Parliament declares that James II abdicated the throne of England so they could replace him

On February 12, 1689 England's Convention Parliament declared that King James II's flight in the face of revolting lords was an abdication. This paved the way for Parliament to replace James with William of Orange and James' daughter Mary.

It was not merely a change in rulers but a profound shift in the nature of English governance.

England had been racked with religious wars since Henry the VIII's reign in the 16th Century. At the death of Queen Elizabeth I, the Scottish Stuarts replaced the Tudors as the reigning dynasty. The King of Scotland James VI inherited the English throne on Elizabeth's death, assuming the title of James I of England.

His son – Charles I lost the English Civil War to Parliamentary forces and in 1649 was beheaded – like his grandmother, Mary Queen of Scots before him. His two sons fled the country. The winning General Oliver Cromwell dissolved parliament and ruled as a dictator calling himself 'Lord Protector.' On his death, his son inherited that title and ruled until he was overthrown in a coup in 1660. Charles I's son, Charles II, was then asked to return as king. Charles II persecuted protestant sects, like the Puritans, Covenanters/Presbyterians, Quakers, etc. whose religious practices he felt were not sufficiently reverent creating a mode of worship in between England's traditional Catholicism and the austere worship form of the Puritans – today that middle path the Church of England took is known as Anglicanism or Episcopalian. Many immigrated to the colonies – including what is today the United States during this period due to religious persecution or to being on the wrong side in the various wars in England and Scotland in the period.

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In 1685 Charles II died without having sired a legitimate heir. His Catholic brother James II inherited the throne. James had two adult Protestant daughters – the oldest of which was Mary, who was married to William of Orange (~modern Holland). The Protestant peerage were uncomfortable with James and his close relations with Catholic France (he had grown up there during his exile); but since his daughter was next in the line of succession and a Protestant, they grudgingly accept James' reign.

James was openly promoting Catholicism and expanding his royal prerogative beyond what his brother had asked for. James declared religious freedom to Catholics and to Protestant dissenters, issuing the Declaration of Indulgence and suspending laws that penalized non-Anglicans. He also sought to fill key positions with loyalists, many of whom were Catholic, challenging the established Anglican order.

in June 1688 his second wife gave birth to a son. The infant boy, who would be raised Catholic, meant that the Anglican nation would have a Catholic monarch for generations to come.

Parliament and Anglicans feared that they could be losing their privileges.

Powerful lords conspired with Anglican bishops to engineers James II's ouster. A group of seven prominent nobles invited William of Orange to invade. William and much of his Dutch army arrived in England. Many of James's own officers and allies defected to William's cause.

Faced with desertion and mounting pressure, James II attempted to flee London. He was briefly captured but eventually succeeded in escaping to France, where he lived in exile. His flight marked the effective end of his reign, leaving England without a monarch and prompting a constitutional crisis.

In February 1689, the Convention Parliament convened to address the vacuum left by James II's departure. After intense debate, Parliament declared that James's flight constituted abdication-he had "advocated the throne," thereby abandoning his responsibilities as king. This decision was unprecedented, as it asserted Parliament's authority to determine the legitimacy of the monarchy and to appoint a new sovereign.

The declaration set the stage for William and Mary to be offered the crown as joint monarchs. In accepting, they agreed to abide by the conditions set forth by Parliament, including the Bill of Rights, which codified limits on royal power and affirmed parliamentary supremacy.

Many in England – but particularly in Ireland and Scotland rejected the usurpation of the crown by Parliament.

Later that same year, with the backing of French King Louis XIV James II invaded Ireland. Held a parliament where the Irish flocked to his cause. He was ultimately defeated at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, and his remaining forces were crushed at Aughrim in 1691.

James remained a symbolic figurehead for Jacobite supporters across Britain, even after his death in 1701. His son James Francis Edward Stuart ("The Old Pretender") was responsible for the 1715 rising in Scotland. His grandson Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie," the Young Pretender) led the Scottish uprising in 1745 that ended with the Scotts being crushed at Culloden on April 16, 1746. Many who fought in those Jacobite efforts in support of the Stewarts or who faced persecution in the crackdown after the uprisings (particularly the Scottish persecutions after Culloden) immigrated to the United States.

William and Mary were childless. When they both died, throne went to Princess Anne (1702 to 1714). Rather than bringing a Catholic Stuart back to rule, the throne then passed to a German dynasty the House of Hanover – the current royal family, know known as the House of Windsor.

The Young Pretender died without legitimate progeny. The Stuart claim then went to Prince Henry Benedict Stuart, better known later as Cardinal Henry Stuart or the Cardinal Duke of York. He was the last male of the direct Stuart line and, to Jacobites, the final claimant to the throne as "King Henry IX." He died in 1807 in the Papal States.

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