Chapter 20 - Defoe and the Glorious Revolution

Summary

This chapter examines Defoe’s various responses to the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and how his published works attempt to reconcile support for James II’s removal from the throne with contempt for at least some of the event’s chief instigators. In texts such as The True-Born Englishman (1701) and Jure Divino (1706), Defoe demonstrates his ideological commitment to ‘revolution principles’ while also experimenting with awkward sympathies and rhetorical opportunities. The chapter considers Defoe’s attachment to one particularly provocative analogy between James’s downfall and Charles I’s execution, and asks to what extent he intends his readers to feel genuine pity for the exiled monarch. Ultimately, we can see in Defoe’s attitude towards 1688 the same mixture of conviction and contrarianism that typifies much of his literary career. He was greatly indebted to the Glorious Revolution in many respects, but cannot resist interrogating its motives and its consequences, fixating on the ingratitude of its other beneficiaries.