ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the strong position was achieved. But the next three years were to show not only that there were limits to what James II could do, but also how the king managed to throw away the strong position he had inherited in 1685. The chapter describes the reasons why that came about and why he lost his throne in 1688. England seemed set to follow the trend of other European states, in France, Sweden, Denmark and some of the states of central Europe, towards strong, centralized authoritarian government. James II might not have been aiming to become an absolutist monarch, but that is what many people thought he was doing. For opponents of the crown, the situation was made even more threatening by the dismissal of judges who resisted royal wishes. Important as the widespread opposition to James II in England was in contributing to his downfall, it was matched by the intervention of William of Orange.
