The Loyal Parliament was the only Parliament of England of King James II, in theory continuing from May 1685 to July 1687, but in practice sitting during 1685 only. It gained its name because at the outset most of its members were loyal to the new king. The Whigs, who had previously resisted James's inheriting the throne, were outnumbered both in the Commons and in the Lords. In May 1685 the Parliament treated James generously in financial matters, but by November of the same year it had developed concerns about the direction he was taking, so he prevented it from meeting again. No other parliament was held by James before he fled the country on 18 December 1688 as a result of the Glorious Revolution. Background James's greatest political problem was his known Roman Catholicism, which left him alienated from both political parties in England, but most of all from the Whigs. Between 1679 and 1681 the Whigs had failed in their attempts to pass the Exclusion Bill to exclude James from the throne, but his brother Charles II had had great trouble in defeating this campaign. James's supporters were the High Anglican Tories. The origins of the Tories as a political faction were in the Abhorrers, those who had opposed the Exclusion Bill. Elections The 1685 elections to the House of Commons, especially in the boroughs, were heavily influenced by the king. Following the Exclusion crisis, ninety-nine boroughs had received new charters, the aim being to eliminate the influence of the Whigs. Partly as a result of this, there were only fifty-seven Whigs in the new House of Commons, in which only four years before they had held a majority. Yet the Whigs also lost seats in county constituencies that weren't liable to charter manipulation, dropping from around sixty county seats in 1681 to only eight. In the new parliament, the Tories now had their own majority in both houses, Commons and Lords. Events The king had summoned parliament for 19 May, when it first met, and on 22 May John Trevor, a Tory and a supporter of James, was confirmed as Speaker of the Commons. The king had appointed Lord Jeffreys as Lord Chancellor. The first session of the parliament lasted from 19 May until 2 July 1685. From 1414 until 1625, it had been customary at the beginning of each new monarch's reign for parliament to grant