Introduction

Summary

THIS volume of the Entring Book spans the period from the coronation of James II on 25 April 1685 until the prorogation of the English parliament on 18 March 1687. It opens with James working in alliance with the Tory-Anglican interest against the residual threat posed by radical Whigs and Nonconformists in both England and Scotland; it concludes with James moving towards a rapprochement with Whigs and Dissenters both north and south of the border after the Tory-Anglican interest had made it clear that they would not assist James in his efforts to help his Catholic coreligionists. It is a strategic volte face that leaves Morrice somewhat confused — still willing, as he was, to believe the worst of the high Anglicans and regard them as the group most likely to support the king's attempts to establish popery and arbitrary government — and somewhat defensive about the signs that some Nonconformists, at least, were grateful to James for using his prerogative to alleviate their plight. This volume also shows Morrice's continuing preoccupation with Scottish and Irish affairs and with the broader international context. It therefore covers a crucial period in the build-up to the final crisis that was to befall the Stuart monarchy in 1688 and helps demonstrate why so many English people (and no longer just those of Morrice's particular religio-political leanings) became so alarmed at developments under the popish successor.

Thanks to a combination of government interference in borough franchises, careful electoral management by the court, and a swing in public opinion against the Whigs following the revelations of the Rye House Plot in 1683, the parliament that met at the beginning of the reign in May 1685 proved to be an overwhelmingly Tory-Anglican body: only fifty-seven Whigs were elected to a House of Commons comprising some 513 members. There were hints of things to come when a committee of the whole house voted to address the king to issue a proclamation calling for the enforcement of the penal laws ‘against all Dissenters whatsoever’ (that is Catholics as well as Protestant Nonconformists) (P463).