The Glorious Revolution (1688-1701) and the Return of Whig History

The Glorious Revolution has gone through several interpretative patterns since Lord Macaulay's famous account in the nineteenth century. Once thought to be an institutionally restorative and socially conservative revolution which nonetheless promoted the most progressive aspects of the "ancient constitution" against a tyrannical king, it was later revised to become a reactionary Anglican rebellion against a modernizing monarch. Recent post-revisionist trends challenge both visions and offer the image of a more popular, transformative but also violent turning-point in the history of the British society and State. It remains to be seen whether this will lead to a paradigm shift and whether the "radical" interpretation of the Glorious Revolution does not in fact rely heavily on the original Whig model.