3 - Whig Thought and the Revolution of 1688–91

Summary

As Charles II and James II moved towards Stuart absolutism under ‘colour of law’ in the 1680s, whigs lost lives, liberties and estates. After Charles dissolved Parliament in 1681 he initiated trials and executions of political opponents, commencing with the whig propagandist Stephen College in 1681 in a trial moved to Oxford in order to secure a compliant jury after one in London had refused to indict College. After a London jury similarly refused to indict Shaftesbury in late 1681, the crown initiated quo warranto proceedings against the charter of London and other corporation charters, to examine ‘by what warrant’ they held their privileges, with the ultimate objective of revoking them. In 1682 many whigs were disenfranchised in London in contested elections, and in 1683 London's charter was revoked. By such proceedings in London and other cities and towns, the crown gained control simultaneously over the electorate - and thus also over a future Parliament, should one be called - and over the appointment of sheriffs, who appointed juries, in a situation where the crown already appointed and dismissed judges. Trials and executions of leading whigs, including Algernon Sidney and William Lord Russell, followed the discovery in 1683 of plans for armed resistance, the so-called Rye House Plot, while the earl of Essex, detained on suspicion of involvement in the Plot, was alleged to have been murdered in prison. Many whigs fled into exile, were incarcerated, and had estates seized.