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Second Declaration of Indulgence

When: 1687
Where: Scotland
Episodes: 1

In 1687, King James II issued the Declaration of Indulgence, also known as the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience. This pair of proclamations suspended penal laws against Roman Catholics and Protestant Dissenters in Scotland and England, utilizing the royal dispensing power to negate existing statutes.

Episodes

12 February 1687 · ScotlandScottish Declaration Issued
The first part of the Declaration of Indulgence was issued for Scotland on 12 February 1687.

Background and detail

Issuance of the Declaration. The Declaration was issued as a pair of proclamations in 1687. The first was issued for Scotland on 12 February 1687. The second was issued for England on 4 April 1687. Both documents used the king's dispensing power to negate the effect of laws punishing Roman Catholics and Protestant Dissenters, effectively suspending the penal laws.

People involved

James II · King of England and Ireland, issuer of the Declaration

Sources

Declaration of Indulgence (1687) Wikipedia, revision of 2026-05-14
James II of England Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-24

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.