Monarchs of the House of Stuart
Religion, as much as politics, divided the nation in the Civil War of the 1640s and remained contentious during the Commonwealth(republic), between the excecution of Charles I in 1649 and the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. But there was always a widespread fear of the revival of Catholicism.
Thus when the Catholic James II came to the throne in 1685, he was accepted only because his heir, his daughter Mary, was a Protestant and married to her Protestant cousin, William, Prince of Orange. When, in 1688, James's queen gave birth to a son, the prospect of a dynasty of Catholic kings roused the nation. James fled the country some seven weeks after his son-in-law entered it, and the army that had flocked to join William was not needed. In 1689 William and Mary became joint monarchs.
In 1701 an Act of Succession was passed. To ensure that only a Protestant might inherit the crown, it barred from the royal succession any member of the Royal Family who married a Catholic (a rule still in force today). Thus in 1714 Queen Anne was succeeded by George of Hanover, the nearest Protestant among her cousins.
In 1715 and 1745 Stuart pretenders made a bid for the throne; both failed. The Stuart dynasty in the male line became extinct in 1807.
