Anti-Popery and the London Mob, 1688
Robert Beddard chronicles the indiscriminate orgy of looting and destruction unleashed in the vacuum between James' flight and William's arrival in the capital.
The rights and wrongs of the dynastic Revolution of 1688, in which the Roman Catholic James II was deposed by the Protestants, William and Mary, were at the time a matter of dispute, and, legitimately, remain so still. Yet, while historians may well question the veracity of the Commons' assertion, on January 28th, 1689, that James II had 'endeavoured to subvert the constitution of this Kingdom by breaking the original contract between King and people', and had 'abdicated the government by withdrawing out of the Kingdom', they can scarcely deny the truth of the subsequent confessional resolution of January 29th, 1689, 'that it hath been found, by experience, to be inconsistent with the safety and welfare of this Protestant Kingdom to be governed by a Popish Prince'. 'The establishment of the Protestant Succession was one of the main achievements of the Revolution Settlement; it is also one of its most enduring. By the law of the land no Roman Catholic or person married to a Roman Catholic can succeed to the throne.
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