The 1690 English general election occurred after the dissolution of the Convention Parliament summoned in the aftermath of the
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution; gd, Rèabhlaid Ghlòrmhor; cy, Chwyldro Gogoneddus , also known as the ''Glorieuze Overtocht'' or ''Glorious Crossing'' in the Netherlands, is the sequence of events leading to the deposition of King James II and ...
, and saw the partisan feuds in that parliament continue in the constituencies. The
Tories
A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. The ...
made significant gains against their opponents, particularly in the contested counties and boroughs, as the electorate saw the
Whigs increasingly as a source of instability and a threat to the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...
.
Following the election,
William
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
continued his policy of forming a coalition government around non-partisan figures. The nominal leader of the new government was the Marquess of Carnarvon, though the Tories were able to use their greater numbers in the House of Commons to increase their share of government positions. Contests occurred in 103 constituencies, 38% of the total.
Party strengths are as estimated by the History of Parliament, though division lists for this parliament are not available and so a precise count may not be possible.
[Cook & Stevenson, p. 24]
Summary of the constituencies
See
1796 British general election
The 1796 British general election returned members to serve in the 18th and last House of Commons of the Parliament of Great Britain. They were summoned before the Union of Great Britain and Ireland on 1 January 1801. The members in office in G ...
for details. The constituencies used in England and Wales were the same throughout the period. In 1707 alone the 45 Scottish members were not elected from the constituencies, but were returned by co-option of a part of the membership of the last Parliament of Scotland elected before the Union.
See also
*
2nd Parliament of William and Mary
*
List of parliaments of England
This is a list of parliaments of England from the reign of King Henry III, when the '' Curia Regis'' developed into a body known as Parliament, until the creation of the Parliament of Great Britain in 1707.
For later parliaments, see the Lis ...
Notes
References
*
*
* Horwitz, Henry. “The General Election of 1690.” ''Journal of British Studies'', vol. 11, no. 1, 1971, pp. 77–91
online
External links
History of Parliament: Members 1690–1715History of Parliament: Constituencies 1690–1715{{English elections
17th-century elections in Europe
1690 in politics
1690
General election
A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...