When Burnet had taken up residence in Holland in 1686, he had privately asked Mary ‘what she intended the Prince should be’ if she became Queen. Mary had assumed that ‘whatever accrued to her would likewise accrue to [William] in right of marriage’ and was horrified to learn this did not apply to the crown. Not wanting to place her husband in ‘a very ridiculous posture for a man’, Mary was relieved when Burnet proposed she should make William King for life, so he could reign in conjunction with her. Burnet declared airily that ‘nobody could suffer by this but she and her sister’, and no account need be taken of Anne, as it was ‘but too probable’ that she would die before Mary. This was curious, since at that point Anne’s health was not causing general concern, but Mary showed no qualms about overriding her sister’s rights, presuming Anne would be as anxious to defer to William as she herself. She informed William she would follow Burnet’s advice as ‘she did not think that the husband was ever to be obedient to the wife’.144
Mary stood by this undertaking. When one leading politician contacted her in Holland after her father’s flight to say that ‘if she desired it … he should be able to carry it for settling her alone on the throne’ she ‘made him a very sharp answer’. In England, however, William was dismayed to discover that he could not necessarily count on Anne being as self-effacing as her sister. When Lord Halifax suggested to William in late December that Lord Churchill ‘might perhaps prevail with the Princess of Denmark to give her consent’ to a settlement that technically infringed her rights, the Prince answered with ‘sharpness’, indicating that he expected nothing less than ‘compliance’ from Anne on such points.145
Despite his strong feelings, William did not raise the matter with the Princess herself. As a result she felt that he was wilfully ignoring her, and this did not make her more amenable. Determined not to be sidelined, she asked Clarendon to keep her informed. In the days preceding the opening of the Convention Parliament there was much manoeuvring, with ‘frequent consults and cabals’ being held by those who were to sit there. Several strands of opinion were now discernible. Some people favoured a regency, while others were for making Mary sole Queen, on the grounds that James had deposed himself. A few traditionalists (probably including Clarendon) clung to the hope that it would be possible to bring James back to England with certain conditions. They may have counted on Anne’s support, but the Princess told Clarendon on 17 January ‘that she was very sorry the King had brought things to the pass they were at; but she was afraid it would not be safe for him ever to return again’. When her uncle demanded ‘if she thought her father could justly be deposed?’ she took refuge in the mulish obtuseness her uncle found so maddening, replying that ‘those were too great points for her to meddle with’.146
Anne was still reluctant to accept that her own claim to the throne should be modified and it is not easy to establish exactly when she realised that she would have to give in about this. Sarah later took credit for Anne’s decision to yield, but she admitted that at first she ‘took a great deal of pains’ to encourage Anne’s pretensions. John Churchill clearly realised earlier than his wife that these were unsustainable.
On 17 January Anne had a discussion with her uncle Clarendon. He told her that proposals were afoot to make William and Mary joint sovereigns, and that William would remain on the throne if Mary died childless, prejudicing Anne’s hereditary right. When he warned his niece that she was reported to have endorsed this arrangement, the Princess said hotly ‘Nobody had ever spoken to her of such a thing … She would never consent to anything that should be to the prejudice of herself or her children’. Clarendon urged her to make her attitude known, and she said that she would think about it.147
Ten days later Anne apparently remained obdurate. Clarendon had informed her that Lord Churchill was busy assuring influential men that she would agree to these arrangements, but the Princess said that she had challenged Churchill about this and he denied it. George was equally defiant, telling Clarendon that he had assured several peers ‘that neither he nor his wife would consent to alter the succession’.148 Probably Churchill had already accepted the necessity for Anne to be more flexible, but since he not only had to convince his wife, but also to avoid alienating the Princess, he had to move cautiously.
The Convention Parliament assembled on 22 January 1689 and six days later began addressing constitutional issues. On 28 January the Commons passed a resolution that by leaving the kingdom James ‘had abdicated the government, and the throne is thereby vacant’. The House of Lords would have difficulty accepting this, but the following day a majority of peers voted for another Commons resolution ‘that it was found by experience inconsistent for a Protestant kingdom to be governed by a popish prince’. This was immensely significant, for it not only disabled James from ruling but meant that if his son was brought up as a Catholic, he could never be king. The promised ‘examination of the little gent’s title’ became unnecessary, for the child was now barred from the throne by ‘a legal incapacity as well as a natural’.149 In December 1689 this provision would be enshrined in statute in an even more restrictive form when it was stated in the Bill of Rights that no one could succeed to the throne who was, or ever had been Catholic, or who was married to one.
In other respects the Lords shied away from radicalism. They only rejected, by the narrow margin of three votes, a proposal that James should retain the title of King but power should be exercised by a regency. Large numbers of peers proved reluctant to pass the Commons’ resolution of 28 January, being particularly worried by the concept that the throne was currently vacant. They passed various amendments to the resolution, but the Commons rejected these with ‘the greatest passion and violence’. It began to seem that matters could not be resolved peaceably, and a total breakdown of order appeared imminent when the London ‘rabble’ laid virtual siege to Parliament, demanding ‘in a tumultuous manner’ that William and Mary be named sovereigns. Just when things were at their most tense William made a move of his own, indicating to a group of influential politicians that he had no intention of becoming his wife’s ‘gentleman usher’. He warned them that ‘he would hold no power dependent upon the will of a woman’ and that, if left unsatisfied, he ‘would go back to Holland and meddle no more in their affairs’.150
As late as 5 February Anne and George were still insisting ‘it was an abominable lie’ that they had agreed that William could be King for life. Meanwhile, Churchill persuaded his wife that ‘the settlement would be carried in Parliament whether the Princess consented to it or not’, and that Anne’s only option was to surrender gracefully.151 Sarah then used her influence with the Princess, who now accepted that those who had been encouraging her resistance did not have her interests at heart. To Clarendon’s fury, she disavowed her earlier dealings with him, maintaining that she had never encouraged him to act as her champion.
On 6 February another conference between the two Houses of Parliament was interrupted when Lord Churchill and Lord Dorset arrived, bearing a message from Anne. In this she requested that ‘her concern or interest might not hinder the mutual concurrence, for that she was willing to submit to whatever they should conclude for the good of the kingdom and security of the Protestant religion’. This ‘hastened the conclusion’ of a settlement. That afternoon, after an agitated debate, the House of Lords agreed that William and Mary should be declared King and Queen. They also dropped their attempts to amend the Commons’ resolution of 28 January, though only because some previously recalcitrant peers absented themselves ‘for fear of a civil war’.152
Two days later, arrangements were finalised: Anne would become Queen after William and Mary if both died childless. It seems that William had hoped that in the event of Mary predeceasing him he could ‘set [the] Princess aside’ as his successor in favour of any children he produced by a second wife, but he failed to secure this. Instead it was laid down that if William remarried and had children when Mary was dead, his offspring would inherit the throne after Anne and her children. It was also specified that although William and Mary were joint sovereigns, William was to have ‘sole and full exercise of the regal power’.153
On 12 February 1689 Anne and George were at Greenwich as Mary disembarked after travelling over from Holland. It was a joyous reunion, with