Following the English Civil War there was a coup (known to some as The Glorious Revolution partly because of its surprisingly easy success). The Stuart dynasty was expelled for fear of presumed contact with Catholic powers (the Wars of Religion were dying down but their aftertaste remained). James Stuart was tentatively replaced by his daughter Mary and then his other daughter Anne, but each in turn died without issue. Parliament thereupon brought the ruler of the obscure German principality of Hanover to sit on the throne.