What was the importance of the Glorious Revolution of 1688?

Although the Glorious Revolution of 1688 is often couched
in terms of retaining a Protestant Monarchy for England, it is more important in that it
was a demonstration of the right of people to change their form of government if they
believed that government no longer protected their rights and it further established the
supremacy of Parliament..

By accepting the throne at the
invitation of Parliament, William and Mary, who replaced James II at the invitation of
Parliament, implicitly recognized the supremacy of Parliament. The revolution
established the principal that sovereignty and ultimate power in the state was divided
between the monarch and Parliament and that the King and/or Queen ruled only with the
consent of the governed.

John
Locke, personal secretary and physician to Anthony Ashley Cooper, the
Earl of Shaftsbury, provided the most profound defense of the Glorious Revolution in his
Second Treatise on Civil Government. His First Treatise had
discussed the inadvisability of absolute monarchy. In the second Treatise, Locke argued
that civil governments were created by the people to protect their life, liberty and
property. Every government was charged with protecting the "natural rights" of the
people, meaning those rights held by all men because they have the ability to reason.
Any government that failed to do so or usurped power to which it was not entitled was
tyrannous. In the event of a tyrannical ruler, the people have the right to rebel
against that government.

Locke’s ideas were borrowed from
ancient Greek and Roman ideals of government that state there are natural, or
"universal," rights equally held by all people in all societies. These ideas became a
powerful influence on Enlightenment thought and were especially popular in colonial
America. By implication, they were also influential in the French
Revolution.

The Glorious Revolution was NOT a democratic
revolution; it placed sovereignty in Parliament, and Parliament only represented the
upper classes. The vast majority of English people still had no say in government.
However, it did establish a constitutional monarchy and ushered in
a period of aristocratic government which lasted until 1914.