[Music] we all know that england was conquered by william the conqueror in 1066 but we have forgotten or do not care to remember that 600 years later england was also conquered by another william william of orange was dutch rather than norman and whilst there's no doubt that the norman conquest of 1066 changed england radically the dutch conquest of 1688 also had profound consequences and not just for england but arguably for the whole of the rest of the world for the revolutionary government that it ushered in transformed england from a feeble imitator of the french absolute monarchy and a mere bystander in european affairs into the most powerful and aggressively modernizing state in europe in short the dutch conquest invented a modern england a modern monarchy perhaps even modernity itself [Music] the purest form of monarchy is despotism the unencumbered rule of an individual free from any interference by parliament church or any other body few monarchs ever achieve this though many aspire to it the archetype of english despotism is henry viii to this day his image is an icon an instantly recognizable symbol of absolute kingship [Music] this is a later copy of holbein's great dynastic mural which shows henry viii as head of his family and head of the church in the late 17th century the original of this wall painting was still one of the wonders of whitehall palace and fittingly so for restoration england was still shaped by the key legacy of the reign of henry viii the act of supremacy which made the king supreme head of the church of england for a century and a half henry and his successors had exploited the religious authority conferred by the supremacy to try to make royal power effectively unlimited by parliament or anybody else 150 years after henry's death the restored monarchy of charles ii came close to achieving this as towards the end of his reign the support of the uncritically royalist church of england and subsidies from his cousin the catholic louis xiv enabled charles to rule without parliament when he died unexpectedly in 1685 he was succeeded by his brother james it was a testament to the strength of charles's monarchy that this succession went unchallenged because james had done something that many people thought made him ineligible for the kingship of protestant england he converted to catholicism there'd been attempts in parliament to have him excluded from the succession but the protests had died away the climate of change says that now as he was proclaimed king on the 6th of february all the difficulties seemed miraculously to have vanished crowds of londoners toasted him in free wine and cheer the smoothness of james's accession was underscored by the magnificence of his coronation [Music] appropriately it was commemorated in this lavishly illustrated souvenir volume by francis sanford the volume which was james's own idea records every aspect of the ceremony in the minutest detail also on james's orders all the figures are actual portraits so here is henry purcell the master of the king's music who composed and directed the music for the ceremony culminating in his great anthem my heart is indicting [Music] and here is the diarist samuel peeps in his capacity as one of the barons of the sankports he helped to carry the canopy over the king in the initial procession from westminster hall to the abbey [Music] here are the various stages the coronation first of all of the king himself and then of the queen mary of moderner and here is the coronation banquet sanford took the trouble to note the position of every plate and provided a key listing each dish by number it's a remarkable document which with the crayfish placed next to the blemange records the eating habits of a different age and here is the final fireworks display it was dominated by a huge blazing sun the sun in splendor was a universal emblem of monarchy and of the monarchy of james's cousin louis xiv of france in particular the sun king as louis was known ruled the most successful monarchy in europe catholic conquering and autocratic he exercised a level of despotic power that was unthinkable in england to most englishmen louis represented a dangerous mixture of religious fanaticism and military might but james admired his glamorous cousin did the sun and the great crowned figure of manakia that also appeared in the coronation fireworks suggests that james would like england to go the same way as louis france but these worries were for later at his coronation in westminster abbey there was no hint of unease instead the mood was a celebration of the miraculously smooth trouble-free transfer of power for james a convert to the church of rome to become as king head of the church of england was indeed a miracle perhaps it was a horrible misunderstanding that was certainly the opinion of a group of english exiles in the dutch republic known as whigs and staunch believers in protestantism and limited monarchy they've been forced to flee when they'd lost the battle to keep james from the throne they were in despair at the complacency of those in the church of england and in parliament known as tories who now supported a catholic king only an armed invasion the whig exiles thought could save england from catholic absolutism its natural leader was one of their own number james duke of monmouth who because he was charles ii's bastard son had some sort of claim to the throne his fellow exiles managed to persuade him to lead an expedition and on the 24th of may he set sail to england at the head of a pathetically small force of three ships and only 83 men the little band made for the coast of dorset an area where the good old cause of english republicanism have been particularly strong james for his part was worried about insurrection elsewhere and was able to spare only two or three thousand troops against monmouth but at least they were professional soldiers and that proved decisive the showdown came here at sedgemore boxed in by the royal army mummoth decided that his only chance was to launch a surprise nighttime attack the tactic made sense but his scratch troops were incapable of carrying it out instead as dawn broke they were routed by the king's troops 500 of them were killed and 1500 captured by then mummoth himself had fled two days later he was discovered hiding in a ditch made prisoner and taken to london there was no need for a trial monmouth had already been condemned as a traitor by act of parliament he was brought to tower hill for execution on the 15th of july james had easily overcome what had only ever been a revolt of enthusiastic amateurs but a far greater challenge was to come from within his own government as james was plunged into a crisis almost entirely of its own making [Music] james ii was england's first catholic monarch for over 150 years ever since the reformation englishmen have been taught to hate and fear catholicism as foreign ungodly and above all unenglish how in view of these deep-seated fears could a catholic monarch be head of the protestant church of england in parliament the ruling tories were anxious to be reassured they had supported james's right to become king now in return they naturally expected that james catholic though he was would be equally unwavering in his support for the church of england and at first it looked as though he would be i have been reported a man for arbitrary power but i know the principles of the church of england are for monarchy therefore i shall always take care to defend and support it things apparently got off to a good start with this speech by james to the first pivot council meeting of his reign his hearers applauded and the king basked in their approval in fact there was misunderstanding on both sides the tory councillors thought that james had promised to rule as though he were an anglican while james for his part thought that the tories and the church of england would continue to support him whatever he did both sides were quickly to be undeceived for james was a man with a mission four whatever he may have said in public james saw his own succession against the odds as giving him the god-appointed task of reconversion as he made clear his own private devotional writings god almighty be praised by whose blessing that rebellion of monmouth was suppressed it was divine providence that drove me early out of my native country and it was the same providence ordered it so that i passed the time in catholic kingdoms james's mission then was to convert the country back to catholicism but what method would he use would it be persuasion or coercion here memories mattered the catholic queen bloody mary had used the rack and the stake and thanks to fox's book of martyrs the memory was still fresh in england so too was the massacre of bartholomew's eve the slaughter of protestants which had occurred during the french wars of religion [Music] these memories which had scarcely faded were revived in the most dramatic possible fashion by louis xiv of france the outstanding contemporary catholic king and james's model and mentor for on the 22nd of october 1685 louis revoked the edict of nant which by granting toleration to french protestants had brought the terrible wars of religion to an end news spread quickly to england and the effects were dramatic the country erupted cartoons and leaflets appeared warning of the actions of the french tyrant demolishing churches and plundering the common people james's catholicism did not now just affect political stability it might also be a threat to body and soul the message was clear england might be next could something like the revocation of the edict happen in the england of james ii a catholic army harris english protestants and compel them to convert or to emigrate circumstances made it infinitely improbable but james by single-minded determination to allow catholicism a level playing field with the established protestant church did his best to make the improbable scene a real possibility in private james made representations about the persecution of french protestants but his public actions seem to fulfill the worst fears of a catholic takeover james had recruited as part of his professional army 100 officers who were catholics this was acceptable in an emergency but it was technically illegal an act of parliament called the test act forbade the employment of catholics in any public post including the army [Music] with characteristic bluntness james tackled the issue of catholic army officers head-on in his speech from the throne when he vowed that nothing would ever make him give them up to deal plainly with you i will neither expose them to disgrace nor myself to the want of their assistance should a second rebellion make it necessary this was to fling down a challenge to both houses of parliament in the commons a backbencher invoke the spirit of parliamentary freedom i hope we are englishmen and not to be frightened from our duty by a few high words in the lords the bishop of london declared that for the king to act in contravention of the test act would undermine the security of the church of england james had lost the fight furious and frustrated he dismissed parliament he would have to get round the test act some other way he turned his attentions to the judiciary the only other body whose authority remotely compared with parliaments he began to prepare the ground first the bench of judges was purged of waivers then a test case was brought on behalf of a catholic army officer to whom james had granted a royal dispensation or waiver from the requirements of the test act the law chief justice read out the judgment on behalf of his almost unanimous colleagues could hardly have been clearer or more subversive the kings of england are sovereign princes the laws of england are the king's laws it is an inseparable prerogative of the kings of england to dispense with penal laws upon particular necessary reasons and of those reasons the king himself is sole judge this ruling turned parliament into a mere sleeping partner in the constitution it might pass whatever laws it liked whether and on whom they were enforced was entirely up to the king but most of all the judge's ruling was exquisitely uncomfortable for the tories since it turned one of their fundamental beliefs in the unconditional nature of royal power against the other in the sanctity of the church of england and it was to the church that james was to turn his attention next his victory in the courts had given him the power to overturn anti-catholic legislation on a case-by-case basis but his ultimate goal was to get the power to nullify all the laws which parliament had made against catholics the church of england with its wealth its power its churches in every town and village was the great obstacle to this but boldly handled and james was nothing if not bold the church might be the means to bring about change for had not the church of england made absolute obedience to the king an article of faith preached from every pulpit first james drew up a declaration of indulgence which offered universal religious toleration to all anglicans catholics and protestant dissenters then he commanded the clergy of the church of england to read out the declaration in every parish church this impaled the church on the horns of a dilemma should they obey the king's commands or gods as they saw it the archbishop of canterbury william sandcroft summoned his fellow bishops to a secret supper party at lambeth to discuss the situation when the meal was over seven of them signed a petition to the king denouncing his declaration in their petition the bishops contrived both to have their tory cake and to eat wig principles on the one hand they invoked our holy mother the church of england which was both in her principles and practice unquestionably loyal and on the other they argued like good wigs that the declaration was founded upon a dispensing power as have often been declared illegal in parliament this was a dramatic turnaround only three years before sandcroft as archbishop of canterbury had crowned james at westminster abbey now he was the instigator of a document that criticized the king on a central constitutional issue it was a frontal attack on royal policy and as the petition quickly circulated in print a public challenge to royal authority as well james determined to face it down by prosecuting the bishops for seditious libel but he had underestimated the bishops who showed unexpected courage and he completely misjudged the mood of the people which the bishops showing a remarkable flair for public relations were able to milk [Music] instead of being intimidated by the indignity of prosecution the bishops pursued a deliberate policy of non-cooperation they refused to raise security for bail with the result that they were all imprisoned in the tyre of london it was a terrific coup crowds of londoners had cheered them from the riverbank as they were brought here by water when they landed the soldiers of the garrison received them on their knees and the governor treated them not as prisoners but as honoured guests the bishops brief and comfortable stay in the tower had turned them into celebrities more importantly it had turned the constitutional question of james's power into a public issue at the trial in the huge spaces of westminster hall passions about the legality of the dispensing power itself rose to such an extent that decorum broke down the spectators cheered counsel for the bishops and booed and hissed the royal lawyers the jurors stayed out all night in continuous deliberation then the following morning they returned the verdict of not guilty instead it was james's government that had been condemned his bid to become an absolute monarch in the mould of his cousin louie or even his predecessor henry viii had failed no english monarch would ever dare make the attempt to gain james's eagerness to legitimize catholicism in england had brought him into open conflict with parliament the bishops and now the cause he came off worse in all these conflicts but even so he might have survived it was an unexpected event which took place in the bed chamber at st james's palace that brought about the final crisis [Music] mary of moderner james's second wife a catholic came from famously fertile stock and she duly conceived frequently but all the babies either miscarried or died in infancy james already had two daughters by his previous marriage mary and ann who were next in line to the throne they were firm protestants so as mata stood when james died the anomaly of his catholicism would die with him on the other hand were he now to father a male heir by his second wife the catholic threat would remain for another generation [Music] in the late summer of 1687 mary took the waters at bath remarkably it seemed to do the trick and in december her pregnancy was officially confirmed now the question was would mary finally produce a healthy heir her labor began at st james's on the morning of the 10th of june 1688 in this very bed and after a short labor impeded only by the crowd of witnesses crammed into the royal bed chamber she gave birth at about 10 am the baby christened james francis edward was a boy and once his doctors had stopped feeding him with a spoon on a gruel made of water flour and sugar flavored it with a little sweet white wine and allowed him human milk from a wetness he was healthy normally the birth of a prince of wales would have crowned james's attempt to reassert royal authority but the birth of james francis had the opposite effect he was a prelude to war james's opponents his daughters mary and anne among them decided that they couldn't tolerate the prospect of a catholic succession anne who still lived in her father's palace had always disliked her stepmother for her heirs and graces when the child was born she took pleasure in suggesting that it was a changeling and not in fact mary's there were she claimed a number of things not quite right about the circumstances of the birth mary of moderner was too well james bearing in mind his wife's previous disastrous gynecological history was too confident and he was too confident in particular that he would have a son so the pregnancy must be suppositious and the child a changeling smuggled into the queen's bed in a warming pan the story of the maid and the warming pan was embroidered with lots of circumstantial detail and circulated in scurrilous pamphlets and prince as part of a black propaganda campaign it was all malicious nonsense of course but princess anne believed it and she persuaded her sister mary in the netherlands to believe it too mary's husband also found it convenient to believe he was william of orange and he came from a long line of dutch princes he was james's nephew as well as his son-in-law and a man of consuming ambition in his own right by 1688 william was a hardened general and politician but his goal to unite england and the netherlands in a protestant crusade against the overweening catholic power of louis xiv france remained unchanged [Music] the new he built at hetlo was almost a conscious answer to louis xiv's versailles a visible expression of princely power but executed with protestant decorum and restraint for william was not a king but the first citizen and general of the dutch republic with his power finally balanced against that of the rich merchant guilds here there could be no question of him becoming an absolute ruler nor did he want to [Music] his interests lay in foreign policy and the war against france which is why he was so concerned with english affairs bearing in mind his position as james's son-in-law william had every reason to suppose that he would gain control of england naturally when his wife succeeded as queen regnant on her father's death but james's catholicizing policies and still worse the birth of a catholic son and heir threatened to rob william of the prize he would not let it go without a struggle william now made preparations to invade unlike the duke of monmouth he realized he must use overwhelming force so in the course of the summer he began to assemble a formidable armada events in england also benefited william james had now alienated every powerful interest group in the country including the tories and the church who'd been his strongest supporters the last straw was the birth of a catholic heir the result was that on the 30th of june and three weeks after the birth of james francis four weak peers and gentlemen and three tories took the revolutionary and reasonable step of signing an invitation to william to invade britain on the grounds that nineteen parts of twenty of the people are desirous of a change they exaggerated of course but their sense of the popular mood was right william was eager to take up the invitation he now had a waiting fleet consisting of 60 warships 700 transports 15 000 troops 4 000 horses and a printing press the problem was the weather at first it seemed as though the weather would offer james the protection which louis the 14th of not william had intended to set sail on the first high tide in october but adverse winds kept him bottled up in port here for several days then a violent storm scattered his fleet and drove it to shore to james all this seemed like divine providence [Music] i see god almighty continues his protection of me and of my realm it is by his will that the wind has turned westerly again but then the wind turned easterly and stayed that way the result not only blew william to england it also blew away james's confidence and with it his authority [Music] william landed unopposed here in torbay on auspicious day the 5th of november then he marched through cheering crowds to exeter where he set up camp and his printing press to churn out carefully prepared propaganda but words alone were it appeared not going to be enough to give him control of england four camped on salisbury plain between william and the seat of government in london was an army of 25 000 soldiers all nominally loyal to his father-in-law the king everything depended on how they would react to the crisis james arrived to take personal command of the royal army on salisbury plain but instead of stiffening the resolve of the troops james underwent some sort of personal psychosomatic crisis succumbing to repeated heavy nosebleeds the illness seems to have been a symptom of some profound crisis of confidence james who'd been so confident of his divinely ordained mission suddenly lost faith that god was after all on his side quite why will never be known was his overweening self-confidence and sense of divine mission just too brittle to cope with a real challenge or was he undermined by a justifiable fear of betrayal within his own inner circle at any event on the 23rd of november james decided to cut and run and return to london the decision sent a disastrous signal if the king wasn't prepared to stand and fight in his own cause why should anybody else bother to risk their neck on his behalf by the time he arrived in london his leading general and his own daughter anne deserted to join william who would be next to go abandoned by his god as well as his children james's only thought now was for flight outwardly he conducted negotiations with william but they were only a cover for his real purpose and he contrived to bungle even that the escape of the queen with the infant prince of wales had to be postponed several days and only took place on the 10th of december when she left white hall disguised as a laundry woman james himself quit the capital the next day first flinging the matrix or mold of the great seal into the thames so that the seal the supreme emblem of royal authority couldn't be used to legitimize either his own overthrow or the nomination of a successor his flight was a disaster too dressed as an ordinary country gentleman he rode to the north kent coast where he embarked for france but he was caught and then rescued by a loyal detachment of his guards and brought back to london by then it was too late william arrived and took control of the capital on the 23rd of december james was allowed to escape to france this time with williams connivance he succeeded only six weeks after landing in torbay william was master of the country and holland that conquered england with scarcely a shot being fired but although in military terms it was a non-event the glorious revolution as it almost immediately became known was to transform the monarchy but first william's status had to be decided in his propaganda william had promised to do nothing without parliament and an assembly of both lords and commons was now summoned torrey piers wanted to make william regent to act as caretaker whilst the stewart dynasty skipped to generation to his wife mary but william made it clear that he would be king or he would return to the netherlands nobody wanted that so in the end lords and commons agreed to a face-saving compromise william and mary would be joint king and queen a sort of double monarchy unique in the history of england although the exercise of sovereignty will be vested solely in william at a ceremony at the banqueting house in whitehall william and mary were formally offered the crown mary who'd only arrived in the country the day before joined her husband on twin thrones under the cloth of estate then the house of lords on the right and the commons on the left led by their respective speakers advanced towards the steps of the throne the clerk read out the bill of rights and the noblemen offered william and mary the crown in the name of the convention as the representative of the english nation william accepted on their joint behalves and they were proclaimed king and queen of england to the sound of trumpets england had in effect elected a king and queen though the fact that mary was the dethroned james's daughter drew a decent veil over the harsh reality england and the monarchy would never be the same again through the extraordinary agency of an invited armed yet virtually bloodless invasion of the country william and mary have become joint monarchs of england two months later their coronation took place in westminster abbey with a new ceremony and in particular a new oath that had been transformed to reflect the new realities of power just as innovatory was the coronation sermon ever since the time of henry viii preachers at the coronation advied with each other to elevate the monarch come supreme head of the church to an almost godlike plane but in 1689 all this changed too and the preacher began by asserting that despotic command had no place in the divine scheme of things a rigor in commanding and a cruelty in punishing must find patterns elsewhere than in gods governing the world happy we the preacher said by way of contrast who are delivered from both extremes who neither live under the terror of despotic power as france under louis xiv nor are cast loose into the wildness of governed multitudes as england herself had been during the civil war and commonwealth of the father son and holy ghost amen god save king william and queen mary as the preacher finished the congregation broke into infinite applause they were responding as though the ancient mysteries of the english coronation service had been transmuted into the inauguration ceremonies of a popular prince president of the middle of the road republic as of course william was in his native holland [Music] parliament was not of course going to go the whole hog and declare england a republic again but after having given him the crown he wanted wigs and tories united to restrict the powers that he or any future monarch could exercise they drew up the declaration of rights intended to encapsulate the ancient rights and liberties of the nation it laid the foundations for a limited or constitutional monarchy bill declared that the crown could not suspend laws made in parliament he could not raise taxation except through parliament and it could not have a standing army without the consent of parliament above all the bill declared it inconsistent with the safety and welfare of this protestant kingdom for the monarch to be a papist catholic or to be married to a papist the principle of the royal supremacy that the english should have the religion of their king had been stood on its head now the king must have the religion of his people and no english monarch has been either a catholic or married to a catholic since then it was a revolution indeed but william's power was not totally unopposed on the eve of the coronation mary had received a message from her father the exiled james ii if you were crowned while i in the prince of wales are living the curses of an angry father will fall upon you as well as those of god william would have to fight to keep his crown [Music] and sure enough on the very day of the coronation news arrived that james had landed in ireland with a force of french mercenaries but this french invasion did not fare so well as the recent dutch one the irish troops were unseasoned and james's own incompetence and indolence made matters worse the result was james's final shattering defeat in battle by his son-in-law william of orange on the banks of the river boyne the battle of the boyne is why the word orange continues to arouse such fierce and contradictory emotions on both sides of ireland's religious divide and why to this day people march and counter demonstrate to commemorate this definitive catholic protestant encounter james now more than ever convinced that god had turned against him fled back to exile in france where he took up a rather comfortable residence to the west of paris here james lived out his days as an ex-king in the fractious little court that he kept at this chateau of saint germain lay louis xiv's old palace before he built versailles james's devotions steadily became more extravagant and his mortification of the flesh more extreme he died in 1701 leaving a disastrous legacy of uncompromising catholic piety to his son james was buried in france provisionally in the hope that his body will be reinterred in westminster abbey instead the french revolutionaries first displayed it as a tourist attraction and then destroyed it william meanwhile was not comfortable in the old palace that he was now inhabiting the palace of whitehall had been built by henry viii by the thames william was asthmatic and detested the palace's urban riverside position with its fogs and mists so too did mary [Music] instead they longed for the modern comfortable residences they've been used to in the netherlands [Music] within a few months therefore the couple bought the former nottingham house with its extensive gardens and pleasant if rather suburban location on the western fringe of hyde park and rebuilt it at breakneck speed as kensington palace the result described by one contemporary as very noble though not great was exactly the kind of residence that william and mary were used to at hetlo in england it was a new palace for a new more modest monarchy meanwhile whitehall was abandoned for all safe ceremonial occasions neglected like all underused buildings in 1698 it caught fire it was never rebuilt perishing in the flames and ruins was the great dynastic mural of henry viii and his family which more than any other single image represented the awesome powers of the royal supremacy over church and state the glorious revolution that drawn the sting from the supremacy and his deadly fusion of religious and political power henry's palace and his portrait had survived the repudiation of his legacy by less than a decade [Music] those who watched the fire at westminster knew that by overthrowing their anointed legitimate king and choosing another england had entered a dangerous and unfamiliar world none can have realized that it had taken the first vital step to becoming the first modern state [Music] [Applause] [Music] you