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William was born in the Netherlands as Prince William Henry of Orange. His mother was Mary Stuart. Mary was the sister of the King of England, James II, so King James was William's uncle. William married King James's daughter Mary (his own first cousin) on 4 November 1677.
- How Did The Marriage of William and Mary Come About?
- How Did William and Mary Become Joint Sovereigns?
- What Were The Major Legislative Milestones of William and Mary’s Reign?
- When and How Did Mary II Die?
- What Was William of Orange Like as A person?
- When and How Did William III Die?
- What Was The Legacy of William and Mary?
Charles II and James both liked their nephew William, but had doubts as to a marriage between him and the latter’s daughter Mary. The king actually preferred the idea of marrying her to the French dauphin, as it would make the succession of a Catholic to the British throne more likely. Parliament insisted on the Anglo-Dutch union. When Mary was tol...
As Charles II and Catherine’s marriage was childless, the king's brother James remained his heir to the British throne. But his second wife, Mary of Modena, had several miscarriages, stillbirths and children who never lived beyond the age of three, meaning that his elder daughter, now titled Mary of Orange, was his own heir. Upon Charles’s death in...
In May 1689, the Toleration Act was passed, guaranteeing religious toleration to Protestant nonconformists, baptists and congregationalists who had pledged to the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. More importantly the Bill of Rights, seen as one of the most important constitutional documents in English law, received royal assent in December 1689. ...
After she and her husband became joint sovereigns, Mary probably never had any contact with her father. She was perpetually haunted by guilt for her role, albeit a passive one, in his downfall, and grieved by her infertility. Her health was never strong, and in the winter of 1694 there was a severe epidemic of smallpox throughout London, which ofte...
William was a reserved, undemonstrative character. While his marriage was not a love match, it was clear after Mary’s death that they had been deeply attached to each other. He seemingly only had one mistress, Elizabeth Villiers, Countess of Orkney, who was a childhood friend of Mary’s, but ended the relationship in deference to his deceased queen’...
In February 1702, the horse he was riding stumbled over a molehill, causing William to fall and break his collarbone. Sources disagree as to whether the fracture set properly or not, but he had been unwell for some time and died on 8 March 1702. The most likely cause of death was pneumonia, perhaps hastened by his injury.
Being at the centre of the largely peaceful revolution of 1688, William III presided over an era that cultivated a political climate for modern government in England. For it was during his reign that parliament began to assume a role over the monarch, one that it would never again lose. Westminster was prepared to ensure that no sovereign would eve...
- Elinor Evans
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William III and Mary II were England’s first and only joint sovereigns, with Mary sharing equal status and power. William and Mary came to the throne after the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688 when Mary’s father, James II, was deposed for trying to enforce Catholic tolerance in England.
Mary II (30 April 1662 – 28 December 1694) was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland, co-reigning with her husband, William III & II, from 1689 until her death in 1694. She was also Princess of Orange following her marriage on 4 November 1677.
William III was one of the most successful, yet least popular, of British monarchs, writes J.P. Kenyon, whose reign marked a steady advance in the ascent of his adopted country. You can find the first part of this article here. William III: Part I.
William III - Dutch Stadholder, Glorious Revolution, Protestantism: In November 1677 William had married his cousin Mary, daughter of James, duke of York (later King James II of England). William himself stood fourth in the English succession, and this marriage with the heiress presumptive gave him added importance in England, though during ...
