What were the differences between the rules of Charles II, James II, and William and Mary

• Charles II was the first king after the restoration of the English Monarchy. After Cromwell died England was sick of his Military Dictatorship, so they decided to have a king again. Charles II had to reevaluate what he would do with religious dissenters. 

• Test Act of 1673 was passed. It restricted the rights of all non-Anglicans but wasn't strictly enforced. Charles II was actually receiving money from France in order to get him to stop persecuting Catholics and to eventually make France Catholic. 
• Anti-Catholic beliefs spread all around France, which set James II (a Catholic) up for failure. 
• James II took control and granted religious freedom to everyone. He was hated by everyone. He eventually fled to France and William and Mary were crowned. 
• William and Mary had significantly less power than their predecessors. 
• Bill of Rights was passed and it took away power from the Monarchs and gave it to Parliament 
• John Locke argued in Two Treatises of Government that a government's job is to protect the rights of its people. If a government does not do that, then it becomes a tyranny and the people have a right to rebel.
• This new form of thought was different than Hobbes' Leviathan that argued people must sign their will over to a king and in doing so hand over their right to rebel in order to serve a common goal. 
• This new form of political thought ultimately ended the idea of divine right monarchies. The new king and queen did not have absolute power and were not seen as divine beings. 

Was the Glorious Revolution a result of the failures of Charles II and James II?

• Charles II became king when absolutism was a central political idea, but his country was divided religiously. Instead of forming a military dictatorship like Cromwell, he simply made it hard to be any other religion through the Test Act. In his attempt to return to the former glory of the monarchy, he ended up destroying it through poor decisions. He did not enforce the Test Act at all and anti-Catholic movements swept through England just in time for his Catholic brother, James II, to take over and destroy the divine monarchy altogether.