History of England, from the Accession of James II - (Volume 4, Chapter 22)

Macaulay chronicles the most consequential transfer of power in English history: the Glorious Revolution of 1688. With the narrative drive of a novelist and the authority of a master scholar, he depicts the collapse of James II's short reign and the arrival of Dutch William and Stuart Mary on English shores. For Macaulay, this moment marks the definitive end of divine right kingship and the triumph of parliamentary government over absolute monarchy. He traces the web of political calculation, religious fear, and military pressure that drove the Seven Bishops and the Immortal Seven to invite William to intervene, while James's support crumbled around him. The chapter captures the tension of a kingdom suspended between Catholic France and Protestant resistance, between hereditary claims and the imperative of survival. Macaulay's enduring achievement is demonstrating how English liberty was not granted by benevolent monarchs but wrested through crisis by men who understood that the alternative to constitutional government was tyranny.