In April 1688, James re-issued the Declaration of Indulgence, subsequently ordering Anglican clergymen to read it in their churches. When the
Archbishop of Canterbury William Sancroft and six other bishops (known as the
Seven Bishops) submitted a petition requesting the reconsideration of the King's religious policies, they were arrested and tried for
seditious libel. Public alarm increased when Queen Mary gave birth to a Catholic son and heir,
James Francis Edward on
10 June of that year. When James's only possible successors were his two Protestant daughters, moderate Anglicans could see his pro-Catholic policies as a temporary aberration; the Prince's birth opened the possibility of a permanent Catholic dynasty, and led such men to reconsider their patience. Threatened by a Catholic dynasty, several influential Protestants claimed the child was "suppositious". They had already entered into negotiations with William, Prince of Orange, when it became known the Queen was pregnant, and the birth of James's son reinforced their convictions.
On
30 June 1688, a group of Protestant nobles, later known as the
Immortal Seven, invited the Prince of Orange to come to
England with an army. By September, it had become clear that William sought to invade. Believing that his own army would be adequate, James refused the assistance of Louis XIV, fearing that the English would oppose French intervention. When William arrived on
5 November 1688, many Protestant officers, including Churchill, defected and joined William, as did James's own daughter, Princess
Anne. James lost his nerve, and declined to attack the invading army, despite numerical superiority. On
11 December, James attempted to flee to
France, first throwing the
Great Seal of the Realm into the
River Thames. He was captured in
Kent; he was released and afterwards placed under Dutch protective guard. Having no desire to make James a martyr, the Prince of Orange let him escape on
23 December. James was received by his cousin and ally, Louis XIV, who offered him a palace and a pension.
William convened a
Convention Parliament to decide how to handle James's flight. While the Parliament refused to depose him, they declared that James, having fled to France and dropped the Great Seal into the Thames, had effectively
abdicated the Throne, and that the Throne had thereby become vacant. To fill this vacancy James's daughter Mary was declared Queen; she was to rule jointly with her husband William, who would be King. The
Parliament of Scotland followed suit on
11 April 1689. The Parliament passed a
Bill of Rights that charged James II with abusing his power; amongst other things, it criticised the suspension of the Test Acts, the prosecution of the Seven Bishops for merely petitioning the Crown, the establishment of a standing army and the imposition of cruel punishments. The Bill also stipulated that no Catholic would henceforth be permitted to ascend to the English throne, nor could any English monarch marry a Catholic.