KING JAMES II HANGS ON TO POWER
What was happening in the build-up to the Glorious Revolution in 1688?
The Glorious Revolution was mostly the result of James II coming to power in 1685. The problem with James was that he was a Roman Catholic king in a country that had deep Protestant prejudices and a considerable amount of suspicion to any sorts of Popish prince. All of this came to a head in the summer of 1688 when his wife gave birth to a male heir. Up until the summer of 1688 when his son was born, the heir to the throne had been his daughter, Mary, who was married to William, Prince of Orange, the stadtholder in the Netherlands who was a Protestant champion in Europe and an opponent of Louis XIV. The birth of a son in 1688 meant that the heir was now a male who James would be
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