The Prince of Orange invaded England on 5 November 1688 and, at the head of an Anglo-Dutch army, moved rapidly through the West Country and entered London on 18 December. Exuberant crowds greeted William of Orange as he rode through the streets of the capital, but few, if any, of these spectators had any idea of the seismic political changes that were about to take place. Within two months of William's arrival in the capital, James II fled to France and, with the support of the Prince and Princess of Denmark, a joint monarchy had been created with William and Mary holding executive power (although Mary would soon hand her executive powers over to William). These momentous events caused political turmoil. After a period of tense negotiations, William and Mary were offered the Crown at a fabricated ceremony held at the Banqueting House, witnessed not only by members from both Houses of the Convention Parliament, but also the Prince and Princess of Denmark.

The Declaration ceremony ensured the offer of the Crown was implicitly tied to an acceptance of the Declaration of Rights and the new political arrangements were presented, aurally and visually, as the ‘will of the nation’. Nonetheless, beneath a veil of national consensus, out of a total of 153 peers and 35 bishops only 35 peers and 3 bishops attended the Declaration ceremony. Once the full political consequences of the Glorious Revolution became clear, other clergymen began to feel uneasy. As soon as William and Mary had accepted the Crown, the Archbishop of Canterbury (William Sancroft), 5 bishops and approximately 400 members of the lower clergy refused to accept William and Mary as their monarchs. But Church of England clergymen were not alone in their disquiet over the new political framework. There were some who felt the Revolution Settlement had been carried by an ‘irregularly elected body’, whose status, authority and actions were constantly questioned, and vociferous opposition to the settlement was voiced almost immediately. any people in England remained loyal to James II and by the end of February 1689 Jacobite activity was rife; in response Parliament temporarily suspended the Habeas Corpus Act.