The Saber and Scroll Journal Volume 8, Number 3, Spring 2020 | Page 86

The Saber
cant threat to the state under the divine
rights of kings. The Whig Party’s concern
advanced when he overturned a
long-standing parliament law concerning
the exclusion of Catholics to hold
office under the Test Act. 1 James II’s
views of religious tolerance heightened
concerns for the State, and following the
birth of James and his Catholic wife’s
son, panic ensued throughout the Protestant
nobles. The Whig party’s fear of
popery determined their actions. Their
primary objective was to remove James
II as England’s monarch and replace the
line of succession with a Protestant one
over the newly born Catholic heir.
A small group of men known as
the Immortal Seven sent an invitation
to the Dutch Prince, William III of Orange,
inviting him and his wife Mary to
invade England to usurp James II. The
Immortal Seven included the Bishop
of London, Henry Compton, and six
noblemen—Charles Talbot, 1 st Duke
of Shrewsbury, William Cavendish, 1 st
Duke of Devonshire, Thomas Osborne,
1 st Duke of Leeds, Richard Lumley, 1 st
Earl of Scarbrough, Edward Russell,
1 st Earl of Orford, and Henry Sydney,
1 st Earl of Romney—who inscripted
the letter to William III and initiated
the Glorious Revolution. William had
married Princess Mary, the daughter
of James II. Because both were Protestant,
they made perfect replacements. 2
Most Jacobites, and the Tory Party, rejected
a Hanoverian government and
supported James II, as they continued
to believe in the “traditional doctrine
of divine right.” 3 The non-Jacobites or
Whig Party, on the other hand, railed
against an absolute monarchy. They be-
4