Anne,
the daughter of James and Anne Hyde, was
born at St. James's Palace, London, in
1665. Along with her sister Mary, she was
brought up as a Protestant and in 1683 married Prince
George of Denmark. Anne had 17 children but only one, William, survived
infancy. However, William died in 1700.
Just before he died in
February 1685, Charles
II admitted that
he was a Catholic. He also announced that his brother James
was to succeed him to the
throne.
In June 1685, the Duke
of Monmouth landed in England with a small army. As he was a Protestant
he expected most of the population to support his claim to the throne,
but people in England were unwilling to get involved in another Civil
War. Monmouth was therefore easily defeated by the king's army.
After this victory James
tried to place Catholic
friends in positions of power. However, the Test
Acts made it impossible for him to do this.
When Parliament refused to change these laws, he ignored it and began
appointing Catholics to senior positions in the army and the government.
James
also announced that he intended
to allow Catholics to have complete religious freedom in England.
When the Archbishop of Canterbury
and six other bishops objected to this, James gave instructions for
them to be arrested and sent to the Tower of
London.
Some members of the House
of Commons sent messages to Holland inviting William
and Mary
to come to England. Mary
and William were told
that, as they were Protestants, they would have the support of Parliament
if they attempted to overthrow James.
In November 1688, William
and his Dutch army arrived
in England. When the English army refused to accept the orders of
their Catholic officers, James fled to France. As the overthrow of
James
had taken place without
a violent Civil War, this event became known as the Glorious
Revolution.
William and Mary were
now appointed by Parliament as joint sovereigns. However, Parliament
was determined that it would not have another monarch that ruled without
its consent. The king and queen had to promise they would always obey
laws made by Parliament. They also agreed that they would never raise
money without Parliament's permission. So that they could not get
their own way by the use of force, William
and Mary
were not allowed to keep
control of their own army. In 1689 this agreement was confirmed by
the passing of the Bill of Rights.
Mary
died of smallpox
in 1694. William
III now ruled
on his own and important reforms included the establishment of the
Bank of England (1694) and removing restrictions on the press (1695).
In 1698 William transferred control of the standing army to the House
of Commons.
William
III
died after falling from his horse in 1702. He was childless and was
succeeded by Anne. During her reign union of the parliaments of Scotland
and England took place in 1707. There were also military victories
at Blenheim (1704), Ramillies (1706), Oudenarde (1708) and Malplaquet
(1709).
In 1714 Queen Anne became
very ill. The true heir to the throne was James
Stuart, the son of James
II. Many Tory
ministers supported James becoming king. However, James Stuart was
a Catholic and was strongly opposed by the Whigs.
A group of Whigs visited Anne just before she died and persuaded her
to sack her Tory ministers. With the support of the Whigs, Queen Anne
nominated the Protestant, Prince George
of Hanover (a small independent
state
in Germany), as the next king of Britain. Anne died in August 1714.
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