1 The political turbulence of seventeenth-century Britain—the execution of Charles I, Cromwell’s protectorate,

1 The political turbulence of seventeenth-century Britain—the execution of Charles I, Cromwell's protectorate, the return of the Stuarts under the protection of General Monck—was a constant point of reference for the revolutionary and postrevolutionary generations. The year 1688 was the time of the "Glorious Revolution," which drove James II into exile and brought to the throne the more conciliatory (and Protestant) William of Orange and Mary Stuart, James's daughter.