History quiz

What led the English Parliament to ask William and Mary be rulers?

James's second wife, Mary of Modena, produced a male heir in 1688. This birth destroyed England's Protestant hope of a succession through Mary, and caused rebellion to escalate.

In June 1688, a group of English nobles invited William to invade England and to overthrow James. In November, William landed at Brixham, Devon with a Dutch fleet and over 14,000 soldiers. He had the support of the English aristocracy, who were eager to replace James with a more parliamentary-minded monarch. James's army deserted him, and he fled to France on December 23.

William and Mary were crowned joint rulers of England on April 11, 1689. They enacted the English Bill of Rights, which established that a monarch's power was limited by Parliament. They also ended religious persecution of Protestant Dissenters.