From what I have read about him so far in the book "William's Mary", William III was being extremely kind to him by giving him the option to flee.  He surely suffered a better fate than Charles I did.  He never helped William nor his daughter when  they were being troubled by French, and his plot to exclude his daughters from inheriting the throne because they were protestant by the "changeling" prince.

 

I would say it was more of an "overthrow" than abdication... then again, perhaps since he didn't put up resistance (think War of the Roses) it was termed an abdication.

 

Those descendants of Edward III surely are an interesting lot!  Then again, what can be expected from the descenants of Longshanks LOL

When I say "Longshanks" I meant Edward I.... inteteresting character indeed.... "breeding out the Scots".... LOL the things he did

William of Orange allowed James II to escape to France as he was extremely shrewd.  If he had James II executed, or imprisoned and later dying mysteriously, he would have been called an usurper as Henry IV was after Richard II imprisonment.  The country probably would have descended into chaos, and William couldnt afford that.  The people hated Charles I until he was executed, and at the time civil war and regicide were the things that people most of all wished to avoid.  William knew that James would counter-attack...but without help from France James would be more or less powerless..and Louis wasnt all that willing after a while to help out.  I think that if William had acted like Cromwell, then people would have rallied around James more...as I think they would have done if they truely believed that Cromwell would execute Charles I.  Maureen Waller makes a good point in her book "Ungrateful Daughters", when James II is in disguise in a local inn.  She states that once the King had been recognised, the local people felt humbled and tried to kiss his hand...but James roughly pushed them away.  If it had been Chalres II in his place, he probabaly would have been able to make it  into a great victory and get the people to carry him back to Whitehall, but James just  didnt  have his charisma....