The history of William III of Orange was rich in events, political and military victories. Most English historians give a high appraisal of his activities as ruler of England and Scotland. At this time, he managed to carry out a number of profound reforms that laid the foundation for the political and economic system of the country.
And also began the rapid rise of the English kingdom, which led to its transformation into a powerful state. At the same time, a tradition was established associated with the restriction of royal power. This will be discussed in a brief biography of William III of Orange below.
Birth, family
Birthplace of Willem van Oranje Nassou is the de facto capital of the Republic of the United Provinces of The Hague. He was born on November 4, 1650. Looking ahead, let's say, about the years of the reign of William III of Orange. He became the ruler of the Netherlands in the position of stathauder (literally "holder of the city") in 1672. King of England and Scotland in 1689. He ruled until his death - 1702-08-03 - in London. It should be noted that on the throne of Scotland, our hero was under the name of William 2. At the same time, the Englishhe became king a little earlier - in February, and Scottish - in April.
In the family of his father, Stadtholder William II, Prince of Orange, the prince was an only child. In a number of European states, a stadtholder, also known as a statholder, is a governor, a person who ruled any of the territories of a given state. A position similar to the Doge of Venice.
His mother was Mary Henrietta Stuart - the eldest daughter of the King of England, as well as Scotland and Ireland, Charles I. Her brothers were the sons of Charles I, the future kings Charles II and James II. Thus, the family of William III of Orange was royal.
Name dispute
Literally two days after the birth of the future Prince of Orange, his father died of smallpox. Both paternal titles - prince and stadtholder - were not legally inherited, so little Wilhelm did not receive them right away. Meanwhile, his mother and paternal grandmother clashed over what to name the baby. The first wanted to name him Charles, after his father, the king. The second managed to insist on naming the boy Wilhelm. She hoped that her grandson would become a stadtholder.
While writing his will, Wilhelm's father planned to appoint his mother as his son's guardian, but he did not have time to sign the document. According to the decision of the Supreme Court of 1651, custody was divided between the mother, grandmother and uncle of the child.
Childhood, education
Mother, Mary Henrietta Stuart, showed little interest in her son. She rarely saw him, always consciously separating herself from Dutch society. FirstAt the same time, the education of William III of Orange was placed in the hands of several Dutch governesses. However, some of them were from England. Beginning in 1656, the future Prince of Orange began to receive daily religious instruction from a Calvinist preacher.
A short treatise on the ideal education of the future ruler, the author of which, presumably, was one of Oransky's mentors, has come down to our time. According to this material, the prince was constantly told that fate had determined that his life goal was to become an instrument in the hands of God in order to fulfill the historical destiny of the Orange family.
Continuing education
From 1659, Wilhelm studied at Leiden University for 7 years, albeit unofficially. After that, Jan de Witt, the great pensioner who at that moment actually ruled Holland, and his uncle forced the Dutch states to take responsibility for the formation of Orange. Since this was supposed to guarantee that he would acquire the skills necessary for the performance of public duties.
Since then, the struggle for influence over William and his future fate has begun between representatives of the United Dutch provinces on the one hand and the English royal dynasty on the other.
The Dutch intervention in the education of the prince began in the autumn of 1660, but it did not last long. When the boy was 10 years old, his mother died of smallpox. In her will, she asked King Charles II to look after her interests.son. In this regard, Charles put forward a demand to the States that they stop interfering in the fate of Wilhelm.
From the end of September 1661, the intervention ceased, and the representative of the King Zuylestein was "seconded" to the boy. As a result of the 2nd Anglo-Dutch War, a peace treaty was signed, one of the conditions of which was to improve the position of the royal nephew. In 1666, the leadership of the States officially declared William a pupil of the government.
After that, Jan de Witt took over the boy's education. Every week he instructed the future William III of Orange on issues related to public administration, and also played with him a game called "real tennis" (the prototype of tennis). The next great pensioner, Gaspar Fagel, was more committed to Wilhelm's interests.
Career start
The beginning of the career of William III of Orange was far from cloudless. After his father died, some of the provinces stopped appointing the next stadtholder. When the Peace Treaty of Westminster was signed, summing up the results of the 1st Anglo-Dutch War, Oliver Cromwell demanded that a secret annex to it be concluded.
According to this annex, in order to prohibit the appointment by Holland of representatives of the Orange dynasty to the post of stadtholder, it is necessary to adopt a special act of elimination. However, since the English Republic (with which the Dutch concluded an agreement) ceased to exist after the restoration of the Stuarts, it was recognized that this acthas no legal effect.
In 1660, William's mother and grandmother made an attempt to convince some of the provinces to recognize him as a future statholder, but initially none of them agreed. On the eve of the young man's eighteenth birthday, in 1667, the Orange party made another attempt to bring him to power by assigning him the posts of statholder and captain-general.
Further confrontation
To prevent the restoration of the influence of the Princes of Orange, de Witt "gave the go-ahead" to the Haarlem pensioner Gaspard Fagel to call on the States of Holland to adopt the so-called Eternal Edict. According to the adopted document, the positions of captain-general and stadtholder of any of the provinces could not be combined in the person of the same person.
However, Wilhelm's supporters did not stop looking for ways that could lead to raising his prestige. To this end, in September 1668, he was proclaimed "First of the Noble" by the States of Zeeland. To accept this title, Wilhelm was forced to secretly arrive in Middelburg unnoticed by his teachers. A month later, his grandmother Amalia gave him permission to independently manage his yard, announcing his coming of age.
Cancellation of the post of stadtholder
Being a stronghold of the Republicans, the Dutch province in 1670 went to the abolition of the position of stadtholder, her example was followed by 4 more provinces. At the same time, de Witt demanded that every member of the city council (regent) take an oath supporting the edict. Wilhelm considered thisdevelopment of events by their defeat.
However, his chances for a promotion were not exhausted. He had the opportunity to become a member of the army's high command. In addition, de Witt acknowledged that there was a possibility of making Wilhelm a member of the Dutch Council of State. The latter at that time was an authoritative body, with the prerogative of controlling the military budget. At the end of May 1670, the Prince of Orange was admitted to the council with the right to vote, and this despite the fact that de Witt insisted on participating exclusively in the discussions.
Trip to England
In November 1670, William was given permission to travel to England, during which he tried to convince King Charles I that he would at least partially return the debt of the Orange dynasty, which amounted to about 3 million guilders. At the same time, the prince agreed to reduce the amount of debt to 1.8 million.
The English king had to make sure that his nephew was a dedicated Calvinist and Dutch patriot. Therefore, he canceled his plans to appoint him as head of an entity completely dependent on the English crown, into which he, with the help of France, sought to turn the Republic of the United Provinces, effectively destroying it.
At the same time, Wilhelm saw that his relatives, the king's sons Karl and Jacob, unlike him, lead a life filled with mistresses and gambling.
Republicans position
The next year, it became clear to the leaders of the Republic that it could not avoid the invasion of the British and French. In the face of this threat, the States of Gelderland put forwarda proposal to appoint Wilhelm to the post of captain-general in the near future, despite his youth and lack of experience. The states of Utrecht supported this proposal.
However, the States of Holland in 1672 offered to appoint the Prince of Orange to the specified position for only one military campaign, to which he refused. After that, it was decided to compromise: first appoint for one summer, and then, when the prince reaches 22 years old, make the appointment indefinite.
At the same time, Wilhelm sent a letter to King Charles, where he suggested that he, taking advantage of the situation, put pressure on the Dutch States to appoint his nephew a stadtholder. He, for his part, was ready to promote the union of England with the Republic. However, there was no reaction from Karl, he continued to prepare for war.
Proclamation as stadtholder and marriage
The beginning of the 1670s was marked for the Netherlands by involvement in long wars, first with England, and then with France. On June 4, 1672, at the age of 21, Prince Wilhelm was finally appointed both stadtholder and commander-in-chief at the same time. Shortly thereafter, in August, the de Witt brothers were brutally mauled by a mob provoked by the Prince's supporters, the Orangemen.
As for the involvement of the Prince of Orange himself in this cruel action, it has not been proven, but there is evidence that he prevented the instigators from being brought to justice. Moreover, he presented some of them for an award in the form of cash or highposts.
This, of course, had a bad effect on his reputation, as well as the punitive expedition he initiated in Scotland, which is known in history as the massacre in Glencoe.
During this critical period, the Prince of Orange showed great abilities as a ruler, he distinguished himself by a strong character, tempered in the difficult years of republican rule for him. With the help of energetic measures, the young ruler managed to stop the offensive of the French troops, enter into a coalition with Austria, Spain and Brandenburg. With the help of the allies, in 1674 he won a series of victories, and England was withdrawn from the war.
In 1677 he got married. The wife of William III of Orange was his cousin Mary Stuart, who was the daughter of the Duke of York, who later became King James II of England. According to contemporaries, this union was distinguished by extraordinary warmth and goodwill. It was followed, in 1678, by the defeat of the troops of the French king Louis XIV near Saint-Denis, who summed up the war with the French, however, not for long.
Events of the Glorious Revolution of 1688
After the death of the English King Charles II, who had no legitimate children, his uncle James II, who was William's father-in-law, took his place on the throne of England and Scotland. He was extremely unpopular both among the people and among the ruling elite. It was believed that his desire was the restoration of Catholicism in England and the conclusion of an alliance with France.
Jakov's opponents for some time had hope forthat the king, being an elderly man, will soon leave this world, and his daughter Mary, the wife of William, who was a Protestant, will take the English throne. But this hope was dashed when Jacob, who had reached the age of 55, had a son in 1688, which was the impetus for a coup d'état.
The main groups, united on the basis of rejection of the policy of James II, agreed to invite a Dutch couple - Mary and Wilhelm, called to replace the "Catholic tyrant". There were reasons for that. By this time, the Prince of Orange had already visited England several times, gaining popularity there, especially with the Whig party.
Meanwhile, Yakov undertook an increase in the persecution of Anglican priests, and he also quarreled with the Tories. Thus, he was practically left without defenders. His ally Louis XIV waged a war for the Palatinate Succession. Then the united opposition, consisting of the clergy, parliamentarians, townspeople and landowners, secretly turned to William with a call to become the head of the coup and take the crown of England and Scotland.
Victory
In November 1688, William of Orange landed on the English coast with an army of 40,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry. His personal standard bore an inscription stating that he would support the freedom of England and the Protestant faith. At the same time, there was no resistance to Wilhelm. Not only the royal army, ministers, but also members of the royal family went over to his side without any delay.
One of the decisive factorsvictory was that the coup was supported by the closest associate of King James, Baron John Churchill, who commanded the army.
The old king had to flee to France, but that didn't mean he accepted defeat. When the Irish revolted against England in 1690, Jacob, having received military support from France, made an attempt to regain power. But in the Battle of the Boyne, under the personal leadership of William of Orange, the Irish Catholic army suffered a crushing defeat.
In the January days of 1689, he and his wife Mary were proclaimed by Parliament the monarchs of England and Scotland on an equal footing. It should be noted that the first proposal that came to Wilhelm from the Whigs was to become a consort, that is, only the spouse of Queen Mary, who was called to reign alone.
However, they were categorically refused. It so happened that Mary died after five years, and William III of Orange continued to independently rule the country. At the same time, he ruled until the end of his life not only England and Scotland, but also Ireland, while maintaining power in the Netherlands.
What distinguishes the years of government
The main content of the reign of William III of Orange in the early years was the fight against the Jacobites - supporters of Jacob. First they were defeated in Scotland in 1689, and then in 1690 in Ireland. Protestant Orangemen in Ireland celebrate this event to this day, honoring William as a hero.
Then he fought on land and at sea with Louis XIV, whodid not recognize him as king. To do this, he created a powerful army and ph. As a result, Louis had no choice but to conclude peace in 1697 and recognize the legitimacy of power for William.
But despite this, the French king did not stop supporting James II, and after his death in 1701, his son, who declared himself King James III. An interesting fact is that William III of Orange was not only familiar, but also on friendly terms with Peter I, the Russian Tsar. The latter in the period from 1697 to 1698 (the Great Embassy) was visiting William - both in England and in the Netherlands.
Important Facts
Here are some of the most important facts that marked the reign of William III, which include the following:
- The transition to a parliamentary monarchy, which was facilitated by the adoption in 1689 of the Bill of Rights and a number of other acts. They determined the development of the constitutional and legal system in England for the next two centuries.
- The signing of the Toleration Act, although only applicable to Protestants who were not members of the Anglican Church, and not related to the infringed rights of Catholics.
- Foundation of the Bank of England in 1694 with the support of the king.
- Approval in 1701 of the Act of Succession to the Throne, according to which Catholics and persons married to them had no right to claim the English throne.
- Approval in 1702 of the creation of the United East India Company.
- The flourishing of science, literature, navigation.
In the last years of his life Wilhelmsuffered from asthma. He died in 1702 from pneumonia, which was a complication that followed a broken shoulder. Since the marriage of Mary and Wilhelm was childless, Mary's sister Anna became the heir to the throne.
