Change of regime in England that saved most of the achievements of the Civil War, 1688.
The Civil War had brought an end to the absolute monarchy in England by deposing the Stuart dynasty. Its outcome was threatened when James II became king in 1685. James, whose reign was subsidized by king Louis XIV of France, tried to strengthen the position of the feudal aristocracy and counter the republican forces by enforcing catholicism.
The English public reacted with a wait-and-see attitude. But when a son was born to the king and it became clear that the catholic antirepublican reign of James II would have a successor, the leaders of the parliamentary parties invited Prince William of Orange to depose James II and become king of England.
Prince William and his army landed in England in 1688. James II fled to France and William became the new king William III. In the following year he accepted the Bill of Rights, which established a constitutional monarchy and placed power into the hands of parliament.
The establishment of England's constitutional monarchy and modern capitalist political structure through William III is often called the "Glorious Revolution." This is a misnomer, since the people of England had no part in the process. The revolutionary overthrow of feudalism in England had occurred fourty years earlier in the Civil War of 1642 - 1651.