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Celebrating the Glorious Revolution, 1689–1989*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 July 2014

Lois G. Schwoerer
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Extract

1988 and 1989 have been vintage years all over the world for centenary celebrations. People have celebrated the centenary of the Eiffel Tower, the bicentenary of the French Revolution, the bicentenary of Australia, the bicentenary of the American Bill of Rights, the quatercentenary of the defeat of the Spanish Armada, the sexcentenary of the battle of Kosovo (this one may have escaped your notice, but it brought over a million people to a gathering in the city of Pristina in Yugoslavia in June 1989), and, of course, the tercentenary of the English Revolution of 1688–89, with which I am concerned tonight. You will have no trouble believing that I have been “concerned with” and “celebrating” the Glorious Revolution for two years now, but I want to confess to you in the intimacy of this festive occasion that it has really been at least ten years, and that sometimes it feels more like three hundred!

How did centennial observances start? Why do people go to trouble, take time, and spend money to call to mind an event that happened one, two, or three hundred years ago? What is it about centennial moments that turns serious-minded, scholarly-inclined historians like ourselves into “party people”? What do celebrations tell us about the uses of the past in successive “presents”? The fact is that celebrations, each varying in character, have attended the Glorious Revolution from its beginnings on through each centennial anniversary thereafter — in 1788–89, 1888–89, and 1988–89. The observances at these centennial moments not only celebrated the Revolution itself, but also served, even as they reflected, current political, cultural, and/or economic ideas and goals. In a long perspective, the celebrations are an important part of the political and cultural history of the Revolution of 1688–89 itself. They illustrate how high and low politics may intersect, show how political ideas circulate through society and undergo transformation, and offer an index of changing ideological and cultural assumptions and aspirations over three hundred years.

Type
1989 Presidential Address to the North American Conference on British Studies
Information
Albion , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , Spring 1990 , pp. 1 - 20
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference on British Studies 1990

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Footnotes

*

An early version of this essay was presented at Colorado State University in February 1988 as the Norman F. Furniss Lecture. I want to thank Barry Price, Secretary of The William and Mary Tercentenary Trust, for generously sharing his knowledge of the Trust's activities and providing me with copies of minutes of its meetings and publications, H. S. Cobb, Clerk of the Records, for making available the newspaper file on the celebration compiled at the House of Lords Record Office, and Kathleen Wilson for allowing me to use the typescript of a version of her article, “Inventing Revolution: 1688 and Eighteenth-Century Popular Politics,” Journal of British Studies 28, 4 (October 1989): 349-386. W. D. Salter, Curator and Secretary at the Brixham Museum and History Society, and M. M. Rowe, County Archivist, Devon Record Office, kindly sent me copies of relevant materials. I am also indebted to Esther Cope, Valerie Cromwell, Eveline Cruickshanks, James Jones, Isabel Kenrick, Joseph Martin, and Paul Monod. As always I am grateful to Barbara Taft for reading a version of this paper with her usual care.

References

1 As I have shown in another place, victory processions, fireworks, songs, poetry, and commemorative medals greeted the settlement. See Schwoerer, Lois G., “The Glorious Revolution as Spectacle: A New Perspective,” in England's Rise to Greatness, ed. Baxter, Stephen B. (Berkeley, 1983), pp. 109–49.Google Scholar

2 The first conjoining of the words “Glorious” and “Revolution” was on November 18, 1689. See By Force or By Default? The Revolution of 1688–89, ed. Cruickshanks, Eveline (Edinburgh, 1989)Google Scholar, opp. title page. See also Hertzler, James R., “Who Dubbed It ‘The Glorious Revolution,’” Albion (Winter 1987): 579–85.Google Scholar

3 Gentleman's Magazine: and Historical Chronicle, Vol. 58, 2 parts (London, 1788), Pt. 1, pp. 481–82; Pt. 2, p. 943.Google Scholar

4 The Public Advertiser, November 1, 1788.

5 Morning Post and Daily Advertiser, October 18, 1788; Morning Chronicle and Public Advertiser, October 21, 22, 28, 31, 1788.

6 The change in the Prayer book commanded by William was drawn up by bishops Simon Patrick and Thomas Sprat without the sanction of either Convocation or Parliament, and ordered annexed to the Liturgy on October 18, 1690 by the earl of Nottingham. See Blunt, John Henry D.D., ed., The Annotated Book of Common Prayer. Being an Historical, Ritual, and Theological Commentary on the Devotional System of the Church of England (New York and Bombay, 1903), p. 705.Google Scholar

7 In 1984 Lord Beloff pointed out that a celebration of the parliamentary implications of the Revolution should take place in 1989, not 1988, but the remark was ignored. House of Lords Official Report. Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), Fifth series, Vol. 450 (27 March 1984), p. 131.Google Scholar

8 Goodwin, Albert, The Friends of Liberty. The English Democratic Movement in the Age of the French Revolution (Cambridge, Mass., 1979), p. 87.Google Scholar

9 Anon., “Centenary Celebrations in 1788,” Westminster Review 130, 6 (1888): 637.Google Scholar

10 For Dublin, , see Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. 58, Pt. 2, p. 1019Google Scholar. For Edinburgh, , The Public Advertiser, November 11, 1788Google Scholar; See also The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, October 28, 1788 and Gentleman's Magazine, 1788, 58, Pt. 2, p. 1020.Google Scholar

11 Colley, Linda, “Eighteenth-Century English Radicalism before Wilkes,” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th Series, 31 (1981): 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 Anon., “Centenary Celebrations in 1788,” Westminster Review, p. 644.Google Scholar

13 The Gentleman's Magazine, 58, Pt. 1, p. 482Google Scholar; The Public Advertiser, October 29, 1788; The Morning Post November 1, 1788.

14 See, for example, Plumb, J. H., The Commercialisation of Leisure in eighteenth-century England (Reading, 1973)Google Scholar, and McKendrick, Neil, Brewer, John, and Plumb, J. H., eds., The Birth of a Consumer Society: The Commercialization of Eighteenth-Century England (London, 1983).Google Scholar

15 Gentleman's Magazine, 58, Pt. 2, pp. 1010 (the poem), 1020–21Google Scholar. Another splendid celebration took place in Norfolk, at Holkam, the estate of Thomas William Coke, a former Whig M.P. for Norfolk. Self-consciously stressing Whiggish themes, this event featured an “Egyptian Hall” with Corinthian columns bearing the words, “liberty is our cause,” and a representation of William's landing at Torbay erected in the middle of a pond that had been transformed into a miniature Torbay. Everyone in the county was invited and thousands of county folk along with the gentry consumed quantities of food and drink. After dark the whole was illuminated. See The Public Advertiser, November 10, 1788. See Kathleen Wilson, “A Radical Legacy? Eighteenth Century Popular Politics and the Centenary Celebrations of the Glorious Revolution,” typescript, p. 11.

16 The Times (London), November 5, 1788Google Scholar; Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser, November 5, 1788.

17 Announcements and/or accounts of meetings appeared in The Times, November 1, 3, 4, 1788; The Public Advertiser, November 6, 8, 1788.

18 An Abstract of the History and Proceedings of the Revolution Society, in London. To which is annexed a copy of the Bill of Rights (London, 1790), p. 16.Google Scholar

19 The Public Advertiser, November 6, 1788.

20 Namier, Lewis Sir and Brooke, John, eds., The House of Commons, 1754–1790, 3 vols. (London, 1964), 2: 72–73Google Scholar; Journals of the House of Commons, 44: 234, 463, 547Google Scholar; Journals of the House of Lords, 38: 507Google Scholar; The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period (London, 1816), (1788–1789), 27: 1332–38Google Scholar (Commons' debate); 28: 294–97 (Lords' debate). A member of the Society, Henry Beaufoy (1750–95), introduced the measure.

21 The Public Advertiser, November 6, 1788.

22 Although initially received with coolness, Locke's essay became popular in the eighteenth century; it was reprinted eighteen times between 1690 and 1779: see Laslett, Peter, ed., John Locke's Two Treatises of Government (London, 1965), pp. 121–29.Google Scholar

23 An Abstract of the History and Proceedings of the Revolution Society, pp. 14–15.

24 Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser, November 3, 1788.

25 The Times, November 5, 1788.

26 The Public Advertiser, October 31, November 1, 3, 6, 1688; Anon, “Centenary Celebrations in 1788,” Westminster Review 130, p. 641.Google Scholar

27 The Public Advertiser, November 7, 1788. It is interesting to note the revival in 1756 of a variant tune of “Lilliburlero,” to which words were added that resonated with possible implications for the events of 1688. Those words were the “Rock-a-Bye-Baby” nursery rhyme. One can read the nursery rhyme to mean that the Protestant wind rocks the cradle that bears the baby boy born to James II and his wife, and the wind blows so hard that the baby and the cradle (James's family) come tumbling down — cradle and all! This reading was advanced by Thomas, Katherine E., The Real Personages of Mother Goose (New York, 1930), pp. 288–90Google Scholar, but Opie, Peter, editor of The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford, 1951)Google Scholar regards it as “purely speculative” [Letter of August 13, 1974 to the author]. What is not known is whether the connection with 1688–89 was made before 1930.

28 Norfolk Chronicle and Norwich Gazette. See also Leeds Saturday Journal, November 10, 1888.

29 The Times, November 5, 1888.

30 Evening Post, November 6, 1888

31 Ibid., October 11, 1888.

32 See Pike, John, “The Landing of William at Brixham in 1688: fact and fiction,” p. 13Google Scholar (typescript in the Brixham Museum & History Society). A flyer printed for the occasion in 1889 supplies the names of the patrons.

33 See, for example, Cannadine, David, Rituals of Royalty (Cambridge, 1987).Google Scholar

34 The point appears in Butler, Michael, Price, Barry, and Bland, Stella, eds., William and Mary. The Revolution That Shaped Our World (London, 1988), p. 3.Google Scholar

35 Anon., “Centenary Celebrations in 1788,” p. 637.

36 Manchester Guardian, November 5, 1888.

37 Ibid.

38 Catalogue, , Exhibition of the Royal House of Stuart (1889), Preface.Google Scholar

39 Jacobite Peerage (London, 1904), Preface, p. ixGoogle Scholar. See also de Ruvigny, Marquis and Raineval, , ed., A Legitimist Kalendar For The Year Of Our Lord, 1894 (London, 1894)Google Scholar. There were five major legitimist societies, prominent among them being “The Legitimist Jacobite League of Great Britain and Ireland,” with seventeen branches.

40 This essay focuses on the celebrations in the United States and Great Britain.

41 “The World of William and Mary” was held at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, February 8–10, 1989. “The Glorious Revolution, 1688–89. Changing Perspectives” was held in Washington, D.C. at the George Washington University and the Folger Shakespeare Library, April 13–15, 1989.

42 “Courts and Colonies: The William and Mary Style in Holland, England, and America” was featured at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum. The Muscarelle Museum mounted an exhibit of Romeyne de Hooghe's Etchings of William III, and the Carnegie Museum showed “Courts and Colonies: The William and Mary Study in Holland, England, and America,” accompanying the exhibit with a series of lectures.

43 The brochure, “A Flowering of the Arts at the Folger Shakespeare Library,” contains the entire program.

44 Catherine Flye, “No Heart For a Kingdom. The life and times of William's Mary, through music, drama and dance.”

45 H.L., Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), Fifth series, Vol. 450, (27 March 1984), pp. 129–31.Google Scholar

46 Papers of the William and Mary Tercentenary Trust (Uncat.) [hereafter cited as WMTT], Minutes, Meeting of the Committee of Honour, December 10, 1985, pp. 3, 10–11.

47 In The Netherlands and Great Britain, private businesses contributed to the celebrations. See Newsletter, “Three Hundred years of Anglo-Dutch Friendship,” issued by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands, and official catalogue of the William and Mary Tercentenary Trust: Butler, Price, Bland, eds., William and Mary. The Revolution That Shaped Our World.

48 WMTT, Brief for the press, January 1986. Also, Minutes, Meeting of Committee of Honour, December 2, 1986, p. 2.

49 The phrase is Barry Price's: July 13, 1989 conversation with author. Also WMTT, Minutes, Meeting of Committee of Honour, June 4, 1986, p. 4; and Minutes, Meeting of Management Committee, July 28, 1986., p. 5; and October 6, 1986, p. 3.

50 WMTT, Notes for Chairmen of Sub-Committees, January 15, 1985, p. 1.

51 Members worked exceedingly hard to realize the goals of the Trust. For example, the Management Committee, the central committee, met 22 times from 1985–89.

52 A listing of many of the events in Great Britain and The Netherlands appeared in the “William and Mary Newsletter. Three Hundred Years of Anglo-Dutch Friendship.” Among the outstanding events in Holland were “The Anglo-Dutch Garden in the Age of William and Mary,” featured at the Paleis Het Loo, which was restored to its original condition, an exhibit “The World of William and Mary” housed at Neiuwe Kerk in Amsterdam, a symposium, “Three Ages of Military and Naval Cooperation” at the naval college in Den Helder, accompanied by an exhibit at the Naval Museum there, and an exhibit of Prince William's favorite paintings at Mauritshuis.

53 Butler, Michael, ed., Coronation & Royal Visits supplement to the official Tercentenary Programme Book, 1989Google Scholar. See also WMTT, Minutes of Management Committee, April 2, 1987, October 10, 1987, and April 11, 1988.

54 The Newsletter, “Three Hundred years of Anglo-Dutch Friendship,” made the point.

55 WMTT, Minutes, Meeting of the Management Committee, October 6, 1986, December 1, 1986, April 2, 1987, December 5, 1988. The Torbay Borough Council paid for the small amount of work that was necessary to restore to mint condition the statue of William that had been erected in 1889: letter of July 18, 1989 to author from W. D. Salter.

56 WMTT, Minutes, Meeting of the Management Comm., April 7, 1986, p. 2; July 28, 1986, pp. 3–4; Comm. of Honour, December 2, 1986, p. 3.

57 H.L., Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), Fifth series, Vol. 472 (17 March 1986), p. 796Google Scholar. The peers were Lord Blake, Lord Crawshaw of Aintree, Lord Elwyn-Jones, P.C., Lord Henderson of Brompton, and Lord Thomas of Swynnerton. Commoners were Michael Foot, Roy Harris Jenkins, Cranley Onslow, Sir J. Stradling Thomas, Nigel Spearing, and Patrick T. Cormack. See House of Commons Official Report, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), Sixth series, Vol. 94, (17 March 1986), p. 19.Google Scholar

58 De Young, Karen, Washington Post, August 1, 1988.Google Scholar

59 H.L., Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), Fifth series, Vol. 500 (25 July 1988), p. 8.Google Scholar

60 Ibid., Vol. 478 (14 July 1986), pp. 676–78.

61 H.C., Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), Sixth Series, Vol. 136, p. 1247Google Scholar (the debate is on pp. 1233–66).

62 WMTT, Minutes, Meeting of the Management Comm., July 28, 1986, p. 5.

63 H.L., Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), Fifth series, Vol. 500 (25 July 1988), pp. 8–9.Google Scholar