2.1 From James II to the joint monarchs

James II (1685-88) began to place Catholics in positions of authority in the army and universities

James was a widower and his heirs were his two Protestant daughters, Mary and Anne, who were married to the rulers of Holland and Denmark respectively.

The two opposing parties in Parliament, the Whigs and the Tories, were alarmed because another civil war could break out. So they began to negotiate with William of Orange, whose Protestant wife Mary, James II's daughter, was next in succession to the throne.

In January 1689 William and Mary became joint monarchs as William III and Mary II.

A revolution had taken place as the monarch had been chosen by Parliament, not by "divine right". Because this revolution has succeeded without any fighting, it was known as the "Bloodless" or "Glorious" Revolution.

Since the couple had had no children, Parliament passed the Act of Settlement in 1701 which excluded Catholics from the throne and declared that Anne and her heirs would succeed William.

2.2 Queen Anne's reign

Anne was a popular queen, proudly English and Anglican.

In 1707 the Act of Union was passed by which the kingdom of England and Scotland, established by James I, was replaced by the United Kingdom of Great Britain with a single Parliament in Westminster. Ireland remained a separate kingdom with its own Parliament, thought subordinate to Westminster.

The British Empire was emerging.

By 1714 British ships brought timber from America, sugar and tea from the West Indies as well as oriental carpets, Chinese porcelain, and spices from the Far East. English traders could send their goods around the British Isles free of customs duties, which made European good more expensive.

When Queen Anne died in 1714, George I, Elector of Hanover and James I's great-grandson, inherited two kingdoms and twelve colonies.