The Sodomite in the Closet Drama: Pamphlets and Performance in the Era of the Glorious Revolution

Sikes, Alan

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-23116-3_2

The Sodomite in the Closet Drama: Pamphlets and Performance in the Era of the Glorious Revolution

Alan Sikes³

Chapter
First Online: 01 March 2020

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Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History ((PSTPH))

Abstract

This Act of Declaration, ratified by both Houses of the English Parliament and signed by the joint monarchs King William III and Queen Mary II, was intended to resolve lingering political loose ends that arose from the “Glorious Revolution” of 1688. King James II, the sitting sovereign deposed by the revolution, had ascended the throne in 1685; James was an infamous Catholic, and when his second wife Mary of Modena bore a male heir to the throne, the Protestant leaders of Parliament grew anxious at the prospect of a continuing Catholic dynasty. While divided in their loyalties to various factions within the Church of England, these Parliamentarians were united in their conviction that James would doom the nation to servitude under the yoke of the Papacy. A cabal of senior statesmen urged the Protestant William of Orange and his Protestant wife Mary to consider a joint bid for the English throne. In November of 1688, William landed in England with a complement of armed forces; the next month James, along with his wife and infant son, fled to France without significant resistance. The Glorious Revolution seemed a fait accompli.

Having therefore an entire confidence that his said Highness the prince of Orange will perfect the deliverance so far advanced in him, and will still preserve them from the violation of their rights which they have here asserted, and from all other attempts upon their religion, rights, and liberties, the said lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, assembled at Westminster, do resolve, That William and Mary prince and princess of Orange be, and be declared, King and Queen of England, France and Ireland, and the dominions thereto belonging.

—Act of Declaration: 23 October 1689, in Straka, Gerald M., ed., The Revolution of 1688 and the Birth of the English Political Nation, (New York: Heath, 1963), 66.

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Notes

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Sikes, A. (2020). The Sodomite in the Closet Drama: Pamphlets and Performance in the Era of the Glorious Revolution. In: Sex, Class, and the Theatrical Archive. Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23116-3_2

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23116-3_2
Published: 01 March 2020
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