![Earl of Romney](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Earl_of_Romney.jpg)
The ''Invitation to William'' was a letter sent by seven notable English nobles, later called "the Immortal Seven", to
stadtholder William III, Prince of Orange, received by him on 30 June 1688 (
Julian calendar
The Julian calendar, proposed by Roman consul Julius Caesar in 46 BC, was a reform of the Roman calendar. It took effect on , by edict. It was designed with the aid of Greek mathematicians and astronomers such as Sosigenes of Alexandr ...
, 10 July
Gregorian calendar
The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years dif ...
). In England, the heir apparent to the throne,
James Francis Edward Stuart
James Francis Edward Stuart (10 June 16881 January 1766), nicknamed the Old Pretender by Whigs, was the son of King James II and VII of England, Scotland and Ireland, and his second wife, Mary of Modena. He was Prince of Wales from ...
, had just been born to the unpopular King
James II of England
James VII and II (14 October 1633 16 September 1701) was King of England and King of Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Gloriou ...
, and baptised a Catholic. The letter asked William, who was a nephew and son-in-law of James II, to use
military intervention
Interventionism refers to a political practice of intervention, particularly to the practice of governments to interfere in political affairs of other countries, staging military or trade interventions. Economic interventionism refers to a diff ...
to force the king to make his eldest daughter,
Mary
Mary may refer to:
People
* Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name)
Religious contexts
* New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below
* Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
, William's Protestant wife, his heir. The letter alleged that the newborn prince was an impostor.
The letter informed William that if he were to land in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
with a small army, the signatories and their allies would rise up and support him. The ''Invitation'' briefly rehashed the grievances against King James. It claimed that the king's son was
supposititious (fraudulently substituted) and that the English people generally believed him to be so. The present consensus among historians is that he was almost certainly their real son. The letter deplored that William had sent a letter to James congratulating him for the birth of his son, and offered some brief strategy on the logistics of the proposed landing of troops. It was carried to William in
The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...
by
Rear Admiral
Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equivalent to a major general and air vice marshal and above that of a commodore and captain, but below that of a vice admiral. It is regarded as a two star "admiral" rank. It is often regarde ...
Arthur Herbert (the later Lord Torrington) disguised as a common sailor, and identified by a secret
code
In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communication ...
.
The invitation caused William to carry out his existing plans to land with a large Dutch army, culminating in the
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution; gd, Rèabhlaid Ghlòrmhor; cy, Chwyldro Gogoneddus , also known as the ''Glorieuze Overtocht'' or ''Glorious Crossing'' in the Netherlands, is the sequence of events leading to the deposition of King James II and ...
during which James was deposed and replaced by William and Mary as joint rulers. William and Mary had previously asked for such an invitation when William started to assemble an invasion force in April of that year. This request was done through secret correspondence that had been taking place since April 1687, between them and several leading English politicians, regarding how best to counter the pro-Catholic policies of James. William later justified his invasion by the fact that he was invited, which helped to disguise the military, cultural, and political impact that the Dutch regime had on England when his reign was unpopular and he feared a popular uprising.
The signatories were:
*
Charles Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury
*
William Cavendish, Earl of Devonshire
William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire, (25 January 164018 August 1707) was an English soldier, nobleman, and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1661 to 1684 when he inherited his father's peerage as Earl of Devonshire. H ...
*
Thomas Osborne, Earl of Danby
*
Richard (Lumley), Viscount Lumley
*
Henry Compton,
Bishop of London
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
*
Edward Russell, 1st Earl of Orford
Admiral of the Fleet Edward Russell, 1st Earl of Orford, PC (1653 – 26 November 1727) was a Royal Navy officer and politician. After serving as a junior officer at the Battle of Solebay during the Third Anglo-Dutch War, he served as a capta ...
*
Henry Sydney, 1st Earl of Romney
Henry Sidney, 1st Earl of Romney (also spelt Sydney; March 1641 – 8 April 1704) was an English Whig politician, soldier and administrator. He is now best remembered as one of the Immortal Seven who drafted the Invitation to William of Oran ...
(who wrote the Invitation)
Danby and Compton were generally considered to be
Tories
A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. Th ...
(court party), the other five as
Whigs (country party).
After William's rise to power, five were elevated further in the peerage; Russell was made a peer with the mid-rank of Earl; and Compton as Bishop of London had his suspension (for refusing to suspend strongly anti-Catholic reverend
John Sharp), running into a third year, lifted and performed the Coronation, granted lands in
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
to his second cousin, and became a commissioner in revision of the litany.
Contents
The invitation declared:
References
Sources
*
*
*
* {{cite book , last=Prall , first=Stuart , title=The Bloodless Revolution: England, 1688 , publisher=Anchor Books , location=Garden City, New York , date=1972
Stuart England
1688 in England
1688 documents
Anti-Catholicism in England
Glorious Revolution
William III of England
17th-century documents