More from this author The moment the monarchy nearly toppled But in practice, they wielded no direct power. The change was subtle but profound, as the authority of England’s priest-kings now theoretically extended across moral and political domains. The Reformation and Glorious Revolution produced an England in which both spiritual and temporal rule had the same figurehead: a head of both Church and Parliament. The Bill also limited and specified the monarch’s powers. A 1689 Bill of Rights set out constitutional principles we have to this day, including regular Parliaments, open elections and freedom of speech. Having got rid of one absolute monarch, the statesmen who defenestrated James II set about making sure their new monarch, William, knew his place. Just as the Reformation represented England’s secession from spiritual absolutism, the Glorious Revolution represented something similar in the political sphere. Certainly, relations between Catholics and Protestants in the British Isles have been uneasy since, a fact that still drives political unrest in Ireland today. Over a few tumultuous months, the Catholic James II was challenged and then deposed by a cabal of senior English statesmen, in favour of the Protestant William of Orange. After all, it was also the moment that completed the rupture with Rome begun by Henry VIII. Perhaps it’s still too much of a sore point. France had its Revolution, America had its Founding, but the significance of Britain’s “Glorious Revolution” of 1688 is under-discussed, despite its importance. School history today doesn’t often dwell on England’s transition from the absolutism of Henry VIII’s day to the modern settlement. But Henry retained absolute rule in the temporal world: he was not just a symbolic but an executive head of state, who believed his right to be obeyed came direct from God. It was Henry VIII’s break from Rome in 1534 that signalled England’s secession from this absolute spiritual rule. Medieval England was broadly Catholic, ruled spiritually from the Vatican by a Pope whose word was officially infallible.

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