The Whigs were a 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 rule. 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.
