The name given by historians to the complex of events in English history in which Catholic King James II 'vacated' his throne and was succeeded by his Protestant daughter and son-in-law, Mary and William of Orange. It marked the beginning of parliamentary ascendency over monarchical rule in Britain.
James II messed up his monarchy, failing abjectly to understand the sentiments of his subjects. When he fled for France in 1788, a group of parliamentarians—five Whigs and two Tories—invited his Protestant daughter, Mary and her husband William of Orange to take over the throne of Britain as a way of excluding the throne from falling into Catholic hands.
A 'Convention'—half-way beteen an assembly of nobles and a parliament—was called to consider the legal status of the James's desertion and to decide on the conditions that were laid on the new king. Henceforth, the monarch of Britain would no longer rule by divine right but by the gracious provision of parliament. William was thus proclaimed William III, simply "king by right." That, we may suppose, gave substance to the adjective "glorious" used in the label to express this monumental change in British politics. Everything else about it seems hardly to suit the adjective.
Resources:
☰ Michael Dewar, "'Without the Prince': A Study of the Glorious Revolution in the Light of Present Politico-Religious-Polemics 1688-1988," Churchman 101.3 (1987): 293-309.
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