Whiggism was a British variant of classical liberalism (also called "moderate or antiquated liberalism" by the Oxford English Dictionary) that developed in the late 17th century, in the aftermath of the English Civil War. Whiggism was championed by its namesake, the Whigs, a liberal faction of British politics that supported the supremacy of the British Parliament over the king, supported tolerance of Protestant dissenters, and opposed Catholics holding the throne (especially James II of England and his descendants). From the Glorious Revolution of 1688 until the Whig Party's fracturing in 1760, Whiggism was the dominant ideology in Britain, but the Whigs split into various factions with different ideologies during the 1760s. Whiggism became less a political ideology and more a grouping of several liberal ideologies as the Whigs adopted broad liberal views, and Whiggism was replaced by classical liberalism as the Whig Party's main ideology.
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