The
Whigs were a
political faction and then a
political party in the parliaments of
England,
Scotland,
Great Britain and the
United Kingdom. Between the 1680s and 1850s, they contested power with their rivals, the
Tories. The Whigs' origin lay in
constitutional monarchism and opposition to
absolute monarchy. The Whigs played a central role in the
Glorious Revolution of 1688, and were the standing enemies of the
Stuart kings and pretenders, who were Roman Catholic. The Whigs took full control of the government in 1715, and remained totally dominant until
King George III, coming to the throne in 1760, allowed Tories back in. The "Whig Supremacy" (1715–1760) was enabled by the Hanoverian succession of
George I in 1714 and the failed
Jacobite rising of 1715 by Tory rebels. The Whigs thoroughly purged the Tories from all major positions in government, the army, the Church of England, the legal profession and local officials. The major leader of the Whigs in this period was
Robert Walpole, who maintained control of the government in the period 1721–1742; his protégé was
Henry Pelham (1743–1754).