He landed with 14,000 troops on the shore of Torbay, Devonshire. (See map facing p. 334.) It was the fifth and last rgeat landing in the history of England.[1] He declared that he came in the interest of his wife Mary, the heir to the throne (S477), and in the interest of the English nation, to secure a free and legal Parliament which should decide the question of the succession.  James endeavored to rally a force to resist him, but Baron Churchill, afterwards Duke of Marlborough (S509), and the King’s son-in-law, Prince George, both secretly went over to William’s side.

[1] The first being that of the Romans, the next that of the Saxons, the third that of St. Augustine, the fourth that of William he Conqueror, the fifth that of the Prince of Orange.

His troops likewise deserted, and finally even his daughter Anne went over to the enemy.  “Now God help me!” exclaimed James, in despair; “for my own children forsake me!” The Queen had already fled to France, taking with her her infant son, the unfortunate Prince James Edward, whose birth (S490) had caused the revolution.  Instead of a kingdom, he inherited nothing but the nickname of “Pretender,” which he in turn transmitted to his son.[2] King James soon followed his wife.

[2] Prince James Edward Stuart, the so-called “Old Pretender,” and his son, Prince Charles Edward Stuart, the so-called “Young Pretender.”  See, too, Genealogical Table, p. 323.

As he crossed the Thames in a boat by night, James threw the Great Seal of State into the river, in the vain hope that without it a Parliament could not be legally summoned to decide the question which his adversary had raised.[3] The King got as far as the coast, but was discovered by some fishermen and brought back.  William reluctantly received him, and purposely allowed him to escape a second time.  He reached France, and Louis XIV, who had long had the treacherous King in his secret pay, received him at the court of Versailles.  There could be now no reasonable doubt that James’s daughter Mary (S477) would receive the English crown.

[3] On the Great Seal of State (S145).

492.  Character of the Revolution of 1688.

Never was a revolution of such magnitude and meaning accomplished more peacefully.  Not a drop of blood had been shed.  There was hardly any excitement or uproar.  Even the bronze statue of the runaway King was permitted to stand undisturbed in the rear of the palace of Whitehall, London, where it remains to this day.

The great change had taken place thus quietly because men’s minds were ripe for it.  England had entered upon another period of history, in which old institutions, laws, and customs were passing away and all was becoming new.

Feudalism had vanished under Charles II (S482), but political and religious persecution had continued.  In future, however, we shall hear no more of the revocation of city charters or other punishments inflicted because of political opinion (SS479, 487), and rarely of any punishment for religious dissent.