Invitation to William

The Number 10 Podcast

Today we’ll be hearing the text of the Invitation to William written by the Immortal Seven that we spoke about last week. On the 30th of June 1688, William of Orange received a letter in the Netherlands from seven Englishmen, asking him to intervene with the Catholicisation of England and restore a protestant reign. They were Earl of Shrewsbury, Earl of Devonshire, Earl of Danby, Lord Lumley, Bishop Henry Compton, Edward Russell and Henry Sydney, whom actually wrote the letter. The letter was brought to William in the Netherlands by Rear Admiral Arthur Herbert, who had disguised himself as a sailor as to not be noticed. As we discussed last week, he had also been wronged by James who dismissed him from the Navy for not voting to repeal the Test Act