William III of England

William III
King of England, Scots and Ireland; Prince of Orange; Stadtholder of Holland and Zealand, Utrecht, Guelders and Overijssel
William III wearing The Great George
King of England, Scots and Ireland
Reign	12 February 1689–8 March 1702 (with Mary II until 28 December 1694)
Coronation	11 April 1689
Predecessor	James II
Successor	Anne
Burial	Westminster Abbey, London
Co-monarch	Mary II
Names William Henry of Orange
House	House of Orange-Nassau
Father	William II, Prince of Orange
Mother	Mary, Princess Royal

William III (William II as King of Scots; 14 November 1650 – 8 March 1702) was the Prince of Orange from his birth, and Stadtholder of the main provinces of the Dutch Republic from 28 June 1672, King of England and King of Ireland from 13 February 1689, and King of Scotland from 11 April 1689, in each case until his death.

Born a member of the House of Orange-Nassau, William III won the English, Scottish and Irish Crowns following the Glorious Revolution, during which his uncle and father-in-law, James II, was deposed. In England, Scotland and Ireland, William ruled jointly with his wife, Mary II, until her death on 28 December 1694. He reigned as 'William II' in Scotland, but 'William III' in all his other realms. Often he is referred to as William of Orange, a name he shared with many other historical figures. In Northern Ireland and Scotland, he is often informally known as King Billy.

William III was appointed to the Dutch post of Stadtholder on 28 June 1672 (Old Style), and remained in office until he died. In that context, he is sometimes referred to as 'William Henry, Prince of Orange', as a translation of his Dutch title, Willem Hendrik, Prins van Oranje. A Protestant, William participated in many wars against the powerful Catholic King Louis XIV of France.

Many Protestants heralded him as a champion of their faith. It was partly due to that reputation that he was able to take the crowns of England and Scotland, where many, especially English subjects, were intensely fearful of Catholicism and the papacy. Undoubtedly, his army and sizable naval fleet also played a role.

His reign marked the beginning of the transition from the crown's personal control of government of the Stuarts to the more Parliament-centered rule of the House of Hanover.

Early life

William Henry of Orange, the son and only child of stadtholder William II, Prince of Orange and Mary, Princess Royal of England, was born in The Hague, The Netherlands. Eight days before he was born, his father died from smallpox; thus William became the Sovereign Prince of Orange at the moment of his birth. Immediately a conflict ensued between the Princess Royal and William II's mother, Amalia of Solms-Braunfels, over the name to be given to the infant. Mary wanted to name him Charles after her brother, her mother-in-law insisted however on giving him the name William or Willem to bolster his prospects of becoming stadtholder. William II had appointed his wife as guardian in his will; however the document had remained unsigned and thus was void. On 13 August 1651 the Hoge Raad (Supreme Council) ruled that guardianship would be shared between Mary (his mother), Amalia (his grandmother) and Frederick William, the Elector of Brandenburg (his uncle, married to his father's sister, Louise Henriette of Nassau (1627-1667)). The Prussian — and suitably Protestant — prince was chosen for this honour because he could act as a neutral party mediating between the two women, but also because as a possible heir he had a vivid interest in protecting the Orange family fortune, which Amalia feared would be squandered by the rather frivolous Mary.

William's mother showed little personal interest in her son — sometimes being absent for years on end to enjoy the luxuries of the French court — and had always deliberately kept herself apart from Dutch society, affecting not even to understand the Dutch language. His education was first laid in the hands of several Dutch governesses, and some of English descent, including Walburg Howard (a stepdaughter of the future Countess of Chesterfield and half-sister of the future 1st Earl of Bellomont). From April 1656 the Calvinist preacher Cornelis Trigland, a follower of the very puritan theologian Gisbertus Voetius, instructed the prince daily in the state religion, Calvinism. A short treatise is known, perhaps by Christiaan Huygens, on the ideal education for William entitled Discours sur la nourriture de S.H. Monseigneur le Prince d'Orange. The prince, a very serious little boy, became convinced by these lessons that he was his predestination to become an instrument of God under the guidance of Divine Providence, fulfilling the historical destiny of the House of Orange.

From early 1659, William spent seven years at the University of Leyden for a formal education — though never officially enrolling as a student — under the guidance of ethics professor Hendrik Bornius. Until February 1660, Protestant scholar Samuel Chappuzeau taught him French. The prince showed little inclination to read the great philosophers or classical literature, but preferred the study of the arts, especially painting, architecture and gardening, which flowered during the Dutch Golden Age. While residing in the Prinsenhof at Leyden, William had a small personal retinue, and a new governor: Frederik van Nassau, Lord Zuylestein, the bastard son of stadtholder Frederick Henry of Orange, William's grandfather. Also a page of honour was present: Hans Willem Bentinck. William, who always was fiercely loyal to his friends, formed a deep emotional attachment to both men.

On 25 September 1660 the States of Holland resolved to take charge of William's education to ensure he would acquire the skills necessary to serve in an as yet undetermined future state function. This first involvement of the authorities would not last long, however. On 23 December 1660, when William was just ten years old, his mother died of smallpox at Whitehall Palace, London while visiting her brother King Charles II. In her will, Mary designated Charles as William's legal guardian. Charles now demanded the States of Holland end their interference; to appease the powerful king they complied on 30 September 1661. Charles delegated his share of the responsibility to William's paternal grandmother, the Princess Dowager Amalia, with the understanding that she seek Charles's advice when necessary. Charles continued corresponding with his nephew. In 1661, Lord Zuylestein began to work for Charles, cooperating with the English ambassador George Downing, the de facto English spymaster in the Dutch Republic. Zuylestein induced William to write letters to the English king asking his uncle to interfere on his behalf to improve his prospects on the stadtholderate. Charles then exploited this issue for political leverage, trying to sow dissension in Dutch society between the Orangists and the republican "States" faction.

The Dutch authorities did their best at first to ignore these intrigues, but in the Second Anglo-Dutch War they became impossible to avoid as one of Charles's standard peace conditions was the improvement of the position of his nephew. As a countermeasure in 1666, when William was sixteen, the States of Holland officially made him a ward of the government, or a "Child of State," a legal novum. The Amsterdam burgomasters Cornelis de Graeff and Gillis Valckenier were involved in his training. Amalia's consent was obtained by granting her a considerable state pension, something William would never forgive her for. William was supposedly made a ward to prepare him for a role in the nation's government, although what this role would be exactly, was again left unspecified. A direct result was that all pro-English elements, first of all Lord Zuylestein, were removed from William's company. William was heartbroken by this and in tears begged Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt to allow Lord Zuylestein to stay. De Witt, the leading politician of the Republic, refused, but took part of William's education into his own hands, instructing him weekly in state matters — and joining him in a regular game of real tennis. William and De Witt, both having introverted and outwardly emotionally restrained characters, failed to become close friends. In 1667, the core of the English navy was destroyed by the Raid on the Medway, and the subsequent Treaty of Breda made no mention of William. In September 1668, Amalia and Frederick William declared that William had reached the age of majority; a void act as boys only attained majority at 23 and a special permit had to be obtained for an earlier age. Although no such permit ever was issued, the declaration was condoned by the authorities to avoid raising political tensions.

Silver crown coin of William III, dated 1695. The Latin inscription is (obverse) GVLIELMVS III DEI GRA[TIA] (reverse) MAG[NAE] BR[ITANNIAE], FRA[NCIAE], ET HIB[ERNIAE] REX 1695. English: "William III, By the grace of God, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, 1695." The reverse shows the arms, clockwise from top, of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, centered on William's personal arms of the House of Orange-Nassau.

Early offices

William II held, in official feudal order, the office of stadtholder of Guelders, Holland, Zealand, Utrecht, and Overijssel. However all these five provinces suspended the office of stadtholder upon William II's death. During the "First Stadtholderless Era," power was de facto held from 1653 by Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt. The Treaty of Westminster (1654), which ended the First Anglo-Dutch War, had a secret annex attached on demand of Oliver Cromwell: the Act of Seclusion, which forbade the province of Holland to appoint a member of the House of Orange as stadtholder. After the English Restoration, the Act of Seclusion, which had not remained a secret for very long, was declared void as the English Commonwealth (with which the treaty had been concluded) no longer existed. In September 1660, Mary and Amalia tried to convince several provincial States to designate William as their future stadtholder, but all eventually refused.

In 1667, as William III approached the age of eighteen, the pro-Orange party again attempted to bring the Prince to power by securing for him the offices of stadtholder and Captain-General. To prevent the restoration of the influence of the House of Orange, De Witt allowed the pensionary of Haarlem, Gaspar Fagel, to procure on 5 August 1667 issuance of the Eternal Edict by the States of Holland. The Edict declared that the Captain-General or Admiral-General of the Netherlands could not serve as stadtholder in any province. Furthermore, the province of Holland abolished the very office of stadtholder and the four other provinces followed suit in March 1670, establishing the so-called "Harmony". De Witt demanded an oath from each Hollandic regent (city council member) to uphold the Edict; all but one complied.

William saw all this as a defeat, but in fact this arrangement was a comprise: De Witt would have preferred to ignore the prince completely, but now his eventual rise to the office of supreme army commander was implicit. Also, De Witt conceded that William would be admitted as a member of the Raad van State, the Council of State, then the generality organ administering the defence budget. William was introduced to the council on 31 May 1670, with full voting powers despite De Witt's attempts to limit his role to that of an advisor. Another victory for William was that the States of Zealand on 19 September 1668 received him as First Noble, the first in rank of the nobility delegates in the States of that province. To be received, William had to escape the attention of his state tutors and secretly travel to Middelburg. It was this event that had triggered his being prematurely declared of age by his guardians.

In November 1670, William obtained permission to travel to England to urge king Charles to pay back at least a part of the 2,797,859 guilder debt the House of Stuart owed the House of Orange. The structural penury of the English crown precluded much progress in that respect. William was greatly surprised when Charles tried to convert him to Catholicism, recommended as the ideal religion for absolutist kings. His shocked reaction made Charles decide not to make his nephew privy to his secret Treaty of Dover with France, directed at destroying the Dutch Republic and installing William as puppet "sovereign" of a Hollandic rump state. William returned to the Dutch Republic in February 1671, having disappointed his uncle but having made a good impression on several politicians who would later belong to the Whig party.

During 1671, the Republic's situation deteriorated quickly. Though De Witt was in a state of denial, there were many signs of an impending Anglo-French attack. In view of the threat, many provinces wanted William to be appointed Captain-General as soon as possible, despite his youth and inexperience. On 15 December 1671 the States of Utrecht made this their official policy. On 19 January 1672 the States of Holland made a counterproposal: to appoint William for just a single campaign. The prince refused this and on 25 February a compromise was reached: an appointment by the States-General of the Netherlands for one summer, followed by a permanent appointment on his 22nd birthday.

Meanwhile William had written a secret letter to Charles in January 1672 asking his uncle to exploit the situation by exerting pressure on the States-General to appoint William stadtholder. In return, William would ally the Republic with England and serve Charles's interests as much as his "honour and the loyalty due to this state" allowed. Charles took no action on the proposal; for him it would have meant a difficult renegotiation with France. He intended to enforce Dutch servitude by force.

Becoming stadtholder

For the Dutch Republic 1672 proved calamitous, becoming known as the "disaster year" due to the Franco-Dutch War in which the Netherlands were invaded by France, under Louis XIV, who had the aid of England (Third Anglo-Dutch War), Münster, and Cologne. Although the Anglo-French fleet was disabled by the Battle of Solebay, in June the French army quickly overran Gelderland and Utrecht, and the States of Overijssel surrendered on 5 July to Münster. William on 14 June withdrew with the remnants of his field army into Holland, where the States had ordered the flooding of Dutch Water Line on 8 June. Louis XIV, believing the war was over, began negotiations to extract as large a sum of money from the Dutch as possible. The presence of a large French army in the heart of the Republic caused a general panic. There were many disturbances and in most cities the councils turned Orangist. On 4 July the States of Holland appointed William stadtholder, and he took the oath on 9 July. On 5 July a special envoy from Charles, Lord Arlington, met with William in Nieuwerbrug. He offered to make William Sovereign Prince of Holland in exchange for his capitulation — whereas a stadtholder was a mere civil servant. When William refused, Arlington threatened that William would witness the end of his state. William made his famous answer: "There is one way to avoid this: to die defending it in the last ditch". On 7 July, the inundations were complete and the further advance of the French army was, to its great surprise, effectively blocked. On 16 July Zealand offered the stadtholderate to William. The same day England promised Louis in the Accord of Heeswijk never to conclude a separate peace. On 18 July William received a letter from Charles, claiming that the only real obstacle to peace was the continued influence of De Witt and his faction. William sent a secret letter back offering ₤400,000, Surinam, and Sluys; in return Charles would make him Sovereign Prince and conclude a separate peace. Charles, greatly annoyed, refused and accused William of scheming behind his back with "Whig" leaders.

Johan de Witt had been unable to function as Grand Pensionary after having been wounded by an attempt on his life on 21 June. On 15 August William published Charles's letter of 18 July to incite the populace against De Witt. On 20 August, he and his brother, Cornelis de Witt, were brutally murdered by an Orangist civil militia in The Hague. Today, some historians believe that William may have been directly complicit in the murder. Gaspar Fagel then became Grand Pensionary. After this William replaced 130 regents with his followers. He was also appointed Admiral-General of the Netherlands.

William III continued to fight against the invaders from England and France, allying himself with Spain. In November 1672 he took his army to Maastricht to threaten the French supply lines. In August 1672, Münster had lifted the siege of Groningen and in December the territory of Drenthe was liberated. In 1673, the situation further improved. Though Louis took Maastricht and an audacious attack of William against Charleroi failed, Lieutenant-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter defeated the Anglo-French fleet three times, forcing Charles to end England's involvement by the Treaty of Westminster (1674); from late 1673 onwards France slowly withdrew from the territory of the Republic with the exception of Maastricht. Fagel now proposed to treat the liberated provinces of Utrecht, Gelderland (Guelders) and Overijssel as conquered territory (Generality Lands), as punishment for their quick surrender to the enemy. William refused but obtained a special mandate from the States-General to newly appoint all delegates in the States of these provinces. William tried to exploit this to fulfill his desire to become sovereign. His followers in the States of Utrecht on 26 April 1674 appointed him hereditary stadtholder in the male line of descent. William bought the country house formerly owned by Cornelis de Graeff and had it rebuilt by Maurits Post. It is now the Soestdijk Palace. The States of Guelders on 30 January 1675 offered the titles of Duke of Guelders and Count of Zutphen. Very negative reactions to this from Zealand and the city of Amsterdam, where the stock market collapsed, made William ultimately decide to decline these honours; in 1675 he was merely appointed stadtholder of Gelderland and Overijssel.

Meanwhile the war lingered on as the French army was much too strong to be decisively defeated in open battle. To strengthen his position, William sought to marry his first cousin Mary, the daughter of James, Duke of York and later James II of England. James was not inclined to consent; however, Charles pressured his brother to do so. The marriage occurred on 4 November 1677. Despite a difficult start, the marriage was a success although fruitless.

By 1678, the strain of continuing the war, financial and otherwise, induced Louis to seek peace.

William however remained very suspicious of Louis, thinking the French king desired "Universal Kingship" over Europe, whereas Louis described William as "my mortal enemy" and saw him as an obnoxious warmonger. France's continued small annexations in Germany (the Réunion policy) and the recalling of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, caused a surge of Huguenot refugees to the Republic. This led William III to join various anti-French alliances, such as the Association League, and ultimately the League of Augsburg (an anti-French coalition that also included the Holy Roman Empire, Sweden, Spain and several German states) in 1686.

After his marriage, William became a possible candidate for the English throne if his father-in-law (and uncle) James would be excluded because of his Catholicism. During the crisis concerning the Exclusion Bill in 1680, Charles at first invited William to come to England to bolster the king's position against the exclusionists, then withdrew his invitation — after which Lord Sunderland also tried to bring William over but now to put pressure on Charles. The ever-cautious stadtholder remained at home, however. Nevertheless he secretly induced the States-General to send the Insinuation to Charles, beseeching the king to prevent any Catholics from succeeding him, though not naming James explicitly. Receiving indignant reactions from Charles and James, William denied any involvement.

In 1684, William bought a manor, today called Het Loo, near Apeldoorn and had it rebuilt into a palace. The garden and the palace were decorated by Romeyn de Hooghe and Daniel Marot.

In 1685, when James II ascended, William at first attempted conciliatory approach with James, whom he hoped would join the League of Augsburg, whilst at the same time trying not to offend the Protestants in England. At the time William and Mary were still direct heirs. But by 1687, it became clear that James would not join the League and in November his wife Mary of Modena was announced to be pregnant. That month, to gain the favour of English Protestants, William wrote open letter to the English people in which he disapproved of James's religious policies. Seeing him as a friend, and often having maintained secret contacts with him for years, many English politicians began to negotiate an armed invasion of England.

Glorious Revolution

Main article: Glorious Revolution

William at first opposed the prospect of invasion, but in April 1688, when England concluded a naval agreement with France, began to assemble an expeditionary force. Still, he was hesitant about such an operation, believing that the English people would not react well to a foreign invader. He therefore in April demanded in a letter to Rear-Admiral Arthur Herbert that the most eminent English Protestants first invite him to invade. In June, James II's second wife, Mary of Modena, bore a son (James Francis Edward), who displaced William's wife to become first in the line of succession. Public anger also increased due to the trial of seven bishops who had publicly opposed James II's religious policies and had petitioned him to reform them. The acquittal of the bishops signalled a major defeat for the Government of James II, and encouraged further resistance to its activities.

William's arrival in England

On 30 June 1688 — the same day the bishops were acquitted — a group of political figures known as the "Immortal Seven" complied with William's earlier request, sending him a formal invitation. William's intentions to invade were public knowledge by September 1688. With a Dutch army, William landed at Brixham in southwest England on 5 November 1688. He came ashore from the ship Den Briel ("Brill") carried aloft by a local fisherman Peter Varwell to proclaim "the liberties of England and the Protestant religion I will maintain". William had come ashore with 15,500-foot soldiers and up to 4,000 horse. Gilbert Burnet, the Bishop of Salisbury, was more precise and claimed the figure to be 14,352. On his way to London William stayed at Forde House in Newton Abbot and is alleged to have held his first parliament nearby (Parliament Cottages, as they are now known, can still be seen today). James's support began to dissolve almost immediately upon William's arrival; Protestant officers defected from the English army (the most notable of whom was Lord Churchill of Eyemouth, James's most able commander), and influential noblemen across the country declared their support for the invader.

James at first attempted to resist William, but saw that his efforts would prove futile. He sent representatives to negotiate with William, but secretly attempted to flee on 11 December. A group of fishermen caught him and brought him back to London. He successfully escaped in a second attempt on 23 December. William actually permitted James to leave the country, not wanting to make him a martyr for the Roman Catholic cause.

In 1689, a Convention Parliament summoned by the Prince of Orange assembled, and much discussion relating to the appropriate course of action ensued. William III felt insecure about his position; though only his wife was formally eligible to assume the throne, he wished to reign as King in his own right, rather than as a mere consort. The only precedent for a joint monarchy in England dated from the sixteenth century: when Queen Mary I married the Spanish Prince Philip, it was agreed that the latter would take the title of King. But Philip II remained King only during his wife's lifetime, and restrictions were placed on his power. William, on the other hand, demanded that he remain as King even after his wife's death. Although the majority of Tory Lords proposed to acclaim her as sole ruler, Mary, remaining loyal to her husband, refused.

On 13 February 1689, Parliament passed the Declaration of Right, in which it deemed that James, by attempting to flee on 11 December 1688, had abdicated the government of the realm, thereby leaving the Throne vacant. The Crown was not offered to James's eldest son, James Francis Edward (who would have been the heir-apparent under normal circumstances), but to William and Mary as joint Sovereigns. It was, however, provided that "the sole and full exercise of the regal power be only in and executed by the said Prince of Orange in the names of the said Prince and Princess during their joint lives".

William and Mary were crowned together at Westminster Abbey on 11 April 1689 by the Bishop of London, Henry Compton. Normally, the coronation is performed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, but the Archbishop at the time, William Sancroft, refused to recognise James II's removal. On the day of the coronation, the Convention of the Estates of Scotland—which was much more divided than the English Parliament—finally declared that James was no longer King of Scotland. William and Mary were offered the Scottish Crown; they accepted on 11 May. William was officially "William II" of Scotland, for there was only one previous Scottish King named William (see William I).

Revolution Settlement

Template:PortalCalvinism William III of England encouraged the passage of the Act of Toleration 1689, which guaranteed religious toleration to certain Protestant nonconformists. It did not, however, extend toleration to Roman Catholics or those of non-Christian faiths. Thus the Act was not as wide-ranging as James II's Declaration of Indulgence, which attempted to grant freedom of conscience to people of all faiths.

In December 1689, one of the most important constitutional documents in English history, the Bill of Rights, was passed. The Act—which restated and confirmed many provisions of the earlier Declaration of Right—established restrictions on the royal prerogative; it was provided, amongst other things, that the Sovereign could not suspend laws passed by Parliament, levy taxes without parliamentary consent, infringe the right to petition, raise a standing army during peacetime without parliamentary consent, deny the right to bear arms to Protestant subjects, unduly interfere with parliamentary elections, punish members of either House of Parliament for anything said during debates, require excessive bail or inflict cruel and unusual punishments. William was opposed to the imposition of such constraints, but he wisely chose not to engage in a conflict with Parliament and agreed to abide by the statute.

The Bill of Rights also settled the question of succession to the Crown. After the death of either William or Mary, the other would continue to reign. Next in the line of succession was Mary II's sister, the Princess Anne, and her issue. Finally, any children William might have had by a subsequent marriage were included in the line of succession. Non-Protestants, as well as those who married Roman Catholics, were excluded from the succession.

Rule with Mary II

William continued to be absent from the realm for extended periods during his war with France. England joined the League of Augsburg, which then became known as the "Grand Alliance." Whilst William was away fighting, his wife, Mary II, governed the realm, but acted on his advice. Each time he returned to England, Mary gave up her power to him ungrudgingly. Such an arrangement lasted for the rest of Mary's life.

Although most in England accepted William as Sovereign, he faced considerable opposition in Scotland and Ireland. The Scottish Jacobites— those who believed that James II was the legitimate monarch — won a stunning victory on 27 July 1689 at the Battle of Killiecrankie, but were nevertheless subdued within a month. William's reputation suffered following the Massacre of Glencoe (1692), in which seventy-eight Highland Scots were murdered or died of exposure for not properly pledging their allegiance to the new King and Queen. Bowing to public opinion, William dismissed those responsible for the massacre, though they still remained in his favour; in the words of the historian John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, "one became a colonel, another a knight, a third a peer, and a fourth an earl."

In Ireland, where the French aided the rebels, fighting continued for much longer, although James II had perforce to flee the island after the Battle of the Boyne (1690). The victory in Ireland is commemorated annually by the The Twelfth. After the Anglo-Dutch fleet defeated a French fleet at La Hogue in 1692, the allies for a short period controlled the seas, and Ireland was conquered shortly thereafter. At the same time, the Grand Alliance fared poorly on land. William lost Namur in the Spanish Netherlands in 1692, and was disastrously beaten at the Battle of Landen in 1693.

Mary II died of smallpox in 1694, leaving William III to rule alone. Although he had previously mistreated his wife and kept mistresses (the best-known of which was Elizabeth Villiers), William deeply mourned his wife's death. Although he was brought up as a Calvinist, he converted to Anglicanism. His popularity, however, plummeted during his reign as a sole Sovereign.

During the 1690s rumors of William's homosexual inclinations grew and led to the publication of many satirical pamphlets. He had several male favourites, including a Rotterdam bailiff Van Zuylen van Nijveld, and two Dutch courtiers to whom he granted English dignities: Hans Willem Bentinck became Earl of Portland, and Arnold Joost van Keppel was created Earl of Albemarle. William was especially close to his fellow Dutch countrymen and made little headway into his new dominions as a monarch, always something of an outsider to his British subjects. He himself expressed it this way: "I clearly perceive that this people was not made for me, nor was I made for this people".

Later years

A Statue of King William III marking the centre of Petersfield, Hampshire

In 1696, the Dutch territory of Drenthe made William its Stadtholder. In the same year, Jacobites made an attempt to restore James to the English throne by assassinating William III, but the plot failed. Considering the failure, Louis XIV offered to have James elected King of Poland in the same year. James feared that acceptance of the Polish Crown might (in the minds of the English people) render him ineligible as King of England. In rejecting this offer, James made what would prove a fateful decision: less than a year later, France ceased to sponsor him. In accordance with the Treaty of Rijswijk (20 September 1697), which ended the War of the Grand Alliance, Louis recognised William III as King of England, and undertook to give no further assistance to James II. Thus deprived of French dynastic backing after 1697, Jacobites did not pose any further serious threats during William's reign.

As his life drew towards its conclusion, William, like many other European rulers, felt concern over the question of succession to the throne of Spain, which brought with it vast territories in Italy, the Low Countries and the New World. The King of Spain, Charles II, was an invalid with no prospect of having children; amongst his closest relatives were Louis XIV (the King of France) and Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor. William sought to prevent the Spanish inheritance from going to either monarch, for he feared that such a calamity would upset the balance of power. William and Louis XIV agreed to the First Partition Treaty, which provided for the division of the Spanish Empire: Duke Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria (whom William himself chose) would obtain Spain, while France and the Holy Roman Emperor would divide the remaining territories between them. The Spaniards, however, expressed shock at William's boldness; they had not been previously consulted on the dismemberment of their own empire, and strove to keep the Spanish territories united.

At first, William and Louis ignored the wishes of the Spanish court. When, however, Joseph Ferdinand died of smallpox, the issue re-opened. In 1700, the two rulers agreed to the Second Partition Treaty (also called the Treaty of London), under which the territories in Italy would pass to a son of the King of France, and the other Spanish territories would be inherited by a son of the Holy Roman Emperor. This arrangement infuriated both the Spanish — who still sought to prevent the dissolution of their empire — and the Holy Roman Emperor — to whom the Italian territories were much more useful than the other lands. Unexpectedly, the invalid King of Spain, Charles II, interfered as he lay dying in late 1700. Unilaterally, he willed all Spanish territories to Philip, a grandson of Louis XIV. The French conveniently ignored the Second Partition Treaty and claimed the entire Spanish inheritance. Furthermore, Louis XIV alienated William III by recognising James Francis Edward Stuart — the son of the former King James II, who had died in 1701 — as King of England. The subsequent conflict, known as the War of the Spanish Succession, continued until 1713.

The Spanish inheritance, however, was not the only one which concerned William. His marriage with Mary II had not yielded any children, and he did not seem likely to remarry. Mary's sister, the Princess Anne, had borne numerous children, all of whom died during childhood. The death of William, Duke of Gloucester in 1700 left the Princess Anne as the only individual left in the line of succession established by the Bill of Rights. As the complete exhaustion of the line of succession would have encouraged a restoration of James II's line, Parliament saw fit to pass the Act of Settlement 1701, in which it was provided that the Crown would be inherited by a distant relative, Sophia, Electress of Hanover and her Protestant heirs if Princess Anne died without surviving issue, and if William III failed to have surviving issue by any subsequent marriage. (Several Catholics with genealogically senior claims to Sophia were omitted.) The Act extended to England and Ireland, but not to Scotland, whose Estates had not been consulted before the selection of Sophia.

Like the Bill of Rights before it, the Act of Settlement not only addressed succession to the Throne, but also limited the power of the Crown. Future sovereigns were forbidden to use English resources to defend any of their other realms, unless parliamentary consent was first obtained. To ensure the independence of the judiciary, it was enacted that judges would serve during good behaviour, rather than at the pleasure of the Sovereign. It was also enacted that a pardon issued by the Sovereign could not impede an impeachment.

Death

In 1702, William died of pneumonia, a complication from a broken collarbone, resulting from a fall off his horse. It was believed by some that his horse had stumbled into a mole's burrow, and as a result many Jacobites toasted "the little gentleman in the black velvet waistcoat." Years later, Sir Winston Churchill, in his epic the History of the English Speaking Peoples, put it more poetically when he said that the fall "opened the trapdoor to a host of lurking foes".

William was buried in Westminster Abbey alongside his wife. The reign of William's successor, Anne, was marked by attempts to extend the provisions of the Act of Settlement to Scotland. Angered by the English Parliament's failure to consult with them before choosing Sophia of Hanover, the Estates of Scotland enacted the Act of Security, forcing Anne to grant the Royal Assent by threatening to withdraw troops from the army fighting in the War of the Spanish Succession. The Act provided that, if Anne died without a child, the Estates could elect the next monarch from amongst the Protestant descendants of previous Scottish Kings, but could not choose the English successor unless various religious, political and economic conditions were met. In turn, the English Parliament attempted to force the Scots to capitulate by restricting trade, thereby crippling the Scottish economy. The Scottish Estates were forced to agree to the Act of Union 1707, which united England and Scotland into a single realm called Great Britain; succession was to be under the terms established by the Act of Settlement.

William's death also brought an end to the Dutch House of Orange-Nassau, of which members had served as stadtholder of Holland and the majority of the other provinces of the Dutch Republic since the time of William the Silent (William I). The five provinces over which William III ruled — Holland, Zealand, Utrecht, Gelderland and Overijssel — all suspended the office of Stadtholder after William III's death. The remaining two provinces — Friesland and Groningen — were never governed by William III, and continued to retain a separate Stadtholder, Johan Willem Friso. Under William III's will, Friso stood to inherit the Principality of Orange as well as several lordships in the Netherlands. He was an agnatic relative of the princes of Orange-Nassau, as well as a descendant of William the Silent through a female. However, the Prussian King Frederick I also claimed the Principality as the senior cognatic heir, stadtholder Frederick Henry having been his maternal grandfather and William III his first cousin.

Johan Willem Friso died in 1711, leaving his claim to his son, William. Under the Treaty of Utrecht, which was agreed to in 1713, Frederick I of Prussia (who kept the title as part of his titulary) allowed the King of France, Louis XIV, to take the lands of Orange; William Friso, or William IV, who had no resources to fight for lands located in southern France, was left with the title of "Prince of Orange" which had accumulated high prestige in the Netherlands as well as in the entire Protestant world. William IV was also restored to the office of Stadtholder in 1747. (From 1747 onwards, there was one Stadtholder for the entire Republic, rather than a separate Stadtholder for each province.)

Legacy

Statue of an idealised William III by John Michael Rysbrack erected in Queen Square, Bristol in 1736.

Statue of William III in front of Kensington Palace. Donated by William II, German Emperor in 1907.

William's primary achievement was to hem in France when it was in a position to impose its will across much of Europe. His life was largely opposed to the will of the French King Louis XIV. This effort continued after his death during the War of the Spanish Succession.

Another important consequence of William's reign in England involved the ending of a bitter conflict between Crown and Parliament that had lasted since the accession of the first English monarch of the House of Stuart, James I, in 1603. The conflict over royal and parliamentary power had led to the English Civil War during the 1640s and the Glorious Revolution of 1688. During William's reign, however, the conflict was settled in Parliament's favour by the Bill of Rights 1689, the Triennial Act 1694 and the Act of Settlement 1701.

His decision to grant the Royal Charter in 1694 to the Bank of England, a private institution owned by bankers, is his most relevant economic legacy. It laid the financial foundation of the English take over of the central role of the Dutch Republic and Bank of Amsterdam in global commerce in the 18th century.

William endowed the College of William and Mary (in present day Williamsburg, Virginia) in 1693.

Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, is named after him. Similarly Nassau County, New York the western most county on Long Island, is a namesake. Long Island itself was also known as Nassau during early Dutch rule.

The modern day Orange Institution is named after William III, and makes a point of celebrating his victory at the Boyne. Orange marches in Ulster, England, Wales, United States, New Zealand, Canada, Ghana, Togo, Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Continental Europe on "the Twelfth" of July (the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne) often carry a picture of him with them. Hence "orange" is often thought of as a "Protestant" colour in Ireland. The tricolour of the Republic of Ireland has included, since its inception, the colour orange, as well as white and green, and signifies the aspiration to peace and unity between Protestants and Roman Catholics in Ireland, although to this day the unity between these two groups remains more aspirational on the island of Ireland than real.

New York was briefly renamed New Orange for him. His name was applied to the fort and administrative center for the city on two separate occasions reflecting his different sovereign status—first as Fort Willem Hendrick in 1673 when the Dutch renamed New York to New Orange and then as Fort William in 1691 when the English evicted Colonists who had seized the fort and city. Orange, Connecticut and The Oranges in northern New Jersey, are named for him.

Russian Tsar Peter the Great greatly admired William, and his Great Embassy visited the England of his time. There the two met a few times and Peter's portrait was painted by William's court artist, Sir Godfrey Kneller.

The joint style of William III and Mary II was "William and Mary, by the Grace of God, King and Queen of England, France and Ireland, Defenders of the Faith, etc." when they ascended the Throne. (The claim to France was only nominal, and had been asserted by every English King since Edward III, regardless of the amount of French territory actually controlled, see English claims to the French throne) From 11 April, 1689—when the Estates of Scotland recognised them as Sovereigns—the style "William and Mary, by the Grace of God, King and Queen of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defenders of the Faith, etc." was used. After Mary's death, William continued to use the same style, omitting the reference to Mary, mutatis mutandis'.

The arms used by the King and Queen were: Quarterly, I and IV Grandquarterly, Azure three fleurs-de-lis Or (for France) and Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or (for England); II Or a lion rampant within a tressure flory-counter-flory Gules (for Scotland); III Azure a harp Or stringed Argent (for Ireland); overall an escutcheon Azure billetty and a lion rampant Or.

Ancestors

William III's ancestors in three generations

William III	Father: William II, Prince of Orange	Paternal Grandfather: Frederik Hendrik of Orange	Paternal Great-grandfather: William the Silent
			Paternal Great-grandmother: Louise de Coligny
		Paternal Grandmother: Amalia of Solms-Braunfels	Paternal Great-grandfather: Johan Albrecht I of Solms-Braunfels
			Paternal Great-grandmother: Agnes of Sayn-Wittgenstein
	Mother: Mary, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange	Maternal Grandfather: Charles I of England	Maternal Great-grandfather: James I of England
			Maternal Great-grandmother: Anne of Denmark
		Maternal Grandmother: Henrietta Maria of France	Maternal Great-grandfather: Henry IV of France
			Maternal Great-grandmother: Maria de Medici

Patrilineal descent

William's patriline is the line from which he is descended father to son.

Patrilineal descent is the principle behind membership in royal houses, as it can be traced back through the generations - which means that William’s historically accurate royal house was the House of Nassau.

Descent from [1].

1. Rupert Siegen, d. 1103
2. Dudo von Laurenberg, d. 1124
3. Robert I of Nassau, d. 1154
4. Walram I of Nassau, d. 1198
5. Henry II of Nassau, 1180 - 1251
6. Otto I of Nassau, 1247 - 1290
7. Henry of Nassau-Siegen, 1270 - 1343
8. Otto II of Nassau-Dillenburg, d. 1351
9. John I, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg, 1339 - 1416
10. Engelbert, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg, d. 1442
11. John IV, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg, 1410 - 1475
12. John V, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg, 1455 - 1516
13. William I, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg, 1487 - 1559
14. William the Silent, 1533 - 1584
15. Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, 1584 - 1647
16. William II, Prince of Orange, 1626 - 1650
17. William III of England, 1650 - 1702

See also

• British monarchs' family tree
• French monarchs family tree
• House of Orange
• the Baroque Cycle, series of books by Neal Stephenson, which prominently feature William of Orange
• Coenraad van Beuningen

External links

• Official House of Orange website
• William, Prince of Orange
• King Billy
• House of Orange
• Het Loo Palace

References

• "William III (England)." (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed. London: Cambridge University Press.

• Robb, Nesca, William of Orange (1962)
• Van der Kiste, John, William and Mary (2003)
• Waller, Maureen, "Sovereign Ladies: Sex, Sacrifice, and Power. The Six Reigning Queens of England." St. Martin's Press, New York, 2006. ISBN 0-312-33801-5

• McFerran, Noel S. (2004). "The Jacobite Heritage."
• British Broadcasting Corporation. (2004). "William III."