How It all Began
November the fifth was already a great Protestant Anniversary, when bonfires celebrated the 'deliverance of King and Parliament from Gunpowder, Treason and Plot' when in the year of 1688 an armada of ships from Holland sailed into Torbay, under the colours of Nassau, which had floated from his masthead, linking his ancestral, "Je Maintiendrai" with "pro Religione et libertate". This is usually freely rendered as "the Protestant Religion and the Liberties of England I will maintain". On the very morrow of the Glorious Revolution Protestantism was seen to be the strong hinge of liberty on which the three Kingdoms turned. This landing of the Prince of Orange at Brixham was, therefore, to herald the beginnings of a decisive campaign to secure these islands for Protestantism and liberty.

On the death of "Uncle Charles" early 1685, "Uncle James" automatically succeeded to the throne, brining the Prince of Orange's wife, Mary, next in succession. England and Scotland were ripe for Revolution, but neither Ireland nor their future Deliverer were ready. William realised that the time had not arrived, and refused to become involved in the too premature rebellions of the Duke of Argyll, head of the Whig Clan Campbell in Scotland,or of the Duke of Monmouth, favourite illegitimte son of Charles II and known in the counties of Somerset and Dorset as "The Protestant Hero". Both rebellions were ruthlessly put down, their leaders dying of the axe in the summer of 1685. The ill-fame of Judge Jeffreys and of Colonel Percy Kirke and his dragons after cruelly stamping out the Western Rebellion, is still remembered in England's West County. The staunch protestantism of the Scottish Lowlands was further strengthened by unhappy memories of the ruthlessness of King James's redcoats in the "Killing Times" among the moss hags and the heather braes.

Three years later, however, it was not the kinsmen of the simple English and the Scottish Countrymen who fell at Sedgemoor, or Perished in the Grassmarket of Edinburgh, but the Whig Lords of England who saw that the "tyranny and arbitary power" of James II of England and Ireland, and VII of Scotland, must be resisted. During the sumer of 1688, that "most immemorial year", representing a deputation of 'seven signatories' - the Earls of Devonshire, Danby and Shrewsbury, Lord Lumely, Edward Russell, Henry Sidney and Dr. Henry Compton the Bishop of London; Admiral Arthur Herbert, offered the Crown to the Prince of Orange and his wife at the Hague.

During that same summer, when seven Bishops were imprisoned in the Tower of London for their resolute resistance to the King's "Knavish tricks" in Church and State, a young son was born to James Italian wife, though believed by many to have been smuggled into her bed in a warming pan! This was the "last straw" which convinced Whigs and Tories, Low Churchman and High, that it would be disastrous for a Papist, James II, to be succeeded by another Papist, "Jams III". The child was never recognised in Britain, except among the Jacobites, especially in Scotland, where he led an unsuccessful revolution in 1715, living to become the father of "Bonnie Prince Charlie", leader of that forlorn hope of the Stuarts, Known as "the 45".

At the end of October, the long awaited "Protestant East Wind" began to blow. Setting forth from Holland with an armada of ships, with more peaceful intent than that "Invincible" Armada which has sailed from "Most Catholic" Spain just a hundred years before, William landed at Brixam on Torbay, in Devonshire,not so very far from where the luckless Monmouth had made landfall three years earlier. He had celebrated his thirty-eighth birthday on board ship, but was advised not to drop anchor until the following day. The army soon marched off to Exeter, which it entered on the 9th, with full pomp and ceremony. The common people were most welcoming, at least one old woman broke through the crowd at Exeter to kiss the Orange Prince's hand, and to declare that she had "thought long2 to see her Deliverance come. The nobility and gentry were a little slower to come over than promised in the 'invitation'. He was there at their invitation,he said, he had been obliged by his duty to God and his love for mankind to come to protect their religion, liberty and property. Then on the 17th, there arrived Edward Seymour, perhaps the richest and most influential man in the west; two days later his great local rival, the Earl of Bath, assured William of his support. After that William's following grew rapidly: if nobody had wanted to be first,nobody wanted to be last either. By the time James left London to join his army near Salisbury,he was already a broken man. On the 21st William began to march eastwards from Exeter, but his army was over sixty miles away when, on the 23rd, James decided to withdraw without giving battle. Three of his leading colonels (Churchill, Kirk and Grafton) then defected to William. Jame's army was still much larger than William's but his nerve had gone and he believed that he could trust nobody.

Willam's advance became a regal progress. James had now already packed his wife and son off to France and followed them early on 11 December. James II and VII last of the Stuart Kings, fled from London,bitterly remarking that his own children, Protestants to the marrow and married to Protestants, had deserted him. Dropping the Great Seal of England into the Thames, the only Roman Catholic King to wear the Crown of the Three Kingdoms since the Protestant Reformation stole away into the darkness of the night. After a false start, and a retreat to Rochester, James finally departed. Soon he would be an old man of the Sun King at Versailles, a penniless exile at (St. Germain-en-laye). He would never see England or Scotland again, and Ireland only once to retreat in humiliation from Derry and the Boyne. A week later the Dutch Blue Guards kept watch over their beloved Captain General at the Palace of Whitehall.

The military campaign, the march from Brixham to London, had indeed been a bloodless march. On the 6th February 1689 the Lords bowed to the inevitable and agreed that James had abdicated. A week later William and Mary were formally offered the crown.

Eventually the Bill of Rights (1689) and the Act of Settlement (1701) secured and confirmed the Revolution Settlement, and are still in force today (although certain people want this changed).
The position of the loyal Orangemen is very largely dependent upon them. Among other things, since James had abdicated the throne rather than been driven from it,his son-in-law and daughter were declared to be King and Queen. In future, both King, and the Queen, and their heir to the throne (i.e. The Princes Anne of Denmark), were to be Protestants. Before William's death in 1702, the Act of Settlement ensured that Mary was already dead, and as none of Anne's seventeen children lived long, the Crown should pass to the German House of Hanover, through the Electress Sophia and her heirs "so long as they should be Protestants". This lady was a cousin of Charles and James,in 1714,her son came over as George I, and the Protestant Succession has remained safely in the direct descendants. The protestant succession was secured by the Glorious Revolution in England and the Williamite Wars in Ireland, and maintained by the Houses of Hanover and Saxe Coburg, and now of Windsor.
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!

John Knox - A Prayer for Scotland
John Knox was born, according to the generally recieved opinion, in East Lothian in 1505, educated at the Grammer School of Haddington, and sent in 1521 to the University of Glasgow. A descendant of respectable property owning family he learned to speak fluent Latin and later taught himself Greek and Hebrew. Although Knox was brought up in the roman catholic faith and ordained as a priest in 1529, he gradually abandoned his study and threw off the many superstitions of the roman catholic church. His natural instinct to investigate the truth was shown in his writings, and along with other influences worked to bring Knox to stating his belief in Reformed Doctrines.

Later in 1542 the Scottish Parliament of the day passed an act declaring it lawful for people to read Scripture in their own language rather than in Latin. A noble and important step, as soon the Bible was to become increasingly vocal in his support of the Protestant Faith. George Wishart was a great and important influence in Knox's life. Wishart had returned from travels in Germany with the teachings of Martin Luther ready to pass to his fellow country men. After Knox had met Wishart he never wavered in his desire to establish in Scotland "the only true conception of the prmitive Church, as based on the teaching of Christ and the Apostles."

During these troublesome times of Scotland, when Rome was using all her power to suppress the Reformation, the cause of Protestant Christianity was in great danger. John Knox was seen to leave his study and proceed to the rear of his home. He was followed by a friend; when through the silent darkness Knox was heard as if in prayer. After a few moments of silence his voice became clear, and the earnest petition went up from his struggling soul to heaven, - "O Lord, give me Scotland,or I die!" Then a pause of silent calmness, then again the appeal broke forth, - "O Lord give me Scotland, or I die!" Once again all was silent, when, with a yet intense poignancy, the thrice repeated intercession struggled forth, - "O Lord give me Scotland, or I die!" God gave him Scotland despite of Mary and her Popish missionaries. Knox's prayer was heard and largely answered.

Knox's influence has been the greatest of any man in Scotland. He was shaped by two great principles - a deep love and devtion for his country and an all-consuming desire to advance the glory of God.

John Knox was laid to rest int the chursh yard of saint Giles's on the 26th November, 1572. An imposing monument to his memory was erected in Glasgow in 1825. Inscriptions on for sides of the column, which is topped by a large statue of Knox, tell of his life and service.

The inscription on the north side reads,

To testify gratitude for inestimable services in the cause of true religion, education and civil liberty; to awaken admiration of that integrity, disinterestedness, and courage, which stood unshaken in the midst of trials, and in the maintenance of the highest objects; and finally, to cherish unceasing reverence for the principals and blessings of that great Reformation, by the influence of which our country, through the midst of difficulties, has risen to honour, prosperity, and happiness.
This Monument is ercted by voluntary contributions, to the memory of John Knox, the chief instrument, under God, of the Reformation of Scotland, on the 22nd day of September, he died, rejoicing in the faith of the gospel, at Edinburgh, on the 24th of November 1572, in the sixty-seventh year of his age.