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William III of England
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William III & II.jpg)
William III by Sir Godfrey Kneller
Reign 14 November 1650 – 8 March 1702 (&0000000000000051.00000051 years, &0000000000000114.000000114 days)
Predecessor William II
Successor John William Friso
Reign July 1672 – 8 March 1702
Predecessor William II
Successor William IV
Reign 13 February 1689 – 8 March 1702: &0000000000000013.00000013 years, &0000000000000023.00000023 days (11 May 1689 – 8 March 1702 in Scotland: &0000000000000012.00000012 years, &0000000000000301.000000301 days)
Coronation 11 April 1689
Predecessor James VII & II
Successor Anne
Co-monarch Mary II
Spouse Mary II of England
House House of Orange-Nassau
Father William II, Prince of Orange
Mother Mary, Princess Royal
Born 14 November 1650(1650-11-14)
[OS: 4 November 1650][1]
Binnenhof, The Hague
Died 8 March 1702 (aged 51)
Kensington Palace, London
Burial Westminster Abbey, London
Signature
William III (14 November 1650 – 8 March 1702)[1] was a sovereign Prince of Orange by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland, and as William II over Scotland.[2] He is informally known in Northern Ireland and Scotland as "King Billy".[3] A member of the House of Orange-Nassau, William won the English, Scottish, and Irish crowns following the Glorious Revolution, in which his uncle and father-in-law James II was deposed. In the British Isles, William ruled jointly with his wife, Mary II, until her death on 28 December 1694. Popular histories usually refer to the joint reign as that of "William and Mary".
A Protestant, William participated in several wars against the powerful Catholic king of France, Louis XIV, in coalition with Protestant and Catholic powers in Europe. Many Protestants heralded him as a champion of their faith. Largely because of that reputation, William was able to take the British crowns when many were fearful of a revival of Catholicism under James. William's victory over James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 is commemorated by the Orange Institution in Northern Ireland to this day. His reign marked the beginning of the transition from the personal rule of the Stuarts to the more-Parliament-centred rule of the House of Hanover.
Early life
Birth and family
William Henry of Orange was born in The Hague in the Dutch Republic on 14 November 1650.[4] He was the only child of stadtholder William II, Prince of Orange, and Mary, Princess Royal. Mary was the eldest daughter of King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland, and sister of King Charles II and King James II & VII.
Eight days before William's birth, his father died from smallpox; thus William was the Sovereign Prince of Orange from the moment of his birth.[5] 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, but her mother-in-law insisted on giving him the name William or Willem to bolster his prospects of becoming stadtholder.[6] William II had appointed his wife as his son's guardian in his will; however the document remained unsigned at William II's death and was void.[7] On 13 August 1651 the Dutch Hoge Raad (Supreme Council) ruled that guardianship would be shared between his mother, his paternal grandmother and Frederick William, the Elector of Brandenburg, whose wife, Louise Henriette, was his father's eldest sister.[8]
Childhood and education
William's mother showed little personal interest in her son, sometimes being absent for years, and had always deliberately kept herself apart from Dutch society.[9] William's education was first laid in the hands of several Dutch governesses, and some of English descent, including Walburg Howard. From April 1656, the prince received daily instruction in the Reformed religion from the Calvinist preacher Cornelis Trigland, a follower of the Contra-Remonstrant theologian Gisbertus Voetius.[10] The ideal education for William was described in Discours sur la nourriture de S. H. Monseigneur le Prince d'Orange, a short treatise, perhaps by one of William's tutors, Constantijn Huygens.[11] In these lessons, the prince was taught that he was predestined to become an instrument of Divine Providence, fulfilling the historical destiny of the House of Orange.[12]
From early 1659, William spent seven years at the University of Leiden for a formal education, under the guidance of ethics professor Hendrik Bornius (though never officially enrolling as a student).[13] While residing in the Prinsenhof at Delft, William had a small personal retinue including Hans Willem Bentinck, and a new governor: Frederick Nassau de Zuylenstein, the illegitimate son of stadtholder Frederick Henry of Orange. He was taught French by Samuel Chappuzeau (who was dismissed by William's grandmother after the death of his mother).[14]
Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt and his uncle Cornelis de Graeff pushed the States of Holland to take charge of William's education. This was to ensure he would acquire the skills to serve in a future—though undetermined—state function; the States acted on 25 September 1660.[15] This first involvement of the authorities did not last long. On 23 December 1660, when William was ten years old, his mother died of smallpox at Whitehall Palace, London while visiting her brother King Charles II.[15] In her will, Mary requested that Charles look after William's interests, and Charles now demanded the States of Holland end their interference.[16] To appease Charles, they complied on 30 September 1661.[17] In 1661, Zuylenstein began to work for Charles. He induced William to write letters to Charles asking him to help William become stadtholder someday.[18] After his mother's death, William's education and guardianship became a point of contention between his dynasty's supporters and the advocates of a more republican Netherlands.[19]
The Dutch authorities did their best at first to ignore these intrigues, but in the Second Anglo-Dutch War one of Charles's peace conditions was the improvement of the position of his nephew.[18] 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".[18] All pro-English courtiers, including Zuylenstein, were removed from William's company.[18] William begged De Witt to allow Zuylenstein to stay, but he refused.[20] De Witt, the leading politician of the Republic, took William's education into his own hands, instructing him weekly in state matters—and joining him in a regular game of real tennis.[20]
Early offices
Exclusion from stadtholdership
At William's father's death, the provinces had suspended the office of stadtholder. The Treaty of Westminster, 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.[21] 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.[22] In 1660, Mary and Amalia tried to convince several provincial States to designate William as their future stadtholder, but they all initially refused.[22]