The history of William III of Orange was rich in events, political and military victories. Most English historians praise his work as ruler of England and Scotland. At this time, he managed to carry out a series of profound reforms that laid the foundation for the country's political and economic system.
And also began the rapid rise of the Kingdom of England, leading to its transformation into a powerful power. At the same time, a tradition was established related to the limitation of monarchy. This will be described in a brief biography of William III of Orange, below.
Birth family
Willem van Oranje Nassu's birthplace is the actual capital of the Republic of the United Provinces of The Hague. He was born on November 4, 1650. Looking ahead to, say, the years of the reign of William III of Orange. In 1672, he became the ruler of the Netherlands in the post of stathauder (literally "holder of the city"). King of England and Scotland - in 1689. He ruled until his death - March 8, 1702 - 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, he became the English king a little earlier - in February, and Scottish - in April.
In the family of his father, the stalgarter Wilhelm at number two, Prince of Orange, the prince was an only child. In a number of European states, the stalgarter, also known as the stauhder, is the governor, the person who ruled any of the territories of this state. A post similar to the Venetian Doge.
His mother was Mary Henrietta Stewart, the eldest daughter of King Charles of England, as well as of 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
Just two days after the birth of the future Prince of Orange, his father died of smallpox. Both father’s titles - the prince and the staffhaler - were not inherited by law, so little Wilhelm did not receive them immediately. Meanwhile, his mother and paternal grandmother came into conflict over how to name the baby. The first wanted to call him Carl, in honor of her father, the king. The second managed to insist on calling the boy Wilhelm. She hoped her grandson would become a stalter.
Drawing up a will, Wilhelm's father planned to appoint his mother as the guardian of his son, but he did not manage to put a signature on the document. According to the decision of the Supreme Court of 1651, the custody was divided between the mother, grandmother and uncle of the child.
Childhood, education
Mother, Maria Henrietta Stewart, did not show much interest in her son. She rarely saw him, always deliberately separating from the Dutch community. At first, the formation of William III of Orange was given into 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 the Calvinist preacher.
A brief treatise on the ideal education of the future ruler, the author of which, presumably, was one of the mentors of Oransky, has reached our time. According to this material, the prince was constantly prompted that fate determined that his life purpose was to become an instrument in God's hands to fulfill the historical mission of the Oransky family.
Continuing education
Since 1959, Wilhelm studied at Leiden University for 7 years, although unofficially. After that, Jan de Witt, the great pensioner who actually ruled Holland at that moment, and his uncle forced the Dutch states to take responsibility for the formation of Oransky. Since this was to serve as a guarantee that he would receive the skills necessary for the performance of public duties.
Since then, the struggle began for influence on William and his future fate between representatives of the United Dutch provinces on the one hand and the English royal dynasty on the other.
Intervention in the formation of the prince by the Netherlands 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 respect the interests of her son. In this regard, Carl put forward a demand to the States that they stop interfering in the fate of William.
From the end of September 1661, the intervention ceased, and a representative of King Zuilestein 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 graduate of the government.
After that, the education of the boy in his own hands took Jan de Witt. Each week he instructed the future of William III of Orange on matters relating to public administration, and also played with him a game called “real tennis” (the prototype of tennis). The next great pensioner, Gaspard Fagel, was more committed to the interests of William.
Carier start
The beginning of the career of William III of Orange was far from cloudless. After his father died, some of the provinces ceased to appoint the next staffing. When the Westminster Peace Treaty was signed, summing up the results of the 1st Anglo-Dutch war, Oliver Cromwell demanded to conclude a secret annex to it.
According to this appendix, in order to prohibit Holland from appointing representatives of the Oran Dynasty to the post of halter, it is necessary to adopt a special act of elimination. However, since the Republic of England (with which the Dutch concluded the treaty) after the restoration of the Stuarts ceased to exist, it was recognized that the said act had no legal force.
In 1660, Wilhelm's mother and grandmother made an attempt to convince some of the provinces to recognize him as future Stathowder, but initially none of them agreed. On the eve of the youth’s eighteenth birthday, in 1667, the Orange Party made another attempt to bring him to power by securing him the posts of stathauder 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 Harlem pensioner Gaspar Fagel to urge the States of Holland to adopt the so-called Eternal Edict. According to the adopted document, the positions of captain-general and staff hanger of any of the provinces could not be combined in the person of the same person.
However, supporters of William did not stop searching for ways that could lead to a rise in his prestige. To this end, in September 1668, the States of Zealand he was proclaimed the "First of the noble." To accept this title, William was forced to quietly for his teachers to secretly arrive in Middelburg. A month later, his grandmother Amalia gave him permission to independently manage her yard, announcing his majority.
Dismissal
As a stronghold of the Republicans, the Dutch province in 1670 went to abolish the position of the staff halter, 4 more provinces followed suit. At the same time, de Witt demanded that every member of the city council (regent) take an oath supporting the edict. Wilhelm considered this development to be his defeat.
However, his chances of an increase were not exhausted. He had the opportunity to become a member of the high army command. In addition, de Witt admitted that there is the possibility of making Wilhelm a member of the Dutch State Council. 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 solely on participation in the discussions.
Trip to england
In November 1670, Wilhelm was given permission to travel to England, during which he tried to convince King Charles I that he would at least partially repay the debt of the Oran Dynasty, which amounted to about 3 million guilders. At the same time, the prince agreed to reduce the amount owed to 1.8 million.
The English king had to make sure that his nephew is a faithful Calvinist and patriot of Holland. Therefore, he canceled his plans to appoint the head of the formation completely dependent on the English crown, into which he, with the help of France, sought to transform the Republic of the United Provinces, effectively destroying it.
At the same time, Wilhelm saw that his relatives, the sons of King Karl and Jacob, unlike him, lead a life filled with lovers and gambling.
Republican Position
The following year, the leaders of the Republic realized that she could not avoid the invasion of the British and French. In the face of this threat, the States of Gelderland put forward a proposal to appoint Wilhelm to the position of captain-general in the near future, despite his youth and lack of experience. The states of Utrecht supported this proposal.
However, in 1672, the States of Holland proposed to appoint the Prince of Orange to this position for only one military campaign, to which he refused. After that, it was decided to compromise: first appoint for one summer, and then, after the prince reaches 22 years old, make the appointment indefinite.
At the same time, Wilhelm sent a letter to King Karl, where he invited him, taking advantage of the situation, to exert pressure on the Dutch States to designate his nephew as a stalter. He, for his part, was ready to promote the alliance of England with the Republic. However, there was no reaction from Karl, he continued to prepare for war.
Proclamation of the halter 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 the staff officer and the commander-in-chief at the same time. Shortly afterwards, in August, the de Witt brothers were brutally torn to pieces by a crowd provoked by the Prince's supporters, the Orangemen.
As regards the involvement of the Prince of Orange, this was not proved, but there is evidence that he prevented her instigators from being brought to trial. Moreover, he presented some of them for reward in the form of cash or high posts.
This, of course, badly affected his reputation, as well as the punitive expedition he initiated in Scotland, which is known in history as the Glenko massacre.
During this critical period, the Prince of Orange showed great abilities of the ruler, he distinguished himself by a strong character, tempered in the difficult years of republican rule for him. With the help of vigorous measures, the young ruler managed to stop the advance of the French troops, join a coalition with Austria, Spain and Brandenburg. With the help of the Allies in 1674, they won a number of victories, and England was withdrawn from the war.
In 1677, he married. The wife of William III of Orange became his cousin Mary Stuart, who was the daughter of the Duke of York, who later became King of England Jacob II. According to contemporaries, this union was distinguished by extraordinary warmth and goodwill. Behind him, in 1678, the defeat of the troops of the French king Louis XIV near Saint-Denis followed, which 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 place on the throne of England and Scotland was taken by his uncle Jacob II, brought by his father-in-law to William. 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.
For some time, opponents of Jacob had a hope that the king, as an elderly man, would soon leave this world, and his daughter Maria, the wife of Wilhelm, who was a Protestant, would enter the English throne. But this hope collapsed when Jacob, who reached 55 years old, had a son in 1688, which became the impetus for a coup.
The main groups, united on the basis of the rejection of the policy of Jacob II, agreed on the invitation of the 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, having gained popularity there, especially among the Whig party.
Meanwhile, Jacob undertook an intensification of 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 legacy. Then the united opposition, consisting of clergy, parliamentarians, citizens and landowners, secretly called on William to become the head of the coup and accept the crown of England and Scotland.
Victory
In November 1688, William of Orange with an army of 40 thousand infantry and 5 thousand cavalry landed on the English coast. On his personal standard there was an inscription saying that he would support the freedom of England and the Protestant faith. At the same time, no resistance was offered to William. Not only the royal army, ministers, but also members of the royal family crossed over to his side without any delay.
One of the decisive factors for the victory was that the coup was previously supported by the closest associate of King James, Baron John Churchill, who commanded the army.
The old king had to flee to France, but this did not mean that he reconciled to defeat. When the Irish rebelled against England in 1690, Jacob, receiving military support from France, made an attempt to regain power. But in the battle of the Boyne River, under the personal leadership of William of Orange, the army of Irish Catholics suffered a crushing defeat.
In the days of January 1689, he and his wife Maria were proclaimed parliamentary by the monarchs of England and Scotland on an equal footing. It should be noted that the first proposal that William received from the Whigs was to become a consort, that is, only the spouse of Queen Mary, called to reign alone.
However, he was categorically rejected. It so happened that Mary died after five years, and William III of Orange further independently ruled 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 distinguished the years of rule
The main content of the reign of William III of Orange in the early years was the struggle against the Jacobites - supporters of Jacob. At first they were defeated in Scotland in 1689, and then in 1690 in Ireland. Irish Protestant Orangemen to this day celebrate this event, venerating William as a hero.
Then he fought on land and at sea with Louis XIV, who did not recognize him as king. To do this, they created a powerful army and phot. As a result, Louis had no choice but to make peace in 1697 and recognize Wilhelm's legitimacy of power.
But despite this, the French king did not cease to support Jacob II, and after his death in 1701 and his son, who declared himself king James III. An interesting fact is that William III of Orange was not only familiar, but also was on friendly terms with Peter I, the Russian Tsar. The latter in the period from 1697 to 1698 (the Great Embassy) was a guest of Wilhelm - 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 legal system in England for two coming centuries.
- The signing of the Act of Tolerance, although referring only to Protestants who did not belong to the Church of England, and which did not concern the infringed rights of Catholics.
- The foundation in 1694 of the Bank of England with the support of the king.
- The adoption in 1701 of the Act of Succession, according to which Catholics and persons married to them were not entitled to claim the English throne.
- Approval in 1702 of the creation of the United East India Company.
- The heyday of science, literature, navigation.
In the last years of his life, William suffered from asthma. He died in 1702 from pneumonia, which was a complication following a shoulder fracture. Since the marriage of Mary and William was childless, the heiress of the throne was the sister of Mary Anna.