Over recent decades, there has been much debate about the ‘revolutionary’ nature of 1688-9. Historians from every part of the discipline have argued whether William Ill's invasion was a turning point for the constitution; whether it transformed relations between British protestants or the three Stuart kingdoms; or whether it accelerated capitalist enterprise, social mobility or the emergence of the public sphere. In one area, however, the radical nature of 1688-9 seems clear. It was at this point that England ceased her occasional, incoherent and usually disastrous, interventions on the European continent, and instead came to lead a sustained military effort against a constant enemy. A country which had stayed out of most the great continental conflicts of the seventeenth century, and had fought only short and opportunistic wars against a variety of foes, began a hundred year struggle with France. This great contest saw active fighting in 1689-97, 1702-13, 1740-8, 1756-63, 1778-83, 1793-1802 and 1805-15 - and almost constant tension between these dates.

This transformation went far deeper than foreign policy. The wars fought by England (and after 1707 by Great Britain) remodelled the country as an efficient fiscal-military state, and as a world power. Starting in the 1690s, the challenge of organizing and paying for prolonged conflict wrought considerable administrative, political and socio-economic change. Unprecedented levels of taxation were approved. Intrusive mechanisms such as the excise department, and land tax assessment, were developed to collect it.