If this is your course, you are studying how a crisis over monarchy and religion became a revolution, how a new political settlement survived, and how Britain developed into a more commercial, contested and powerful state.

The course has two connected but differently assessed parts. The enquiry follows the crisis from the last years of Charles II to the offer of the crown to William and Mary. The period study follows politics, society, economic change and foreign policy after 1689.

First, check that this is your course

• Cambridge OCR A Level History A, H505;
• Unit Group 1: British period study and enquiry;
• Unit Y109/01;
• Enquiry topic: The Glorious Revolution, 1678-1689;
• Period study: The Making of Georgian Britain, 1689-c.1760.

There is an important boundary warning. Although the option title ends at about 1760, OCR requires aspects of politics and social and economic developments through 1780, and foreign policy through 1763. Those later years are examinable and are included here.

Your course in one view

Enquiry: The Glorious Revolution, 1678-1689

1. The last years of Charles II, 1678-1685.
2. James II, 1685-1688.
3. The Glorious Revolution, 1688-1689.

Period study: The Making of Georgian Britain

1. The Revolutionary Settlement and politics, 1689-1714.
2. Aspects of politics, 1714-1780.
3. Social and economic developments, c.1700-1780.
4. Foreign policy, 1689-1763.

The central story is not a simple transfer from absolute monarchy to democracy. Religion, succession, law, Parliament, war, public credit, party organisation and popular politics interacted. The post-1688 state became more capable as well as more constrained, while most people still lacked a parliamentary vote.

The starting world: Britain in 1678

Charles II had been restored to the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1660. The monarchy worked with Parliament, but the exact balance between royal authority, law and parliamentary consent remained unsettled. England had an established Anglican Church. Catholics and Protestant nonconformists faced restrictions, and memories of civil war made religious conflict politically explosive.

The succession created a particular problem. Charles II had no legitimate child, so his Catholic brother James, Duke of York, was heir. Louis XIV’s Catholic France appeared powerful and threatening. Allegations of a Popish Plot in 1678 were fabricated, but fear of Catholic conspiracy was real and politically potent.

This was also a composite monarchy. Events in England were connected to Scotland and Ireland, but each kingdom had its own institutions, religious divisions and political memories. The Revolution would not be equally peaceful across all three kingdoms.

Starting-world check

1. Why did James’s religion make the succession controversial?
2. Why could memories of civil war intensify political fear?
3. Why must Britain not be treated as one uniform political society?
4. How could a false plot still have major consequences?

Essential vocabulary

• Anglican: belonging to the established Church of England.
• Nonconformist: a Protestant who did not conform to the practices of the established Church.
• Dissenter: another term commonly used for a Protestant nonconformist.
• Succession: the legal order determining who inherits the Crown.
• Exclusion: the attempt to prevent the Catholic James, Duke of York, from succeeding.
• Whig: a developing political label associated in this crisis with exclusion and resistance to arbitrary government.
• Tory: a developing political label associated with hereditary succession, monarchy and the established Church.
• Dispensing power: the claimed royal power to excuse individuals from obeying a law.
• Standing army: permanent military forces maintained in peacetime as well as war.
• Jacobite: a supporter of the claims of James II and his descendants after 1688.
• Patronage: offices, honours or other advantages used to reward supporters and build political influence.
• Public credit: the government’s ability to borrow because lenders expect repayment.
• Fiscal-military state: a state able to raise revenue and credit to sustain armed forces and prolonged war.
• Evangelical revival: renewed Protestant emphasis on personal faith, conversion, preaching and disciplined religious life.

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1. The last years of Charles II, 1678-1685

Exclusion and opposition

The Popish Plot allegations generated panic, prosecutions and pressure for stronger Protestant safeguards. Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury, helped organise opposition to James’s succession. Exclusion supporters argued that a Catholic king might undermine Protestant religion and law. Their opponents defended hereditary monarchy and feared that altering succession could renew civil conflict.

Charles dissolved Parliaments that pursued exclusion. The crisis helped Whig and Tory labels take shape, but these were not yet modern disciplined parties. Local loyalties, religion, court connections and personal judgement still mattered.

The Oxford Parliament of 1681 was the final Exclusion Parliament. Its rapid dissolution ended the immediate parliamentary campaign. Charles then governed without another Parliament until his death.

Charles recovers authority

Charles’s recovery was political and institutional. Improved royal finances reduced his dependence on Parliament. The Crown used law courts, local office and pressure on borough corporations to weaken opponents and secure loyal government. Quo warranto proceedings challenged corporate charters and allowed remodelling of boroughs.

The alleged Rye House Plot of 1683, a supposed plan to kill Charles and James, further damaged the Whigs. Some opponents fled, were executed or withdrew. Tories gained local influence, while the Anglican Church defended monarchy and obedience.

Charles had not created unlimited royal power. His authority still depended on law, administration, loyal officeholders and a favourable political climate. His success nevertheless left James a stronger inheritance than had seemed likely during exclusion.

Knowledge check

1. Why did exclusion combine religion and constitutional politics?
2. How did the Oxford Parliament mark a turning point?
3. How did borough policy strengthen the Crown?
4. Why did the Rye House Plot weaken the Whigs?
5. Why should Charles’s recovery not be described simply as absolutism?

2. James II, 1685-1688

James succeeded peacefully in 1685 and initially received substantial support. He promised to defend the established government, and a loyal Parliament granted revenue. Many Tories preferred hereditary succession to renewed instability.

The Argyll rising in Scotland and Monmouth rebellion in England failed. Monmouth’s defeat at Sedgemoor strengthened James, but the Bloody Assizes that followed became associated with harsh punishment. The rebellions also encouraged James to maintain a larger standing army.

James wanted greater freedom for Catholics and Protestant dissenters. The aim of toleration could attract nonconformists, but his methods alarmed many supporters. He used dispensing power to place Catholics in office, kept Parliament from meeting when it resisted, and remodelled borough corporations and local government to secure a compliant future Parliament.

The Declarations of Indulgence suspended penal laws. When James ordered the second Declaration to be read in churches, seven bishops petitioned against it. Their prosecution and acquittal in 1688 became a public defeat for the king. Anglican Tories who had defended hereditary monarchy now feared for the Church and the law.

The birth of James Francis Edward in June 1688 transformed the crisis. Before it, opponents could hope that James’s Protestant daughter Mary would eventually inherit. A male Catholic heir suggested a lasting Catholic dynasty. Seven leading Englishmen invited Mary’s husband, William of Orange, to intervene.

Knowledge check

1. Why was James initially secure?
2. How did rebellion both strengthen James and create later concern?
3. Why could toleration be attractive while James’s methods were alarming?
4. Why did the Seven Bishops matter politically?
5. How did the birth of an heir change elite calculations?

3. The Glorious Revolution, 1688-1689

William of Orange had Dutch and European reasons to act. He needed English resources in the struggle against Louis XIV and wanted to prevent James aligning England more closely with France. Domestic invitation and international strategy therefore worked together.

William landed at Torbay in November 1688. James possessed an army, but defections by officers and political leaders destroyed his confidence. His attempts to negotiate were overtaken by collapse. After one intercepted attempt, James escaped to France in December.

The Convention Parliament met because there was no normal royal summons. It debated whether James had abdicated, deserted government or remained king. The final settlement treated the throne as vacant and offered it jointly to William and Mary.

The word glorious expressed the victors’ Protestant and constitutional story. It must not conceal coercion, foreign invasion or war in Scotland and Ireland. Nor was the outcome modern democracy: political power remained concentrated among propertied men.

Enquiry check

1. Why did William intervene?
2. Why did James’s army not secure his throne?
3. What constitutional problem faced the Convention?
4. Why was the crown offered jointly?
5. What does the label Glorious Revolution reveal and conceal?

You can pause here. If you can explain how exclusion, Charles’s recovery, James’s methods, the male heir and William’s invasion connect, you have built the full enquiry story.

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4. The Revolutionary Settlement and politics, 1689-1714

The Bill of Rights of 1689 condemned James’s abuses and restricted suspending laws, taxation and a standing army without parliamentary consent. It required frequent Parliaments and protected parliamentary speech. The Mutiny Act made military discipline depend on regularly renewed legislation; the Triennial Act encouraged frequent elections; and the lapse of licensing controls in 1695 widened print debate.

The Toleration Act allowed freedom of worship to many Protestant dissenters who took prescribed oaths, but it did not create full religious equality. Catholics and some others remained excluded, while the Church of England stayed established. The Act of Settlement of 1701 secured a Protestant succession through the Hanoverian line.

This was a developing settlement, not one constitutional moment. Parliament met frequently because war required taxation and supply. The Crown retained substantial powers, including appointment of ministers, but had to govern through law, Parliament and political management.

Under Queen Anne, Whigs and Tories competed over Church, war, succession and office. The Marlborough-Godolphin ministry prosecuted war successfully but depended on shifting parliamentary alliances. Robert Harley rose as Anne turned towards ministers seeking peace. The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 helped end the War of the Spanish Succession, while party conflict intensified.

Scotland had accepted William and Mary separately in 1689. Disagreement over succession, trade and security later pushed negotiation towards union. The Acts of Union of 1707 created the Kingdom and Parliament of Great Britain, while preserving important Scottish legal, educational and religious institutions. Union was bargained and contested, not an effortless merger.

Knowledge check

1. How did the Bill of Rights constrain monarchy?
2. Why was toleration incomplete?
3. How did war increase Parliament’s importance?
4. Why did party conflict sharpen under Anne?
5. What changed and remained distinct after Union?

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5. Aspects of politics, 1714-1780

George I’s accession in 1714 secured the Protestant succession and helped exclude Tories from national office. Suspicion of Jacobite sympathy contributed to Whig predominance. Yet Tory loyalties persisted, and Jacobitism remained a serious dynastic and international challenge.

The Jacobite rising of 1715 failed through divided leadership, limited coordination and government response. The rising of 1745 advanced much further under Charles Edward Stuart, reaching Derby before retreat. Jacobite support varied by region, dynasty, religion and circumstance. Victory at Culloden in 1746 ended the military campaign, followed by state repression and changes in Highland governance.

The South Sea Bubble collapsed in 1720 after speculative prices and expectations outran reality. Robert Walpole helped restore confidence and became the leading minister. His dominance rested on George I and George II’s confidence, financial management, patronage, parliamentary skill, Whig connections and a preference for peace. Queen Caroline was also an important political intermediary under George II.

Walpole’s religious policy generally protected the post-1688 order while annual Indemnity Acts softened some penalties on dissenters. His proposed Excise scheme in 1733 provoked fears of intrusive government and organised opposition, forcing withdrawal. War with Spain began in 1739, and electoral and parliamentary defeats helped bring his fall in 1742.

After George III’s accession in 1760, disputes about royal influence, ministers and representation widened. John Wilkes used print, elections and legal controversy to mobilise support for civil and political liberty. Christopher Wyvill and the County Associations campaigned for economical and parliamentary reform during the American war. These movements did not create democracy, but they expanded debate about representation and executive power.

Knowledge check

1. Why did the Hanoverian succession favour the Whigs?
2. Why was Jacobitism more than nostalgia?
3. What sustained Walpole’s political power?
4. Why did the Excise Crisis expose limits to that power?
5. What connected Wilkes and the County Associations?

6. Social and economic developments, c.1700-1780

Population grew more rapidly in the eighteenth century, especially after the middle decades. London remained exceptionally large, while provincial and industrial towns expanded. Urban life created markets, employment, print culture and sociability, but also overcrowding, poverty and fear of crime.

Domestic and overseas trade expanded. Agriculture, transport, workshops, mining, textiles, credit and consumption changed at different speeds across regions. This was not one sudden industrial revolution in 1700. It was an uneven commercial and productive transformation that laid foundations for later industrialisation.

The Bank of England, founded in 1694, and the funded National Debt allowed government to borrow on a larger scale. Reliable taxation and parliamentary supply supported public credit. Finance helped Britain sustain war, but also generated profit, political controversy and fear of corruption, especially during the South Sea crisis.

The established Church remained central, yet religious life was changing. The evangelical revival emphasised conversion, disciplined faith and active preaching. John Wesley’s Methodism used itinerant preachers, open-air meetings, small groups and lay participation. Methodists initially understood themselves as renewing Anglican life, though their organisation developed a powerful identity of its own.

Popular disorder had precise contexts. The Porteous riots in Edinburgh in 1736 followed the reprieve of Captain John Porteous after troops had killed civilians. The Gordon riots in London in 1780 grew from anti-Catholic mobilisation around proposed relief and became days of destructive violence. Neither should be reduced to a timeless irrational mob.

Knowledge check

1. How did urban growth create both opportunity and strain?
2. Why was economic change uneven?
3. How did public credit support war?
4. Why did Methodism spread?
5. Why must the Porteous and Gordon riots be explained separately?

7. Foreign policy, 1689-1763

William III placed resistance to Louis XIV at the centre of policy. Britain joined the Nine Years’ War, using armies, allies, naval force, taxation and borrowing. The Treaty of Ryswick in 1697 ended that conflict without resolving the European balance of power.

The expected end of the Spanish Habsburg line produced the War of the Spanish Succession. Britain fought within a Grand Alliance to prevent excessive Bourbon power. Marlborough’s victories mattered, but so did allied cooperation, finance and supply. The Treaty of Utrecht recognised a Bourbon king in Spain while separating the French and Spanish crowns and giving Britain strategic and commercial gains.

George I and George II were also Electors of Hanover. Protecting Hanover could align with the European balance, but critics feared British interests were being subordinated to a German possession. Foreign policy therefore remained a domestic political issue.

Walpole preferred peace because war threatened taxation, trade and his political management. He used treaties and diplomacy to protect commerce and stability, but disputes with Spain over trade and maritime searches helped produce war in 1739. Britain entered the War of the Austrian Succession in 1744.

During the Seven Years’ War, William Pitt the Elder emphasised naval, colonial and global warfare while subsidising continental allies. British forces and partners won major successes in North America, India and at sea. Victory in 1763 reflected credit, naval power, allies, administration and global resources as well as Pitt’s leadership. It also produced new territories, debt and future governing problems.

Knowledge check

1. Why was William III committed to European war?
2. What did Utrecht settle and leave unresolved?
3. Why was Hanover controversial?
4. Why did Walpole prefer peace?
5. Which combined resources explain victory in 1763?

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The whole story in ten anchor dates

• 1678: Popish Plot allegations intensify fear and exclusion politics.
• 1681: the Oxford Parliament is dissolved and Charles II recovers authority.
• 1685: James II succeeds and defeats the Monmouth and Argyll rebellions.
• 1688: a male heir is born; William invades and James departs.
• 1689: William and Mary accept the crown and the revolutionary settlement begins.
• 1707: England and Scotland unite as Great Britain.
• 1714: George I begins the Hanoverian succession.
• 1720-1721: the South Sea collapse helps Walpole emerge as leading minister.
• 1745-1746: the final major Jacobite rising is defeated.
• 1763: the Seven Years’ War ends with major British gains.

Remember the extended boundary too: OCR’s politics and social and economic topics continue to 1780.

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What your OCR examination asks you to do

Y109 is a written paper lasting 1 hour 30 minutes and worth 50 marks, or 25 percent of the A Level.

• Section A: The Glorious Revolution, 1678-1689. Answer one compulsory 30-mark source question. Assess how far four contemporary sources, used in their historical context, support a stated view.
• Section B: The Making of Georgian Britain, 1689-c.1760. Answer one 20-mark essay from a choice of two. Revise the full OCR content boundaries: politics and social and economic developments reach 1780, and foreign policy reaches 1763.

For Section A, identify what each source claims about the exact issue. Test that claim against precise contextual knowledge. Use authorship, date, audience, language and purpose to explain what the source can reveal; do not dismiss it merely as biased. Compare all four sources and reach an overall judgement about the stated view.

For Section B, answer the wording and time span set. Organise your explanation around factors, developments or criteria rather than writing everything you know. Compare their importance, show change over time where relevant and reach a supported judgement.

Practice

Period-study essay plan

How far was the development of public credit the main reason for Britain’s success in war from 1689 to 1763?

Consider taxation, the Bank of England, parliamentary supply, alliances, naval power, army leadership, commercial resources and enemy weakness. Decide what public credit made possible and what it could not achieve by itself.

Source-enquiry routine

For a source about opposition to James II in 1688:

1. Identify its claim about religion, law, the standing army, the male heir or William.
2. Place it precisely before or after the invitation, invasion or royal collapse.
3. Test its claim with contextual knowledge.
4. Use provenance to explain its value and limits for this exact issue.
5. Compare it with the other three sources and judge how far the set supports the stated view.

Your next action

Retell the course using the ten anchor dates. Then explain one connection in each pair: exclusion and Charles II’s recovery; James’s toleration policy and Anglican opposition; invasion and constitutional settlement; war and parliamentary government; Hanoverian succession and Whig power; public credit and military capacity; urban growth and popular disorder.

If the names, statutes and wars begin to blur, return first to the seven-part course map. Secure the problem at the centre of each part, then attach two or three precise examples. The goal is not to memorise a catalogue. It is to explain how political authority, religion, finance, society and war reshaped one another.