The Glorious Revolution of November 1688 was a coup against King James II and VII of England, Scotland and Ireland which ended in James's overthrow and the takeover of William III and Mary II, declared joint monarchs by Parliament. In response to the displacement in the line of succession of Mary and James's attempts to prosecute Protestant bishops for failing to respect his wishes, the Whig Parliamentary opposition extended an invitation to William of Orange to intervene to protect Protestantism and take the throne. William and Mary landed in England with 14, 000 men, joined by 30, 000 members of the Royal Army, and marched on London to assume the throne. The Revolution itself was quick and bloodless, but led to multiple revolts by James's supporters and the rise of Jacobitism. However, the Revolution also resolved a century of political debate by establishing the sovereignty of Parliament over the crown and led to the drafting of the Bill of Rights 1689 setting out basic civil liberties. It also resulted in the Toleration Act 1688 allowing religious freedom to Protestant nonconformists.
However, the Glorious Revolution did have a dark side. The Act of Settlement, passed in 1701, ensured that no Catholics could ever take the throne again, enshrining the supremacy of the Anglican Church of England, and any monarchs who converted to Catholicism would be automatically deposed. Monarchs could not marry Catholics until 2013, when part of the Act was changed. Efforts to repeal the Act have so far been unsuccessful, despite the act being considered discrimination by many Catholics to this day.