William Sancroft was the 79th Archbishop of Canterbury, and was one of the Seven Bishops imprisoned in 1688 for seditious libel against King James II, over his opposition to the king's Declaration of Indulgence. Deprived of his office in 1690 for refusing to swear allegiance to William and Mary, he later enabled and supported the consecration of new nonjuring bishops leading to the nonjuring schism.
Portrait by Bernard Lens II
The chapel of Emmanuel College, Cambridge; engraving by David Loggan (1690)
The Seven Bishops were members of the Church of England tried and acquitted for seditious libel in the Court of Kings Bench in June 1688. The very unpopular prosecution of the bishops is viewed as a significant event contributing to the November 1688 Glorious Revolution and deposition of James II.
The Seven Bishops
James II; attempts to impose the Declaration of Indulgence destroyed his support base
Henry Compton, Bishop of London; already suspended by James, he was not one of the Seven but played a significant role in the petition
Lord Jeffreys, the Lord Chancellor, who urged James not to prosecute