Revolution and Revolution Settlement

Abstract

It took James II little more than three years to squander his subjects’ good will. Embarking on a ruthless policy of Catholicisation which did nothing to damp down the fears expressed by the Exclusionists in the previous reign, the new King systematically alienated most sections of the political nation. A key element in this process was the expansion of the army after the suppression of the Monmouth Rebellion. Officered by Catholics in open defiance of the terms of the Test Act, the army was quartered in the provinces ‘so that by 1688 the whole kingdom was taking on the appearance of a country under military occupation’ (J. R. Jones (ed.), The Restored Monarchy 1660–1688 (1979), p. 18).

If all our former Grievances were feign’d, King James has been abus’d, and we trepann’d; Bugbear’d with Popery and Power Despotick, Tyrannick Government, and Leagues Exotick: The Revolution’s a Phanatick Plot, W[illiam] a Tyrant, S[underland]⁴ a Sot: A Factious Army and a Poyson’d Nation, Unjustly forc’d King James’s Abdication.

But if he did the Subjects Rights invade, Then he was punish’d only, not betray’d: And punishing of Kings is no such Crime, But Englishmen ha’ done it many a time.

When Kings the Sword of Justice first lay down, They are no Kings, though they possess the Crown.

Daniel Defoe, The True-Born Englishman: A Satyr (1700), pp. 45–6