As William III, reigning alone since the death of his wife Mary II, approached the end of his reign, there was clearly a vital issue to address. Mary's sister Anne was the only Protestant heir to the throne recognised in law, and England was certainly not going to put up with another Catholic monarch, after James II. But to find a non-Catholic heir meant going back up the royal family tree quite a way, to James VI/I indeed, and making his granddaughter, Sophia, wife of the ruler (Elector) of Hanover, next in line after Anne to the throne.

The Act, however, did more than that. It had measures that further strengthened the authority of parliament. And by just declaring that parliament could decide the succession, it also underlined that it would take this kind of decision. Was the monarch appointed by God, as the Stuarts maintained? No, replied the parliamentarians. The law - and that means us - will decide the succession.

That was another step towards parliament being responsible for more and more decisions generally. In turn, that meant that political parties would be taking them. Which makes it all the more important that the growing power of business was becoming such a major influence in political life.

Business would, in particular, be a major factor in the war that started at this time, not three years since the end of the previous one.

Illustration: Sir Godfrey Kneller’s portrait of Anne as a young woman, when she was still simply heir to the throne, as Mary II’s sister, before she became Queen herself. National Portrait Gallery 1616

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License