Historian Arthur R. Nicholls reveals why an obelisk was erected in Kendal in memory of ‘The Glorious Revolution’

HIGH up on Castle Howe, looking down on to Kendal, is the well-known memorial obelisk.

On a plaque attached to its side are the words “sacred to Liberty This obelisk was erected in the year 1788 in memory of the Revolution 1688.”

It refers to what was called “The Great Revolution”, but what was that event and why was it commemorated?

James II came to the throne in 1685 during a politically and religiously turbulent time. He was welcomed after the weak Charles II but ruled as a despot, claiming the Divine Right of Kings and to be above the law and Parliament.

When the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685 was crushed he acted cruelly against the rebels, turning many people against him, and there was much religious persecution.

He promised to maintain the church “as by law established”, which was taken to refer to the Church of England, but James was an avowed Roman Catholic who did not consider the Reformation to be valid. He angered the nation by trying to restore Catholicism as the national religion.

Politically, the Tory party (later Conservatives) supported the established religion and political order and their opponents, the Whigs (later Liberals) were the reforming party proclaiming the supremacy of Parliament.

On a corner stone of the monument was engraved, “that no foreign prince or potentate has or ought to have, any power, civil or ecclesiastical, within these realms”, a clear reference to James II.

Things came to a head in 1688 when a convention of both parties in London invited William of Orange in Holland to invade England and overthrow James.

This he did and James fled to France, where he had Catholic friends in high places. William and his wife Mary were crowned in 1689 and ruled in partnership. The Glorious Revolution had achieved its purpose.

A century later England was ruled by the hated George III, who angered the Whig aristocracy by claiming the royal prerogative. In 1788 they erected the monument bearing the words, “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”.

Ordinary Kendalians would have questioned “Equality”. Life was not fair to them. Starving weavers had been forced to riot, men were being press-ganged into the Navy, they could be imprisoned for begging and deported for poaching or stealing. Injustice permeated every aspect of daily life.

But William had brought religious freedom for Catholics and Protestant Dissenters like the Quakers, who were given the right to vote and to take public, but not municipal office.

As for James, he had not given up what he considered his right to the throne of England and attempted an invasion in 1690 but was defeated at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland, realising that he was no longer wanted in England.

Space in these columns mitigates against a fuller account of these important events in Kendal’s history, this being just a summary.