Oates, told on August 31, 1681, to leave his apartments in Whitehall, remains undeterred and denounces the King, the Duke of York, and just about anyone he regards as an opponent.

He is arrested for sedition, sentenced to a fine of one hundred thousand pounds and thrown into prison.

When James II accedes to the throne in 1685 he will have Oates retried for perjury and sentenced to annual pillory, loss of clerical dress, and imprisonment for life.

Oates will spent the next three years in prison.

At the accession of William of Orange and Mary in 1688, he will be pardoned and granted a pension of five pounds a week but his reputation will not significantly recover.

The pension will be suspended, but in 1698 will be restored and increased to three hundred pounds a year until his death on July 12 or 13, 1705.

The religious struggles of the seventeenth century leave a deep sectarian division in Ireland.

Religious allegiance now determines the perception in law of loyalty to the Irish King and Parliament.

After the passing of the Test Act 1672, and with the victory of the forces of the dual monarchy of William and Mary over the Jacobites, Roman Catholics and nonconforming Protestant Dissenters have been barred from sitting as members in the Irish Parliament.

Under the emerging Penal Laws, Irish Roman Catholics and Dissenters are increasingly deprived of various and sundry civil rights even to the ownership of hereditary property.

Additional regressive punitive legislation follows in 1703, 1709 and 1728.

This completes a comprehensive systemic effort to materially disadvantage Roman Catholics and Protestant Dissenters, while enriching a new ruling class of Anglican conformists.

The new Anglo-Irish ruling class becomes known as the Protestant Ascendancy.

The Exclusion crisis had occurred in 1680 due to widespread objections to a Catholic serving as the King of England, since James is the heir presumptive to Charles, who is the king at this time.

After the death of Charles II in 1685, his Catholic brother King James II & VII is crowned.

From this point, there are various factions pressing for his Protestant daughter Mary and her husband, Prince William III of Orange, to replace him in what becomes known as the Glorious Revolution.

In November 1688, William lands in England with an invading force, and succeeds in being crowned king.

After this, James attempts to retake the throne by force in the Williamite War, and is finally defeated by William at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

Catholics loyal to James in parts of Scotland and Ireland remain determined to see him restored to the throne, and there follows a series of bloody though unsuccessful uprisings.

As a result of these, any failure to pledge loyalty to the victorious King William is dealt with severely.

The most infamous example of this policy is the Massacre of Glencoe in 1692.

Jacobite rebellions continue on into the mid-eighteenth century until the son of the last Catholic claimant to the throne, (James III & VIII), mounts a final campaign in 1745.

The Jacobite forces of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, the "Bonnie Prince Charlie" of legend, are defeated at the Battle of Culloden in 1746.

The Bill of Rights, one of the most important constitutional documents in English history, is passed in December 1689.

The Act, which restates and confirms many provisions of the earlier Declaration of Right, establishes restrictions on the royal prerogative.

It provides, among other things, that the Sovereign cannot suspend laws passed by Parliament, levy taxes without parliamentary consent, infringe the right to petition, raise a standing army during peacetime without parliamentary consent, deny the right to bear arms to Protestant subjects, unduly interfere with parliamentary elections, punish members of either House of Parliament for anything said during debates, require excessive bail, or inflict cruel and unusual punishments.

William is opposed to the imposition of such constraints, but he chooses not to engage in a conflict with Parliament and agrees to abide by the statute.

Northwest Europe (1684–1695 CE): Revolution, War, and New Horizons

England: The Glorious Revolution and Constitutional Change

The period 1684–1695 in England was marked by profound political upheaval, culminating in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. The Catholic policies of James II (reigned 1685–1688) incited opposition from Protestant elites, resulting in his deposition by Parliament and his Protestant daughter, Mary II, and her husband, William III of Orange, ascending the throne jointly. The Revolution's aftermath saw the ratification of the Bill of Rights (1689), significantly curtailing monarchical power, enhancing parliamentary sovereignty, and establishing foundational liberties that shaped future governance.

Ireland: Williamite War and Protestant Ascendancy

Ireland became a focal point of conflict during the Williamite War (1688–1691). James II sought Irish Catholic support to reclaim his throne, but the decisive Protestant victory at the Battle of the Boyne (1690) under William III entrenched Protestant dominance. The war intensified sectarian divisions, solidifying Protestant landownership and setting the stage for centuries of religious and political conflict.

Scotland: Jacobite Risings and Presbyterian Consolidation

Scotland experienced unrest following the Glorious Revolution, highlighted by the Jacobite Rising of 1689, where supporters of James II attempted to restore him. The Jacobites were decisively defeated at the Battle of Killiecrankie (1689), ultimately consolidating Presbyterianism as the state religion, diminishing Catholic influence, and leading to significant social restructuring under William III.

The Nine Years' War: England vs. France

Northwest Europe was significantly impacted by the Nine Years' War (1688–1697), a conflict primarily between the Grand Alliance—comprising England, the Dutch Republic, Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire—and France under Louis XIV. Major battles such as the Battle of Beachy Head (1690) and the naval engagement at La Hogue (1692) defined England's maritime capabilities. The war underscored England's growing global naval power and its key role in continental affairs.

The East India Company's Growing Dominance

The English East India Company further solidified its presence in India, expanding its territorial and economic reach. The failed diplomatic mission of William Hedges in 1682 led to heightened tensions, but the company navigated these challenges, securing critical trade rights and expanding its military fortifications, thus laying the foundation for future British dominance in South Asia. The company's prosperity allowed its officers to establish sprawling estates and businesses in Britain, acquiring significant political influence. However, under pressure from ambitious traders ("Interlopers"), a deregulating act passed in 1694 annulled the century-long monopoly, permitting any English firm to trade with India unless specifically restricted by Parliament.

Denmark-Norway: Strengthening Absolutism and Reforms

Denmark-Norway under Christian V continued its consolidation of absolute monarchy. Efforts to modernize administrative practices through the Danish Law Code of 1683 were expanded, standardizing measures and taxation systems to strengthen royal authority and bureaucratic efficiency.

Intellectual Advances and Cultural Flourishing

The era was marked by significant intellectual and cultural achievements. Isaac Newton's publication of Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687) revolutionized physics and mathematics, influencing European scientific thought profoundly. Literary and artistic expressions flourished, with figures like John Locke publishing influential philosophical works such as An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689) and Two Treatises of Government(1689), which provided intellectual foundations for modern democracy and empirical philosophy.

Social and Religious Dynamics

Religious tolerance was partially advanced by the Toleration Act of 1689, granting limited freedoms to Nonconformists, yet Catholics and non-trinitarian Protestants remained largely excluded. The social landscape was characterized by ongoing Protestant-Catholic tensions, significantly shaped by the political changes of the Glorious Revolution and conflicts abroad.

Legacy of the Era

By 1695, Northwest Europe had experienced transformative political, religious, and intellectual shifts. The Glorious Revolution and subsequent constitutional reforms fundamentally reshaped governance, asserting parliamentary sovereignty and individual liberties. Continued expansion by the East India Company foreshadowed Britain's imperial future, while the intellectual contributions of Newton, Locke, and their contemporaries laid critical foundations for Enlightenment thinking and modern governance.

Dutch Sovereign William III, Prince of Orange, is both James's nephew and his son-in-law, and, until the birth of James's son, his wife, Mary, had been heir apparent.

William's chief concern is to check the overgrowth of French power in Europe, and he welcomes England's aid.

A letter sent by seven notable Englishmen (five Whigs and two Tories, known to posterity as the "Immortal Seven") to William, received by him on June 30, 1688, asks him, because in England a Catholic male heir had been born, to force the ruling king by military intervention to make William's Protestant wife Mary, James's eldest daughter, heir to the throne, preferably by establishing that the newborn Prince of Wales is a fraud.

The letter informs William that if he were to land in England with a small army to restore "English Liberties", the signatories and their allies would rise up and support him.

The Invitation briefly rehashes the grievances against King James, claimed that the King's son is suppositious, and offers some brief strategy on the logistics of the proposed landing of troops.

It had been carried to William in The Hague by Rear Admiral Arthur Herbert (the later Lord Torrington) disguised as a common sailor, and identified by a secret code.

William and Mary had already in April of that year, when William had started to assemble an invasion force, asked for such an invitation to be given, within the context of a secret correspondence since April 1687 between them and several leading English politicians, discussing how best to counter the pro-Catholic policies of James.

Thus, having been in close touch with the leading English malcontents for more than a year, he accepts their invitation and carries out his existing plans to land with a large Dutch army.

The 1689 Claim of Right of the Scottish Estates is expressed in different terms in the Kingdom of Scotland, separate from that of England, but to a largely similar effect, declaring William and Mary to be King and Queen of Scotland on April 11, 1689.

A number of uprisings in the American colonies against royal officials suspected of being Catholics occur after William and Mary ascend the English throne in the Glorious Revolution.

Discontented artisans and small traders led by the prominent Calvinist merchant Jacob Leisler rebel against the crown's agent in New York, Lieutenant Governor Francis Nicholson.

Nicholson flees to England on May 3 when his fort is seized by Leisler's rebellious force.

Supported by small farmers, city workers, and the militia, Leisler sets himself up as head of a revolutionary government that subsequently appoints him commander in chief.

He acknowledges the sovereignty of William and Mary and rules southern New York in their name.

He assumes the title of lieutenant governor in December, and, appointing a council, takes charge of the entire province.

William's bloodless coup, called the "Glorious Revolution," takes England out of the Catholic orbit permanently.

William convenes a Convention Parliament, which declares that James's attempt to flee constituted an abdication of the government, and that the Throne had then become vacant.

James's daughter Mary is declared Queen; she is to rule jointly with her husband William.

Before William and Mary are affirmed as co-rulers of England and Ireland, they accept a Declaration of Rights drawn up by the Convention Parliament thaton February 13, 1689, is delivered to them at the Banqueting House, Whitehall.

The declaration charges James II with abusing his power; among other things, it criticizes the suspension of the Test Acts, the prosecution of the Seven Bishops for merely petitioning the Crown, the establishment of a standing army and the imposition of cruel punishments.

The Bill also stipulates that no Catholic will henceforth be permitted to ascend to the English throne, nor can any English monarch marry a Catholic.