Royal Declaration of Indulgence

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The Royal Declaration of Indulgence was Charles II of England's attempt to extend religious liberty to Protestant nonconformists in his realms, by suspending the execution of the penal laws that punished recusants from the Church of England. Charles issued the Declaration on March 15, 1672.

The English Parliament, however, suspected that their king favoured Roman Catholicism, and compelled him to withdraw this declaration in favour of religious freedom - putting in its place the first of the Test Acts (1673), which required anyone entering public service in England to take the Anglican sacrament.

When Charles II's openly Catholic successor James II attempted to issue a similar Declaration of Indulgence, an order for general religious tolerance, this was one of the grievances that led to the Glorious Revolution that ousted him from the throne.