William III ascended to the throne of England in 1689 following his military intervention in support of the erstwhile claim to the throne by his wife (Mary II) as a replacement for the sitting Roman Catholic king, who was also her father James II. During the ideological and theological conflict that followed William's invited invasion, public worship and public prayer in the Church of England was used by Williamite propagandists to promote and legitimize a monarchy that re-fashioned the concept of a sovereign who ruled by divine right in spite of Parliament into one where the sovereign's divine right was determined by Parliament.

Using what I term "uncommon prayer" as supplements to the liturgy of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, church divines promoted the political agenda and ideology of the Williamite regime. Most often crafted for use on royally designated days of national fasting or thanksgiving, these occasional Forms of Prayer required the active participation of all of their Majesties' subjects during public worship. Satirical balladry during the Irish conflict with James II lampooning the royal proclamation for public fasting and uncommon prayer confirms their Majesties' adversaries recognized the effectiveness of the royal polemical campaign conducted by and through the church.

The examination of uncommon prayers reveals that the revolutionary government used language familiar to the people in radically new ways to justify the invasion by a foreign prince, the forced "abdication" of a sitting monarch, and a re-shaping of not only the monarchy, but the Church of England and Parliament. It defined the role of William as the instrument of God's divine providence and emphasized the responsibility of the people for the nation's misfortunes because of their individual and collective sin. The sustained use of uncommon or occasional prayer throughout the years of the Williamite monarchy (1689–1702) to bring before the people the royal agenda attests to the vitality of public worship, the perceived efficacy of public prayer, and the importance of the Church of England on the social and political landscape of late-seventeenth century England.