This advance step taken by the city is fairly representative of the general development which had fairly begun at that period -- a development to which Westchester County contributed its share. The reign of James, the last of the Stuart monarchs, was brief. Three years after he ascended the throne the people of England, weary of the tyranny, corruption, and religious intolerance of his dynasty, rose against him, and received with open arms the Protestant William, Prince of Orange, who, as the husband of Mary, one of the daughters of James, was eligible to rule over them. It was a bloodless revolution. In February, 1689, William and Mary were proclaimed king and queen. James, after making a stand in Ireland, where he fought the disastrous battle of the Boyne, fled to Catholic France. The news of the landing of William stirred the American colonies profoundly. Aside from their natural preference for a Protestant king, they apprehended that the dethroned James would enlist in his cause the power of France, and that they would soon have to deal with a French invasion. James's officials were accordingly treated without ceremony. In Boston Governor Andros was, in April, 1689, deposed and cast into prison. In New York Lieutenant-Governor Nicholson, having by unguarded behavior and unbecoming language provoked popular resentment and distrust, found himself confronted by the determined hostility of the captains of the training bands, who, in June, compelled him to vacate his office and return to England. The province was thus left without a head, and the people were quite unwilling to intrust affairs to the council, composed as it was of the old royal favorites. The training band captains, assuming temporary authority in the name of the people, called a convention of delegates from all the counties, which assembled on June 26, and appointed a committee of safety.