Charles II had his problems with Parliament, but he was usually able to surmount them, and he always knew when the time had come to back down.

The growing power of Parliament against the monarch in the seventeenth century was reflected in the development of more organized political parties. Two groups (Whigs and Tories) became dominant, and this feature was to characterize future British two-party politics, in which political power has shifted between two main parties. The Whigs didn’t accept the Catholic sympathizer James II as successor to Charles II and wanted religious freedom for al Protestants. The Tories generally supported royalist beliefs, and helped Charles II to secure James’s right to succeed him.

He (James) attempted to rule without Parliament and ignored his laws. His manipulations forced Tories to join Whigs in inviting the Protestant William of Orange to intervene. William arrived in England in 1688, James fled to France and William succeeded to the throne as England’s first constitutional monarch. Since no force was involved, this event is called the Bloodless or Glorious Revolution. Royal powers were further restricted under the Declaration of Rights (1689), which strengthened Parliament and provided some civil liberties.

The Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the Bill of Rights of 1689 established Parliament once and for all as the equal partner of the king. This division of power was soon to prove itself a far more effective means of government than the absolute monarchies of the continent, and it assured that the constitutional development of England would continue.

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