
Anne during her reign
Read a biography about King James II - a Stuart king of England, Scotland and Ireland who was overthrown in the 'Glorious Revolution' by William III.
Word Reference
[joint monarchs] two monarchs in one state
[monopoly] exclusive possession or control
[timber] wood used as a building material; lumber.