OveShards of a Broken Crown - Ther Extension of Religious Monarchy

In 1688 James II, who had been king of England until this point, fled as William of Orange and his army entered London. William had been invited by a delegation of Whigs and Tories to usurp James and was welcomed openly by the citizenry and clergy upon his arrival. James had taken the crown only three years before, but through his own attempts to bring power to the Roman Catholics in a country that was dominantly protestant, he brought to reality the two worst fears of the English people: absolutism and an attempt to convert the populous. James could have kept the throne had he only wanted religious and political equality and freedom for the Roman Catholics, but he attacked the livelihood of the Church of England at every level and made no concessions or compromises until his demise.

Before James ascension to the throne the Whigs had attempted to legally stop him from being Charles II's heir. They did this because of James openly and ardently catholic nature. The people of England had a fear of Catholicism ingrained into them.

"They attributed to James the characteristics which a century of Protestant indoctrination led them to expect: calculated faithlessness, the belief that any method was justified if it advanced the interests of Catholicism, cruelty, and a readiness to submit to dictation by the Catholic clergy."

The English people also had a fear of an unchecked king, i.e.; an absolutist king. The last several leaders that reigned over England having been Catholics, and seldom used or called on the parliament, as they were not dependent on it. Charles I and the parliament had gone to war with each other after Charles had been arbitrarily demanding loans from the citizens and throwing them in jail if they refused. Other acts by Charles included anti-Calvinist movements, and almost immediately starting a war with Spain. Charles was eventually beheaded and followed by Oliver Cromwell, the leader of the parliament army. Cromwell formed a dictatorship, after a brief taste of a republic, which lasted until his death. Charles I son, Charles II, was next to ascend the throne. He was not the tyrant that his father was, but he did model his reign after French absolutism, and was receiving funding both from a lifetime customs revenues, and secretly from Louis XIV. This allowed him to rule without dependency on the parliament. At this time in England, there was not a proper balance of power for it to be called anything but a monarchy. Calling England a mixed monarchy is only a joke suggesting the parliament had some kind of power outside of revolution. James would eventually come to the conclusion that to attain his goals he would need to make his monarchical power absolute, and would further remove the power of parliament.

From the beginning of James regime he attempted to remove restrictions and gain power for the Roman Catholics. The parliament and everyone else knew this, as James was very open about this want for England to be Catholic. James was very straightforward about all of his intentions and interests, for he abhorred dishonesty and seemed unable to hide his real thoughts and feelings.

One of James primary goals throughout his short reign was to repeal the Test act, which disallowed Catholics from holding public office. The parliament knew that if they made this concession to James that he would not hesitate to turn the government entirely Catholic. He attempted to get this repealed at the beginning of his reign, but the parliament refused his attempts time and time again to remove the Test act, though he eventually found his way around this problem as we will soon see.

Among his various first acts was the repealing of habeas corpus, and trying to persuade the parliament to pass a lifetime funding for him, like they did for his brother, allowing him the permanent funds from the customs revenues. The parliament must have known this would make him much more independent from their monetary controls, as his brother was before him, but he somehow convinced them to pass the funding, giving him a large, and permanent income.
James quickly began replacing those in his counsel who represented the Church of England, with catholic bishops and leaders. Those who remained had to keep submissive to the acts of James they disagreed with, or were illegal, just to keep their positions.

Two rebellions arose in England, one by the Duke of Monmouth who led a puritan army attempting to destroy the Church of England, and another by the Earl of Argyle. To put these down James raised an army of thirty thousand men. The rebellions were quickly and easily quelled as very few supporters flocked to the two leaders, whose armies were not intensely organized, and at six thousand peasants, who were mostly poorly armed, could not stand up to the size of James army. These victories led James to be overconfident of the loyalty of the land, and contributed to his view that was fostered from his background in the Scottish parliament, which was that a strong government and military was necessary to "Prevent the violent overthrow of all order and forms of duly constituted authority"