4 - Retrospect

Summary

Only two years after Sidney's execution, James II came to the throne. Within four years he had confirmed every fear which had lain behind the earlier concern over the succession. This led to a crisis which enabled his actual exclusion from the throne (along with his heirs) through the agency of a Dutch invasion.

It is hardly surprising, given the historical significance of this event, that historians writing in its aftermath should find its anticipation in the exclusion bill the most important and significant aspect of the earlier crisis. It is less surprising still, given the appearance in 1681 of the labels whig and tory, and the consequent temptation to construct a prototype ‘whig party’ around the prophetic cause of exclusion. This had the further attraction of separating the first ‘whigs’ – the flag carriers of a future political age – from a damaging truth about their role. This was that they had been what the court and, by 1681, the majority of the nation were saying they were: dangerous, radical, and embarked again on the cause that had led to the civil war.

There followed the tremendous historiographical weight which this has placed on a fairly brief period of the nation's history. The years 1678–81 became the birthplace of not only the political structures of the eighteenth century, but those of much of the western world. These were claims of such significance that historians could not, and have not, seen a great deal else in this crisis.