William III

William III (1650–1702), also known as William of Orange, was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1689 to 1702 and, as Willem Hendrik, Prince of Orange and Stadholder of the Netherlands. (NOTE: He was William III as King of England, but he was William II as King of Scotland. He is mostly referenced as William III). As the leader of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, he overthrew James VII and II who had fled to France. William reigned jointly with his wife Queen Mary II. Through them, the parliamentary and Protestant causes achieved a permanent triumph in Great Britain.

Life

William III was born Prince Willem Hendrik at The Hague on 4 November 1650, eight days after the death of his father Willem II, Prince of Orange, ruler of the United Provinces (the independent Netherlands). His mother was Mary, daughter of Charles I of England and Scotland, and he was their only child. He was raised by his mother until he entered the University of Leiden, where he excelled in languages and field sports. Even though he was a Calvinist by birth and training, Willem Hendrik was tolerant in religious matters by nature and policy.

William III

Willem Hendrik's dynastic position was at first ambiguous because many of the Dutch, insisting on state rights, resented submission to the House of Orange; this attitude was maintained by the two de Witt brothers, who were the effective rulers of the seven federated provinces during the prince's minority. They led an anti-Orangist constitutional revolution that abolished the posts the prince would normally have inherited. The Orange party manoeuvred to put William in power, and his opportunity came in 1672. That spring, Louis XIV ordered a French invasion of the United Provinces and the people called for the restoration of Orange. Johann de Witt had to acquiesce and appointed Willem Hendrik as Captain General in charge of defence. Within weeks, Willem Hendrik became Stadholder of the states of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Overijssel and Gelderland meaning he was, in effect, supreme ruler of the Netherlands. De Witt was lynched and mutilated by an angry mob.

Stadholder of the Netherlands

From 1672 to 1678, Willem Hendrik led the Dutch armies that recovered the lost provinces; he organized campaigns and sieges against the French. A good soldier and a stubborn general, he wore the enemy down by dogged determination and refusal to accept defeat. Willem Hendrik stopped the French advances by flooding the fields, meanwhile building and training a new army. By 1673, he had alliances with Spain and Austria and launched counter-attacks against France. Naval victories forced France's English allies to abandon the war. The French, exhausted, made peace with at the Treaty of Nijmegen (1678), which Willem Hendrik opposed but could not stop. His political fortunes in the United Provinces were at a low ebb, the regents in Amsterdam leading the opposition, but then an unexpected opportunity arose – the throne of England.

Realising that Louis XIV would continue to be a threat, Willem Hendrik organised a league against France. For help he turned to England, the country of his two uncles Charles II and James, Duke of York. In 1677, Willem Hendrik married James' daughter Princess Mary, who was Protestant despite her father being a Roman Catholic. Willem Hendrik carefully avoided involvement before 1681, when he became increasingly entangled. His main goal was to keep England as an ally of the United Provinces.

Glorious Revolution, 1688

In 1685, Charles II died and James succeeded him as King of England and Scotland. He alarmed many people with his pro-Catholic policies. Willem Hendrik let it be known he was available if invited by a very broad spectrum of English political leadership. Unrest escalated with the birth of a son to James by his wife, Mary of Modena, also a Catholic, on 10 June 1688. A few days later, an invitatio, signed by seven prominent personages was delivered to Willem Hendrik with an assurance of military support if he effected a landing in England. Willem Hendrik issued a "Declaration of Reasons", which achieved virtual hegemony over English political discourse. With 50 men-of-war and 14,000 men, Willem Hendrik landed on 5 November 1688, and marched on London. There was no opposition as James' army melted away and the political leadership welcomed the incoming army. In late December, James fled the country and thereby abdicated the throne. Princess Mary was first in the line of succession. James was protected by Louis XIV and became the leader of schemes for an invasion of England with French and Jacobite help.

Willem Hendrik insisted he would rule England as King and not merely as his wife's consort; accordingly, in February, 1689, Parliament offered the Crown jointly to him and Mary, each to have full sovereign rights. A similar offer was made by the Parliament of Scotland. As King of England, Willem Hendrik chose the title of William III and, as King of Scotland, William II. The first stage of the English Revolution, with its advance toward constitutional monarchy and responsible government was completed with William and Mary's coronations on 11 Apr 1689, when they also accepted the Bill of Rights (1689), greatly limiting royal power and prescribing the line of succession to give Parliament control of finances and of the army.

King of England

The "Glorious Revolution" ousted James and the Catholics, but William brought in Dutch advisors and became unpopular in England. William in turn had little interest in England save as a source of supplies, and he spent nearly half the remainder of his life participating in wars abroad – first in Ireland, then in Flanders; in the years of peace after 1697 he frequently stayed in the Netherlands. He acted mainly as his own first minister and confided only in Dutchmen, especially Hans Willem Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland (1649–1709). Portland erratically implemented "Williamite" policy in Scotland until 1699, but he communicated Scottish concerns to the king. Although Scotland experienced a series of political disasters in the 1690s, from the Glencoe Massacre to the Darien debacle, Scottish leaders appreciated the support of Portland, the King's favourite, in dealing with their affairs during a stormy decade.

Until her death in December 1694, Mary acted for William in the summer months while he was campaigning abroad; thereafter William was assisted by a small cabinet council. He adhered strictly to his undertaking given in the Bill of Rights of 1689 that he would summon Parliament regularly, and he acted as a constitutional monarch. He did, however, exercise his right to direct foreign policy and to choose and dismiss ministers.

His Whig ministers, most notably Charles Montagu, Earl of Halifax, created the Bank of England in 1694. This proved a major weapon in future wars because it provided stable financing through the national debt. William and the Whigs were also responsible for the Toleration Act (1689), which lifted some of the disabilities imposed on Protestant nonconformists. In 1695, they allowed the Licensing Act to lapse (1695), a great step toward freedom of the press. William sought to maintain royal prerogatives but was unable to prevent passage of the Triennial Act (1694), which required a new Parliament every three years, and the Act of Settlement (1701), which imposed the first statutory limitation on royal control of foreign policy.

Wars

With the consent of Parliament, William declared war on Louis XIV in May 1689. The War of the League of Augsburg (also called "Nine Years' War" and "King William's War") saw battles on many fronts, including Ireland, from which James VII and II sought to regain his throne with French help. In the war, William's only important victory was the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland on 1 July 1690; "King Billy", as his soldiers called him, decisively defeated a Catholic force led by the deposed James. King Billy displayed courage but minimal tactical skill; James and his generals proved even less competent. The Pacification of Limerick on 13 October 1691 marked the Jacobite forces' final capitulation. The Penal Laws against Roman Catholics were increased in severity – Irishmen who refused to become Protestants were under severe restrictions regarding property, office and political rights. In Scotland, the Jacobites resisted violently, but after their defeat at Killiecrankie (1689), William was able to make Scottish Presbyterianism secure. He condoned the bloody massacre at Glencoe in 1692.

On the continent it did not go as well. William took an English army to the Spanish Netherlands in 1691 but in Flanders lost two battles to the French – Steenkirk, in August 1692; and Neerwinden (or Landen), in July 1693. The Royal Navy's victory over the French fleet at La Hogue (May 1692) saved England from a French invasion.

Spanish issues

William well knew that the Treaty of Ryswick of September 1697, which concluded the war, was at best a temporary truce. Serious trouble and perhaps war loomed regarding rival claims to the throne of the childless Carlos II of Spain. In the last years of his reign, William tried to have the Spanish possessions partitioned among the claimants by means of treaties. When this failed he built up an alliance, known as the Grand Alliance of The Hague (1701), directed against Louis XIV. The death of James VII and II that year was followed by Louis' public recognition of James' son, the "Old Pretender" as "James VIII and III, King of England and Scotland", and by other acts threatening the security of Great Britain and the Netherlands, as well as their exclusion from the Spanish colonial trade. There was also the fear that Louis' grandson Philip, the new king of Spain by Charles II's will, might one day unite the crowns of France and Spain. All this made the renewal of hostilities inevitable, but William did not live to see the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession in May 1702. He died in London on 8 March 1702, after a fall from his horse. Since he had no heir he was succeeded by Queen Anne, his cousin and sister-in-law.

Evaluation

The English disliked William because of his lack of graces, his obvious preference for Dutch advisors, and his blatant use of the throne to support his unpopular wars on the continent. He was close to his wife Mary and she was well loved by the English, and proved an effective ruler when he was absent; but she died in 1694 and they had no children. His posthumous reputation has been affected by the highly laudatory treatment by the great English historian Thomas Babington Macaulay, matched by disparagement at the hands of modern writers. But to William III, more than to any other, is due the religious and governmental character of the United Kingdom today. Because of his victory at the iconic Battle of the Boyne in 1690, some unionists and loyalists in Northern Ireland have appropriated William as a symbol of successful defence of Ireland as British territory.