Whigs
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The Whigs were a major British political party that existed from 1678 to 1859 and generally advocated for liberal policies and reforms. They played a central role in shaping British politics during this period, eventually evolving into the modern Liberal Party.
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The Whigs were a political party in the Parliaments of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom. Between the 1680s and the 1850s, the Whigs contested power with their rivals, the Tories. The Whigs became the Liberal Party when the faction merged with the Peelites and Radicals in the 1850s. Many Whigs left the Liberal Party in 1886 over the issue of Irish Home Rule to form the Liberal Unionist Party, which merged into the Conservative Party in 1912.
The Whigs began as a political faction that opposed absolute monarchy and Catholic emancipation, supporting constitutional monarchism and parliamentary government, but also Protestant supremacy. Unlike the Tories, they supported tolerance for non-Anglican protestants.
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1678 establishments in England1859 disestablishments in the United KingdomCentre-left parties in the United KingdomCentrist parties in the United KingdomClassical liberal partiesConservative liberal partiesDefunct liberal political partiesDefunct political parties in the United KingdomLiberal parties in the United KingdomPolitical parties disestablished in 1859Political parties established in 1678