Why was james II dismissed from parliament in 1685?
The most important source of conflict was James’s Catholic faith. James sought to pass laws that would make it legal for Catholics to hold public office in England and access other civil rights, but the English Protestant establishment strongly rejected these because they feared James was about to impose Catholicism by force. When Parliament and the population began to turn against him, the Protestant William of Orange, third in line to the English throne and also married to James’s Protestant daughter Mary, used the opportunity to invade England. When it became clear that the army would not support him, James fled to Ireland, leaving the Parliament to declare that James had abdicated and William and Mary were joint monarchs of England.
