Quicksilver Reading CompanionWhy it matters for the novel
The Glorious Revolution of 1688 is the political climax of Book 3 (Odalisque). Eliza is operating at Versailles, playing a double game between Louis XIV and William of Orange. Daniel is in England watching the old order collapse. The revolution determines who rules England, which shapes everything that follows — including the Hanoverian succession that opens the novel in 1713.
What happened
The problem
Charles II died in 1685. His brother James II took the throne. James was openly Catholic in a Protestant country. People tolerated this because his heirs — his daughters Mary and Anne — were both Protestant. Then in June 1688, James’s second wife (a Catholic) gave birth to a son. Suddenly the prospect was a Catholic dynasty. Protestant England panicked.
The invasion
Seven prominent English nobles secretly invited William of Orange — the Dutch stadtholder and Mary’s husband — to invade England with a Dutch army. William landed at Torbay on November 5, 1688 with about 15,000 troops. James’s support collapsed. His own officers defected, including John Churchill (the future Duke of Marlborough, who appears in the novel). James fled to France. William and Mary were offered the crown jointly.
Why “Glorious”
Because it was (mostly) bloodless in England. The real violence came later, in Ireland — the Battle of the Boyne (1690) and the brutal suppression of Jacobite resistance. The revolution established key constitutional principles:
- The Bill of Rights (1689) — The monarch cannot suspend laws, levy taxes, or maintain a standing army without Parliament’s consent. The foundation of constitutional monarchy.
- Religious tolerance (sort of) — The Toleration Act (1689) allowed Protestant dissenters (like the Waterhouse family’s Barkers) to worship freely. Catholics and non-Christians were excluded.
- Parliamentary supremacy — The real winner of 1688 wasn’t William but Parliament. The crown would never again be more powerful than the legislature.
Timeline
- 1685 — James II becomes king. Immediately begins promoting Catholics to positions of power.
- 1687 — James issues the Declaration of Indulgence, suspending laws against Catholics and dissenters. Parliament is furious.
- June 1688 — James’s Catholic wife gives birth to a son. The “warming pan” rumor spreads — that the baby was smuggled in and isn’t really James’s.
- November 5, 1688 — William of Orange lands at Torbay.
- December 1688 — James flees to France. (He drops the Great Seal in the Thames on the way out.)
- February 1689 — William and Mary are offered the crown. They accept the Bill of Rights.
- 1690 — Battle of the Boyne. William defeats James’s attempt to retake power via Ireland.
The aftermath
The revolution created a new problem: succession. Mary died in 1694 without children. William died in 1702. Anne — James II’s other Protestant daughter — took the throne. But Anne’s seventeen pregnancies produced no surviving heir. The Act of Settlement (1701) designated the Protestant Sophia of Hanover as next in line, skipping over fifty-odd Catholics with stronger blood claims. When Anne died in 1714, the crown passed to Sophia’s son George — who spoke no English. This is the political crisis Daniel sails into in 1713.