1686. The judges servilely decided that the king could dispense with penal laws in particular cases--a decision which enabled him to confer offices in church and state on Catholics, contrary to the Act of Uniformity and the Test Act. Establishment of a court similar to the High Commission Court. 1687. Rochester, the king's brother-in-law, deprived of the lord-treasurership because he would not become a Catholic. Declaration of Indulgence published, allowing Catholics and Protestant Dissenters to perform their religious services openly. The universities resisted the king's attempts to infringe their rights. 1688. He re-issued the Declaration of Indulgence, and ordered the clergy to read it in the churches. Seven of the bishops presented a petition to him, praying that he would not insist on their distributing and reading the Declaration, and were on that account prosecuted for libel, but acquitted, to the great joy of the nation. Birth of the Old Pretender. William, prince of Orange, being invited to invade England, landed at Torbay; and James, distrusting his army, tried to escape from the country, but failed. Close of his reign (Dec. 11). =THE REVOLUTION.= * * * * * 1688. William arrived in London, and James escaped to France. The peers, and a second chamber, consisting of members who had sat in Charles II.'s parliaments, together with the aldermen of London, and a deputation from the Common Council, requested William to call a Convention, and to take on himself the executive administration in the interim. 1689. The Convention declared the throne vacant, and offered the crown to William and Mary, the former of whom was to exercise the executive power; they also drew up a Declaration of Rights, which was subsequently embodied in the Bill of Rights. William and Mary accepted the crown (Feb. 13). THE REVOLUTION COMPLETED. WILLIAM AND MARY. =D.= William was the son of William, prince of Orange, and of Mary, daughter of Charles I. =B.= at the Hague, 1650. =M.= Mary, daughter of James II. (b. 1662). =Dd.= at Kensington, Mar. 8, 1702. Mary. =Dd.= at Kensington, Dec. 28, 1694. =R.= together 5 years (1689 to 1694). William reigned alone 8-1/4 years (1694 to 1702). 1689. The Convention turned into a parliament. _First Mutiny Act._ =Civil War in Ireland=, where James landed to recover his crown. =War declared against France.= _Toleration Act_ passed. Battle of KILLIECRANKIE, in Perthshire, in which William's troops were defeated, but Dundee, the Jacobite general, was slain (July 27). Siege of Londonderry raised by General Kirke (July 30). _BILL OF RIGHTS_ passed.