In 1688, a palace coup took place in England.

The king of England and Scotland was usurped and was replaced by his daughter and her husband from the Netherlands.

This act forever changed the British monarchy and created an alternative line of secession to the throne which still exists today

Learn more about the glorious revolution, why it happened and its ramifications on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. The glorious revolution, as with so many things in 17th century England, was an issue of religion.

To understand how and why the glorious revolution happened, we need to understand the religious

situation in England and in particular the religious situation of the monarchy.

So here's a brief summary of the situation in England and Scotland and how they got there.

It all started when Henry VIII wanted to get a divorce because his wife Catherine of Aragon couldn't bear him a son

The Pope refused to grant him an annulment so in 1531 he split with the Catholic Church and put himself at the head of a new Protestant

Church of England.

He was succeeded by his son Edward the 6th, who ascended to the throne at the age of 10,

and died at the age of 15, who was also raised a Protestant. However, the crown then went to Henry's eldest daughter Mary, who was Catholic, and the daughter of Catherine.

She tried to reverse the English Reformation and was very draconian in her efforts, burning 280 Protestants at the stake.

She had no heirs and was succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth, who was the daughter of

Anne Boleyn, and was Protestant. She established a more formal Church of England that was

superficially similar to Catholicism. She also didn't have an air and the next

in line to the English throne was the King of Scotland, James the sixthth, who was now James the 1st of England.

James was very Protestant despite his mother being Catholic and expressed sympathy for the Puritan

cause. He was succeeded by his son Charles, who was a

a Catholic and you can see all the religious flip-flopping going on with the throne at this point.

By this time England had become a profoundly Protestant country and Charles faced a rebellion that resulted in

his beheading and the creation of the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell.

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