The bloodless coup was the Glorious Revolution of 1688. It was the overthrow of James ll of England, who became king after his brother’s death in 1685.
The Catholic king James ll wanted the Catholic Church to coexist with the Anglican Church but Parliament didn’t want; in fact, in 1673 Parliament passed the Test Act which forbade any Catholic to be a member of either the Commons or the Lords.
James hadn’t had a son yet, in consequence his daughter Mary, who was Protestant and married to William of Orange (also Protestant), would be the queen according to the line of succession, but in June of 1688 James ll had his son, James, and that destroyed all hopes to have a Protestant ruler.
Because of the born of James’s son, members of Parliament, who were against James, invited William of Orange to invade Britain. William entered London but the crown was offered to Mary, so William said he would leave Britain unless he became king. The members of Parliament had no choice and offered the crown to him and Mary. Parliament had decided that James ll had lost his right to the crown, the reason was that he tried to undermine “the constitution of the kingdom by breaking the original contract between King and People.” People was represented by Parliament and as a result Parliament should be the overall power in the state.
The Glorious Revolution was more a <em>coup d’etat</em> by the ruling class because parliament made William king, not by inheritance but by their choice. From this moment, Parliament was more powerful than the king.
