The Glorious Revolution

Charles II left no legitimate children, and when he died in 1685 his Catholic brother took the throne instead, worrying many in a country that was overwhelmingly Protestant. The new king favoured Catholics for top positions and refused to work with Parliament, and when his wife had a son it looked as though a Catholic line might rule indefinitely. Leading Protestants in England responded by inviting the king's Protestant son-in-law, the ruler of the Netherlands, to cross the Channel and take the crown instead. He landed to almost no resistance, and the king fled to France; because the change happened without any fighting in England and left Parliament's authority secure, it became known as the Glorious Revolution of 1688.

The old king refused to accept defeat and invaded Ireland with French backing to try to win his throne back, but he was beaten decisively at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, an outcome still marked by some in Northern Ireland every year and one that kept England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland under Protestant rule.