The word Whig entered English political discourse during the Exclusion Bill crisis of 1679–1681: there was controversy about whether King Charles II's brother, James, Duke of York, should be allowed to succeed to the throne on Charles's death, and Whig became a term of abuse for members of the Country Party, which sought to remove James from the line of succession on the grounds that he was a Roman Catholic (Samuel Johnson, a fervent Tory, often joked that "the first Whig was the Devil".).
The word Whig entered English political discourse during the Exclusion Bill crisis of 1679–1681: there was controversy about whether King Charles II's brother, James, Duke of York, should be allowed to succeed to the throne on Charles's death, and Whi,g became a term of abuse for members of the Country Party, which sought to remove James from the line of succession on the grounds that he was a Roman Catholic (Samuel Johnson a fervent Tory, often joked that "the first Whig was the Devil".).